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Psalm 114
New Catholic Bible
Psalm 114
New Catholic Bible
Psalm 114[a]
The Lord’s Wonders at the Exodus
1 [b]When Israel came out of Egypt,
the house of Jacob from a people of alien tongue,
2 Judah became God’s sanctuary
and Israel his domain.
3 [c]The sea fled at the sight;
the Jordan turned back.
4 The mountains skipped like rams,
the hills like lambs of the flock.
5 [d]What causes you to flee, O sea?
Why, O Jordan, do you turn back?
6 Why do you skip like rams, O mountains,
and like lambs of the flock, O hills?
7 [e]Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turns the rock into a pool of water,
and flint into a flowing spring.
Footnotes
- Psalm 114:1 By reason of its literary composition and poetic inspiration, this poem constitutes a little masterpiece. Felicitously, the poet personifies, herein, the elements of nature led in a dance by God during the Exodus, to make them keen-eyed witnesses of the Lord’s triumphal march at the head of his people. Israel belongs so strongly to God that it is like his sanctuary and his domain (v. 2). On an epic and triumphal tone, the people underline the time beyond compare when God established this destiny for them: it is the great adventure of their deliverance.
When the Lord passes by with his people, the sea and waters flee (see Ex 14:15-31; Jos 3:7-17), Sinai thunders and smokes (see Ex 19:16-18), the source springs forth in the desert rocks (see Ex 17:1-7; Num 20:1-13). These remembrances of the Exodus are like the prelude to the upheaval of the universe announcing the coming of God at the end of the earthly ages.
We can pray this psalm in union with the Church ceaselessly meditating on and celebrating the privileged hour of her beginnings: the Passover of Christ that opens up for humankind a destiny of salvation in a new Exodus. Nature bows down before the divine Pioneer of this Exodus. The waters become calm and peaceful in the Sea of Galilee at a word from him: “Be still!” (Mk 4:39), while the mountains tremble at the moment of his Death and Resurrection (Mt 27:51; 28:2), as well as at the moment of his great interventions in history (see Rev 11:19; 16:18). - Psalm 114:1 The deliverance from a foreign country was only a preamble to the greater deeds: the election of the chosen people and the making of the covenant on Sinai. Judah, the province of the tribe of that name, became the sanctuary of God and all Israel his kingdom; it was a theocracy, a priestly kingdom (see Ex 19:3-6; Jer 2:3). This was a grand event prefiguring the redemption to come and the birth of the Church.
- Psalm 114:3 The wonder of Israel’s election as the People of God has its effect on the world of nature. The Red Sea and the Jordan River scurry around to make way for their Creator, and the mountains and hills are all animated and agog at his majestic coming (see Pss 18:8-16; 68:8ff; 77:17-20; Jdg 5:4f; Hab 3:3-10).
- Psalm 114:5 The psalmist calls upon the Red Sea, the Jordan, and the mountains to bear witness to the great event when God established his kingdom on earth.
- Psalm 114:7 The God of Israel (Jacob) is none other than the Lord of the universe (see Ps 97:4-6; Rev 20:11). He is still providing streams of blessings for his people as he did at Kadesh, at the waters of Meribah (see Ps 107:35; Ex 17:6; Num 20:8; Deut 8:15; 1 Cor 10:4) and also at the return from the Exile, prefigured by the Exodus and Conquest (see Isa 41:15ff; 42:15; 43:20). On the symbolism of the waters, see Pss 46:2-7; 110:7.
