Psalm 114 The Joy of Salvation

Psalm 114:1 When Israel came out of Egypt, the house of 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 skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. 

5 Why was it, O sea, that you fled, O Jordan, that you turned back, 

6 you mountains, that you skipped like rams, you 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, the hard rock into springs of water.

This is a joyful psalm celebrating Israel's deliverance from its long slavery in the land of Egypt in Old Testament times, during the early days of Moses. 

It is also a type of any person's salvation in Jesus Christ, that is, their deliverance from slavery to sin and death. Just as Israel never returned to Egypt, a believer who has received a new nature in Jesus Christ never returns to his former bondage to corruption.

God, as creator, became Israel's Savior. All nature was His servant. The waters of the river divided, half continuing downstream, the other half turning back upstream. The Israelites crossed the once formidable river on dry ground.

The mountains and hills, here anthropomorphized, saw, reflected and participated in the joy of the former slaves' deliverance to freedom. 

Later in the people's history with God in the wilderness, He turned a hard rock into a pool of water, and on another occasion, the flinty rock into a flowing spring! Such power over nature!

If God can do such miracles with unyielding, natural rock, think what He can do with a human heart! He turns a dead heart of stone into living flesh. Such is the miracle of the new birth, being born again, salvation. What joy and gladness! All nature celebrates over the birth of one child of God.

How does anyone get this new birth? By humbly asking God for it--

Joel 2:32 And everyone who calls on the name of the LORD will be saved...

Acts 16:30 He then brought them out and asked, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" 31 They replied, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved-- you and your household."

What a gracious God we have! His habitation is not limited. The size of His household knows no bounds. Any and all who desire to know Him, to find the path of His salvation, to be born again, need only ask in humble sincerity of heart. Whatever else is lacking in knowledge, the Lord Himself provides. 

Why wait? There is joy in the land!

-------------------

Father, I thank You for the day that You humbled my heart, bringing me to my knees to cry out to You. Not even knowing for sure if You existed, You lifted me from the dust, and journeyed with me into all truth. You stayed by my side for the whole year it took me to ask, "Why Jesus?". And You showed me in the most loving way that He indeed is Savior and Lord.

Father, I don't know if anyone will ever read this, but even if not, Lord, there is surely some heart somewhere who is now as dead and lost in sins as I once was. I pray, most gracious heavenly Father, that You would call this person by name, and reveal Yourself to her or him, just as You so kindly and benevolently did to me. May there be great joy in the land today over the salvation of one lost sinner's soul.

Thank-You, my Father. In Jesus' awesome name, Your daughter Christina, Amen.

auntpreble_blog@yahoo.com