Knowing God 09—God's Song—Exodus 15:1-21

November 19, 2023 Nate Holdridge

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.

16a Terror and dread fall upon them; because of the greatness of your arm, they are still as a stone,

16b 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.” (Exodus 15:1–21, ESV)

What we have here is a story brought to a screeching halt by a song. Exodus is mostly written in narrative form, so this lyrical passage immediately stands out in stark contrast to all that has preceded it. This song is written in the style of Hebrew poetry, and even though we are reading and studying its English translation, its beauty still breaks through today.

The contents of the song are a call back to the events at the Red Sea (Exodus 14). It is a song of celebration and praise in response to the amazing events God performed there. Israel gathered on the shoreline and realized their tormenters had been totally disarmed. They no longer had to wonder if another genocidal edict was going to destroy their homes! They never again had to bake another brick for another pyramid! The whips and cords of their tyrannizers were retired. Israel was free!

So Moses and his sister Mariam put lyrics and music together to lead all the people in this song. We can't say for certain how it made it into its final form. Did the entire nation break out into a LaLa Land or Barbie movie-style song, like they were in a musical—Exodus: Battle of the Gods, now on Broadway? Or did Miriam produce the chorus while everyone crossed over, developing the song more fully for future generations? Was this completely extemporaneous? Or was this the result of a careful songwriting summit between Moses and Miriam? We don't know, and it doesn't matter. Either way, God inspired it, and Israel sang it for thousands of years.

And the song—like most psalms in Scripture—is an invitation to everyone, including us, to sing along with them. As readers, the song's presence encourages us to participate in the joy of the Israelites. We are invited to meditate on their victory as a way to celebrate ours. We are invited to consider Yahweh's interactions with his people back then as a way to praise him for his work today.

And that is what we will do with this song today; we will consider four wonderful truths about our God that, if we embrace and ingest them, will dramatically transform our lives.

But why focus on four truths about Yahweh God? There are dozens of wonderful lines of Hebrew parallelism in this song that are worthy of their own sermon. The reason I've selected four truths is that the song is organized in four parts. We know this because each part starts with a repeated line and ends with a reference to a stone. Let me show you:

Section 1 Repeated Line: Israel sang this song to the Lord and I will sing to the Lord (1).
Section 1 Closing "Stone" Line: They went down to the depths like a stone (5).

Section 2 Repeated Line: Your right hand, O Lord (6).
Section 2 Closing "Stone" Line: They sank like lead in the mighty waters (10).

Section 3 Repeated Line: Who is like you? (11).
Section 3 Closing "Stone" Line: Dread fell upon them...they are still as a stone" (16).

Section 4 Repeated Line: Till your people pass by (16).
Section 4 Closing "Stone" Line: ???

Looking at these four parts can help us appreciate Yahweh more, so let's consider each today.

1. Yahweh is Worthy of Worship and Praise. (1-5)

In the first movement of the song, they considered that Yahweh is worthy of worship and praise. Moses and the people started the song with a commitment: I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously (1). God had put a new song in them, and they would not suppress it. His actions had so moved them that not only did they have a song to sing him, but they said, "The Lord is my strength and my song" (2). Through the events of the Red Sea, God had become their song.

And what were those events? The opening of the song is like the rest of the song; they don't mention the plagues much, if at all. The whole song is about the final salvation God won for them by defeating Pharaoh's armies in the waters of the Red Sea (4-5). Pharaoh and his chariots—which, in their day, were the most advanced military weapons, like modern day fighter jets—were cast into the sea (4). His chosen officers...went down into the depths like a stone (4-5).

That event had taught them all about God. Remember, in the closing pages of Genesis, God is involved with the people of Israel, but they were only a family of around seventy people. Four hundred years have elapsed. Who is Yahweh? Who was he to them? Through the Red Sea, they realized his true identity: "This is my God...my father's God...a man of war; the Lord is his name" (2-3).

So, this song is a response to salvation. Because God saved them, they would sing to him. They considered him worthy of worship and praise. After trudging in the dark through the chaotic waters, tumultuous winds, and dry ground of the Red Sea, the Hebrews paused. What just happened? What did we just witness? And as Egyptian soldiers washed up onto the shore, they realized that God had just gone to war with Pharaoh's armies. So Israel responded in the best way they knew how. Mere words could not express their feelings. They were overwhelmed. So they sang: We now know Yahweh, the Lord. The Lord is a man of war; the Lord is his name (4).

And our Lord is still a man of war. He saw the battered masses enslaved to the elements of this world, living dead in trespasses and sins. He would not sit still. Before you or I ever emulated the enslaved Hebrews and cried for deliverance, God raised up a deliverer. From the foundation of the world, Christ was slain for us (Rev. 13:8).

Better than Moses, Christ came. He did not raise his wooden staff but was raised to a wooden cross. He did not sacrifice lambs; he is the sacrificial Lamb. He did not rain down plagues, but the plague rained down on him.

But the dark night of his death—the true death of the firstborn—brought his resurrection. He was brought through the burial waters so that he might bring us through the burial waters. He died for sin so that we might die to sin. He rose so that we might rise.

When there was no way, when we were dead and trapped and paralyzed and destined to darkness forever, he arrived. He lifted his voice and said, "Be still and know that I am God. I will make a way where there is no way." He came out of his grave and provided the path to resurrection life for all who trust him. The waters have parted. New life and freedom are ours.

And because of this, over and over again, we sing. We sing because of the salvation our Lord won for us. He is worthy of our worship and praise. As long as Israel kept the worship of Yahweh at their center, they thrived as a people, but whenever they drifted, they suffered.

Watch out for worship drift! It happens when our radical Red Sea moment of salvation becomes a blurred memory rather than a lived reality. So, how can we keep our redemption road fresh?

We must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, lest we drift away from it. (Hebrews 2:1)

And what is one way we can pay closer attention to our "great salvation" (Heb. 2:3)? By rehearsing and singing about how God threw all the pharaohs and chariots of sin and death that pursued us into the sea. With that victory in mind, we remember afresh that God is worthy of our worship and praise.

2. Yahweh is Almighty, the All-Powerful God. (6-10)

In the second movement of the song, they praised Yahweh as the almighty, all-powerful God. The repeated phrase that kicks off this point is a mention of God's right hand (6). Since the right hand is most people's dominant one, in the Bible, the right hand speaks of someone's power.[^1] They might have a weak right hand or a powerful right hand, but their right hand (or right arm) was considered the pinnacle of their strength. As these Hebrews sang about Yahweh, they said his right hand was glorious in power and shatters the enemy (6).

They went on to say that his almighty power and great majesty overthrew his adversaries, consuming them like a fire easily consumes dry straw (stubble, 7). And how had God piled up the waters of the Red Sea? With the blast of his nostrils—Yahweh is so strong he can destroy the most advanced military on the face of the earth by blowing his nose (8-10). As easy as we exhale, God dropped his game-over move. Because the enemy would not stop chasing the Hebrews, God made them sink like lead in the mighty waters (9-10).

This portion of the song is reminiscent of a few different post-victory songs in the Bible. Usually, right before these songs is a story. The story right before this song is the Red Sea episode. But other stories with a post-victory song would be the story of Barak and Deborah's defeat of Sisera (Judges 4-5), Samuel's birth to Hannah (1 Sam. 1-2), David's defeat of Goliath (1 Sam. 17-18), David's whole life and reign in Israel (2 Sam. 22, Ps. 18), Gabriel's promise that Mary would give birth to the Savior (Luke 1), and John the Baptist's birth to aged parents (Luke 1).

And all these songs point forward to the ultimate songs of victory when Christ's kingdom comes in full. At that time, at least one intensely persecuted segment of the church will "sing the song of Moses, the servant of God" (Rev. 15:3-4). And all of us will, with "the loud voice of a great multitude from heaven," cry out:

“Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged...” (Revelation 19:1–2, ESV)

The fascinating thing about this thread of post-victory songs needling its way throughout the Bible is that it makes an altogether different song possible—the pre-victory song. This type of song is found in places like Acts 16 when Paul and his ministry team went to Philippi. Things went well at first, but soon, Paul and Silas were beaten, thrown into prison, and bound in stocks for upsetting the status quo in town. They seemed to be defeated, but all night, they prayed and sang hymns to God (Acts 16:25). Their songs ended up being pre-victory songs because at midnight, "there was a great earthquake" and "all the [prison] doors were opened' (Acts 16:26). But that was only a test. None of the prisoners moved a muscle. Instead, they waited, and when the jailer woke up and saw the doors open, he decided to take his own life. But Paul spoke up—we're all here!—and the jailer and his whole household became Christians (Acts 16:31).

That is meant to be the tenor of the New Testament church. Because of the victory Christ won in the past, we can sing thousands of pre-victory songs in the present because really they're all post-victory songs. Christ has won. God is powerful. And we can celebrate God's power today.

3. Yahweh is Holy and Wholly Unlike All False Gods. (11-16a)

In the third movement of the song, they said Yahweh is holy and wholly unlike all false gods. The repeated phrase that launches this movement is "Who is like you? (11). They had just witnessed God's defeat of a myriad of Egyptian so-called gods, including Pharaoh. It had been an educational experience for these Hebrews. During their long years of slavery, they had drifted from the knowledge of Yahweh, but each successive plague taught them that he is majestic in holiness and awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders (11). Through it all, Yahweh's uniqueness was on full display.

I recently heard a saying that was new to me from the world of professional sports: "The other guy lives in a big house too." It's a way of saying that in professional athletics, everyone is good, and sometimes you lose merely because the other guy is pretty good at his job. But, to Yahweh, there is no "other guy" with contrasting power. If there ever could be, it was Pharaoh. He was the pinnacle of human strength, and many people, myself included, think he was tapped into demonic power as well. But the Hebrew people could celebrate that God triumphed over him with ease.

And the song shows us how they knew God had redeemed them and was taking them into himself—his holy abode (13). At Mount Sinai, God would speak with them. At the Tabernacle, God would meet with them. And at the Promised Land of Canaan, God would bless them. And all the nations on their way to and inside that land—the Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, and Canaanites—knew what Yahweh was doing for his people (14-15). They had stroked and were now still as stone because of all God had done to Egypt, a nation much more powerful than any of them (16). Fresh off victory at the Red Sea, the Hebrews felt like nothing could stop them!

The interesting thing to note here is that much of their talk is hyperbolic or idealized—which is totally appropriate for a poetic song. The Philistines, Edomites, Moabites, and Canaanites probably all had some people who were still as stone because of their fear of Israel, but they also all had some who objected and fought with Israel. They were not hospitable or helpful as the Hebrews made their journey. In Joshua's account of the conquest, the Canaanite people were predisposed to fear the Israelites, but often their response was to war against Israel (Deut. 2:25, Josh. 2:9-11, 24; 5:1). So when we read this prayer, we must remember it is bursting with poetic emotion. Eventually, the brand of awe or victory this song depicts would happen, but on the shore of the Red Sea, what this movement of the song shows us is that Israel was brimming with confidence.

This movement shows us how the Hebrews believed that what God had done for them at the Red Sea had paved the way for them. The first part of the song looks back, but this part looks forward, making it a perfect pivot point in the book of Exodus.

But this is a beautiful facet of worship: when we meditate on God's past performances, we become bolstered and strong for the road ahead.

Everyone loves the story of David vs. Goliath. One portion of it that fascinates me is when Saul interrogates David before sending him out to battle. He asked David why he thought he would win. David explained to Saul that, as a shepherd, he had protected his father's flock from lions and bears, striking and killing them if it came to it (1 Sam. 17:34-36). He said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and from the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine” (1 Sam. 17:37). God's past help had given David present-day confidence.

I pray God will do the same for you. I pray he would fill your heart and mind with confidence as you look back on his past victories, especially his ultimate victory on the cross. It was that victory of Jesus' death, burial, and resurrection that made Paul ask, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" (Rom. 8:31). And I pray that—ever increasingly—we would be filled with confidence in our future as a result of God's glorious and victorious gospel of the past.

4. And Yahweh is in Covenant Love with Us! (16b-18)

In the final movement of the song, they rejoiced that Yahweh was in covenant love with them! This section begins in the middle of 15:16 with the repeated phrase "till your people pass by" (16). They were confident—because of all God had done for them—that he would bring them to his mountain— God's place or abode (16-17). It's a little unclear where they thought God was taking them. Mount Sinai so Moses could get the Ten Commandments? The Promised Land, where they would make their home with God? The tabernacle or temple that would be God's sanctuary? A telescoped version of all three?

If they did have a precise location where they felt God was taking them, I am glad it remained nebulous because what is clear is that God was bringing them home to himself. Banished from our home with our Creator, the Bible depicts him as conspiring to bring us back home to himself. And, here, sang all about it. They knew God had initiated a journey—not only out of Egypt but into himself.

They knew God had plans for them. In their minds, they were now his people, just as he'd promised. Their identity was wrapped up in him. He had purchased them on that Passover night. They would be planted and established by him and with him forever and ever (17-18). He loved them and was living out a covenant he had made with them. They were his.

What about you? Are you conscious of his covenant love for and with you? Do you recognize how much he has done to draw you back into himself? Do you feel that he is trying to bring you home?

I mentioned earlier that each movement of this Red Sea song ends with a “stone” sentence. In verse five, they went down into the depths like a stone. In verse then, they sank like lead in the mighty waters. In verse sixteen, they became still as stone. But there is no stone at the end of the final movement. All we learn is that the Lord will reign forever and ever (18).

What might this literary device mean? Perhaps it means that we are currently still in this final phase. Perhaps it means that there is still an opportunity for men and women, young and old, to know him. He is still in the phase of bringing people home. Pharaoh's heart became hard, but there was still a chance for everyone alive to soften before him. As long as you have breath, your heart is not stone, and it is not too late. Come home. God is worthy. God is almighty. God is holy. And God wants to be in covenant love with you!

[^1]: see Psalms 18:35; 20:6; 63:8; 98:1

Study Questions

Head Questions:

What were the four main sections or movements of the Exodus 15 song, according to the structure mentioned?
The song telescopes together future events like meeting God at Sinai, dwelling in the Promised Land, and worshipping at the Tabernacle/temple. What does this blending of events suggest about how the original singers viewed God's covenant promises?
What future promises or hopes did the Israelites express about God's plans for them in the song?

Heart Questions:

Have you ever experienced "worship drift" where the joy and awe of your initial salvation faded? What restored your wonder and passion?
How can remembering and meditating on God's past faithfulness strengthen our hearts as we face future challenges?
Do you sense that God is drawing you closer to Himself? What makes you feel this way? Do you think of yourself as someone God pursued first, or do you view your walk with God as something you originally initiated? How does your perspective impact your worship?

Hands Questions:

What are some ways you could regularly memorialize and celebrate God's work in your redemption story to fight worship drift?
How can you cultivate more "pre-victory singing" in your life - worshipping God before breakthroughs come?
Is there any area of hardness or unbelief in your heart that this passage encouraged you to surrender or soften towards God? What practical steps can you take?