YouTube video sermon
Exodus 15:1-22
Let me invite you to take your copy of God’s Word and turn with me to Exodus 15. Last week, I mentioned that Exodus 14 & 15 basically tell the same story – the story of the crossing of the Red Sea, and God’s redemption and rescue of the Israelites. Exodus 14 is the narrative or “fact-based” telling of the story, and Exodus 15 is the poetic or “musically-based” version. The details of the story don’t change, but the way that those details are conveyed is dramatically different. Well, today we’re looking at the musical/poetic version.
Before we read the text, however, let me just give you a little word about Hebrew poetry? Hebrew poetry wasn’t built around rhyming words but rather around rhyming thoughts. It’s called parallelism. Most of the poetry that we grew up with sounded like this: “Jack and Jill went up the hill to fetch a pail of water.” There’s this cadence and this rhyming of words that we’re familiar with. But, in Hebrew, they would rhyme thoughts or contrast thoughts.
Follow me here, there’s something called synthetic of synonymous parallelism. It’s where you state a thought, and then you state another thought that sounds like the first one but just a little different. It’s rhyming the thought. For example, I might say, “Mountain Hill is the most amazing church”, and then follow that up by saying, “Of all the churches I know, Mountain Hill is the most amazing.” Those statements are essentially the same, but they’re stated differently and the second one had a little qualifier added to it. By adding that little phrase, I’ve actually intensified the statement. That’s how Hebrew poetry works. Hopefully, that will help you to appreciate these verses and the song that Moses wrote. Let’s read it (shall we?).
1 Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD, saying,
“I will sing to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider He has thrown into the sea. 2 The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise Him, my father’s God, and I will exalt Him. 3 The LORD is a man of war; the LORD is His Name.
4 “Pharaoh’s chariots and his host He cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. 5 The floods covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone. 6 Your right hand, O LORD, glorious in power, Your right hand, O LORD, shatters the enemy. 7 In the greatness of Your majesty You overthrow Your adversaries; You send out Your fury; it consumes them like stubble. 8 At the blast of Your nostrils the waters piled up; the floods stood up in a heap; the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea. 9 The enemy said, ‘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.’ 10 You blew with Your wind; the sea covered them; they sank like lead in the mighty waters.
11 “Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? 12 You stretched out Your right hand; the earth swallowed them.
13 “You have led in Your steadfast love the people whom You have redeemed; You have guided them by Your strength to Your holy abode. 14 The peoples have heard; they tremble; pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia. 15 Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed; trembling seizes the leaders of Moab; all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. 16 Terror and dread fall upon them; because of the greatness of Your arm, they are still as a stone, till Your people, O LORD, pass by, till the people pass by whom You have purchased. 17 You will bring them in and plant them on Your own mountain, the place, O LORD, which You have made for Your abode, the sanctuary, O LORD, which Your hands have established. 18 The LORD will reign forever and ever.”
19 For when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the LORD brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea. 20 Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. 21 And Miriam sang to them: “Sing to the LORD, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider He has thrown into the sea.”
“Father, we bow now humbly and ask that the Spirit of God will open up to us the truth of the Bible and that the Spirit of God will open up our hearts to receive that truth. To the glory of your Son’s name we pray. Amen.”
As we were finishing up, last Sunday, I mentioned that this is the very first song recorded for us in the Bible. And because of that I want us to see what this song has to teach us about worship. Unlike my usual outline of three points, today’s sermon has eight, which means the points are shorter and I have to move quicker.
Worship Is Response
Notice the first word of verse 1. What is it? (Then.) When is “then,” – after God delivered them. Right? After God opened up the Red Sea and after the Red Sea swallowed up the enemies of Israel, then they sang this song.
Now remember, when they were in Egypt they had no song. They only had sighing. They had groaning. They had crying. They weren’t singing any songs of worship. Back in chapter 2 we read, “During those many days the king of Egypt died, and the people of Israel groaned because of their slavery and cried out for help. Their cry for rescue from slavery came up to God. And God heard their groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob” (Exodus 2:23-24). Sighing, crying, and groaning: those were the marks of Israel in Egypt. But God delivered them and then they sang. God turned their sighing into singing. So, the first thing we notice is that singing was their response to God’s deliverance.
The Prophet Isaiah said, “O LORD, You are my God; I will exalt You; I will praise Your name, (why?) for You have done wonderful things, plans formed of old, faithful and sure” (Isaiah 25:1). Worship is the proper response of our hearts toward God. Even Jesus said, “The first and greatest commandment is this, that you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, all of your mind, all of your soul, all of your strength” (Mark 12:30). That’s true worship.
That means God comes before hobbies, before recreation, before television, before sports, before your children, God is number one. But let’s be honest; why shouldn’t we, after all, God already knows the thoughts and intentions of our hearts (Psalm 94:11; Matthew 9:4). Look, if this wasn’t Sunday morning at 11AM, and I was talking to you on any other day of the week and said, “Would you rather go with me to a worship service or play golf, what would you choose?” Most would choose golf. (Well, maybe not, I’m not a very good golfer. You might choose worship.) If you were given the option between attending a worship service or watching your favorite movie, most would choose the movie. Worship or fishing? I know what I’m choosing. (Fishing)
Worship is the natural response of people who know what God has done for them – redeemed them, rescued them, loved them, forgave them, provided for them. God has done so much for us, and is PRESENTLY doing so much for us, that our immediate and natural response should always be to worship Him.
Worship Is Focused
The second characteristic of worship is that it’s focused. Look back at verse 2, “The LORD is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. He is my God and I will praise Him. My father’s God and I will exalt Him.” Worship is all about God; and more specifically, it’s all about Jesus. This is the third week in a row that we’ve seen that. It’s all about Him. It’s all for His glory. It’s all about the Lord. If you just run your finger back over this song of Moses, and count the number of times that you see the name LORD, you’ll discover that it’s mentioned 14 times in 21 verses.
It’s interesting to me that in the actual event of the Red Sea crossing the instrument that God uses is Moses. Moses was the representative of God. God said “Moses stretch out your hands, stretch out your rod over the sea” and Moses did (Exodus 14:16, 26, paraphrased). From a human perspective, Moses was the one doing the activity, yet Moses is never mentioned in this song. You might say, “Well, that’s because Moses wrote the song and he’s being humble.” No, Moses knows that true worship is all about God. It’s theocentric. It’s God-centered, not man-centered.
Moses is the instrument, but you don’t worship the instrument, you worship God. God is the One who used the instrument to bring about the blessing. So, you worship God for the medicine, but you don’t worship the medicine. You worship God for the doctor, but you don’t worship the doctor. You worship God for the job or the paycheck, but you don’t worship the boss or the company. You worship God for the pastor, but please, please, please (I beg of you) never worship the pastor (especially this one).
Do me a favor. Look at the titles of the hymns and worship songs that we’re singing today. “Praise Him! Praise Him!” “We Praise Thee, O God, Our Redeemer.” “Holy, Holy, Holy! Lord God Almighty.” “God of the Promise.” “Turn Your Eyes.” Contrary to what some might think, Ray doesn’t just close his eyes and flip through the hymnal and pick the first song he stops on (do you?). No. I know he doesn’t do that. We’ve discussed his worship philosophy. Ray approaches each service with prayer and submission to the movement of the Holy Spirit. And thus, our worship is God-centered. We’re telling Him that He’s awesome. We’re telling Him that we love Him and why?
The late Dr. D. James Kennedy said, “Most people think of the church as a drama with the minister as the chief actor and God as the prompter and the laity [congregation] as the critic. What is actually the case is the congregation is the chief actor. The minister is the prompter and God is the critic.“ So, it’s all for the Lord. Moses focused everything on God. Related to this, but distinct from it is our third characteristic of worship.
Worship Is Exclusive
True worship is the worship of the one true God. Notice verse 11, “Who is like You, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?” Do you remember some of the gods of Egypt? We talked about them during the plagues. There was Amun-Ra, the sun god. There was Heca or Hecit, the frog goddess. There was Wadjet a god that was depicted as a serpent (remember Moses throwing down his staff?). There was Hapi the god of the Nile. There was Apis the god of strength, depicted as a bull. We’re going to run into his influence when the Israelites fashion a golden calf.
Those were the gods of Egypt. What Moses is saying in verse 11 is that all of those gods and goddesses combined can’t even hold a candle to the true and living God. That’s true worship. It’s very exclusive. “Who is like You O God?” (Answer: nobody) That’s probably the biggest reason people don’t like Christianity, because it’s exclusive. “I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me” (John 14:6).
Here’s the principle. God doesn’t want any competition. And, do you know why? Because there is no competition. All the other gods and goddess are false. They’re fake. They’re not real. They’re concocted by men and women. Just read the first chapter of Romans. God is very exclusive, and He makes no apologies when He says, “The LORD your God is a jealous God” (Exodus 20:5, Deuteronomy 4:24). Some people hear that and say, “I can’t believe God says He’s jealous.”
Let me ask you; have you ever loved somebody? If you genuinely love somebody there’s going to be a godly, holy, righteous jealousy – that protective kind of love that says, “I will not share my wife/husband with anyone else.” The Bible refers to Christians and the Church as the Bride of Christ and Jesus as the bridegroom. Our singular devotion, our singular worship should be to the Lord. He wants no substitutes. He doesn’t want you to worship anything or anyone else but Him – not angels, not the virgin Mary, not the Apostle Paul, not Peter, and again, certainly not your pastor. Worship is exclusive, which leads to characteristic number four.
Worship Is Relational
If God is the Redeemer, then the people that He buys back are the redeemed. If He is the Lord (and He should be), then we are His servants. True worship is a relationship. Lord, servant, redeemer, redeemed. Verses 13-18 speak of God’s people in contrast to the
other peoples around them, and it’s clear there’s a relationship there.
Here’s the deal. I don’t exactly know how to say it, but you can tell someone that genuinely knows the Lord Jesus Christ. They don’t get clammy when you ask about Him. They don’t stutter and stammer. They’re happy to discuss the Bible and the stories that have impacted them (and why). Many times, though not always, they’re eager to pray in front of other people. Why? Because they know their heavenly Father. They talk to Him regularly. They aren’t searching for churchy words. They aren’t afraid of saying the wrong thing. They may not know all of the theological words and language, but you can just tell that they have a real relationship with Jesus.
God says to Israel “You’re mine. Yes, I made you but I have also redeemed you with all of those plagues, all of those judgments and this Red Sea episode. You’re mine because I bought you.” And that’s the relationship that we have in worship with God. The Apostle Paul would put it like this, “you are not your own, for you were bought with a price” (1 Corinthians 6:20).
So that’s the song. There are more principles of worship, but the song is technically done. Verse 20 formally introduces us to Moses’ sister Miriam. We were first introduced to her in chapter 2, when Moses was floated down the Nile. Remember that? But we aren’t given her name until right now. And we’re also told that she’s a prophetess. It’s also the first time the word “prophetess” is given to somebody, and it’s given to Miriam.
We’re told that Miriam took the tambourine in her hand and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dances. Now, there is a dear sister in the Lord that lives here on the mountain – a friend to many of us – and I cannot read this without thinking of my sister in the faith, Fifi Smith. For those of you that don’t know Fifi, you’ll know her when you meet her because she’ll be dancing a playing a tambourine. Lord bless her. But notice what Miriam said, “Sing to the LORD for He is triumphed gloriously, the horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea.” And that introduces us to the fifth characteristic of worship.
Worship Is Vocal
Verse 1 says the same thing – sing to the Lord. The bible never tells God’s people to sing perfectly, nor does it say to sing harmoniously. In fact, the Bible doesn’t even say to sing joyfully – not explicitly anyway. What the Bible does say is for us to make a joyful noise. The question isn’t do you have a voice, and can you sing well? The real question is do you have a song in your heart? If you’re a Christian, you should have a song in your heart and worship should be a happy experience. Even if you don’t “feel like it,” God is still worthy whether we feel like it or not. He’s still good whether we feel like it or not. So, tell Him. “Ascribe to the LORD the glory due His name” (1 Chronicles 16:29). Closely related but, again, distinct from it is number six…
Worship Is Musical
Music has always been a part of worship – from the Old Testament through the New Testament. I know there’s controversy in some churches about musical instruments vs. a cappella. I’m not going to get into that. Honestly, I think it’s a lame argument and easily overthrown. I’m just going to say that worship music has always been a part of God’s people giving Him praise and glory. And if you read the Old Testament and the moving of the Ark of the Covenant, or certain battles, or feast days, or in the temple of Jerusalem where the choirs of David and the Levites and the musicians lead the people in worship, you’ll discovery that Psalm 150 says, “Praise Him with the sound of the trumpet, praise Him with stringed instruments and flutes, praise Him with loud cymbals, praise Him with clashing cymbals.” All of those are musical instruments.
One of my favorite quotes on music, though I don’t agree with everything Martin Luther said was this, “Next to theology I give to music the highest place in honor. Music is the art of the prophets and the only art that can claim the agitations of the soul. It is one of the most magnificent and delightful presents that God has given us. If any man despises music, for him I have no liking. For music is a gift and grace from God not the invention of man.” So, worship
is musical. Naturally, that leads to the seventh characteristic.
Worship Is Physical
It includes the body. 1 Timothy 2:8 says, “I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands without anger or quarreling.” I know that some of you lift your hands in worship, but many of us don’t. I don’t see this verse, by Paul, as a mandate, nor do I see it as a restriction. It’s just one of the physical responses to God, because when you lift up hands it’s a welcome sign (of sorts). It’s a sign of surrender. Like in the movies, they hold the gun up to you and say “Put your hands up,” because when your hands are up you can’t be preoccupied with anything else. You can’t be texting a friend or calling the police. You can’t be searching for a gun. You’re in a position of surrender.
But also notice that they’re dancing. Now that brings up a question, particularly for an earlier generation, “Can Christians dance?” I’ve had people asked me that. Here’s my typical response, “Well, some can and some can’t.” For example, I can’t dance. I was given many gifts and talents but dancing wasn’t one of them. By the way, most of what passes as dancing today is not biblical and it’s certainly not God-honoring. But technically speaking, yes, Christians can dance, and it can be a way of worship.
Enough said on that. Here’s the point, the reason worship is physical is because it can’t be passive. Again, think about genuine love. Love between a husband/wife. True love has to be demonstrated. It has to be active. Listen, I guarantee you if a husband asked his wife or a guy asked his girlfriend to marry him to become his wife, and they just said “Honey, I love you. I’m never going to say it to you again. You just need to believe me this one time.” If that’s what he said and did, and he never demonstrated it in any acts of kindness or servitude, it would be a very miserable marriage. True love is never passive. It’s active and it involves the body.
Whether it’s dancing before the Lord, or raising holy hands, or kneeling, or bowing down, or standing – all of which are recorded in the Psalms – they’re all physical responses in worship. And that brings us to the eight and final characteristic of worship (at least for today)…
Worship Is Timeless
You remember when Jesus meets the woman at the well (in John 4)? Jesus came and engaged in a conversation with her, and in order to get Jesus to stop inquiring about her romantic relationships she started talking about worship. Remember that? She said “Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but You say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship. Jesus said to her, ‘Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him’” (John 4:20-21, 23).
Worship doesn’t have to include all of these characteristics, but it certainly isn’t less than this. The way I figure it is like this: How you worship publicly is determined in large part by how you worship privately. If you’re not a private worshiper, if you never worship on your own before God, then chances are you’re going to come to church and say “Okay, whatever I don’t get it I’ll let them sing and I’ll just sort of watch.” If worship isn’t a part of the fabric of your daily life, then that’s how you’ll view it. “Ho hum. Whatever.” But, if the pump is already primed and you’re engaging in honest conversation with the Lord through prayer, if you’re responding to God in the ways that He moves in your life, if you’re singing and making music in your heart, if you’re giving everything to Him and Him alone, then when you get together it’s like unloosing the dam. The faucet is just turned on and it’s just a continuation of what is always been going on in your heart.
We’re getting ready to come to the Lord’s Table – another physical, vocal, response to what God has done for us – but it’s also a demonstration of a relationship. So, as our deacons make their way forward and as Ray begins to play, I just want to ask you: Have you personally come to a place in your life where you’ve surrendered your heart, soul, mind and body to the lordship of Jesus Christ? If not, I want to give you that opportunity as we close. Let’s pray:
“Father as we move our attention to Your Table, we open our hearts to you. We thank you for the things we’ve learned. Many of these things we’re already familiar with, they’ve just been reinforced by reading this chapter, especially the nature of coming in contact with the true and living God. It just makes sense that if we know You – the one, true and living God – that our worship will be true and living as well. It will reflect the God that we know, the Redeemer that we serve, and the Savior that we worship. Lord, there may be some here today, who are still very thirsty. They find themselves in a wilderness where there’s no water. They’ve tried the wells of this world but they’ve come up empty. As surely as I’m speaking to them now, may they hear Jesus say, “If any man is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’” (John 7:37-38).”