In 1 Corinthians 1:31, Paul quoted from Jeremiah 9:23-24, commenting that the prophecy had been fulfilled in Christ, “…let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.” Some have wondered, “How can a person boast in the Lord? What would that even sound like?” The Scriptures have provided us an example of such boasting through Psalm 114.
Psalm 114 is a psalm that boasts of the great works God performed when He brought Israel out of Egypt. Read the psalm and consider how these boasts are bringing glory to God:
Psalm 114
When Israel went forth from Egypt,
The house of Jacob from a people of strange language,
Judah became His sanctuary,
Israel, His dominion.
The sea looked and fled; The Jordan turned back. The mountains skipped like rams, The hills, like lambs.
What ails you, O sea, that you flee? O Jordan, that you turn back? O mountains, that you skip like rams? O hills, like lambs? Tremble, O earth, before the Lord, Before the God of Jacob, Who turned the rock into a pool of water, The flint into a fountain of water.
The psalmist recalls God’s deliverance and notes some of His triumphs: the crossing of the Red Sea out of Egypt, the crossing of the Jordan into Canaan, and the water brought from a rock on two occasions in the wilderness. From Egypt to Canaan, God’s might and power saved Israel and defeated their enemies.
As the psalmist considers God’s victories, he mocks the waters and the mountains, asking sarcastically, “What’s wrong?” In the final section of the psalm, the implication of the boast is that even after all this, God’s power is not spent. He is ready and able to continue His streak of victory over the enemies of the faithful.
Through Jesus, God is victorious over every enemy, even death, and He shares that victory with the faithful. Go and boast excitedly about the triumphant God we serve!