The foundation of acceptable worship is a proper reverence for God’s sovereignty and might. The final psalm recited by a Hebrew prior to his observance of the Passover was Psalm 114. It reads: “When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a people of strange language, Judah became His sanctuary and Israel His dominion. The sea saw it and fled; Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, the little hills like lambs. What ails you, O sea, that you fled? O Jordan, that you turned back? O mountains, that you skipped like rams? O little 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 of water, the flint into a fountain of waters.”
What vibrant, vivid language is used to describe the birth of the Hebrew nation, the intended focus of the Passover’s remembrance. The flight of the Red Sea, the turning back of the Jordan River, the skipping of the mountains and hills, the trembling of the earth, and the production of water by the rock and flint all testify of the Sovereign might of the God of Jacob.
If the earth—its seas, rivers, mountains, and hills—trembles at the presence of the Lord, shouldn’t I do likewise? Reverence is foundational to acceptable worship.
How blessed is the man who reverently fears the Lord.
