Throughout the Lenten season we will be singing a new setting of Psalm 114. The rather short psalm includes some striking and unusual language, describing the mountains in the wilderness as “skipping rams” (vss. 4, 6) and directly questioning the sea and the Jordan river, “What ails you, that you flee?” (vs. 5). The musical setting MORGANS STEEP attempts to capture some of these unusual features in the poetry: the verses all end mid-sentence and without a solid musical resolution, as if searching for an answer that only comes with the Chorus. Who could tell the mountaintops to dance and skip? The Lord, who makes the very earth tremble and who can make water spring out of the desert for His people. The context here is a poetic description of the Exodus story—in fact, Psalm 114 is one of three psalms traditionally read during the Jewish Passover celebrations—but it’s placement near the end of the book of psalms suggests a prophetic hope for return from the Babylonian exile as well. We can also read this in light of its messianic fulfillment, as Christ, the greater Moses, led His people out of slavery to sin and death. In this time of year when we typically meditate on Jesus’ death on the cross to set His people free from bondage, I hope you find it fitting that we sing one of the psalms that Jesus Himself most likely sang on the night He was betrayed.
—Henry C. Haffner
