Day 797: Of walls and wells - Psalm 114

1-2 When Israel went out from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion. 3 The sea looked and fled; Jordan turned back. 4-6 The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back? O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs?

7-8 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turns the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of water. Psalm 114 (English Standard Version)

This short Psalm recalls some amazing incidents that took place when God brought the descendants of Jacob out of slavery in the land of Egypt to give them a land of their own. What two specific events does he refer to in vs 3?

A day when the sea retreated, and a day when the Jordan river turned back. The first of these was when they fled from Egypt. With the Egyptian army in hot pursuit the Israelites were stopped in their tracks by the Red Sea before them. But, following God's instructions, we read: “Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and the Lord drove the sea back by a strong east wind all night and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the people of Israel went into the midst of the sea on dry ground, the waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left.” (Exodus 14:21-22)

The second event was some 40 years later when they were ready to enter the land God had set before them. But there was a problem. They needed to cross the Jordan river and it was the harvest season, and the Jordan was overflowing its banks. Once again, following God's instructions we read: “The people left their camp to cross the Jordan, and the priests who were carrying the Ark of the Covenant went ahead of them. As soon as the feet of the priests who were carrying the Ark touched the water at the river’s edge, the water above that point began backing up a great distance away at a town called Adam, which is near Zarethan. And the water below that point flowed on to the Dead Sea until the riverbed was dry. Then all the people crossed over near the town of Jericho.” (Joshua 3:14-16)

Two remarkable events which the Psalm writer expresses poetically in vs 4-6. Why do you think the mountains, hills, and sea reacted as he describes? Could vs 7 be the answer?

It was because they were in the presence of the Lord, the God of Jacob. He is saying that even nature is subject to God's mighty power. In the New Testament we read of how Jesus walked on water and commanded a stormy sea to be still. The Psalm writer ends the Psalm in vs 7-8 by referring to another miraculous event that took place during the journey from Egypt to Judea. What was that?

He speaks of God having turned a rock into pool of water. This probably looks back to one of the early days of their flight from Egypt when they found themselves in a dry and parched region and were desperate for water. We read: “The Lord said to Moses, 'Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.' And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel.” (Exodus 17:5-6)

A famous preacher of long ago named Matthew Henry summed up in a lovely way what this Psalm teaches us. He said that when God is helping a people “He can turn waters into a wall, and rocks into a well.” God is able to protect His people, and to provide for their needs. Jesus once spoke to a woman He met at a well and said to her: “Anyone who drinks this water will soon become thirsty again. But those who drink the water I give will never be thirsty again. It becomes a fresh, bubbling spring within them, giving them eternal life.” (John 4:13-14) And He proved this to be true when He rose from the grave. What a mighty God we serve.