Exodus 15:1-21

“I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted, (since) the horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea“. (parenthesis mine)

On Monday I proposed that, whether we are aware of it or not, we all have a song and that the living outward expression of our lives is our singing. I even suggested that you try and “name your tune”. Maybe I can help you a bit with this project. If this were the first line of your song, how would you complete it?

“I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted, (since) He has….. (fill in the blank with your personal experience.)”

How did you you complete your verse? What have you seen and experienced that might have inspired such a declaration? Verse 3 says, “The Lord is a warrior“. What enemies has God overthrown in your life? Those who have been walking with Christ will all be able to fill in that blank with something. As a son or a daughter of God, we just don’t live (sing) without having a story (hopefully many) of our exploits with God against the world, the flesh and the devil. This is our testimony. These exploits become the lyrics to our songs. We ourselves (with our songs), are the bright beams of Truth that have been predestined to shine into the darkness of our specific theaters of operation. Right here, right now, we are strategically located and divinely equipped to bring glory to God and validity to the claim of the gospel; He is making all things new. Especially us.

Some of us may be protesting here, saying the lyrics of our songs are; “But I wasn’t there to see the Red Sea parted and Israel’s enemies drown / Surely I am exempt from singing so exuberantly / Faith is purely a gift. Some have it. / I just haven’t seen evidence that miracles really happen. / I don’t have any great declarations to make and it sounds silly to compose music from all my intellectually valid questions.” I know this song well because I sang it for years. I think of this condition of heart as “songlessness”. (I am going to provide the lyrics to Mockingbird by Derek Webb at the end of this post. It’s about what happens in the religious life when we do not have our own song.)

Moses lived in a day when God was just beginning to make Himself known to His chosen race. We are further down the timeline in the evolution of God’s revelation of Himself to mankind. In Moses context, the covenant between God and man involved the Law and sacrifice. In the context we enjoy, the covenant is administrated through grace and faith. So instead of waiting for evidence that He can part oceans to serve as inspiration for our songs, we are expected to “ascribe” God credit not just for what we have seen (or not seen) Him do, but…”by faith” we are to “reckon” that He is the same as He we was “then“, that He is “now” and that He will be “forevermore“. So since in this dispensation where we are to compose our songs via “reckoning” and “faith”, we approach our task of composition by writing…

“I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted (since) Christ has come, taking our punishment upon Himself; (since) He conquered death in His resurrection; (since) He sent His Spirit, our Helper to earth after His ascension; (since) His Spirit indwells us – animating our previously dormant spirits.

The songs of the faithful will consist of romantic as well as military themes. Much of the bonding and intimacy between us and God develops in the heat of battle. It’s really in the trenches (living by faith) that we discover Who He is and what He is like. Our songs (if we are honest) will include painful events that seem (in the moment) to be a total loss. (In theses moments it is a great temptation to reckon ourselves as losers. Amazingly some theology will even assist in this condemnation – “What a wretched man I am.”) But our songs will also include glorious conquests where we arise from the ashes (as is normative for new creations in Christ). Our victories (at least to us) will be no less amazing than Israel’s deliverance from Pharaoh and in our spirits we are compelled to sing;

“Who is like Thee among the god’s, Oh Lord? Who is like Thee, majestic in holiness, awesome in praises, working wonders?”

Father, I pray that you would pour out the gift of faith afresh upon us, encouraging our spirits to embrace all that You desire to be to us and through us. May our testimonies be updated with fresh encounters with You and victories over our enemy. May Your Bride be equipped with new songs to sing until that day when we all hear her sing in all her myriad parts the Song of the Ages as the knowledge of God has filled the earth as the waters fill the oceans. Amen.