The Mountains Skipped Like Rams

Psalm 114

1When the Israelites escaped from Egypt—

when the family of Jacob left that foreign land—

2the land of Judah became God’s sanctuary,

and Israel became his kingdom.

3The Red Sea saw them coming and hurried out of their way!

The water of the Jordan River turned away.

4The mountains skipped like rams,

the little hills like lambs!

5What’s wrong, Red Sea, that made you hurry out of their way?

What happened, Jordan River, that you turned away?

6Why, mountains, did you skip like rams?

Why, little hills, like lambs?

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

at the presence of the God of Israel.

8He turned the rock into pools of water;

yes, springs of water came from solid rock.

Have you ever returned from a trip to the Rocky Mountains or the Alps and tried to convey to others what these mountains are like? Words are inadequate, and even slides and films fall woefully short.

So it is with all of God’s wonders. How do you pass along to others the greatness of what he has done? How do you describe the indescribable?

For Hebrew parents who wanted to convey to their children the excitement of the Exodus from Egypt and the miraculous entry into Canaan, this psalm was the next best thing to being there. The exuberant excitement of the expressions still makes us wide-eyed. Yes, God did a remarkable thing for the children of Israel, and it was important to communicate the emotion of it from generation to generation. There is a place for being matter-of-fact in retelling the stories of great life-changing experiences, but matter-of-factness can quickly degenerate into ho-humness.

Has God done a remarkable thing for you? How are you passing it along from one generation to another? How are you conveying it to those you see every day?

The sea beheld his power and fled;

Jordan ran backward to its head.

The mountains skipped like frightened rams;

The hills leaped after them like lambs.

And all things, as they change, proclaim

The Lord eternally is the same.

CHARLES WESLEY

Bible Networking

Check to see when the Red Sea hurried out of the way (Exodus 14:21) and when the Jordan turned away (Joshua 3:14-16). For the reference to the mountains, see Exodus 19:18 and Judges 5:4-5.

Notable Quotable

“Here is the Exodus, not as a familiar item in Israel’s creed, but as an astounding event: as startling as a clap of thunder, as shattering as an earthquake.”

DEREK KIDNER