Please turn with me in the Word of God to Psalm 114, Psalm 114, and let us hear God's word as he speaks to us, his people. Psalm 114. When Israel came out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of foreign tongue, Judah became God's sanctuary, Israel his dominion. The sea looked and fled. The Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams. The Hills like lambs. Why was it, O sea, that you fled? O Jordan, that you turned back? You mountains that you skipped like rams, you hills like lambs. Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who turned the rock into a pool, the hard rock into springs of water. So far, the reading of God's Word. I don't know if you've ever given much thought to Psalm 114. It's just a little psalm, the kind that my children like me to read at table because it's short. It seems to record an event long ago, and it may be the kind of psalm that we would be inclined to pass over rather quickly. But it's interesting to observe that throughout the history of God's people, this psalm has attracted a fair amount of attention. One of the great Old Testament scholars of the 19th century said of this psalm that it wonderfully sums up the events of the Exodus in a way that is both majestic and charming and praises it as a great piece of poetry in the Old Testament. The Jews were drawn to this psalm and to this section of the Psalter at the time of Passover. Psalms 113 through 118 were regularly sung and recited and treasured at the time of Passover as the people of God looked back at the great deliverance of their God when he called them out of Egypt. And this psalm, amongst these psalms called the Egyptian Hallel, the Egyptian Psalms of Praise, Psalm 113 through Psalm 118. This psalm, Psalm 114, is the one that is very specific about God's work of delivering his people from Egypt. But I was drawn to this psalm recently in reading a rather new biography of John Calvin. And in that biography, one of the chapters was on Calvin's influence on the growth of the Reformed Church in France. Many of us may have completely forgotten that there was a great and flourishing Reformed church in France in the 16th century. A church that, in a matter of decades, grew to several million members. And then a church through persecution and internal tensions that, through the course of the 17th century, began gradually to dwindle away until a final persecution towards the end of the 17th century nearly destroyed that church and sent many of its members fleeing into exile either to the Netherlands or to America. And I was arrested by one statement in this chapter of Calvin's influence on the French Reformation where the historian said, the French Reformation, the Psalter was the French Reformation. The Psalter was the French Reformation. I thought that's a very interesting statement. What does he mean? In what way is the Psalter so important that it becomes the defining character of this great Reformed Church. And I was particularly interested to note the same scholar saying that Psalm 114 was one of the favorite psalms of the French Reformation. And so I got an old Genevan psalm book that has the tunes that not only the Genevans and the Dutch, but the French Reformation used. And I looked up the tune for Psalm 114. I thought maybe we could sing it tonight. And if you think the psalm we just sang, Psalm 68, was difficult in the Genevan tune, Psalm 114 struck me as just completely impossible. And again, my children warned me that my efforts to encourage psalm singing would definitely not have any success if I tried to get you to sing Psalm 114 in the old Genevan tune. It's a very strange tune. And so it's very strange to think that somehow out of the many psalms, the many psalms that again another scholar said lent poetic power to Calvin's piety, that this psalm attracted the French Reformation. And I think it attracted the French Reformation because for many people in the 16th century, this psalm helped them to understand who they are as the people of God. To understand what God had done for them. And to understand how they were to live before the Lord. And so I encourage you to look at this psalm with me tonight, not just so that we might better understand those Huguenots of the 16th century and how they were inspired by this psalm, but so that maybe we can recapture something of that sense of how this portion of the Word of God can help reveal our God to us and define us and encourage us in being the people of God in our time. So what do we find in this little psalm? First thing that we find celebrated here is God's power to save His people. This is a psalm that declares the power of our God to save His people. It's a power over the nations in the first place, as it describes how God defeated that great nation of Egypt, perhaps the very greatest of the nations of the ancient world, certainly one of the most powerful, one of the most wealthy, one of the most culturally advanced nations. He reached down to a slave people in their midst and saved them. He showed that the great gods of Egypt, to whom temples had been built that still stand to this day, had no power in the face of the God of Israel. And he displayed that he was a God who could rescue his people from Egypt, from the midst of a people of a foreign tongue. It's an interesting little expression there in the text, isn't it? from a people of a foreign tongue. Israel had dwelt in Egypt for hundreds of years. But they had always remained foreigners there. They had never felt at home in Egypt. They had never become fully accommodated to life in Egypt. They had never taken the Egyptian tongue as their tongue. But they had maintained the language of their fathers. They had maintained the language of the covenant of God. And God came at last to rescue them, to display His power over the nations, to deliver Him from a people of a foreign tongue. And so this Word of God comes to remind us of the character of our God, the power of our God. There is no power in this world that can ultimately resist Him. There is no power in this world that can ultimately stand against Him. And the question for us, you see, is do we really believe that? Are we gripped by that sense that we have been saved by a God of such remarkable power that the greatest forces of human culture cannot stand against Him? And do we have a sense that we are also a people who live in a world of a foreign tongue? Do we have a sense that we don't quite fit in? That we don't quite belong? That there is something different about us? Not ethnically different, not linguistically different, but spiritually different. That's the point of this text. That's what was so interesting, that the Huguenots were drawn to this text. They were native Frenchmen. They'd been born and raised in France. And yet they sensed that they had been delivered by God from a false church that taught a false gospel. And that they were never quite at home in their own country again because of that deliverance. They, too, had seen and felt and known that power of God. And this psalm, you see, which celebrates God's power over the nations, also celebrates His power over nature. God, time and again, in delivering His people from Egypt, showed His great power over nature, didn't He? And in these little words, we see that summarized. Verses 3 and 4. The sea looked and fled. The Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams. The hill was like lambs. What happened when Israel came to the Red Sea? Psalm 77 tells us that God made a pathway for his people through the sea. This psalm says the sea looked and fled. God opened the sea so that his people could pass through on dry ground. And when Pharaoh and his army and their arrogance sought to pass through, they were drowned. God showed his power over the sea. He showed his power over the waters not only when Israel was leaving Egypt, but as Israel was entering the promised land, God again opened the waters, the waters of the Jordan, so that they might enter the promised land. The Jordan turned back. What power God displays over nature to accomplish his purpose. And then we read, the mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs. When did that happen? When did the mountains skip like rams? Well, most of the commentators say, this is Israel at Sinai, where God appeared in power, where God manifested Himself in thunder. And what's interesting about this text is that usually when we think of Sinai And think of the people there. We think of the terror of the people as they stood at the foot of the mountain and said, Don't let God speak to us. Moses, you meet with God and bring His Word. It's too terrible to hear God speaking to us and to see the power of His manifestation there. But the psalmist here says, In effect, while we sinners may have been terrified that God came to Sinai, nature rejoiced that God was there. Nature rejoiced at a God who comes to make covenant with his people. And this celebrates that covenant-giving and covenant-keeping God. It's a picture of joy, of pleasure in the presence of God and in the wonderful power that he displayed for his people. And this is the nature of our God, a God who is powerful over nations, The God who is powerful over nature. And so, verse 7 appropriately says, Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob. You see, that's the proper response when we really contemplate the power of God, that we should tremble, that we should be amazed. And even more amazing than the character of our God is the number of people who are indifferent to our God. The number of people who do not tremble at the display of his power. And we should be gripped by the tragedy of that reality. But how great it is that God has throughout all centuries gathered a people who are gripped by his power to save. Who recognize him as the great and powerful God. and who sees that power displayed preeminently and finally, completely, in our Lord Jesus Christ. Because whenever we think of the Exodus, whenever we think of God's delivering his people, we ought to be thinking of Jesus Christ as the real fulfillment of the Exodus. Jesus, we're told at the time of his transfiguration, Luke tells us in Luke chapter 9, verse 31, That Moses and Elijah gathered with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration and spoke to him about his exodus. About how he was going to Jerusalem to die and to save his people. And there we see the ultimate power of God to save. The ultimate demonstration of that power of God to save his people. That he gave his own son who was lifted up on the cross for the deliverance of us all. And God bore witness in nature there, too, of what he was accomplishing as the earth was plunged into darkness at this foul deed that brought blessing and life and redemption for those who know Jesus Christ. You see, and that's what the Huguenots experienced. That's what they entered into. That sense that they shared, not only in the exodus of Israel, but in the exodus of our Lord Jesus Christ, and therefore they had known the power of God for salvation. The second thing we see in this text is not only the power of God, but the presence of God. Why does the earth ultimately tremble? Not just because God is powerful, but particularly because God is present. Why was it, O sea, that you fled? O Jordan, that you turned back? You mountains that you skipped like rams, you hills like lambs. Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob. God is not only powerful to save his people, he is present to care for his people. And that's what the Huguenots sensed here as well. That the God they served was not only a God of power in the past, not only a God of accomplishment for peoples long ago, but that the God they served was a present God amongst them, who had come to dwell with them, who had come to care for them. And the Huguenots needed that encouragement in ways that most of us can only vaguely imagine. Because the Huguenots, at many points in the 16th century, experienced some of the most severe persecution that took place in the 16th century. Many of their leaders were imprisoned, many were tortured, and many were burned at the stake, alive, for their profession of faith in Jesus Christ. And one of the more remarkable tales of the French Reformation that I think I've mentioned to some of you before, but always stays with me because it's such a powerful image, is that so frequently the French Reformed martyrs went to the stake singing songs that their persecutors became discouraged, that the impact of their testimony and song was so powerful that some in the crowd were moved by their heroism, by their faith, by their devotion. And that far from being a discouragement to the growth of the reform movement in France, some of these executions became an encouragement to that growth. And so the persecutors took up the practice of tearing out the tongues of the reformed in prison before they were taken out to the stake so they could not sing and testify to their faith. This was a people, you see, that needed the assurance of the presence of their God in the face of some terrible suffering and persecution. These were a people who needed a word of God to fill their hearts and minds with the promise and the assurance that their God was not far away, that He was not a God who acted only in the past, but that He was a God who was present with them. And indeed, as our text says in verse 2, Judah became God's sanctuary, Israel his dominion. God exercised, you see, His presence through a holy kingship amongst His people. That was their confidence. God is in control. God rules. God reigns. It is not the King of France who persecutes us who is in control. But it is the Lord our God who rules and rules in holiness for us and cares for us. Well, if he cares for us, why are we in prison? If he has such power, why are we slain? And what those Huguenots learn, which every true Christian must learn, is that suffering is part of the reality of being a Christian in this life. That there is no way to avoid that suffering. That this life is indeed a veil of tears, if not constantly, at least truly and really. I've often meditated at times of baptism in this church because one of the prayers in the baptismal form is that when it pleases God to call out of this life, this one baptized, out of this life which is nothing but a constant death. I've sometimes thought, is that too strong a statement? does that too much denigrate the blessings that we have from God in this life does it undervalue the beauty of the world in which we live the blessing of family the encouragement of God's people the joy we have in believing and I think the older I get the more I see that that is a terribly accurate description, at least of many points and experiences of life. That this life is a struggle. That this life can be a constant death. And that does not mean that God is not powerful. And it does not mean that God does not care. It does not mean that God is not present. But rather it means, as those of us who are Reformed have come to know, that God's ways are higher than our ways. And God's thoughts higher than our thoughts. And we may not understand His ways, but we are called upon to bow before His wise and kingly rule and say to Him, O Lord, what You do is right. And though we do not understand it, And though in our finite understanding we might change it, nonetheless, we bow before your rule and say you are good. And we praise you that you are with us. And we are blessed more than the psalmist was blessed to know that presence of God among us in holy kingship in our Lord Jesus Christ. There we see the presence of God most clearly displayed and the character of God's care so wonderfully laid out for us. In a king, a perfectly holy king, who was despised and rejected, who was handed over to be executed, who was spat upon and mocked, and who was raised up to suffer on a cross. But John tells us in his being lifted up, we see his glory. And in his being lifted up, he draws all men to himself. And so when we contemplate our own suffering and our own struggles, we are able to look at the presence of God with us in Jesus Christ and be reminded that we do indeed walk through the valley of the shadow of death, but he is with us. That's what the Huguenots saw and were sustained by in this psalm. And this is what we should be sustained by as well. Lastly, we see in this psalm that not only is God powerful to save and present to care, but He is also the provision of His people in blessing. God provides. And this psalm closes with just a fascinating allusion or brief statement of that provision in verse 8. Who is the God who is present with us? Who is the God before whom we should tremble? He is the God who turned the rock into a pool, the hard rock into springs of water. This is still talking about the Exodus and still remembering the journey of the people through the wilderness and how one of the great needs, perhaps the greatest single need that people had physically was for water in the desert and how frequently they were uncertain that God would in fact provide water in the desert. Verse 8 seems particularly to refer to that incident to which the Old Testament Scriptures return again and again. Israel at Rephidim, Exodus 17. Israel complaining about a lack of water. That place finally called Massa and Meribah, the place of complaining against God. And how God sent forth Moses then to stand at the rock and to strike the rock with his staff. and water came forth. And as we read that story in the Old Testament, we, I think, are regularly amazed at how really stupid that people were. This is a kind of perverse form of encouragement. When we see how stupid Israel was, time and time again, it should encourage us that God is willing to be somewhat patient with our stupidities as well. But Israel, who had seen God's power over the Red Sea, Israel, who had seen God's power turning the Nile to blood, Israel was stupid to think that the Lord hadn't thought far enough ahead to realize that His people would need water in the desert. And so God sends forth Moses with His staff in hand, the staff that had been stretched over the Nile to turn it to blood, the staff that had been stretched over the Red Sea to cause it to separate, He takes that staff now and strikes the rock, and God provides. God blesses. God gives his people what they really needed, water in the desert. And this comes as a reminder to us that God is the one who waters our souls and provides for us. And it's interesting that the Apostle Paul thinks of this incident when he's writing to the Corinthians. And in chapter 10, he writes of that people of old, They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink, for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. Paul is saying, what is really happening at Rephidim in the wilderness? It's not just that God is giving physical water for the physical well-being of His people. God is giving spiritual drink to His people. And that spiritual drink comes from our Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of what the people in the wilderness experienced as water gushed forth from that rock. And that's why it is Jesus Christ who describes himself as the water of life. That's why Jesus, in John chapter 7, said in a loud voice, If anyone is thirsty, let him come to me, and let him drink who believes in me. Jesus Christ, you see, provides for his people. He provides the water of life. He provides Himself as the life-giving Spirit, as the water that we need. Jesus may well have had in mind, Isaiah 55, Come all you who are thirsty, come to the waters, and you who have no money, come buy and eat. Are you thirsty? Are you in need of refreshment for your soul? Are you dried out by the abuse and criticism of this world, of all that you hold dear? Are you dried out by the sin that plagues your life? Are you dried out by efforts to serve the Lord that don't seem as fruitful as you'd like them to be? Jesus says, come unto me. Come if you are thirsty and I will give you drink. I will give you of my saving grace. I will give you of my enlivening spirit. I will give you what you need. For I am a Savior who provides for his people to bless, to sustain, to encourage. That's what the Huguenots experienced as they came to Jesus Christ. And that's why they were so drawn to a psalm like Psalm 114. They found Christ there. They found God their deliverer there. They found encouragement for their faith there. They found their own identity there. They came to know who they were as the people of God. they were the people who had experienced God's power to save they were the people who experienced God's presence to care for them and they were the people who had experienced God's provision of blessing is that what we've experienced as the people of God is that the settled identity that we have come to that we are the Israel of God that we are the people of God that we are the inheritors of all that the exodus pointed to in Jesus Christ and therefore in a world that constantly rejects what we believe most dearly are we encouraged when we sing a psalm like Psalm 114 May that be the case for all of us as God strengthens us through his word and as John Calvin put it when we sing the Psalms God sings in us and builds us up in the faith Amen Let us pray O Lord, our God, we thank You for the way in which Your Word comes to us and encourages us and strengthens us. The way in which Your Word draws us to Yourself and helps us to see You. And we thank You that that Word also helps us to see ourselves and to understand who we really are. help us, O Lord, to be filled with thanksgiving and praise that for the sake of Jesus Christ, we are your people, a people whom you will never abandon, but will always save and bless and strengthen. Hear us, for we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.