Dylan Williams
1/24/2018
English 103-Theme 1
The LORD is Mighty
Psalm 114 declares the power of the presence of God. It starts by saying that Israel left Egypt, “When Israel went out of Egypt, / The house of Jacob from a people of a strange language” (1). Then, tells how the mere presence of God in his people induced the Red sea and the Jordan to retreat, “The sea saw it, and fled: / Jordan was driven back” (3). When Moses comes down from Mt. Sinai with the law the ground shakes violently which is why Psalm 114 says, “The mountains skipped like rams, / And the little hills like, lambs?” (4). The part about the Mt. Sinai, the Red Sea, and the Jordan is then rephrased to draw emphasis to them and aid oral remembrance. God is so mighty that the earth is told to shake at his mere presence, “Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, / At the presence of the God of Jacob” (7). The mountain’s and the water’s response to the presence of God is fear and awe, which is symbolic to the response people should have. For it was this very presence, that is the presence of God, which caused water to come from a rock, “Which turned the rock into a standing water, / The flint into a fountain of waters” (8). A reference to when God caused water to come from a rock when Moses struck it. Psalm 114 proclaims that the LORD is a mighty God, and we should respond to his greatness by trembling in awe of him.