Psa. 109 and 110 having brought in the rejection of Messiah by the Jews, and His exaltation to the right hand of Jehovah, and so judgment on Antichrist, or at least "the head over a great country," on account of His humiliation (it may possibly mean, and more probably, Israel's after enemies, not Antichrist), then the relation of Jehovah and Israel, and what is connected with it—this Psalm begins the application and effect of this to the earth, the effect of the presence of Israel's God. It recalls to the earth, to what happened when Israel was first delivered by Him. But Israel was now brought back to refer to God—their souls were in communion with Him, and their minds were so full of Jehovah Elohim, that they say "Him" without mentioning Him. They know Him as their God, and conceal His name, as it were in a sort of secret triumph, as belonging to themselves, and put forth only His works until, having stated them, it calls upon them to triumph before Him, the God of Jacob.
There is great beauty and natural power in the structure of this Psalm. Of old time this was the case—Israel went out of Egypt, Judah was His sanctuary, and Israel His dominion. What happened? How did nature quail before Him, before this power in Israel, before Israel coming forth! What ailed the Sea and the Mountains? Tremble then now at the presence of Jehovah the God of Jacob! What joy for Israel! It was the earth, for in Jacob He is on the earth, and when Jacob says "Tremble," he still remembers that to him He was a God of grace—"He turned the rock into a standing water."
This is a splendid Psalm of memorial to Jacob and summons to the world on the reassumption of it by the Lord Jehovah. There were old times of deep distress, when Israel was a bondslave in an enemy's land, owned of none, but Judah was His sanctuary and Israel His dominion—now scattered and separated, the staff of bands long broken in the eyes of the peoples and the poor of the flock. The sea saw that and fled, Jordan was driven back, the mountains and hills skipped like rams, and lambs (b'ney-tzon), before Jacob, His dominion, His sanctuary. How beautiful is the concealment of Jehovah behind His people, and when brought forward! "Tremble thou earth at the presence of Jehovah." "What is all this, this skipping of the mountains—this astonishment of the waters?" "Where is Jacob?" "Who is he?" The presence of Jehovah is with Jacob—tremble at the presence of Jehovah, at the presence of the God of Jacob, who has power over the creature to turn it to His purpose, as He did in the wilderness, and turn the rock and the flint (and such too was Israel) into pools and streams of water.