Psalm 114 (1928 BCP)
Psalm 114 (1928 BCP) is the eight-verse exodus psalm, In exitu Israel, appointed at Evening Prayer on the Twenty-third Day in the 1928 Book of Common Prayer Psalter. It remembers Israel's deliverance from Egypt, the passage of sea and Jordan, and water from the rock; in Christian prayer those events remain Israel's history while also teaching the Church to confess God's saving presence.
Prayer Book Text
WHEN Israel came out of Egypt, * and the house of Jacob from among the strange people, 2 Judah was his sanctuary, * and Israel his dominion. 3 The sea saw that, and fled; * Jordan was driven back. 4 The mountains skipped like rams, * and the little hills like young sheep. 5 What aileth thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest? * and thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back? 6 Ye mountains, that ye skipped like rams? * and ye little hills, like young sheep? 7 Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord: * at the presence of the God of Jacob; 8 Who turned the hard rock into a standing water, * and the flint-stone into a springing well.
The Prayer Book prints the psalm after Psalms 110–113 under the Twenty-third Day's Evening Prayer heading. The concrete verbs—Israel came out, the sea fled, Jordan turned back, the rock gave water—keep prayer tied to God's acts rather than to an abstract idea of deliverance.
Exodus remembered
The psalm telescopes the departure through the sea, Israel's entrance through Jordan, and wilderness water. Its poetry gives sea, river, and hills a voice so that creation itself appears responsive to its Creator.
And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all that night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided. And the children of Israel went into the midst of the sea upon the dry ground: and the waters were a wall unto them on their right hand, and on their left.
And it came to pass, when the people removed from their tents, to pass over Jordan, and the priests bearing the ark of the covenant before the people; And as they that bare the ark were come unto Jordan, and the feet of the priests that bare the ark were dipped in the brim of the water ... That the waters which came down from above stood and rose up upon an heap ... and the people passed over right against Jericho.
The first quotation illuminates “the sea saw that, and fled”; the second supplies the distinct Jordan event named in verse 3. The psalm does not confuse the two crossings, but joins them in praise of the one Lord who makes a people and brings that people into its inheritance.
Apostolic and patristic reading
St Paul gives a canonical warrant for reading the wilderness history as instruction for the baptized Church, without denying that the events happened to Israel.
Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; ... And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.
Augustine makes the same move from remembered event to present ecclesial address. His exposition follows the Greek numbering, in which this is Psalm 113.
Let us therefore consider what we are taught here; since both those deeds were typical of us, and these words exhort us to recognise ourselves.
For though it was so long after the departure of that people from Egypt, and so long before these seasons of the Church, that he sang what I have quoted; nevertheless, he witnesses that he is foretelling the future without any question.
Augustine's reading is theological rather than an alternative account of Exodus: Christians who sing the psalm learn to recognize salvation as God's gift, and to let the exodus pattern form repentance, baptismal faith, and hope.
Paschal and liturgical resonance
John Mason Neale and Richard Frederick Littledale locate Psalm 114 in the Jewish Hallel and note its Paschal setting.
At the Passover it was divided into two parts, the first consisting of Pss. cxiii., cxiv., sung before the second Cup at the Paschal Supper was passed round, and thus consequently before the meal itself.
That historical observation makes the psalm's movement from bondage to worship particularly apt for Christian Paschal reflection; it should not be used to claim certainty about the precise hymn sung at the Last Supper. Neale and Littledale also identify how Christian liturgical tradition heard the psalm:
The Paschal character of this Psalm, and its triumphant accents, have led to its use primarily as an Easter Psalm in the Christian Church, and then its employment on every Sunday, the festival whereon a weekly commemoration is made of the Resurrection of Christ our Passover.
The 1928 BCP does not give Psalm 114 a festival-only appointment: it places it in the monthly Daily Office cycle. Repeated Evening Prayer therefore allows Israel's deliverance to become the Church's regular grammar of praise—God rules, creation answers to him, and he brings life from what seems closed and barren.
The rock and the presence of God
Verses 7–8 supply the climax. The earth trembles “at the presence of the Lord,” and the God of Jacob turns rock and flint into water. In the light of 1 Corinthians 10, Christian prayer can confess Christ as the spiritual Rock while retaining the psalm's summons to awe before the God who acts in history. The result is neither private optimism nor contempt for creation, but worship before the Lord whose presence judges bondage and gives refreshment.
See Also
- Book of Common Prayer (1928)
- The Psalter (1928 BCP)
- Daily Office (1928 BCP)
- Psalm 113 (1928 BCP)
- Psalm 115 (1928 BCP)
References
- ↑ The Protestant Episcopal Church, The Book of Common Prayer and Administration of the Sacraments and Other Rites and Ceremonies of the Church (New York: Church Pension Fund, 1928), The Psalter, Psalm 114, In exitu Israel, verses 1–8, appointed at Evening Prayer on the Twenty-third Day; 1928 BCP Psalter (Project Canterbury).
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: Translated out of the Original Tongues (London: Robert Barker, 1611), Exodus 14:21–22, Authorized Version; Exodus 14:21–22 (Bible Gateway).
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: Translated out of the Original Tongues (London: Robert Barker, 1611), Joshua 3:14–16, Authorized Version; Joshua 3:14–17 (Bible Gateway).
- ↑ The Holy Bible, Containing the Old and New Testaments: Translated out of the Original Tongues (London: Robert Barker, 1611), 1 Corinthians 10:1–4, Authorized Version; 1 Corinthians 10:1–4 (Bible Gateway).
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 114, §3, trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888); “Exposition on Psalm 114” (New Advent).
- ↑ Augustine of Hippo, Exposition on Psalm 114, §5, trans. J. E. Tweed, in Philip Schaff, ed., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, First Series, vol. 8 (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1888); “Exposition on Psalm 114” (New Advent).
- ↑ John Mason Neale and Richard Frederick Littledale, A Commentary on the Psalms, vol. III, Psalms LXXXI–CXVIII (London: Joseph Masters; New York: Pott and Amery, 1871), p. 473; scan at Internet Archive.
- ↑ John Mason Neale and Richard Frederick Littledale, A Commentary on the Psalms, vol. III, Psalms LXXXI–CXVIII (London: Joseph Masters; New York: Pott and Amery, 1871), pp. 480–481; scan at Internet Archive.