As mentioned last week, Psalm 114 is one of the Hallel Psalms used during the Passover celebration. The song's connection with the Exodus is clear in verse 1: "When Israel came out of Egypt..."
The song goes on to describe the crossing of the Red Sea--"The sea looked and fled"--and the crossing of the Jordan--"the Jordan turned back."
Having cited these two water crossings, the poem stops to ask rhetorical questions of the sea and Jordan:
Why was it, sea, that you fled?
Jordan, that you turned back?
The mountains and hills also get queried:
Mountains, that you skipped like rams?
Hills, like lambs?
While nature is regularly personified in the Psalms, Psalm 114 is unique in how it poses questions directly to nature. The questioning is likely a taunt. A mocking intent is in the background. The questions demonstrate the Lord's power over these mighty entities--sea, river, hills, and mountains. The Lord causes these powers to flee, turns them back, makes them skip.
But the power here is explicitly connected to God's salvific acts. It's not a shock and awe campaign. The display of God's power, over water and land, is emancipatory, the liberation of slaves and the release of captives. In contrast to the pagan nature and storm gods, Israel's God was involved with history, and intimately so.
This creates both the comfort and the controversy of the Christian faith, along with the other ethical monotheisms (Judaism and Islam). That God cares about us, is invested in our lives, brings us peace. We feel seen and known. But that attention is felt by many to be oppressive and restricting. One of the attractions of neopaganism and spiritual but not religious seeking is that the divine doesn't bother you. It sits inert in the background, quiet and unobtrusive, waiting for you to engage with it. It makes no demands and never judges. The God of the Israel, by contrast, engages you.
Phrased differently, Judaism, Islam, and Christianity are salvation religions. Life is a moral drama, and God is acting within that drama with emancipatory intent. Given these high stakes, God cares what you do and isn't content to leave you alone.
All this sits behind the mix we find in Psalm 114. God has power over creation, but God's actions have a soteriological agenda. The Lord is bringing his people out of Egypt.
