What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest ?.... What was the matter with thee? what appeared to thee? what didst thou see? what didst thou feel, which caused thee to flee in such haste? Thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back ? what is the meaning that thou didst not continue to flow as usual? what was it that stopped thy flowing tide? that cut off thy waters? that drove them back as fast or faster than they came? read more
What ailed thee, O thou sea - The original is very abrupt; and the prosopopoeia, or personification very fine and expressive: - What to thee, O sea, that thou fleddest away! O Jordan, that thou didst roll back! Ye mountains, that ye leaped like rams! And ye hills, like the young of the fold! After these very sublime interrogations, God appears; and the psalmist proceeds as if answering his own questions: - At the appearance of the Lord, O earth, thou didst tremble; At the... read more
Verse 5 5What ailed thee, O sea! The prophet interrogates the sea, Jordan, and the mountains, in a familiar and poetical strain, as lately he ascribed to them a sense and reverence for God’s power. And, by these similitudes, he very sharply reproves the insensibility of those persons, who do not employ the intelligence which God has given them in the contemplation of his works. The appearance which he tells us the sea assumed, is more than sufficient to condemn their blindness. It could not be... read more
God with us. This psalm, which is so full of fine poetry, is also charged with spiritual suggestiveness. In the few verses of which it is composed, it brings before us the nearness of God to us, and the power he is exerting on us. We have— I. HIS DWELLING - PLACE IN US . "Judah was his sanctuary" ( Psalms 114:2 ). God dwelt in Judah in a sense in which he dwelt nowhere else. There was his manifested presence, and thither the tribes came up when they wanted to offer... read more
The soul's exodus. The psalm is a wonderfully vivid and beautiful description of the deliverance of God's people from Egypt. In all ages of the Church this has been looked upon as the pattern and type of the soul's deliverance by the redemption of Christ. Much of that history is suggested here. We are shown— I. FROM WHENCE THE SOUL WAS SET FREE . 1. From Egypt, the true type of the world. At first so pleasant, so prosperous, so Goshen-like, so free from care, life... read more
The spiritual exodus. I. WE MAKE OUR ESCAPE FROM A STATE OF BONDAGE — EGYPT . 1. A life of sin is a life of spiritual bondage . ( Romans 6:16 .) 2. Such a life of bondage brings us into "strange" and unnatural relations . ( Psalms 114:1 .) Egypt was not the home of the Israelites. II. THE SPIRITUAL EXODUS BRINGS US INTO OUR TRUE , OR DIVINE , RELATIONS . ( Psalms 114:2 .) 1. We become consecrated temples for the... read more
What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou filledest thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back t. ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams; and ye little hills, like lambs ? Most poetically, the psalmist apostrophizes the sea, the Jordan, the mountains, and the lesser hills, inquiring of them for what reason they had forsaken their nature and done such strange things; or rather, addressing them as present, and as if the scenes were being enacted before his eyes, and asking why they are so strangely... read more
What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest?... - literally, “What to thee, O sea,” etc. That is, What influenced thee - what alarmed thee - what put thee into such fear, and caused such consternation? Instead of stating the cause or reason why they were thus thrown into dismay, the psalmist uses the language of surprise, as if these inanimate objects had been smitten with sudden terror, and as if it were proper to ask an explanation from themselves in regard to conduct that seemed so... read more
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Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - Psalms 114:1-8
The psalmist is here remembering the days of old, the years of the right hand of the Most High, and the wonders which their fathers told them of (Jdg. 6:13), for time, as it does not wear out the guilt of sin, so it should not wear out the sense of mercy. Let it never be forgotten, I. That God brought Israel out of the house of bondage with a high hand and a stretched-out arm: Israel went out of Egypt, Ps. 114:1. They did not steal out clandestinely, nor were they driven out, but fairly went... read more