One of my
favorite preachers, Philip Ryken, says, “The history of salvation, is sometimes
described as a drama - the drama of redemption. However, this drama is actually
a musical. It is impossible,” . . . “It is impossible even to conceive of
Biblical Christianity without songs of praise.” Christianity is a singing
faith. A Christian who doesn’t sing is a contradiction in terms. If salvation
were merely a reward for services rendered on our part to God, if He were simply
giving us our due, quid pro quo - we’re earned it so salvation is ours by right;
- if that were true, well then we might strut and preen in self-congratulatory
pride but we would never sing praises. Salvation would be ours by right; we’ve
earned it. We’ve no one to thank but ourselves for it. God’s salvation demands our song.
“Be filled with the spirit,” Ephesians
5:18-20, “addressing one another in psalms, hymns, and
spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart.” We
are saved by grace through the Lord Jesus Christ; we are recipients of God’s
great redemption. We Sing!
In Exodus 15 Moses praised God as a personal God. Verse 2 -
“The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God
and I will praise him; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.” My God, my
strength, my song, my salvation, my father’s God. . . I am His, He is mine; I
know Him and He knows me. There is intimacy and fellowship here. Because of
Christ we can can say in ways Moses could not, “You are my strength, my song, my
salvation, my God, mine; I am yours. You are mine.” In verse
verse 3, God is praised as a warrior God. This is a
difficult concept for us. Verse 3, “The LORD is a man of war;
the Lord is his name.” Moses had told Israel in verses 13 and 14 of
chapter 14, that God would fight for them, that they had only to be silent and
see the salvation of the Lord. In this passage, as they looked back over the
surging waters of the sea beneath which the Egyptian army had been drowned and
destroyed, they saw that God keeps His Word. He fought for them and triumphed.
The Bible describes God as One Who fights for us. He fights for us and He has
done so supremely and climactically, Colossians
2:15 - at the cross of Jesus
Christ. There the greatest contest of all was entered into by the Lord our God
and there He won the victory, having triumphed over the principalities and
powers, having disarmed them, triumphing over them at the
cross.
Our
whole salvation rests on the truth that our God is a warrior God who fights
for us, to make us His, and to deliver us from all His enemies and our enemies
by the cross of Jesus Christ. Praise God that He is a warrior God,
and praise Him, verse 6, for His mighty power. “Your
right hand, O Lord, glorious in power, your right hand, O Lord, shatters
the enemy.” Down in verse 9 we see the boats of Pharaoh, verse 9, “I will
pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill
of them. I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.”
Pharaoh was confident, but for all his boastful confidence and
self-reliance, we see the sheer effortlessness of God’s response. Verse 10,
“You blew with your wind and the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the
mighty waters.” A puff of God’s breath and the enemy were overthrown. He blew
on them and the mighty power of Egypt was destroyed. Praise God for His mighty
power. The apostle Paul prayed that we would know what is
the immeasurable greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the
working of His great might, which is most fully and clearly and climactically
displayed “that we might know the greatness of His power toward us who believe
according to the working of His great might that He worked in Christ when He
raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in heavenly places.”
Immeasurably great power and great might, seen even more clearly than at the
parting of the Red Sea, were seen when the stone was rolled away and the tomb
found empty, and the crucified, dead, and buried Jesus Christ stood forth risen
in glory forever. Praise God for His power, never more clearly seen than at the
empty tomb.
Moses also praised God for His uniqueness.
Verse 11, “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you,
majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?”. There is no
one like Him. We praise God because only He is God, the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ. There is no other.
God is also praised, verse 13, for His love.
“You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed.” “It is
the steadfast love of the Lord that never ceases; His mercies never come to an
end. They are new every morning. Great is Thy faithfulness!” It is that same
love, that love that redeems a people that reaches its zenith when the Son of
God “loved me and gave Himself for m.,”when God demonstrated His love for us in
this, “that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Again and again we see Moses trace the attributes of
God and the character of God behind the mighty works of God, the more he sees of
God and the more he sings and praises. Prose will not do when the beauty of our
God is clearly seen. Only poetry will work. Only song can give voice to the
heart responding to the glory and greatness and grace of a God who saves by
Jesus Christ. Now He reigns and ever lives.
In Christ,
Brown
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