Psalm 114— Hallelujah
1 When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language 2 Judah was His sanctuary, and Israel His dominion. 3 The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. 4 The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. 5 What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? 6 Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams and ye little hills, like lambs? 7 Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob 8 Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.
“’When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language.’ As in the last Hallel, David praises the God who redeemed them with an outstretched arm and with great judgments( Exodus: 6:6; Cup of Plagues or death). “They did not steal out clandestinely, nor were they driven out, but fairly went out, marched out with all the marks of honour they went out from a barbarous people, that had used them barbarously, from a people of a strange language, Psalm 81:5.” (Matthew Henry) “It seems likely that the reference is to their being a people who could not speak of God, as Israel could.” (Andrew A. Bonar) Israel spoke the language of Heaven— the Hebrew Scriptures or Word of God. It is “a pure language, in which they can understand one another when they converse together, either about experience or doctrine. ” (John Gill) “This was an emblem of the Lord's people in effectual vocation, coming out of bondage into liberty, out of darkness into light, out of superstition, and idolatry, and profaneness, to the service of the true God in righteousness and true holiness.” (John Gill) Yet, they looked back spiritually as Lot’s wife. Hosea said “they sacrificed to the Baals, and burned incense to carved images.” (Hosea 11:2)
“Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of Yahweh appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, ‘Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.’ When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, ‘Out of Egypt I called My Son.’ [Hosea 11:1](Matt 2:13-15) So spiritually and morally, the Israelites were bankrupt.. “That hope for a new Israel—a true Israel that would embody all that God called Israel to be—persisted across the centuries into the New Testament era. This hope was finally fulfilled in the incarnation of God’s true Son by nature, Jesus Christ [the only begotten of the Father]. Matthew tells us that Jesus fulfills Hosea 11 (Matt. 2:13–15). He is the true Israel, the faithful Israel who succeeds where old covenant Israel failed. Like ancient Israel, He came up out of Egypt, passed through the waters, and was tested in the wilderness (2:13–15; 3:13–4:11; see Ex. 12:40–42; 14:1–31; 16:4). Unlike old covenant Israel, however, Jesus passed the test.” (Ligonier Ministries)
“‘Judah became (was) His sanctuary.’— the ground on which He trod and from which He will rule— “‘And (spiritual) Israel His dominion’— the people who He will rule. In the days of Moses, the Red Sea saw it— that ‘Judah’ was ‘God's sanctuary,’ and’ Israel ‘His dominion,” (Matthew Henry), for Jesus was there. “I do not want you to be unaware, brothers and sisters, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they were all drinking from the spiritual rock that followed them, and the rock was Christ.” (1 Cor 10:1-4)— The sea fled, as Pharaoh and his army pursued them. Moreover, — “‘Jordan was driven back’— referring to the dividing of the waters of the Jordan when they passed over to the promised land. (Joshua 3:13-17) “By the command of Jehovah, the priests, bearing the ark of the covenant, the sacred symbol of the Divine presence, marched more than half a mile in front of the people, who were forbidden to come any nearer to it. Thus it was manifest that Jehovah needed not protection from Israel, but was their guard and guide, since the unarmed priests feared not to separate themselves from the host, and to venture with the ark into the river in the face of their enemies. And thus the army, standing aloof, had a better opportunity of seeing the wondrous results, and of admiring the mighty power of God exerted on their behalf; for no sooner had the feet of the priests touched the brim of the overflowing river, than the swelling waters receded from them; and not only the broad lower valley, but even the deep bed of the stream was presently emptied of water, and its pebbly bottom became dry.” (Philip Henry Gosse) “The dividing of the sea opens (that is, baptism), and the dividing of the Jordan closes (reaching the end of our faith), the journey through the desert to Canaan.” (Delitzsch)
The waters of the Jordan “which flowed with full streams when Christ went into it to be baptized, now gives way when the same God must pass through it in state: then there was use of His water, now of His sand. I hear no more news of any rod to strike the waters; the presence of the ark of Yahweh God, Lord of all the world, is sign enough to these waves, which now, as if a sinew were broken, run back to their issues, and dare not so much as wet the feet of the priests that bare it.” (Abraham Wright) ”We don’t have to be baptized in the Red Sea. John baptized Jesus and others in the Jordan river, as the Ethiopian eunuch found a pool, “Look, here is water! What is to prevent me from being baptized?” (Acts 8:36)
Jesus had no sin but was baptized nonetheless. ”Suffer it so now,” says He, “to fulfill all righteousness.” “And what is it now, when the Lord Jesus brings out His people from the Egypt of the world [by baptism]? Doth He not fulfil that sweet promise, ‘Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world’? Is it not the privilege of His people, to live to Him, to live with Him, and to live upon Him? Doth He not in every act declare, ‘I will say, it is my people; and they shall say, the Lord is my God’? Mt 28:20; Zec 13:9.” (Robert Hawker) For this: “‘The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs.’ He “sees the mountains and hills seized as it were with consternation, leaping and skipping like sheep; Jordan, as it were, frightened and fleeing back; the very earth trembling - at the presence of God.” (Albert Barnes) “‘What ails you, O sea, that you fled? O Jordan, that you turned back? O mountains, that you skipped like rams? (5-6)’ This questioning teaches us that we should ourselves consider and inquire concerning the reason of those things, which we see to have been done in a wondrous way, out of the course of nature. There are signs in the sun, moon, stars, heaven, etc., concerning which Christ has spoken…. portents, signs, earthquakes, extraordinary appearances are loud speaking, and they declare from themselves what they are: namely, that they are prophetic of the anger and future vengeance of God.” (Wolfgang Musculus)
“‘Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,’— the Lord Jesus— “for if the giving of the law had such dreadful effects, what should the breaking thereof have?” (John Trapp) “as if he had said, It is no wonder that Sinai, and Horeb, and a few adjoining hills should thus tremble at the majestic presence of God.” (Thomas Fenton) — “’Who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a fountain of waters’ — when Moses struck it. “The causing of water to gush forth out of the flinty rock is a practical proof of unlimited omnipotence and of the grace which converts death into life.” (Franz Delitzsch) Well may we put our trust in Jesus “Who, rather than His people should want what is necessary for their [spiritual] sustenance, will bring substantial bread out of the airy clouds, and refreshing waters out of the dry and flinty rocks!” (Joseph Benson)