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Psalm 114 (LXX 113:1-8) - At the Going Forth of Israel from Egypt

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This narration is from a previous version of the study. The text on this page is current.

Psalm 114 is the short Exodus hymn that remembers Israel’s departure from Egypt, the sea fleeing, the Jordan turning back, the mountains skipping, and the rock pouring out water. It is brief, but it is not small. St Augustine warns against hearing it as bare reminiscence: “Think not that past deeds are related unto us, but rather that the future is predicted;”1 he goes on to say that those miracles were real events that also intimated things to come. The Psalm remembers what God did for Israel and invites the Church to recognize His saving work in Christ.

Its spiritual center is the nearness of God. Creation trembles because the Lord has drawn near. In the Psalm’s poetry the sea, the river, the hills, and the flint answer their Maker. Christians hear in this song a new Exodus in Christ: baptism, sanctified waters, hearts turned back to God, and life given by the risen Lord.

Psalm 114 (LXX 113:1-8) - At the Going Forth of Israel from Egypt

Psalm Metadata

FieldNotes
NKJV / Masoretic numberingPsalm 114
Septuagint / Coptic numberingFirst half of LXX Psalm 113, verses 1-8. NKJV Psalms 114 and 115 are combined as LXX Psalm 113.
Accepted authorNot named; Alleluia is the superscription.
Period in author’s lifeNo personal life-setting is attached; this is liturgical memory of the Exodus shaped as prophetic praise.
Christ prophecy statusTypological and ecclesial. The Psalm points toward Christ as the greater Moses, the sanctifier of the waters, and the giver of living water.
Coptic lectionary/service useScripture from this study has an established place in the Coptic Orthodox lectionary through documented Church readings.
Numbering issueThis note embeds Brenton LXX Psalm 113:1-8 because NKJV Psalms 114 and 115 are combined as LXX Psalm 113.

Historical and Scriptural Context

Psalm 114 belongs to the Hallel sequence and compresses the Exodus story into a series of trembling images. In an editorial note, Robert C. Hill associates the Hallel with Passover; that note does not give this Psalm a personal author or a precise date of composition.2

The hymn brings moments of Israel’s journey into one song. Water came from the rock in the wilderness before Israel crossed the Jordan, but the Psalm places the rock last: its closing image is the Lord’s provision for His thirsty people. Augustine notices another difference: Joshua describes the Jordan’s waters standing while the people cross; the Psalm sings of the river turning back. For him, the poetic reshaping invites a prophetic reading without denying the historical deliverance.1

In 1 Corinthians 10:1-6, 11, Paul treats the wilderness events as examples for Christians; the older biblical wording quoted by Augustine says they “happened unto them for ensamples,”3 a reminder that God’s gifts call us to faithfulness rather than complacency. Augustine develops his own reading of the sea, Jordan, and rock below; it should not be mistaken for an identical explanation by every Father.

Geographical Significance ⛰️

Egypt, the sea, Jordan, the mountains, and the wilderness rock are not decorative scenery. The sea crossing, the wilderness provision, and the Jordan crossing recall different moments in the people’s journey; the Psalm gathers them before the presence of one Lord. Geography becomes theology because the world itself confesses its Creator in the hymn’s imagery.

🕯️ Light from the Word

Psalm 113:1-2, Israel came out and became sanctuary

113:1 Alleluia. At the going forth of Israel from Egypt, of the house of Jacob from a barbarous people, 113:2 Judea became his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion.

Brenton’s phrase “a barbarous people” speaks from Israel’s experience of an alien and oppressive power. It is not a judgment on Egyptians today. The Exodus recalls a real deliverance from Pharaoh; using Egypt as an image of spiritual bondage must never become contempt for a people.

The Exodus is not only escape. It is consecration. Israel does not merely leave Pharaoh; Israel becomes the Lord’s sanctuary and dominion. Salvation and holiness belong together. The people are brought out to belong to the God who dwells among them.

Augustine insists that Christians must not read themselves out of this Psalm: “Let therefore no Christian consider himself alien to the name of Israel.”4 He speaks of believers from the nations joined in Christ with believing Jews, including the apostles. Christian participation in this story does not erase Israel’s history or permit contempt for Jewish people. Through Christ, our Passover, deliverance is ordered toward belonging. God does not rescue His people so they may drift into spiritual autonomy. He rescues them to become His dwelling.

Psalm 113:3-6, the sea fled and Jordan turned back

113:3 The sea saw and fled: Jordan was turned back. 113:4 The mountains skipped like rams, and the hills like lambs. 113:5 What ailed thee, O sea, that thou fleddest? and thou Jordan, that thou wast turned back? 113:6 Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams, and ye hills, like lambs?

The Psalm speaks to sea, river, and mountains as though they could see and answer. This is poetic personification, not a claim that water or stone consciously recognize God. The questions repeat the astonishing movements and make us wait for their answer: the Lord Himself is present. Theodoret of Cyrus, a wider historical Christian witness, likewise describes the Psalm as giving lifeless things the language of sensation to proclaim God’s power.5

Augustine presses the images beyond history. In his reading of the sea, the pursuing enemies recall sins overcome in baptism. In a distinct movement, he sees the Jordan turning back as the person who has turned away from the Creator returning toward Him.6, 7 Neither reading makes the historical crossings unreal. Together they invite us to thank God for deliverance and to turn toward Him again when we have wandered.

Psalm 113:7-8, the earth trembled and the rock gave water

113:7 The earth trembled at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob; 113:8 who turned the rock into pools of water, and the flint into fountains of water.

The final movement gathers holy fear and divine generosity together. The earth trembles, yet the result is not annihilation. The rock becomes water. Flint becomes fountain. The same presence that humbles also nourishes. In the wilderness, water was not an ornament: the people needed it to live. Reverence before this God need not drive the thirsty away from Him.

Augustine gives one of his most beautiful readings here: “The rock, that hardness, was turned into pools of water …”8 He explains that Christ seemed hard when He was not yet understood; after the Resurrection, the Lord opened the Scriptures and sent the Holy Spirit. Augustine is not suggesting moral hardness or sin in Christ. What seemed hard becomes life-giving as Christ is made known. Theophany and the sacramental life of the Church are further resonances for our reading, rather than a service appointment established by Augustine’s commentary.

The Church’s Voice in Worship 📖

In the retained Coptic Reader witness for the Theophany Liturgy of the Blessing of Water, or Laqan, the Psalm before the Gospel selects only the sea and Jordan verses: its printed Psalm 114:3, 5 corresponds to Psalm 114:3, 5 (LXX Ps 113:3, 5). The selection skips the intervening mountain verse. After seven prophecies and 1 Corinthians 10:1-13, it precedes Matthew 3:1-17, where Christ comes to the Jordan for baptism. Hearing the river’s turning beside that Gospel invites wonder at the Lord who comes to the waters.9

In the retained Holy Myron Preparation reading sequence, the reader is given a combined selection printed Psalm 114:3-8; 115:1-2. The first part corresponds to this guide’s LXX Psalm 113:3-8, from the sea through the water from the rock. The following words belong to Psalm 115:1-2 (LXX Ps 113:9-10), beyond this guide’s passage. This is the recited Preparation sequence, not the separate whole-Psalter rubric or the later Acts and Catholic readings.10

Iconography Connection 🖼️

For a visual meditation, consider an icon of Christ’s Baptism or Resurrection while remembering the Psalm’s parted waters and life-giving rock. The comparison invites us to contemplate Christ who enters the waters and brings His people through death into life. It is a suggested meditation, not a claim that the Psalm prescribes a fixed iconographic scheme.

Spiritual Fruit 🍇

  1. Leave bondage behind. Bring a sin or habit that has mastered you to Christ in prayer and confession. The image of bondage is not a diagnosis of someone else’s suffering.
  2. Let fear become reverence. Pause before the Lord whose presence makes the earth tremble and whose mercy gives water.
  3. Ask for a turned-back heart. When you notice yourself moving away from God, ask for grace to return; the Jordan is a fitting image for repentance and conversion.
  4. Trust Christ in barren places. Bring Him your thirst without pretending that every hardship has already been resolved.
  5. Remember that salvation leads to holiness. God rescues in order to dwell among His people.

Footnotes

  1. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm CXIV / Latin CXIII, §§1-2, NPNF I.8. The quoted clause continues after the semicolon. A. Cleveland Coxe abridged and annotated the translation; Philip Schaff was general editor. ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  2. Robert C. Hill, editorial note 1 on Psalm 113, printed p. 220, in Commentary on the Psalms 73-150. This is an editor’s note, not a statement attributed to Theodoret. ↩

  3. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm CXIV / Latin CXIII, §1, citing 1 Corinthians 10:11 in the older wording of the NPNF text. ↩

  4. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm CXIV / Latin CXIII, §3, NPNF I.8. ↩

  5. Theodoret of Cyrus, Commentary on the Psalms, Psalm 114, §§2-3, printed pp. 223-224, translated by Robert C. Hill. The comparison here paraphrases his historical exegesis. ↩

  6. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm CXIV / Latin CXIII, §§4-5, NPNF I.8. ↩

  7. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm CXIV / Latin CXIII, §7, NPNF I.8. ↩

  8. Augustine, Expositions on the Psalms, Psalm CXIV / Latin CXIII, §9, NPNF I.8. The quotation is a fragment of a longer sentence. ↩

  9. Retained Coptic Reader, Special → Lakkan → Theophany, Psalm printed 114:3, 5 before Matthew 3:1-17; its English service wording is not identical to Brenton’s translation. ↩

  10. Retained Coptic Reader, Special → Consecrations → Oil → Myron → Preparation, recited Psalm sequence, printed 114:3-8; 115:1-2. The service wording is not presented as an exact reproduction of Brenton. ↩

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