1 When Israel came out of Egypt, the children of Jacob from a people whose language was strange to them;
2 Judah became his holy place, and Israel his kingdom.
3 The sea saw it, and went in flight; Jordan was turned back.
4 The mountains were jumping like goats, and the little hills like lambs.
5 What was wrong with you, O sea, that you went in flight? O Jordan, that you were turned back?
6 You mountains, why were you jumping like goats, and you little hills like lambs?
7 Be troubled, O earth, before the Lord, before the God of Jacob;
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Commentary on Psalms 114 Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible
PSALM 114
Ps 114:1-8. The writer briefly and beautifully celebrates God's former care of His people, to whose benefit nature was miraculously made to contribute.
1-4. of strange language—(compare Ps 81:5).
4. skipped … rams—(Ps 29:6), describes the waving of mountain forests, poetically representing the motion of the mountains. The poetical description of the effect of God's presence on the sea and Jordan alludes to the history (Ex 14:21; Jos 3:14-17). Judah is put as a parallel to Israel, because of the destined, as well as real, prominence of that tribe.
5-8. The questions place the implied answers in a more striking form.
7. at the presence of—literally, "from before," as if affrighted by the wonderful display of God's power. Well may such a God be trusted, and great should be His praise.