Psalms 114:3

The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. THE SEA SAW (IT), AND FLED - (.) JORDAN WAS DRIVEN BACK - (.) The sea and the rivers are the emblem of the overwhelming world-powers (notes, Psalms 93:1; )....

3_The sea saw, and fled _He does not enumerate in succession all the miracles which were wrought at that time, but briefly alludes to the sea, which, though a lifeless and senseless element, is yet struck with terror at the power of God. Jordan did the same, and the very mountains shook. It is in a poetical strain that the Psalmist describes the receding of the sea and of the Jordan. The description, however, does not exceed the facts of the case. The sea, in rendering such obedience to its Creator, sanctified his name; and Jordan, by its submission, put honor upon his power; and the mountains, by their quaking, proclaimed how they were overawed at the presence of his dreadful majesty. By these examples it is not meant to celebrate God’s power more than the fatherly care and desire which he manifests for the preservation of the Church; and, accordingly, Israel is very properly distinguis...

Verse Psalms 114:3. _THE SEA SAW_ IT, _AND FLED_] Mr. Addison has properly observed (see Spect. No. 461) that the author of this Psalm designedly works for effect, in pointing out the miraculous driving back the Red Sea and the river Jordan, and the commotion of the hills and mountains, without mentioning any _agent_. At last, when the reader sees the sea rapidly retiring from the shore, Jordan retreating to its source, and the mountains and hills running away like a flock of affrighted sheep, that the passage of the Israelites might be every where uninterrupted; then the _cause_ of all is suddenly introduced, and the _presence of God_ in his grandeur solves every difficulty....

THE SEA SAW IT - The word it is supplied, not very properly, by our translators. It would be more expressive to say, “The sea saw:” that is, The sea - (the Red Sea) - saw the mighty movement - the marshalled hosts - the moving masses - the cattle - the pursuing enemies - the commotion - the agitation - on its usually quiet shores. We are to conceive of the usual calmness of the desert - the waste and lonely solitudes on the banks of the Red Sea - and then all this suddenly broken in upon by vast hosts of men, women, children, and cattle, fleeing in consternation, followed by the embattled strength of Egypt - all rolling on tumultuously to the shore. No wonder that the sea is represented as astonished at this unusual spectacle, and as fleeing in dismay. AND FLED - As if affrighted at the approach of such an host, coming so suddenly upon its shores. Jordan was drive

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

THE SEA SAW IT, AND FLED,.... When the Word of the Lord appeared at it, as the Targum in the king's Bible; the Red sea, to which the Israelites came when they went out of Egypt; this saw that Judah was the Lord's holy and peculiar people, and that Israel were the subjects of his kingdom; it saw the presence of the Lord among them; it saw him in the glory of his perfections, and felt his power; see Psalms 77:16, at which its waters fled and parted, and stood up as a wall to make way for Israel to pass through as on dry land, Exodus 14:21. This was typical of the nations of the Gentile world, comparable to the sea, Daniel 7:2, who saw the work of God going on among them under the ministry of the Gospel in

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....

THE SEA. Compare Exodus 14:21. JORDAN. Compare Joshua 3:13....