Psalm 114 is one large figure of speech. Actually it involves several figures of speech. First is personification. Personification involves attributing human features or human characteristics to nonhuman entities, such as in Isaiah 44:23: “Burst into song, you mountains, you forests and all your trees.” Referring to the Red Sea and the Jordan river, this Psalmist writes: “The sea looked and fled; Jordan turned back.” Next it uses zoomorphism. That’s when characteristics of animals are attributed to inanimate objects. The Psalmist writes, “The mountains skipped like rams, the hills like lambs.”

The Psalmist then addresses the seas, rivers, mountains and hills as if they were human and asks them, “What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back? O mountains, that you skip like rams?
O hills, like lambs?” It’s obvious that he’s not looking for them to answer. He’s making his case for the absolute sovereignty of God over all nature. That’s why he closes with, “Tremble, O earth, at the presence of the Lord.”

Understanding the Sovereignty of God is one of the most liberating experiences a Christian can ever have.
John Calvin once said, “When the light of divine providence has once shone upon a godly man, he is then relieved and set free not only from the extreme anxiety and fear that were pressing him before, but from every care.… Ignorance of providence (God’s sovereignty) is the ultimate misery; the highest blessedness lies in knowing it.… [It gives] incredible freedom from worry about the future.” No wonder Charles Spurgeon once quipped, “We believe in the providence of God, but we do not believe half enough in it.”

Chuck
“ Rescue me because you are so faithful and good. For I am poor and needy, and my heart is full of pain.” (Psalm 109:21-22)