Psalm 113: Verses 4&6

Verses 4 and 6 of Psalm 113 mirror verses 3&5 in structure, but instead of the Red Sea and the Jordan, the imagery is now of the mountains and hills 'skipping'.

4  Montes exsultavérunt ut aríetes, * et colles sicut agni óvium.
6  Montes, exsultástis sicut aríetes, * et colles, sicut agni óvium.

or in English:

4 The mountains skipped like rams, and the hills like the lambs of the flock. [What ailed you...]

6 You mountains, that you skipped like rams, and you hills, like lambs of the flock?

Lectio

Montes (the mountains) exsultavérunt (they leapt up/exalted) ut (like/as) aríetes (rams) et (and) colles (hills) sicut (like) agni (lambs) óvium (of the sheep/flock)

mons, montis, m., a mountain (mons sanctus = Zion)

exsulto, avi, atum, are ., to spring, leap, or jump up; to exult, to rejoice exceedingly

aries, etis, m., a ram

 collis, is, a hill.

agnus, i, m., a lamb.

ovis, is,  a sheep, flock

Montes (mountains), exsultástis (you skipped) sicut (like) aríetes (rams) et (and) colles (hills), sicut (like) agni (lambs) óvium (of the flock)

Meditatio

Is the reference here to the trembling of the mountains when God gave the law to Moses, or is the psalmist still talking about the parting of the Red Sea and the Jordan, such that the waters towered up like mountains?  The Fathers and saints disagree.

St Robert Bellarmine sees both these sets of verses as referring to the next:

"The mounds of Sinai, that is, its highest points, and the hills of the same mountains, its lower protuberances, were seen to leap, shake, and tremble, like so many frightened sheep and lambs; and, though the word skipping would seem to imply that it proceeded from joy, yet, here it must be interpreted as from fear, because it was on the same account that the mountains skipped as the sea fled; and, in a few verses after, we have, "At the presence of the Lord the earth was moved;" which words imply terror, and go to explain this passage."

Either way, these verses clearly lend themselves to spiritual interpretations.  

Cassiodorus, for example, proposes that:

"Clearly mountains can be interpreted as the apostles and evangelists, or all preachers of the word, for they received the heavenly light earlier than the remainder of the lands. They are rightly called mountains because of the towering peak of their holiness and the most solidly based strength of their faith. They skipped like rams as they performed their works, for they were leading the most faithful flock to the Lord's pens with divine help. Hills denotes the modest height of widespread believers, whose hearts effectively received the seeds of faith; the word colles (hills) gets its name from colere, to worship."

Another suggestion from St Alphonsus Liguroi is that:

"The waters that flee represent sinners; the mountains that exult represent the just; the manifestations of the presence of God terrify some and delight others."

Oratio

In your presence Lord the world trembles in fear; turn our fear though, Lord into joy, as we contemplate your saving action.

Contemplatio

Cassiodorus reminds us that:

"It was the one Creator who made sea and river halt in amazement, and mountains and hills rejoice in their implanted joy."

The psalm so far: 

1  In éxitu Israël de Ægýpto, * domus Jacob de pópulo bárbaro:	When Israel went out of Egypt, the house of Jacob from a barbarous people:
2  Facta est Judæa sanctificátio ejus, * Israël potéstas ejus.	2 Judea was made his sanctuary, Israel his dominion.
3  Mare vidit, et fugit: * Jordánis convérsus est retrórsum.	3 The sea saw and fled: Jordan was turned back.
4  Montes exsultavérunt ut aríetes, * et colles sicut agni óvium.	4 The mountains skipped like rams, and the hills like the lambs of the flock.
5  Quid est tibi, mare, quod fugísti: * et tu, Jordánis, quia convérsus es retrórsum?	5 What ailed you, O you sea, that you fled: and you, O Jordan, that you were turned back?
6  Montes, exsultástis sicut aríetes, * et colles, sicut agni óvium.	6 You mountains, that you skipped like rams, and you hills, like lambs of the flock?
7  A fácie Dómini mota est terra, * a fácie Dei Jacob.	7 At the presence of the Lord the earth was moved, at the presence of the God of Jacob:
8  Qui convértit petram in stagna aquárum, * et rupem in fontes aquárum.	8 Who turned the rock into pools of water, and the stony hill into fountains of waters.

And you can find the next set of notes on Psalm 113 here.