Psalms 114:2

Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. JUDAH WAS HIS SANCTUARY. "Was" in Hebrew is feminine, whereas Judah is masculine. Judah is therefore here personified as a virgin (), "the daughter of my people" (). As the description of God as "the holy One" denotes His separation far above every created being (), so the choice of Judah as "His sanctuary" or holy dwelling denotes the elect nation's separation from the world and consecration as "holy unto the Lord her God" (; ). God by acts of deliverance manifested His choice of the people before He in words declared it at S...

Verse Psalms 114:2. _JUDAH WAS HIS SANCTUARY_] He set up his true worship among the Jews, and took them for his peculiar people. AND _ISRAEL HIS DOMINION._] These words are a proof, were there none other, that this Psalm was composed _after_ the days of David, and _after_ the division of the tribes, for then the distinction of _Israel_ and _Judah_ took place....

JUDAH WAS HIS SANCTUARY - His home; his abode; his sacred dwelling-place. Judah was the principal or leading tribe, recognized as the tribe where power was to be concentrated, and from which the Messiah was to proceed Genesis 49:8; and hence, the name was early used to denote the entire people, and ultimately, as modified in the word Jews, became the common name of the nation. AND ISRAEL HIS DOMINION - The nation that he ruled; the nation that had his law; the nation that he governed by his presence - or, of which he was the recognized king. There can be no doubt that the reference here is to God, but it is remarkable that the name “God” is not used. Perhaps the reason may be that this psalm was designed to be employed in connection with the preceding one, and as that consists entirely of the praises of God, it was no

EXPOSITION A PSALM of reminiscence, designed to encourage the exiles on their return from Babylon, during their "day of small things" (Zechariah 4:10; comp. Ezra 3:12). If God had done so much for them when he brought them out of Egypt, if such glorious prodigies had marked that epoch, might they not be sure that his hand would be stretched out for them now? Formally, the psalm is more like a modern poem than most. It divides into four stanzas of four lines each, very evenly balanced, and perfect in its metrical arrangement. "The psalm is evidently by a skilled artist" (Cheyne). PSALMS 114:1 WHEN ISRAEL WENT OUT OF EGYPT; literally, at the going

JUDAH WAS HIS SANCTUARY,.... Meaning not the tribe of Judah only, though that in many things had the preeminence; the kingdom belonging to it, the chief ruler being out of it, especially the Messiah; its standard was pitched and moved first; it offered first to the service of the Lord; and the Jews have a tradition, mentioned by Jarchi and Kimchi, that this tribe, with its prince at the head of it, went into the Red sea first; the others fearing, but afterwards followed, encouraged by their example: but rather all the tribes are meant, the whole body of the people; for this is not to be understood of the tabernacle or temple in the tribe of Judah, sometimes called a sanctuary; for neither of these were in being when Israel came out of Egypt; but it may be rendered, "Judah was his holiness" u, or was holiness to the Lord, the Lord's holy people; see Jeremiah 2:2, not all internally holy;...

Psalms 114:1. _When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language; Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion. The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs. Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob; which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters._ I did not interrupt the reading of the Psalm by any exposition. It is a perfect whole, and could not well be divided without spoiling it. We may admire the poetry as well as the inspiration of this Psalm. It begins with rugged abruptness: «When Israel went out of Egypt.» It only gives jus

PSALM 114-117 Psalms 114 Retrospect As in the book of Deuteronomy God's ways with His people are reviewed so we find in some of these Psalms the reminders of God's dealing with Israel in the past. Here it is first of all the deliverance out of Egypt and what happened then, the type of the greater deliverance effected by the power of God. (See Jeremiah 16:14 .)...

CXIV. The marvels on the way from Egypt to Zion, the future sanctuary of Yahweh, and to Canaan as Israel's possession. A Passover hymn....

WAS. became. See note on Genesis 1:2....

JUDAH WAS HIS SANCTUARY— The tribe of Judah is here put for the Jews in general, because Judah was the principal tribe. See Numbers 2:3; Numbers 7:12; Numbers 10:14. A correspondent of Sir Richard Steele's (Spectator, No. 461.) has translated this psalm into English verse; and in doing it he perceived a beauty, which was entirely new to him, and which, he says, he was going to lose; and that is, that the poet utterly conceals the presence of God in the beginning of it, and rather lets the possessive pronoun go without a substantive, than he will so much as mention any thing of the divinity there. _Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion._ The reason now seems evident, and this conduct necessary; for if GOD had appe