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Psalm 114:5

What was it, you sea, that you fled? You Jordan, that you turned back?

3The sea saw it, and fled. The Jordan was driven back.
4The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs.
5What was it, you sea, that you fled? You Jordan, that you turned back?
6You mountains, that you skipped like rams? You little hills, like lambs?
7Tremble, you earth, at the presence of the Lord, at the presence of the God of Jacob,
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← Psalm 114:4Psalm 114:6 →
Notice

The sea flees and the Jordan turns back, and the poet’s questions make these familiar waters strange enough to awaken wonder at the Lord’s presence.

Questions to write on. Each one opens a new entry with this verse already attached.

What do you notice when the poet speaks to the sea and Jordan as though they could answer?

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How does the Lord’s presence in verse 7 shape your reading of the waters’ retreat?

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Connect

Where else Scripture says this

9 passages readers most often link with this verse, and the thread each one shares with it.

This verse's connections, by chapterThe Bible's strongest chapter linksHover or tap a book to trace it
Habakkuk 3:8Was the LORD displeased with the rivers? Was your anger against the rivers, or your wrath against the sea, that you rode on your horses, on your chariots of …Both passages ask questions about the sea and rivers, drawing attention to their response to God’s power.
Nahum 1:4He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers. Bashan and Carmel languish. The flower of Lebanon languishes.The fleeing sea and retreating Jordan share Nahum’s picture of waters subject to God’s command.
Jeremiah 47:6–7“‘You sword of the LORD, how long will it be before you are quiet? Put yourself back into your scabbard; rest, and be still.’Both address something nonhuman with a question: the psalm speaks to waters, and Jeremiah speaks to the LORD’s sword.
Joshua 24:11“‘You went over the Jordan, and came to Jericho. The men of Jericho fought against you, the Amorite, the Perizzite, the Canaanite, the Hittite, the Girgashite, …The Jordan names the shared setting: the psalm recalls its retreat, while Joshua recounts the people crossing it.
Judges 18:23The link is limited to questioning an unexpected action: the waters retreat, while Micah approaches with a company.
2 Kings 6:28Then the king asked her, “What is your problem?” She answered, “This woman said to me, ‘Give your son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son …These share a questioning form, though the king hears a horrifying human account and the psalm addresses retreating waters.
Isaiah 22:1The burden of the valley of vision. What ails you now, that you have all gone up to the housetops?Both ask what accounts for an unusual movement: waters turning back in the psalm, people climbing housetops in Isaiah.
Zechariah 10:11He will pass through the sea of affliction, and will strike the waves in the sea, and all the depths of the Nile will dry up; and the pride of Assyria will be …Both portray waters losing their force before God, with the Jordan turning back and the Nile’s depths drying up.
Proverbs 21:1The king’s heart is in the LORD’s hand like the watercourses. He turns it wherever he desires.Both use water changing course to express God’s rule, though Proverbs applies the image to a king’s heart.
Where this verse fits

Praise and worship. sermon or Bible study notes.

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One step

Something small to carry out of this verse

Read Psalm 114:5–7 aloud, pausing before verse 7

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Encouragement

The poem lets its questions linger before naming the Lord’s presence. There is room for wonder here: even the sea and the Jordan yield before the God of Jacob.

Now put it in your words.

Start an entry on Psalm 114:5. Write what it stirs. Psalmlog sets your words beside Scripture and gives you one next step. Your first entry is free, no account needed.

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Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY). Scripture from the World English Bible (public domain). Arc diagram after Chris Harrison and Christoph Römhild (2007).