Just because you can’t get hills and rivers to respond when you speak, it doesn’t mean the Creator can’t!
Psalm 114 is such a happy little psalm, you can hardly keep from smiling. It really reads like a children’s book. Almost everything is personified. Starting with verse 3, it all seems obvious. But don’t miss the surprising metaphors at the start. When the tribes of Jacob left Egypt where they obviously didn’t belong (v 1), it was as if Judah themselves were God’s special tent, and Israel like His moving real estate (v 2)—as if God was already at home because His people were with Him! But it just keeps getting more charming. As they approached the Red Sea, it just up and fled! And the Jordan River did too, flipping back on itself (v 3)! And the mountains! Can you imagine them? Once forced to be the site of false worship in their high places, with Israel approaching they jumped for joy, like frisky rams in the springtime. The smaller hills were like their little lambkins, skipping along too. What caused these strange responses in what we call inanimate nature (vv 5-6)? Why, of course, their Creator had shown up (v 7). If none of the humans recognized His claim on their lives, the rest of creation would make up for it. And it isn’t difficult for those of us who have read the Gospel accounts to see something like this really happening! When Jesus arrived, the One of whom it was written, “All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made” (Jn 1:3), rocks rent, seas stilled, fig leaves withered, fish swam into nets, and an unbroken colt rode unmoved through a noisy crowd. Some day on His return He’ll hush creation’s groan, lower mountains and close crevasses, cause the desert to blossom like a rose, and heal brackish waters. So the psalm isn’t so far-fetched after all, is it!