Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Psalms 114:3
The sea saw [it], and fled: Jordan was driven back.
3. The sea saw and fled;
The Jordan turned backwards.
In the parallel passages Psa 77:16; Hab 3:10, God is the object of the verb saw. But here the object is significantly left unexpressed. The whole spectacle of Israel’s triumphant Exodus is meant. The Red Sea and the Jordan are personified, and represented as hastening to withdraw the barriers they opposed to Israel’s exit from Egypt and entrance into Canaan. Awestruck Nature recognised and obeyed its Master’s Will.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
3, 4. The wonders of the Exodus from Egypt and the Entry into Canaan.
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
The sea saw it – The word it is supplied, not very properly, by our translators. It would be more expressive to say, The sea saw: that is, The sea – (the Red Sea) – saw the mighty movement – the marshalled hosts – the moving masses – the cattle – the pursuing enemies – the commotion – the agitation – on its usually quiet shores. We are to conceive of the usual calmness of the desert – the waste and lonely solitudes on the banks of the Red Sea – and then all this suddenly broken in upon by vast hosts of men, women, children, and cattle, fleeing in consternation, followed by the embattled strength of Egypt – all rolling on tumultuously to the shore. No wonder that the sea is represented as astonished at this unusual spectacle, and as fleeing in dismay.
And fled – As if affrighted at the approach of such an host, coming so suddenly upon its shores.
Jordan was driven back – Referring to the dividing of the waters of the Jordan when the children of Israel passed over to the promised land. Jos 3:13-17. They also seemed astonished at the approach of the Hebrews, and retired to make a way for them to pass over.
Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
Psa 114:3-4
The sea saw it, and fled.
The removal of obstacles
I. Antagonisms are quelled. Wherever the Church has advanced–
1. Sin and Satan have receded. Where it has not been so the Church is to blame. The promise depends on the proper spirit, and the use of proper means.
2. Idolatry has receded. Christianity simply annihilated the classical, Druidical, Saxon, Tartar, and Scandinavian mythologies, the bloody rites of the South Seas, and is now doing the same for the debasing superstitions of Africa and the foul abominations of Hindostan.
3. Infidelity has receded. For all the ancient philosophies she proved an overmatch.
II. Boundaries are removed. Jordan was driven back.
1. Christianity levels all class distinctions. To all castes, Jewish, Roman, Indian, etc., it is a formidable foe. It reduces all mankind to one common level of crying need, for which but one provision has been made.
2. Christianity obliterates all physical barriers. It goes into all the world and preaches the Gospel to every creature. It was not made for home consumption, but is the property of all nations.
3. Christianity fills up all intellectual chasms. No greater remove could possibly be than that between the old philosopher and the common people. Christianity appeals to both. Its truths are The food of the scholar and the refreshment of the slave.
III. Difficulties are overcome. The mountains skipped, etc.
1. All difficulties of nature. Wherever Christianity has appeared the valleys have been exalted, etc. Crooked ways have been made straight. No mountain has been too high, no sea too broad, no continent too wide, for the pioneers and missionaries of the faith.
2. All difficulties of human prejudice. Armies have been levied to extirpate it. Fires have been kindled to burn it. Learning has been accumulated to refute it, but in vain. In conclusion. This history is prophecy. Fulfilled prophecy in some instances. It holds good through the ages. Let the Church in the strength of it redouble her efforts, brighten her hope, perfect her faith, and go on conquering and to conquer. (J. W. Burn.)
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Psa 115:1-18
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 3. The sea saw it, and fled] Mr. Addison has properly observed (see Spect. No. 461) that the author of this Psalm designedly works for effect, in pointing out the miraculous driving back the Red Sea and the river Jordan, and the commotion of the hills and mountains, without mentioning any agent. At last, when the reader sees the sea rapidly retiring from the shore, Jordan retreating to its source, and the mountains and hills running away like a flock of affrighted sheep, that the passage of the Israelites might be every where uninterrupted; then the cause of all is suddenly introduced, and the presence of God in his grandeur solves every difficulty.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
Saw it, to wit, this glorious work of God in bringing his people out of Egypt.
Fuente: English Annotations on the Holy Bible by Matthew Poole
The sea saw it, and fled,…. When the Word of the Lord appeared at it, as the Targum in the king’s Bible; the Red sea, to which the Israelites came when they went out of Egypt; this saw that Judah was the Lord’s holy and peculiar people, and that Israel were the subjects of his kingdom; it saw the presence of the Lord among them; it saw him in the glory of his perfections, and felt his power; see
Ps 77:16, at which its waters fled and parted, and stood up as a wall to make way for Israel to pass through as on dry land,
Ex 14:21. This was typical of the nations of the Gentile world, comparable to the sea, Da 7:2, who saw the work of God going on among them under the ministry of the Gospel in the first times of it, whereby multitudes were turned from idols to serve the living God; this they saw and trembled at, and they and their kings fled for fear; see
Isa 41:5, and of the stop put to the ocean of sin in a man’s heart, and to the torrent of wickedness that breaks out from thence, by powerful and efficacious grace, much more abounding where sin has abounded.
Jordan was driven back; this was done not at the time of the departure of the Israelites from Egypt, but just before their entrance into the land of Canaan, and in order to it; and being an event similar to the former is here mentioned, and done by the power and presence of God; for as soon as the feet of the priests who bore the ark of the Lord, the symbol of the divine Presence, were dipped in the brim of the waters, the waters below were cut off from those above, and stood up on an heap, and all the Israelites passed through on dry ground, Jos 3:13, this was an emblem of death, through which the saints pass to glory, which is abolished by Christ, its sting and curse taken away; which when the saints come to, they find it like Jordan driven back, and have an easy and abundant passage through it; and when on the brink of it, and even in the midst of it, sing, “O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?” 1Co 15:55.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
3 The sea saw, and fled He does not enumerate in succession all the miracles which were wrought at that time, but briefly alludes to the sea, which, though a lifeless and senseless element, is yet struck with terror at the power of God. Jordan did the same, and the very mountains shook. It is in a poetical strain that the Psalmist describes the receding of the sea and of the Jordan. The description, however, does not exceed the facts of the case. The sea, in rendering such obedience to its Creator, sanctified his name; and Jordan, by its submission, put honor upon his power; and the mountains, by their quaking, proclaimed how they were overawed at the presence of his dreadful majesty. By these examples it is not meant to celebrate God’s power more than the fatherly care and desire which he manifests for the preservation of the Church; and, accordingly, Israel is very properly distinguished from the sea, the Jordan, and the mountains — there being a very marked difference between the chosen people and the insensate elements.
Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary
(3) Fled.The Authorised Version weakens the effect by rendering it was driven back. (See Jos. 3:16.) The scene presented is of the descending stream (the words employed seem to have a special reference to that peculiar and most significant name of the Jordan) not parted asunder, as we generally fancy, but, as the psalm expresses it, turned backwards (Stanley, Jewish Church, i. 229).
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
3. The sea Jordan “The dividing of the sea opens, and the dividing of the Jordan closes, the journey through the desert to Canaan.” Delitzsch. Between these points are grouped rapidly the wonders celebrated in the psalm.
Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments
The Red Sea, and Jordan, both withdrew for Israel. Reader, recollect (for there is a great beauty in the reflection) that forty years intervened between the period of the Red Sea retiring, and that of the river Jordan stopping in its course; but as both were thus miraculously wrought upon by the power and presence of the same God, who was Judah’s sanctuary, and Israel’s dominion, the wonderful events are both recorded in the same song. Exo 14:21-22 ; Jos 3:13-17 . And in both events what a beautiful type do we see of the passage of the church, through that new and living way, which the Lord hath opened for his people, through the veil of Christ’s flesh? Heb 10:19-21 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 114:3 The sea saw [it], and fled: Jordan was driven back.
Ver. 3. The sea saw it, and fled ] When God will deliver his people, and perform his promises unto them, nothing shall hinder, but all creatures shall contribute their helps; for they are all his servants, Psa 119:91 .
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Psa 114:3-6
3The sea looked and fled;
The Jordan turned back.
4The mountains skipped like rams,
The hills, like lambs.
5What ails you, O sea, that you flee?
O Jordan, that you turn back?
6O mountains, that you skip like rams?
O hills, like lambs?
Psa 114:3-6 This is figurative language (cf. Psa 18:7-15; Psa 29:3-9; Psa 68:7-8; Psa 77:16-19). The two books that have helped me most in the area of OT hyperbole and imagery are
1. D. Brent Sandy, Plowshares and Pruning Hooks: Rethinking the Language of Biblical Prophecy and Apocalyptic
2. G. B. Caird, The Language and Imagery of the Bible
It is significant that water is mentioned in several senses. Water is the only thing not specifically said to be created in Genesis 1. Water in ANE mythology was divine (i.e., salt water, fresh water). There was conflict between water and the gods. The Bible often uses this imagery to describe YHWH (cf. Job 41:1; Psa 74:12-17; Isa 27:1). YHWH controls Leviathan in Job 3:8; Psa 104:26. But also notice the sea is personified in Psa 114:3; Psa 114:5 (along with other aspects of nature).
However, in Psa 114:8 the life-giving aspect of water is stated. YHWH, not Ba’al, is the source of fertility (i.e., rain).
In a sense the imagery of separating water and dry land is an ANE allusion to initial creation. The goal of physical creation was the creation of the people of God. Creation’s purpose was fellowship with God (see Special Topic: YHWH’s Eternal Redemptive Plan ).
Psa 114:3 The sea looked and fled This could refer to
1. the crossing of the Red Sea (lit. sea of reeds, see SPECIAL TOPIC: THE RED SEA ), which is described in Exodus 14 and in Moses’ poem in Exodus 15; God did it by using
a. Moses’ staff
b. a strong east wind
2. the crossing of the Jordan River at flood stage (cf. Joshua 3); see full exegetical notes on Joshua 3 online; God did it by a landslide upriver, which began at just the right moment and ended at just the right moment
Psa 114:4; Psa 114:6 The topological features of Canaan rejoice at the coming of YHWH and His people (cf. Psa 96:9). This is expressed in the Qal imperative, tremble (BDB 296, KB 297), which denotes both
1. trembling in fear (cf. 1Ch 16:30)
2. dancing in joy (cf. Psa 87:7; Psa 96:9)
Psa 114:4 the mountains This could refer to Mt. Sinai, but probably to the mountains (i.e., hills) of Canaan.
Psa 114:6 Notice this verse repeats the verb of Psa 114:4.
1. skip, Psa 114:4 – Qal perfect
2. skip, Psa 114:6 – Qal imperfect
Psa 114:5-6 asks the question as to why nature acted so strangely. It was because of the presence of the Creator. What happened at the inception of the people of God is meant to continue!
Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley
The sea. Compare Exo 14:21.
Jordan. Compare Jos 3:13.
Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics
sea: Psa 77:16, Psa 104:7, Psa 106:9, Exo 14:21, Exo 15:8, Isa 63:12, Hab 3:8, Hab 3:15
Jordan: Psa 74:15, Jos 3:13-16, Hab 3:9
Reciprocal: Jos 3:16 – rose up Jos 24:11 – And ye 2Sa 22:16 – the channels 1Ch 17:21 – greatness Neh 9:11 – divide Psa 93:4 – mightier Psa 148:9 – Mountains Pro 21:1 – as Isa 42:15 – General Isa 43:16 – maketh Isa 50:2 – I dry Isa 51:15 – that divided Jer 31:35 – which divideth Amo 8:8 – the land Nah 1:4 – rebuketh Hab 3:3 – His glory Hab 3:10 – the overflowing Zec 10:11 – smite Mat 8:26 – and rebuked 1Co 10:1 – and all
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Psa 114:3-6. The sea saw it, and fled Saw that God was present with and among them in an extraordinary manner, and therefore fled; for nothing could have been more awful. Jordan is driven back At the appearance of the divine glory which conducted them. Although forty years intervened between the two events here mentioned, yet, as the miracles were of the same nature, they are spoken of together. The mountains skipped like rams Horeb and Sinai, two tops of one mountain, and other neighbouring hills and mountains. The same power that fixed the fluid waters, and made them stand still, shook the stable mountains, and made them tremble; for all the powers of nature are at the command and under the control of the God of nature. Mountains and hills are before God but like rams and lambs; even the largest and the most rocky of them are as manageable by him as the sheep are by the shepherd. The trembling of the mountains before Jehovah may shame the stupidity and obduracy of sinners, who are not moved at the discoveries of his glory. What ailed thee, O sea, that thou fleddest? What was the reason, or for what cause was it, that thou didst, with such precipitation, retire and leave the middle of thy channel dry? Why didst thou, O Jordan, run back toward thy springs? Ye mountains, that ye skipped, &c. Whence this unusual motion? Why did you leap like affrighted rams or lambs, as if you would have run away from the place where you had so long been fixed?