Psalms 114 - Introduction

This exquisite little poem treats a familiar subject with consummate artistic skill and singular freshness and force. For perfection of form and dramatic vividness it is almost if not quite unrivalled in the Psalter. It consists of four stanzas of two verses each. In each stanza one dominant thought is presented in the fewest but most expressive words; and in each verse the law of parallelism (Introd. p. lxi) is strictly observed.

i. The Exodus from Egypt was the birthday of Israel as the people of Jehovah (Psalms 114:1-2).

ii. Miracles marked their progress. Natural obstacles voluntarily made way for them: the solid mountains trembled (Psalms 114:3-4).

iii. And why? The past becomes present to the poet's mind, and he challenges Nature for the reason (Psalms 114:5-6).

iv. It was before its Lord and Master that earth trembled then. But instead of answering the question directly he answers it by implication, bidding earth tremble still as it trembled then before the Almighty God, Who can transform its most stubborn elements for the service of His people (Psalms 114:7-8).

The Psalm belongs to the period of the Return. The deliverance of Israel from Babylon was a second Exodus, a new birth of the nation. At such a time it was natural to dwell on the great memories of the past as an encouragement for the present and the future. It is a companion and sequel to Psalms 113, and may have been written by the same author [73]. Psalms 113 celebrates Jehovah s condescending love in helping the afflicted: Psalms 114 recalls the most signal instance of it in the deliverance of Israel from Egypt. Both Psalms may have been composed for use at the Passover, and not merely adopted for such use.

[73] The final îwhich is characteristic of Psalms 113 appears in Psalms 114:8, together with a similar final ô.

Dante places this Psalm in the mouth of the spirits on their passage to Purgatory (Purg. c. 2. 46), interpreting it mystically of the exodus of the soul from the bondage of the flesh into the rest of God. Upon this interpretation also rests its use from the sixth century onward in the Western Church in the last offices for the dying and at the burial of the dead. It is most fitly appointed as a Proper Psalm for Easter Day, not only because it formed part of the Hallel, but because the deliverance of Israel from the bondage of Egypt which it celebrates was typical of the greater deliverance from the bondage of sin, which was wrought through Christ's Resurrection.

The LXX, perhaps rightly, transfers the Hallelujahfrom the end of Psalms 113 to the beginning of this Ps.