Adonai, Emmanuel (Lord, God With Us)!
Context
The clear theme of this splendid song is the power of God’s presence among His people. In poetic brilliance, the unknown author exhibits just how far God will go for His own. God will unleash His unlimited power on our behalf. He will move heaven and earth to deliver us. He will even alter His creation to care for us.
God dwells within true believers through His Holy Spirit from the moment we receive Christ. His presence is ever with us, and His unlimited power is always available to us. Through the LORD’s powerful presence in our lives, we can overcome every obstacle, conquer every challenge, and triumph in every trial. This is, When You Sense a Special Need for God’s Presence and His Power,
Content
The Roots of Spiritual Power (vv. 1-2)
Separation (v. 1)
“When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language.…” The first secret of spiritual power is separation. Long before Israel learned that lesson at the Red Sea, God had begun the separating process by making a difference between His people and the people of Egypt. For instance, when a three-day darkness covered Egypt, we read that “the children of Israel had light in their dwellings” (Exodus 10:23). They were children of light, not children of darkness like the others.
The psalmist refers to the exodus from Egypt, not the exodus from Babylon. The two experiences were dissimilar. The exodus from Egypt was total, the exodus from Babylon was partial.
The exodus from Egypt was from slavery, the exodus from Babylon was from prosperity. The exodus from Egypt was an act of power, the exodus from Babylon was an answer to prayer. In the one case the king acted grudgingly and tried to hinder; in the other case the king acted graciously and tried to help. Both of these movements in Israel’s history illustrate God’s ways of power in the world.
In the case of the Babylonian exodus only a minority of God’s people responded. It is easier to have a mighty movement of God among those living in poverty than among those living in prosperity. A people who know themselves to be slaves are more likely to respond to the call of God than a people who think themselves a success. In Egypt, God’s people were in bondage; in Babylon, they were in business. So, when God wishes to draw attention to His sovereign power He invariably points us to the exodus from Egypt.
“When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language.…” The expression “strange language” means “stammering tongue.” When the Hebrews first went down to Egypt they could not understand the Egyptian language (Genesis 42:23). When God had something to say to them He didn’t say it in Egyptian, He said it in Hebrew. Turning away from those who spoke a foreign language meant they were now receptive to what God had to say.
It is an important point. This world speaks a strange language, a stammering tongue. It has no natural means of communicating the thoughts, words, and mind of God. This world may exhibit all the marks of human genius, all the evidences of intellectual power, but it cannot speak the language of Heaven. That language is found only in the Bible, the one book this world does not want. It has ruled it out of its public schools, colleges, and universities. Young people can read Voltaire and Marx in school, but not the Bible. They can read books that dishonor God and blaspheme His Son, books that glorify adultery and sodomy, evolution and violence. But not the Bible.
So the first way to spiritual power is separation—turning away from the world’s language, the world’s way of thinking, to listen to what God has to say. That kind of separation brings our intellects to rest on the language of Heaven spoken by the Holy Spirit through the pages of His book.
Sanctification (v. 2a)
“Judah,” we read, “was His sanctuary.” A sanctuary is a sacred enclosure where God dwells. God said of Esau that he was “a profane” person—that is, he had no enclosure in his heart where God could dwell. “Judah was His sanctuary.” It was on the high hills of Judah that God at last came home to dwell when the temple was built and the Shekinah glory cloud came in and took up its seat on the ark between the cherubim.
Sanctification is the other side of separation. Separation sets us apart from the world; sanctification sets us apart for God. God will not give His power to a worldly, carnal person. That would be like putting a loaded rifle in the hands of a three-year-old. God gives His power only to those He can trust.
Surrender (v. 2b)
“And Israel was His dominion.” Israel was the sphere of God’s rule, the place where His sovereignty was owned. God will not give His power to those who want to use it independently of Himself. Surrender is the key to a life of victory.
A verse of Scripture we often misquote is this: “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” That, however, is not true. The devil is not going to flee from us. He is not the least bit afraid of us. What that verse actually says is: “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7). Here we see the secret of power over the enemy—personal submission to God.
Such submission would have kept Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. That is what the serpent came to test: to see if he could persuade them to act in defiance of God. That is what He tried to persuade the Lord Jesus to do in the wilderness. That is where he tests us too. God will not give His power to those who are not in submission to Him.
The Results of Spiritual Power (vv. 3-8)
Things Begin To Happen (vv. 3-6)
The sea kept them in the world. Israel marched right up to the Red Sea and there they stopped. They could go no further. They were still in Egypt’s domain. They had been saved, put under the shelter of the blood, but now the enemy was coming after them. He wanted to drag them back to slavery, back to the brick kilns, the taskmaster’s lash, and the ghetto on the Nile. He wanted to bring them back to the old way of life, to maintain his rule and dominion over them.
Between them and freedom was the sea, an obstacle to their further progress. It kept them there in the world, in Egypt. Then the sea fled. Why? Because Joshua was there with a few hundred brave men? Because Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law, had arrived? Because Aaron prayed, or Miriam prophesied?
No, it fled because Moses, at God’s command, took the rod in his hand and did what he was told. Then, over they went, over the riverbed, over onto dry land. Then, too, at the summons of that same rod, back the waters went to sweep away the foe.
Thus Israel put the waters of separation between them and the old way of life. What had been an obstacle became their protection to make it difficult for them ever to go back to Egypt and their past.
We react next that “Jordan was driven back.” When that happened, the Hebrews had been saved from Egypt for a considerable time. A new, younger generation had arisen, who now stood beside the Jordan. That is what kept them in the wilderness. They had been in the wilderness for 40 years and had known little but defeat, discouragement, and disobedience. The life that beckoned in Canaan eluded them, because they had never crossed Jordan. Jordan kept them in the wilderness, in their grumbling, mumbling, carnal life.
Now Jordan, too, was driven back and the obstacle removed. They had symbolically passed through death, burial, and resurrection, and now they stood on the victory side of Jordan. The land was before them and, although both battles and blessings lay ahead, they were in the promised land at last.
Things begin to happen when God gets us out of the world and then out of the wilderness. Obstacles are removed.
We Notice Also That Opportunities Will Be Revealed: “The Mountains Skipped Like Rams, and the Little Hills Like Lambs” (114:4). Now We Are in Canaan, the Place Where All the Promises of God Are “Yea and Amen.” Look at the Opportunities.
The mountains speak of the place of fellowship. Not everyone climbs the mountain peaks. The mountain peak is where, symbolically, we get closer to Heaven. The mountain speaks of higher ground, of nearness to God. The enemy would like to keep us in the valley, on lower ground.
But look! Those mountains skip like rams. They shake at the mighty tramp of those who are determined to scale their heights and occupy higher ground for God. Every stronghold and device of Satan to keep us down will be shaken to the ground. The way is clear now, right up to the top.
But there is more: “And the little hills [skipped] like lambs.” The little hills suggest fruitfulness. The rolling, undulating, fertile hills were where the best crops were grown, where the cattle stood knee-deep in clover, where the vines and olives flourished.
God wants us to be fruitful. He gives us the land and has put the means of victory in our hands, but we have to go in and possess our possessions. We have to get out of the world and out of the wilderness, out of Egypt into Canaan. We have to take our stand on the ground of separation, sanctification, and surrender, and scale the heights of fellowship. We have to plough and sow the seed, and take the steps to fruitfulness.
Throngs Begin To Hearken (vv. 7-8)
The Mighty Lord and the Living God “turned the rock into a standing water, the flint into a fountain of waters.” Two miracles are mentioned here, one from the beginning of the wilderness journey, the other at the end. In the one case the word for “rock” implies a low-lying rock; in the second case the word here rendered “flint” is sela, a high cliff. One speaks of Christ in His humiliation; the other of Christ in His glory.
In the first place the rock was to be smitten; in the second it was to be spoken to. In each case there were results. Water flowed; people came and stooped and drank and went away filled. Christ on the cross, smitten. Christ in glory, addressed. And the water of life flows out to thirsty, needy souls. Millions upon millions of people have been convicted and converted.