When Israel went out of Egypt.
The workings of the Eternal will
God has a will. He doeth all things after the “counsel of His own will.” The universe is but His will in form and action. It is the primordial, the propelling and presiding force of all forces and motions. The psalm leads us to look at this Eternal will in two aspects--
I. As acting on moral mind. In the deliverance of the Jews from Egyptian bondage, it acted both on the Egyptian mind and on the Hebrew mind.
1. This will acted on the Egyptian mind disastrously. Whose fault was this? Not God’s.
(1) Man can resist the Divine will. Herein is his distinguishing power. This binds him to moral government, and renders him accountable for his conduct.
(2) His resistance is his ruin. To go against the Eternal will is to go against the laws of nature, the current of the universe, the eternal conditions of well-being. Acquiescence to the Divine will is heaven, resistance to the Divine will is hell.
2. This will acted on the Hebrew mind remedially.
(1) It brought Israel out of Egypt,
(2) Into blessed relationship with God.
II. As acting on material nature.
1. Its action on matter is always effective. God has only to will a material phenomenon, and it occurs. “He spake, and it was done.” Nothing in material nature comes between His will and the result purposed. Not so in moral mind.
2. Its action on matter is philosophically exciting (verses 5, 6). The motions of matter are constantly exciting the philosophic inquiry. Would that philosophy would not pause in its inquiries until it traced all the forms and motions of matter to the Eternal will! It was that will that.was now working in the mountains, in the hills, and the rocks.
3. Its action on matter is sometimes terrific (verse 7). (Homilist.)