Slices
Prepare
Remember when God has done something extraordinary for you. Thank him.
Bible passage
1 When Israel came out of Egypt,
Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
2 Judah became God’s sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.
3 The sea looked and fled,
the Jordan turned back;
4 the mountains leaped like rams,
the hills like lambs.
5 Why was it, sea, that you fled?
Why, Jordan, did you turn back?
6 Why, mountains, did you leap like rams,
you hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turned the rock into a pool,
the hard rock into springs of water.
Explore
Here is the core of Israel’s identity as God’s people. He rescued them from Egypt (v 1), formed them around his presence with them (v 2), and honed them through his rule over them (v 2).
Verses 3 and 4 are a reminder of the miraculous ways in which he controlled creation in order to save his people. He opened the Red Sea so they could escape safely (v 3; see Exodus 14:21,22), pushed back the River Jordan so they could cross safely into the Promised Land (v 3; see Joshua 3:14–16) and the mountains and hills trembled at God and his people coming to the land (v 4).
Verses 5 and 6 ask questions of the sea, river, mountains and hills which witnessed God’s miraculous saving power. How would you answer?
Verses 7 and 8 consist of implicit challenges to faith. If the earth trembles at the presence of the Lord (v 7), then so should God’s people. If God were powerful enough to cause a lump of rock to become a life-saving spring of water (v 8; see Exodus 17:6), then surely he is powerful enough to save his people again. All the people need to do is continue to trust and hope in him.
Respond
Bring to the Lord anything in your life that you’re struggling to entrust to God. Remembering God’s power, ask him to give you strength to trust and hope in him for this.
Deeper Bible study
‘I stand amazed in the presence / of Jesus the Nazarene, / and wonder how he could love me, / a sinner condemned, unclean.’1
Psalm 114 is a beautiful Hebrew poem. It is ‘chiastic’, which means that the verses of the psalm are mirror images, with verses 1 and 2 corresponding to verses 7 and 8, and verses 3 and 4 directly reflecting verses 5 and 6. This is obvious in the middle verses, where the subjects of the sentences in verses 3 and 4 – the sea, the River Jordan, the mountains and the hills – appear again in order in verses 5 and 6. By turning the statements in verses 3 and 4 into questions in verses 5 and 6, the psalm ascends to a poetic climax in verse 7: the earth should tremble at the presence of the Lord.
The purpose of the song is to commemorate the presence of the Lord with Israel. It is something that holds utmost importance – even the created order trembles in fear. The presence of the Lord with Israel is one of the greatest blessings given. The psalmist reminds Israel that the presence of the Lord has been with them through the Exodus and the settlement in the land of Israel. The corresponding verses 1 and 8, recalling the flight from Egypt and the provision of water in the desert,2 remind Israel that God has been with them in the fiery pillar, at Sinai and within the Temple in Jerusalem. The word for presence in Hebrew literally means ‘face to face’. For Christians, that promise is continued in the person of Jesus, Immanuel or God with us. Jesus is the part of the Godhead whom humans met with face to face. God’s presence is promised to every Christian believer in the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. God never leaves us and his presence is always with us.
Simply spend time in the presence of God, who is with you today. Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you up today and bless you in all that you face.
1 Charles Hutchinson Gabriel, 1856–1932 2 Exod 17
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Jeremiah 23,24; John 9
Pray for Scripture Union
Join SU South Sudan in giving thanks for the training of 200 pastors, women leaders and youth leaders in May and for a crusade attended by 2000 when God worked powerfully, and many gave their lives to Christ and where there were miracles of healing and deliverance.
