Psalms — Chapter 114

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1When Israel departed from Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,

2Judah became God’s sanctuary, Israel His dominion.

3The sea observed and fled; the Jordan turned back;

4the mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.

5Why was it, O sea, that you fled, O Jordan, that you turned back,

6O mountains, that you skipped like rams, O hills, like lambs?

7Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,

8who turned the rock into a pool, the flint into a fountain of water!

1When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language;

2Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion.

3The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back.

4The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs.

5What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back?

6Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs?

7Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob;

8Which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.

1When Israel went forth out of Egypt, The house of Jacob from a people of strange language;

2Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion.

3The sea saw it, and fled; The Jordan was driven back.

4The mountains skipped like rams, The little hills like lambs.

5What aileth thee, O thou sea, that thou fleest? Thou Jordan, that thou turnest back?

6Ye mountains, that ye skip like rams; Ye little hills, like lambs?

7Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, At the presence of the God of Jacob,

8Who turned the rock into a pool of water, The flint into a fountain of waters. Psalm 115

1When Israel left Egypt, when the family of Jacob left a foreign nation behind,

2Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his kingdom.

3The sea looked and fled; the Jordan River turned back.

4The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.

5Why do you flee, O sea? Why do you turn back, O Jordan River?

6Why do you skip like rams, O mountains, like lambs, O hills?

7Tremble, O earth, before the Lord— before the God of Jacob,

8who turned a rock into a pool of water, a hard rock into springs of water.

1When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign language;

2Judah became his sanctuary, Israel his dominion.

3The sea saw it, and fled. The Jordan was driven back.

4The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs.

5What was it, you sea, that you fled? You Jordan, that you turned back?

6You mountains, that you skipped like rams; you little hills, like lambs?

7Tremble, you earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,

8who turned the rock into a pool of water, the flint into a spring of waters.

Summary
Authorship & Background
Map & Geography
Commentary
Videos
Articles
Reflection

Summary

This brief Hallel psalm recalls the Exodus, when Israel left Egypt and became God's own sanctuary and dominion (vv. 1-2). Using vivid poetic imagery, it personifies creation reacting to God's presence: the sea flees, the Jordan River turns back, and the mountains and hills skip like frightened animals at the crossing of the Red Sea and Jordan (vv. 3-4). The psalmist then directly questions this fleeing creation — what caused the sea, river, mountains, and hills to react this way (vv. 5-6) — answering that all the earth should tremble before the presence of the LORD, the God of Jacob (v. 7), who once turned solid rock into pools and springs of water in the wilderness (v. 8).

Authorship & Background

Author: Multiple authors — primarily David (73 psalms attributed), plus Asaph (12), Sons of Korah (11), Solomon (2), Moses (1), Heman (1), Ethan (1), and anonymous. The Psalter was compiled over approximately 1000 years and served as Israel's hymnal and prayer book. The book is divided into five 'books' (1-41, 42-72, 73-89, 90-106, 107-150), paralleling the five books of Moses.
Classification: Hallel Psalm / Hymn of Praise
Attributed Author: Anonymous
Key Themes: The Exodus as cosmic event, God's presence causing nature to flee, the power of God's presence, poetic personification of creation, the God of Jacob as Lord of all nature
Historical Context: Psalm 114 is the second psalm in the Egyptian Hallel (113-118), sung at Passover. It is one of the most artistically brilliant poems in the Bible — only 8 verses, yet it captures the entire Exodus in vivid poetic imagery. The sea, the Jordan, the mountains, and the hills are personified as living creatures who respond to God's presence: the sea flees, Jordan retreats, mountains skip like rams. The psalm asks creation directly: "What ailed thee?" — as if the earth itself was startled by God walking through. No divine name appears until v.7 ("the Lord" / "the God of Jacob") — the whole poem builds toward the revelation of who caused this cosmic disruption.
When Israel Went Out of Egypt (vv.1-2): When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language. Eight verses, and the whole exodus is compressed into the first two. Strange language marks Egypt as foreign by sound rather than by border. Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion, so what came out of Egypt is described as a place God lives rather than a nation God owns.
The Sea Saw It, and Fled (vv.3-4): The sea saw it, and fled: Jordan was driven back. Two water crossings forty years apart are set in one line, and both are told as flight rather than as parting. Then the mountains, and the psalm gives them animals to imitate, the mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. Sinai is the mountain in question and the picture is closer to a startled flock than to an earthquake.
What Ailed Thee, O Thou Sea (vv.5-6): What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? The psalm turns and interrogates the landscape, repeating its own four images back at them as questions, which is the most confident piece of rhetoric in the Hallel. The answer is withheld for a verse, and the delay is the joke.
The Flint into a Fountain of Waters (vv.7-8): Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob. That is the answer, and it is given as a command rather than an explanation. The last verse chooses the least likely of the wilderness miracles to end on, which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters, so a psalm about seas fleeing closes on water coming out of the one substance that holds none.

Map & Geography

  • Egypt (v.1): Land to the southwest; place of Israel's bondage and exodus.
  • Jordan (v.3, v.5): River flowing from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea; Israel's boundary.

Places on this map

  • EgyptEgyptA ribbon of irrigated land along the Nile, ending in the Delta where Israel settled in Goshen. Rain-fed Canaan depended on weather; Egypt depended on a river that flooded on schedule, which made it the place everyone went when the harvest failed. Wikipedia
  • Jordan RiverIsrael / Jordan borderRuns about 65 miles as the crow flies from the Sea of Galilee to the Dead Sea, dropping from 700 to 1,400 feet below sea level. Narrow enough to wade at most fords, it was still the boundary that divided wilderness from inheritance. Wikipedia
  • Sea of GalileeLake Kinneret, IsraelA freshwater lake 13 miles by 8, sunk 700 feet below sea level in a bowl of hills. Cold air spilling over the rim onto warm water is what produces the sudden violent squalls the Gospels keep describing. Wikipedia
  • Dead SeaIsrael / JordanThe lowest exposed ground on earth, about 1,400 feet below sea level, and roughly ten times saltier than the ocean because water leaves only by evaporation. Nothing lives in it, which is the image Ezekiel 47 overturns when he has it filled with fish. Wikipedia

Towns sit on their excavated or traditional site. Regions, rivers and seas are ringed rather than dotted, because for those a single point is only an anchor. Coastlines from Natural Earth.

Commentary

  • Enduring Word (David Guzik): enduringword.com Verse-by-verse commentary on this chapter, written for the everyday reader and freely available online.
  • Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871): blueletterbible.org A critical and explanatory commentary on the whole Bible, more concise than Matthew Henry and closer to the Hebrew and Greek, with attention to historical and geographical detail. Public domain.
  • Matthew Henry's Exposition (1710): blueletterbible.org A devotional verse-by-verse commentary in the Puritan tradition, still among the most widely read three centuries on. Public domain.

Videos

Psalm 114 - The Mighty Presence of God Delivers His People from Egypt
David Guzik

Psalm 114 | Creation Celebrates God's Coming | Bible Study
Spoken Gospel

Articles

  • GotQuestions.org: gotquestions.org On the whole book: an overview of Psalms -- who wrote it, when, why, and how it fits the rest of Scripture.

Links open on the publisher's own site. Nothing here is reproduced on this page.

Reflection

  • Creation Responds, Do You? (vv.3-4) — The sea fled and the mountains skipped like rams at the presence of the LORD. If creation itself reacts to God's nearness, how attentive are you to His presence in your own life?
  • Infinite and Personal (v.7) — The same God whose presence shakes seas and mountains is called the God of Jacob, tied to one flawed family. Does knowing God is both cosmic and personal change how you approach Him?
  • Water From the Rock (v.8) — God turned solid rock into a pool of water and flint into a spring. What impossible or hardened situation in your life needs Him to bring forth what seems impossible?