Tremble, All the Earth

“When Israel went forth from Egypt,
The house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
Judah became His sanctuary,
Israel, His dominion.

The sea looked and fled;
The Jordan turned back.
The mountains skipped like rams,
The hills, like lambs.
What ails you, O sea, that you flee?
O Jordan, that you turn back?
O mountains, that you skip like rams?
O hills, like lambs?

Tremble, O earth, before the Lord,
Before the God of Jacob,
Who turned the rock into a pool of water,
The flint into a fountain of water.”
Psalm 114

The Scriptures declare to us that the Triune God, the Lord of Heaven and Earth, is truly a God of wonders. Far from the empty prattlings of philosophers; far from the idyllic dreams of mystic thinkers; far from the lifeless clay of idolaters is the Living God. He is no idle fancy.

Though modern man envisions himself as master of his own destiny, the Word of God declares that the Sovereign Lord is master of all destinies. It is He who rules the winds and the waves; he who makes the birds to fly; he who makes the seasons to change; he who numbers the days of every living thing on earth—saying, “This long shall you live and no longer!”

The text before us today declares both the wondrous power of God and the response which all creatures are to have towards Him. There is perhaps no greater testimony of God’s power and might in the Old Testament than the Exodus. Here that event is celebrated in poetic verse.

When Israel went forth from Egypt,
The house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
Judah became His sanctuary,
Israel, His dominion.

The psalmist marvels that the people of Israel, once enslaved and degraded, became the most exalted people on earth—the very temple of the living God, the benefactors of His Kingship. In like manner, Paul celebrates the exalted position of the Church—we are now the temple of God, the place of His dwelling. And who is this God who dwells in our midst—none other than the God who makes the earth itself reel from His awful presence.

The sea looked and fled;
The Jordan turned back.
The mountains skipped like rams,
The hills, like lambs.
What ails you, O sea, that you flee?
O Jordan, that you turn back?
O mountains, that you skip like rams?
O hills, like lambs?

What else could nature do as it faced the mighty hand of God? When God said, “Part!” to the waters of the Red Sea, they parted. When God said, “Turn Back!” to the waters of the Jordan in the days of Joshua, they turned back. How could they do otherwise?

And now what does the Psalmist call upon the earth to do? Tremble! Behold Your God and tremble.

Tremble, O earth, before the Lord,
Before the God of Jacob,
Who turned the rock into a pool of water,
The flint into a fountain of water.”

And if the psalmist calls upon the earth itself to tremble, how much more ought we to tremble in His sight—we who have transgressed against Him and spurned His holy covenant. And so let us kneel and confess our failure to tremble before Him.