Actions sometimes speak louder than words. This is true of God as well as of men and women. Like God, we show our love for one another by our deeds more than our words.

God showed His love to Israel by mighty deeds of salvation. He set them free from physical slavery to the tyrant Pharaoh. He commanded plagues in Egypt, and wind and water on the Red Sea.

God also saved you and me from our slavery to the tyrants sin, death, and the devil. On that day of our salvation when Jesus died, God commanded the sun to stop shining, the earth to quake, and a curtain to be torn (Matthew 27:45–51). On both these great occasions, God’s creation bowed before Him and served His plans to save His people. These are the glorious works of God that Psalm 114 celebrates.

Psalm 114 is a natural sequel to Psalm 113. Psalm 113 praised God because He “raises the poor from the dust” (v. 7). Psalm 114 praises God for how He did this for His people when they were in their most dire and desperate condition. Verses 1–2 locate the events of the psalm in Israel’s exodus from Egypt. Interestingly, the psalm doesn’t say that God put Israel in or near His sanctuary; Judah became God’s sanctuary (v. 2). One of the most wonderful fruits of our salvation is that God has made us His temple, or His sanctuary. We dwell with God, and He lives in us by His Spirit. Jesus said, “Remain in me, as I also remain in you” (John 15:4). There is no greater picture than this of the intimacy we share with the “One who sits enthroned on high” (Psalm 113:5).

In Psalm 114:3–6, the psalmist personifies the sea and the mountains. So awesome are the saving works of God, that these elements run away in terror. The apostle John paints the same picture when God judges and saves at the end of the age: “The earth and the heavens fled from his presence” (Revelation 20:11). The psalmist also speaks to the sea and mountains as if these events have just happened (Psalm 114:5-8). For him, and for us, “today” is still the day of our salvation. Each day, God’s mighty deeds are a constant and ever-relevant reality for us, even if He performed those deeds a long time ago.

Finally, the psalmist remembers how God then provided for all the needs of the people He had saved (vv. 7–8). Literally, God has moved heaven and earth to rescue us and bring us to himself. We may never see the sea parted, the mountain shaken, or the rock split. But if God could do these “big”’ things for His people, we can trust Him to perform the little everyday miracles to “meet all [our] needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:19).