So that is Exodus chapter 15,
and we'll read from verse one. Then sang Moses and the children
of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spake, saying, I will
sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse
and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The Lord is my
strength and song. and He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will prepare
Him an habitation, my Father's God, and I will exalt Him. The Lord is a man of war. The
Lord is His name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host
hath he cast into the sea. His chosen captains also are
drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them.
They sank into the bottom as a stone. Thy right hand, O Lord,
has become glorious in power. Thy right hand, O Lord, hath
dashed in pieces the enemy. And in the greatness of thine
excellency thou hast overthrown them that rose up against thee.
thou sentest forth thy wrath, which consumed them as stubble. And with the blast of thy nostrils
the waters were gathered together, the floods stood upright as an
heap, and the depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. The
enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil,
my lust shall be satisfied upon them, I will draw my sword, my
hand shall destroy them. thou didst blow with thy wind,
the sea covered them, they sank as lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto thee, O Lord,
among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in
holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Thou stretchest
out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them. Thou in thy mercy
hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed, thou hast
guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. The people
shall hear and be afraid. Sorrow shall take hold on the
inhabitants of Palestina. Then the dukes of Edom shall
be amazed. The mighty men of Moab, trembling,
shall take hold upon them. All the inhabitants of Canaan
shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon
them by the greatness of thine arm. They shall be as still as
a stone till thy people pass over. O Lord, till the people
pass over which thou hast purchased. Thou shalt bring them in and
plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance. in the place,
O Lord, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in, in the
sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have established. The Lord
shall reign for ever and ever. For the horse of Pharaoh went
in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and
the Lord brought again the waters of the sea upon them. But the
children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea.
And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel
in her hand. And all the women went out after
her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, Sing
ye to the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously. The horse and his
rider hath he thrown into the sea. Amen. May the Lord bless
to us this reading from his word. The Lord had delivered the children
of Israel from their enemies who had perished in the Red Sea. And there was much occasion,
there was much reason for rejoicing in the camp of Israel. So Moses
said to the people, I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed
gloriously. So they sang together to thank
God for delivering them from the Egyptians. And the song that
they sang was, the Lord is my strength and song, and he has
become my salvation. He is my God, and I will prepare
him an habitation. my father's God, and I will exalt
him. The Lord is a man of war. The
Lord is his name. And some of the hymn repeats
the history of the events of the Red Sea and it's a means
by which there is a record given here of the events that happened
when Pharaoh and his army was lost in the sea and Moses and
the children of Israel were delivered by God. And sometimes we see
that the way in which history is recorded is by use of oral
tradition, as it's called, people passing on stories to one another,
and also in songs that are written which recount and remember the
events of the nation. And here we have an example of
a song being sung, which records the history and the events of
this time. And it's very likely that much
later, or it's certainly at some time later, Moses sat down and
wrote this history. And here he is having sung the
song and having established it in the minds of the people, writing
the book of Exodus and telling us how this record was first
made. People can remember the words
of songs more easily than lists of facts. And we've already spoken
about the destruction of Pharaoh and his army. So we won't think
too much about the history of the events that are recorded
in this song. But I would like to think about
the song itself because I think it's quite interesting. that
we are being introduced to a song and to singing at this stage
in the history of Israel. This song of Moses is the first
song that is recorded in the Bible. Now, there may well have
been, and it's very likely that there was, songs before this. But here the Holy Spirit begins
to show the people of God, both in the Old Testament and those
of us who are New Testament believers, he begins to show, the Holy Spirit
begins to show the people of God how psalms and hymns and
spiritual songs have a place in the worship of God. And we
notice from Moses' song that he sang about salvation. He sang, the Lord is become my
salvation. And I think that's very appropriate
that the very first song that is recorded for us in the word
of God is a song about salvation. A song about the salvation which
God gives to his people. And what a wonderful song it
is and it is a wonderful way to begin the history of singing. The Apostle John tells us people
will be singing about God's salvation for all eternity and the song
of Moses and the song of Christ the Lamb will be songs that continue
to be sung because they are songs about the salvation which God
has accomplished and songs about the Lord Jesus Christ. the one
who has loved us and given himself for us. And divine salvation
by the Lord Jesus Christ is what is in view here, because he is
the one that is spoken of. He is the Lord that is spoken
of. It is the Lord Jesus Christ.
We know his name more fully in New Testament times, but when
we speak about the Lord in the Old Testament, it is also the
Lord Jesus Christ that is being spoken of there. And it's the
salvation by Christ that is the opening and the ending theme
of Christ's people of all ages. And I want us to notice something
else here that I think is very important because Moses uses
this song to tell us who God is and to tell us what God is
like. Moses, you'll remember, was God's
prophet to the people of Israel. God sent Moses not only to be
a leader and to lead them out of Egypt and to lead them into
the wilderness and ultimately back to the land of Canaan, but
he gave Moses to the people of Israel to instruct them about
God and to reveal God to them. so that God spoke to Moses and
Moses spoke to the people and gave the messages and the purposes
and the will of God to the people. And this book that we are reading
from today, this Bible, it contains God's revelation to men and women
and children. boys and girls. And this revelation
that we have today shows how in times past, men and women,
because we read about Miriam here as well and about her singing,
God revealed himself to men and women and gave them the words
that they should speak to the people of God. and he tells them
what he is like. And I think that's important,
and I want us just to pause and remember this. We don't get to
make up things about God. When we speak about God, we're
not speaking about our imagination. We're not speaking about things
that we just make up and think are good and interesting and
might be useful. Our faith, and our beliefs are
always to be grounded, always to be based upon what the Lord
has revealed about himself in the Bible. We call this our Holy
Scriptures. And when we read Moses' words,
We learn about the Lord. We learn about his name. We learn
about his actions. We learn about his will. And
it is as God has revealed himself to men and women in the past
who have recorded it by the direction of the Holy Spirit in the Scriptures,
in the Bible, that we receive and believe what God has revealed
about himself. through his servants, the prophets,
and then lastly, and most especially, through the Lord Jesus Christ,
who came in order to complete our understanding of God and
to tell us all that we need to know about God in this world. The Lord Jesus Christ, of course,
became our saviour. And Moses uses words and phrases
to describe the Lord. like glorious in power, greatness
of excellency and he speaks of wrath, he speaks of fearsomeness,
he speaks of holiness and grace and mercy and of course salvation. And sometimes we might think,
oh, all these words, there are so many words. But in fact, there's
not so very many. There's a number, there's a few.
And as we read the scriptures, as we listen to the word of God
being spoken and being preached, we begin to learn about who God
is. And we begin to learn that he
is all-powerful and he is all-knowing and he is glorious and he is
great. And we also learn that he has
an anger and that he is to be feared because of his holiness
and because of his majesty. The Lord is to be respected,
the Lord is to be revered, the Lord has to be honoured by his
people. But we also learn of mercy, and
love, and grace, and goodness, and long-suffering, or patience. And we learn about these attributes
of God because He has revealed them in His Word. We don't make
these things up. We learn them from the scriptures
and that's what Moses is doing here. He is singing a song that
is speaking about the glory of God and all the great works of
God. He is describing God to the people
and the people are learning about God and learning about the ways
of God and that hasn't changed. We can read the song of Moses
today and all the other prophets and of course the Lord Jesus
Christ and his apostles and we can learn about God, learn about
the way of salvation, learn about what God has done for us in this
world and that is what we believe. And it's important to know this. If someone says, well, this is
what my idea, or this is what I think
God is like, we should ask the question, where does it say that
in the Bible? If somebody says, this is what
God has done, or this is what God has said, or this is who
God is, we say, show me where that is in the Bible. And even
if the person is a minister or a preacher, we should always
be ready to find the truth of what such a person says, by having
it shown to us from the Bible, because it is the Bible that
is to be what we believe. It is the scriptures that are
our authority for believing. If someone says to us, oh, well,
I've got a different religion, I believe a different holy book
than you do, and my scriptures say different things, Well, let
you and I remember what Moses said in this little song. He
said, who is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in
holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? The God of the
Bible is the one true God. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
three persons, one God, and our saviour is the incomparable Christ. So when we think about the scriptures,
we see them as the revelation that God has given us of himself,
of his works, of his ways, and most importantly, of his way
of salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ. And here's something
else that I want us to just note as we pass this song by. Let
us not forget to praise and thank God for his goodness and for
all his help and for all his provision to us. That's what
Moses was doing here. He was remembering after the
Lord had saved the people to return and thank God for what
he had done. Praise and thanksgiving is an
important part of our worship and when we come together we
are to praise God and we are to thank God for his goodness. And sure it is, we ask the Lord
for a lot of things because we very often feel our need and
that's right and that's good. The Lord wants us to ask for
His help. The Lord delights to do His people
good and He encourages us to ask for His help. But let us
not forget to thank Him for His help. Let us not be an ungrateful
people. Let us remember to say, thank
you, Lord. Probably that's one of the first
lessons that our mothers ever taught us, that we should say
thank you. to those who do us good. And we should remember that lesson
when it comes to the Lord. Let us thank the Lord for his
goodness. And I want us to note that the
gratitude and praise that was given by Moses, it wasn't a formal
demand like some kind of law or set of rules that had to be
obeyed. Let us just notice this. There
was something spontaneous about this Song of Moses. It was free
and it was natural because the people had personally experienced
the Lord's deliverance and salvation. And that's what true worship
is. True worship is from the heart
because we have personally discovered the experience of salvation. That's the joy of the Lord. The children of Israel saw their
enemies dead on the shoreline and they thanked God for his
great salvation. It was almost just a natural
thing for them to do. There was an outpouring of gratitude
and praise to God. They saw the miraculous power
of God. They saw that power in the walls of water and their
safe passage through the sea and the praise bubbled up inside
them and it burst out in songs of praise and worship. They saw
that they had been completely helpless. There was no way of
escape. They had mountains to each side.
They had the sea before them. They had the Egyptian army behind
them. They were trapped. And then the
Lord opened up that way of escape, that way of salvation. They were lost. They were trapped.
They were facing death. But the Lord came and delivered
them from all their trouble. And their worship was genuine
and heartfelt. In fact, no one had to tell them
to do it. They just did it. And that's
true evangelical religion of the heart. We might even say
they couldn't help themselves. They just thanked the Lord that
he had brought them through the sea. They couldn't help praising
and worshipping the Lord. And that's exactly what faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ is. When the Lord opens our understanding
to see spiritual truths and what wonderful things the Lord Jesus
Christ has done for us on the cross, He has defeated our enemies
just as He defeated Pharaoh long ago. He has delivered our lives
just as He delivered the lives of the children of Israel long
ago. He has saved our souls. He has
brought us safe to the other side. He has brought us into
a peaceful relationship with God and we cannot help but praise
Him. Worship isn't hard and bothersome
for the people of God. It's spontaneous and free and
joyful. It is thanking and honouring
the Lord who has loved us and saved us and given himself for
us. The enemy of the children of
Israel was Pharaoh and his armies. The enemies of the people of
God are the world and the flesh and the devil. And we discover
that we have broken God's law, we have offended his holiness,
we've rebelled against his glory. And the world and the flesh and
the devil trap us in a state where we cannot help ourselves.
but the Lord Jesus Christ has upheld and fulfilled God's law
for his people. He has satisfied God's offended
justice. The Lord Jesus Christ has honoured
God's holiness with perfect obedience. The Lord Jesus Christ has paid
the price of our sin and redeemed us from the law's curse by becoming
a curse for us and dying in our place. The Lord Jesus Christ
has reconciled us to God and is for us a way of salvation
and life just as he was for the children of Israel long ago.
He has given us eternal life and he has promised to take us
to our home in heaven. When by faith these things are
seen to be true and we see the Lord Jesus Christ to be our great
and worthy Saviour, it is our joy and delight to sing songs
of praise and worship to Him. and we join with the Old Testament
saints and with the New Testament saints and with all the justified
and sanctified people of God in every age to sing the song
of Moses, to sing the song of salvation by grace and mercy
and the goodness of God. And here's just a final wee note.
We see Miriam at the end of this little passage, and she is engaging
in worship too. And it's delightful to see this
blessed lady leading and serving in the worship of God. She took
a timbrel, a musical instrument, and she worshipped the Lord in
the dance. But her praise was exactly the
same as that of Moses. We may worship in different ways,
but the object and the content of all true gospel worship is
thanking the Lord for his great salvation. May the Lord bless
these thoughts to us and to our hearts today. Thank you for listening.