seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Psalm 114:1 When Israel came out of Egypt,
Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
2 Judah became God’s sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.
Jacob from a people of foreign tongue,
2 Judah became God’s sanctuary,
Israel his dominion.
3 The sea looked and fled,
the Jordan turned back;
4 the mountains leaped like rams,
the hills like lambs.
the Jordan turned back;
4 the mountains leaped like rams,
the hills like lambs.
5 Why was it, sea, that you fled?
Why, Jordan, did you turn back?
6 Why, mountains, did you leap like rams,
you hills, like lambs?
Why, Jordan, did you turn back?
6 Why, mountains, did you leap like rams,
you hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, earth, at the presence of the Lord,
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turned the rock into a pool,
the hard rock into springs of water.
at the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 who turned the rock into a pool,
the hard rock into springs of water.
This is from the easy English site.
This is the second "Egyptian hallel". "The Story of Psalm 113" explains what this means. Bible students are not sure who the psalmist was. The psalmist was the person that wrote the psalm. They are not sure when he wrote it. But they know why he wrote it. It was to tell people what God did when he led his people from Egypt. There they were slaves, but now they were free.
Maybe he wrote the psalm when the Jews went into their "Promised Land". This was the country that God promised to Abraham. The north part they called Israel, the south part Judah. Today these places are Palestine and Israel. Today, Israel is the south part that was Judah 2500 years ago! This easily confuses us! Or perhaps the psalmist wrote it before or when Assyria beat the north part called Israel. Assyria took the people of Israel away. They put other people in their place. These other people became the Samaritans.
We need to know what verse 2 means. Then we can give the psalm a date. If Judah and Israel are countries, then it means the psalmist wrote it between 950 and 650 B.C. The letters B.C. mean "years Before Christ came to the earth". If Judah and Israel are the people, then the date could be earlier. This translation makes them places. But in verse 1, Israel means "the people of Jacob". This is another name for the Jewish people.
This outtake is from studylight.org.How beautifully the psalmist describes the dividing of the Red Sea! He represents the waters as perceiving the presence of God, and fleeing away, not because Israel came to the bank, but because God was in the midst of his people: “The sea saw it, and fled,”-as if abashed at the presence of its Maker, alarmed at the terror of Jehovah’s might. So was it with the Jordan; that swiftly-flowing river was “driven back” by a very special miracle. The dividing of the Red Sea was a marvelous act of God’s power, but the driving back of that rushing river has some extraordinary points about it peculiar to itself. And all this happened because God was there. The sea flees before him, the river is driven back by him. In like manner, my brethren, if God be in the midst of our church, nothing can withstand its onward march. If the Lord he in any man, that man need not even think or talk of difficulties; for, with God, nothing is impossible.
OK.... gotta disagree here..... Difficulties happen..... I've loved God my whole life.... and poop has happened in my life..... It's not that poop won't happen when a body loves God.... it's that poop is easier to deal with when God is around. These days we can pray about it.... and God will handle it.... back then.... not so much..... back then God was the only one running the show.... Jesus hadn't come to earth yet.....Those people in the Old Testament.... the ones that are writing all these poems....
- they didn't have Prayer.... Jesus taught Prayer.....
- they didn't have Heaven.... Jesus taught Heaven....
- they had the Holy Spirit.... Today we call it the God gene....
