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[0:00] We can sing to God's praise from Psalm 114.

[0:12] Psalm 114, we'll sing the whole psalm. When Israel out of Egypt went and did his dwelling change, when Jacob's house went out from those that were of language strange, he drew that it is sanctuary, his kingdom is fair to make.

[0:32] The sea that saw and quickly fled, Jordan was driven back. Like rams the mountains, and like lambs the hills, skipped to and fro.

[0:44] O sea, why fledst thou? Jordan back, why was thou driven so? The mountains great, wherefore was it that ye did skip like rams?

[0:54] And wherefore was it little hills that ye did leap like lambs? O at the presence of the Lord, earth trembled thou for fear, and as the presence of the God of Jacob doth appear, who from the hard and stony rock did standing water bring, and by his power did turn the flint into a water spring.

[1:21] The Israel out of Egypt went and did his dwelling change.

[1:31] When Israel out of Egypt went and did his dwelling change, when Jacob's house went out from those that were of language strange.

[2:09] He judah did his time journey, his kingdom is living.

[2:25] The Israel out of Egypt, the sea in sorrow and quickly fled, Jordan, O children died.

[2:43] Like rams the mountains, and like lambs the hills, get to and fro.

[3:01] O sea, why blest thou Jordan back, why was thou driven so?

[3:20] Ye mountainous, wherefore was it that ye did skip like rams?

[3:39] And wherefore was it little hills, that ye did leap like lams?

[3:58] O Hurman, O Lord, O heaven, O earth, O championships of life, o bet hair, As the presence of the God of Jacob does appear, Who from the heart that's strong in all is shining water-bring, And by His power turn the flood into a water's rain.

[5:16] If we can, for a short time, turn now to the book of Psalms this evening. For a short time we're going to look at the words of the psalm that we were singing, Psalm 114.

[5:34] Psalm 114. You can read it in this book of Psalms.

[5:44] When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob, from a people of strange language, Judah was his sanctuary and Israel his dominion.

[5:56] The sea saw it and fled. Jordan was driven back. The mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. What ailed thee, O thou sea, that thou fleddest?

[6:10] Thou Jordan, that thou wast driven back. Ye mountains that ye skipped like rams, and ye little hills like lambs. Tremble, thou earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, which turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of water.

[6:37] So most of you will know we're looking at a cluster of psalms entitled by some the Egyptian Hallel.

[6:48] Psalm 113 through to Psalm 118. And the common denominator is, I suppose, twofold.

[7:06] First, obviously, that they come one after the other in the psalm book, in the book of Psalms. And the second identifying feature is that they are considered to be psalms that were sung during the preeminent feasts and festivals of Oosphere.

[7:28] And in particular, the Passover. And the psalm that we're looking at this evening is probably one that stands out in that regard.

[7:43] Even though the words of the psalms themselves, when you read them or sing them, they are most suitable.

[7:58] I think that's probably... We can't imagine that the psalms were composed specifically for these feasts and festivals, but that they came to be psalms that are associated with them because of their common usage at such times.

[8:22] Now, the Old Testament scholar, Tremper Longman III. When you're looking at American scholars, you'll always find that there's been a first and a second and a third, perhaps even a fourth.

[8:40] They lack their names, they lack their pedigrees. And very often they bear the names of their father. I'm not sure of who the second and the first was, but Tremper Longman III is a renowned Old Testament scholar.

[8:57] And he wrote a book which focuses upon the psalms. He's probably written several books.

[9:08] But one book is a book that has the title, a simple title, How to Read the Psalms. How to Read the Psalms. And he says the following.

[9:19] Beyond the shadow of a doubt, the psalms were used in the public and private worship of devout Israelites. I would think that was obvious, but it seems that there are those who debate the issue, and scholars take their light in trying to argue one way or the other.

[9:43] But the psalms, he says, were part of the worship of Israel, both corporate and individual. And as such, they probably were used during the festivals.

[9:55] But the psalms functioned more generally than this. They were used as Israel rejoiced and mourned. They were always relevant to Israel, because they are not historically specific and are immediately applicable to new situations of blessing and curse.

[10:19] Now, this statement is one I am sure that you would agree with. You probably think that it's a statement that is not necessary to make.

[10:35] And yet, it is made in the light of the way the scripture needs to be handled and understood. It has to be made without taking anything for granted.

[10:52] Assuming that because we sing the psalms, that others sang the psalms also. As I said before, it is not all that clear how the psalms were sung, when they were sung, what kind of tunes that were used, or how they actually came to form part of the corporate worship.

[11:18] If you think of poetry, it doesn't necessarily follow that. Poetry is always put to a verse in the sense that it's designed to be sung.

[11:31] But we believe, and we've already argued that these psalms were probably psalms that were meant to be sung, and that they were sung by Israel.

[11:44] And in particular, this group of psalms were sung because of their appropriate content are times, such as the times we've already mentioned.

[11:57] Now in general, Psalm 114 seems to be, of all the psalms, the psalm most suitable to this use.

[12:10] particularly remembering that the Passover was appointed at the time when Israel were redeemed from Egypt.

[12:25] That was when the Passover meal was instituted, and the occasion that necessitated it was appointed by God as he took his people out of Egypt.

[12:40] with a strong hand. So the psalm here refers to Egypt and the salvation of his people out of Egypt.

[12:51] the title, I'm sure many Bibles are different and if you use your authorized version even when you compare different translations or different versions of the authorized version you'll find different Bibles will have headings, some will not have headings, some will have different headings to other Bibles.

[13:16] My Bible has this heading, the God of the Exodus. And some emphasize the subject matter as a recollection of the deliverance that has taken place from Egypt.

[13:33] So we have within the psalm mention of the crossing of the Red Sea and of the River Jordan. And what we are repeatedly reminded of is how this took place by reason of the supernatural intervention of God.

[13:55] And that intervention was at times national at times general at times very specific in the lives of individuals.

[14:08] But it was intervention, it was supernatural. And it was with the end in view that they experienced salvation at his hand, that he would have the glory and that they would follow him more resolutely and more carefully.

[14:27] Most of you will be familiar with the gathering of writings that bears the title The Treasury of David that C.H.

[14:40] Spurgeon was responsible for. He collected the best thoughts of the best known of Reformed theologians and along with his own thinking he brought the thinking of others to be the Puritans and the preachers who were renowned of his own day.

[15:01] When it comes to this psalm he says something and I have to say I'm familiar with the psalm but it's not a psalm we often sing.

[15:14] I have to say that because I'm reasonably confident we have sung it on occasion but not often. And yet Spurgeon says of this psalm true poetry has here reached its climax.

[15:32] No human mind has ever been able to equal much less to excel the grandeur of the psalm. Now would you agree with that when you read the psalm?

[15:47] Would you say that this is the pinnacle of creative poetry writing? Maybe not but obviously more than Spurgeon consider this psalm in its construction to be much admired.

[16:08] And Derek Kidner has another example. He describes it as an astounding event, as startling, as a clap of thunder, as shattering, as an earthquake.

[16:24] and he's talking there about the construction of the psalm. So let's think about what the psalm is referring to.

[16:37] The first statement, it is either a matter of fact or a totally awesome event.

[16:48] When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language. Now historically we're familiar with that.

[17:01] We know that Israel went out of Egypt. We know that Israel came out of Egypt because God took them out of Egypt. And maybe that's the problem that we have, that we're so familiar with the event, with the history, we're so well versed in God working in this way that we forget the awesome nature of the redemption that actually took place.

[17:33] Israel did not, could not, and did I say would not have come out of Egypt were it not for the intervention of God.

[17:45] God. And if we don't see that, if we don't remember that, then we don't really understand the rest of the psalm.

[18:00] Because the rest of the psalm is taken up with the awesome power of God that was necessary in order for this deliverance to take place.

[18:11] God was taking his people out of bondage. And the way he did it and the reason for him doing it must be remembered.

[18:26] It did not just happen, he made it happen. if you remember, he mentions here, he speaks about Jacob and he speaks about Israel.

[18:52] Judah was a sanctuary, Israel his dominion, he goes on to say. I was thinking, well, what is the significance if any, of his use of the psalmist?

[19:03] We don't know who the psalmist was. But why does he describe Israel and then call Israel Jacob? And speak of Jacob and Israel in the same breath as it were?

[19:18] Because, I think anyway, even that brings to our recollection the fact that it was God who made Jacob Israel.

[19:32] It was God who met with Jacob and made the one who was in nature as a planter to be someone who as a prince had power with God.

[19:51] Remember, he met with him at Peniel and he met with him at Bethel and both occasions God reminded Jacob of what he was doing in his life.

[20:07] And at an individual level, just as surely as a corporate level, when he deals with nations, just as he deals with individuals, it is the power accepted by God that makes the change, nothing less.

[20:28] God even now reminds them that this was his doing. Part of his purpose is for his people. Some suggest that when he speaks here about the strange language from a people of a strange language, that he's just talking about Hebrews being resident among Egyptians and that they spoke different languages.

[21:02] theologians, divines, tell us that the actual word that's used here is so unique, it's only used to once and it speaks of a stuttering tongue.

[21:15] And that there is some significance about this, the difficulty that the Hebrews had communicating with the Egyptians and vice versa. But I think at the heart of it there is a spiritual truth that these peoples were different to one another.

[21:37] They were different in the sense that God was the God of Israel and the gods of Egypt were many. and they could not and did not understand one another.

[21:53] Maybe that's reading too much into it. But there is a difference made, not just a linguistic difference, although that difference exists.

[22:06] And the psalmist wants to emphasize this work that God did was by virtue of his power and nothing less than his power.

[22:22] When we think about the power of God necessary to do a work such as this, and to put it at a spiritual level, at an individual level, we must remember that the same truth applies.

[22:37] were it possible for any one of us to take a person from darkness to life, then we would do that. Were we able to persuade them to come to know Christ, we would do that.

[22:55] Were we able to be responsible for taking him into the kingdom of God, we would do that. But we've discovered that it's not possible for us to do that.

[23:12] But sometimes it's concerning how people who realise that think that, well, if it is God that must do that, then we must prevail upon God to do it.

[23:27] And in a sense that's quite true. God must be the one to do it. But we can't make God exert power at our will.

[23:41] And I've always struggled with this, especially when it comes to prayer. If you pray long enough and hard enough and direct, directly enough, then you're bound to achieve that end.

[23:59] and my feeling is that if that is the case, then as sure as you prayed, you would take that glory to yourself. but I haven't been able to reconcile what I'm expected to do and what's expected as a consequence of that properly in my own head.

[24:28] I was reading about a Welsh survivor. There was more than one Welsh survivor. But in the early Welsh revivals, there were some characters there who were renowned as revivalists.

[24:45] And the story is told about one of these revivalists in his youth. He attended a meeting.

[24:56] I don't know what kind of meetings they were, but the information that's given is pretty scant. But it seems that in the preaching of such meetings there was an encouragement given to those who were present to declare an interest there and then in the Lord.

[25:17] There was a pressure certainly put upon them to, whether they physically came forward, at least to physically identify themselves as someone who had this interest in the Lord.

[25:31] And one of these meetings said, the preacher felt that the congregation was unmoved, that they weren't moving, that they weren't listening, that they weren't responding.

[25:44] And at the end of the meeting he very directly spoke to them and more or less accused them of being responsible for the Lord not working.

[25:58] and he asked individuals in the congregation, did you, did you want the Spirit to work here?

[26:10] and he asked several people that question. And then he followed up with a second question, did your wanting the Spirit to work here keep you awake at night?

[26:27] And he waited for a response. And the response was that it did not. And then he asked the question of an older gentleman and the gentleman confessed and he says, no, he said I did not.

[26:44] But I will from now on. And he asked some other person the same thing happened. And I don't know how often that happened but the minister prayed and the heavens opened and the Spirit of God came down.

[27:04] And there was a marked Spirit of Reviver on that occasion. I was reading this and thinking does that mean that we can turn God on as a tap?

[27:22] Can we make God work at will? Can we manipulate God so as to make him come?

[27:33] very often there are stories told about revivals of religion and that's the thing that appears most.

[27:44] As if you can in some way orchestrate the power of God.

[27:55] God. The reason I'm thinking of this is that if you look at what the Islamist is saying here, he comes to speak about the power of God as something and man is not involved in it.

[28:15] when Israel went out of Egypt the house of Jacob from a people of strange language Judah was a sanctuary and Israel is dominion. Israel are the responders to the doing of God.

[28:31] God is doing this and Israel are responding to what God is doing. And what God does is again identified by the fact that they become the temple of the Lord.

[28:51] And I'll read verse 2. Judah was a sanctuary and Israel is dominion. Not because of what they did or not because of what they made God do, but because of what God did, they became the sanctuary of God.

[29:08] They became the tabernacle of God. They became the dwelling place of the Spirit. because he worked. And then what God is doing is sin.

[29:23] And when God is at work and his work is sin to be God's work, then there is a response. And the response is not one of activity but one of trembling.

[29:37] You know, you read there, the sea sawed and fled. Jordan was driven back, the mountains skipped like rams, and the little hills like lambs. And you think, what a strange picture.

[29:51] But the picture is deliberately a poetic description where personification is used at its best to describe the influence of the power of God even upon an animate or objects that you would not normally expect to respond.

[30:19] The sea sawed and fled. Jordan was driven back. I'm not sure which one of the I think it's Matthew Hengie he says that when it comes to the Jordan fleeing that it was no wonder because the Jordan saw God at the head of his people and when the Jordan saw God at the head of his people it could do nothing but part to allow God with his people to cross.

[30:51] It's interesting that the psalm is not just talking about the moment they left the land of Egypt there's 40 years difference between the parting of the Red Sea and the parting of the Jordan but they are treated as one and the reason they are treated as one is because what we're seeing here is the power of God exercised towards the salvation of his people and his plan and his purposes however many decades separate and however many centuries separate God's plan is all encompassing and if he purposes to save a people be they a people from a particular generation or a people who will make up the sum total of the saved it is caught up in his plan

[31:53] Professor Anne Herman writes the fleeing seas and rivers the trembling Sinai formidable events of the exodus and conquests that followed that were due to God's invincible power and the questions that are asked in verse 5 they don't need any answer because not just are the rhetorical questions but the God who spoke and the God who does is the God who doesn't need to explain his actions because those who are witness to it know it is God who is working have you ever seen God work and have you ever been forced then to ask the question who is doing this how is this happening if it is supernatural if it is

[32:59] God's doing the answer is already on your lips when the human is presented with the divine someone put it like this there is always bound to be a reaction you can apply to yourself the world in which we live knows nothing or next to nothing about the power of God they don't understand it they don't appreciate it they don't want it but I wonder how much of the presence of God or the power of God in our lives we know or understand ourselves perhaps not enough Warren Wearsby in his comment says that the exodus may have been past history but the presence of

[34:04] God of Jacob is a present reality to those who trust Christ and allow him to lead it's always always an addendum it's not just those who know Christ but those who are submissive to his will surely that's what the leadership of Christ is all about allowing him to lead some would argue you can't not allow him to lead I'm afraid you can go against Christ not in the ultimate but you can in the short term you can go very far out of his will until he turns you back to where you should be but here the words of the psalmist tremble thou worth of the presence of the

[35:05] Lord of the presence of the God of Jacob there is no question in the mind of the psalmist but that looking back upon the exodus and the salvation the redemption of Israel out of the clutches of the pharaohs was God's doing and we know that he is the same God who is an ever present help in our own time of trouble verse 8 tells us that he can turn the unlikeliest of situations into a blessing he turns the rock into a standing water the flint into fountains of water she says God worked miraculously in the lives of Israel as he took them through the wilderness look at this verse take this verse put it on the lips of

[36:07] Christ as he sang these words as the Egyptian Hallel was sung as they prepared to partake of the Passover words of celebration words of exclamation words of of rejoicing in the name of God at what he could do did do and will yet do amazing how these words were in the mouth of Christ but he was able to sing these words with the disciples and surely we are today as we think about what God can do and because of what God once did what God still does I think that's what we've got to remind ourselves of it's hard no doubt to deal with what so contradicts the truth that is presented to us here we would wish that

[37:17] God would bear his arm and reveal his power to us once again and we are required to bring these petitions to him not to so superimpose our will on his but to remind him of his own promises to his people in every generation that he is the God who is a working God God who has performed miracles in the past and the miracles which we are most interested in are not the changing or the shattering of the rocks so that water pours out but the shattering of rock like hearts so that the praises that flow from the mouth of those whose heart it is would be praises directed towards

[38:21] God in the person of his son Jesus Christ let us pray Lord help us to understand how you reminded your people of your past exploits not just so that they would be encouraged to remember the history of the church but to remember that this God was their God forever and that we are like these people who need to hear the truth in order to be encouraged and to believe that you are still interested in your people and that you have never at any point turned your back upon it your promises is fixed I will never leave nor forsake you and that is what you have directed your people to believe consider our petitions this evening on behalf of this congregation and those who are in it remember those amongst us who are unwell remember those who are grieving and heartbroken we pray we pray that you would weld their heart and heal their hurts and bring them with their praises into your presence for good sin in

[39:48] Jesus name amen winners 그다음 our absolutely per我的ation a живот from verse 8. Two verses. Psalm 106, verse 8.

[40:28] Psalm 106, verse 8.

[40:58] Psalm 106, verse 8.

[41:28] Psalm 106, verse 9.

[41:58] Psalm 106, verse 9.

[42:28] Psalm 106, verse 9.

[42:58] Psalm 106, verse 9.

[43:28] Psalm 106, verse 9.

[44:00]