We’ve been reading through the entire bible from start to finish at home and this morning we read Psalm 114:
When Israel went out of Egypt,
The house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
2 Judah became His sanctuary,
And Israel His dominion.
3 The sea saw it and fled;
Jordan turned back.
4 The mountains skipped like rams,
The little hills like lambs.
5 What ails you, O sea, that you fled?
O Jordan, that you turned back?
6 O mountains, that you skipped like rams?
O little hills, like lambs?
7 Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord,
At the presence of the God of Jacob,
8 Who turned the rock into a pool of water,
The flint into a fountain of waters.
The sea saw God moving and fled. Wow! The Jordan River turned back; the hills retreated.
These powerful inanimate forces recoiled at the presence of their Creator.
The sheer gravitational force, magnetic field, and raw energy of God forced the water and the land in the opposite direction. The spiritual nature of Yaweh manifested itself physically at different times as a cloud and as a fire and as a windstorm. What could inspire more fear than the all-powerful Creator, who SPOKE matter into being?!
These disasters strike fear in the heart of man, as they should. We in the insulated West do not know fear in this way. Those who have experienced an earthquake, a hurricane, a head to head confrontation with a polar bear, a winter storm at sea, war – an uncontrollable physical reality that is absolutely life-threatening and terrifying – understand this truth. God’s people understood this truth well and Psalm 114 reminds them to continue to fear the Lord!
This is a spiritually healthy place to be and the beginning of wisdom (Proverbs 1:7). May all our children come to fear him and then receive His Grace that relieves all fear!
