Adam Clarke's Bible Commentary Verse 3. The sea saw it, and fled ] Mr. Addison has properly observed (see Spect. No. 461) that the author of this Psalm designedly works for effect, in pointing out the miraculous driving back the Red Sea and the river Jordan, and the commotion of the hills and mountains, without mentioning any agent. At last, when the reader sees the sea rapidly retiring from the shore, Jordan retreating to its source, and the mountains and hills running away like a flock of affrighted sheep, that the passage of the Israelites might be every where uninterrupted; then the cause of all is suddenly introduced, and the presence of God in his grandeur solves every difficulty.
Matthew Henry Commentary
- An exhortation to fear God.
--Let us acknowledge God's power and goodness in what he did for Israel, applying it to that much greater work of wonder, our redemptio by Christ; and encourage ourselves and others to trust in God in the greatest straits. When Christ comes for the salvation of his people he redeems them from the power of sin and Satan, separates them from a ungodly world, forms them to be his people, and becomes their King There is no sea, no Jordan, so deep, so broad, but, when God's time is come, it shall be divided and driven back. Apply this to the plantin the Christian church in the world. What ailed Satan and his idolatries that they trembled as they did? But especially apply it to the work of grace in the heart. What turns the stream in a regenerate soul? What affects the lusts and corruptions, that they fly back; that prejudice are removed, and the whole man becomes new? It is at the presence of God's Spirit. At the presence of the Lord, not only mountains, but the earth itself may well tremble, since it has lain under a curse for man's sin. As the Israelites were protected, so they were provided for by miracles; such was that fountain of waters into which the flint rock was turned, and that rock was Christ. The Son of God, the Rock of ages, gave himself to death, to open a fountain to wash away sins, an to supply believers with waters of life and consolation; and they nee not fear that any blessing is too great to expect from his love. But let sinners fear before their just and holy Judge. Let us now prepar to meet our God, that we may have boldness before him at his coming _________________________________________________
Original Hebrew הים3220 ראה7200 וינס5127 הירדן3383 יסב5437 לאחור׃268
