It's a joy to be with you this morning.
And we are in Exodus chapter 15.
Please turn with me to Exodus chapter 15, verses 1 to 21.
And let me pray for the reading and preaching of God's word.
Father, there is no one like you.
And we ask that this morning you would renew our sense of awe and wonder
at who you are and all that you have done for us.
So that we may truly make that profession of faith that there is no one like you.
Not only with mental assent in our heads, but from the bottom of our hearts.
Reveal your glory to us from your word.
In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Amen.
Please stand with me for the reading of God's word from Exodus chapter 15, if you're able.
I'm going to read verses 1 to 21.
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.
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.
The Lord is a man of war.
The Lord is his name.
Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast into the sea,
and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea.
The floods cover them.
They went down into the depths like a stone.
Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power.
Your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy.
In the greatness of your majesty, you overthrow your adversaries.
You send out your fury.
It consumes them like stubble.
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.
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.
You blew with your wind.
The sea covered them.
They sank like lead in the mighty waters.
Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?
You stretched out your right hand.
The earth swallowed them.
You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed.
You have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.
The peoples have heard.
They tremble.
Pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia.
Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed.
Trembling seizes the leaders of Moab.
All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.
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.
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.
The Lord will reign forever and ever.
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.
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.
And Miriam sang to them, saying to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously.
The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea.
This is God's holy and authoritative word.
You may be seated.
Many of us just celebrated Independence Day this past July 4th.
And if you went to see fireworks someplace,
you most likely heard our national anthem, the Star Spangled Banner.
And I don't know if you've ever looked up the origin of the song on Wikipedia or not,
but the lyrics for the song come from a poem entitled Defense of Fort McHenry.
And written by lawyer and poet Francis Scott Key on September 14, 1814.
It was in the middle of the War of 1812 between the United States and the United Kingdom.
The war was a culmination of a long-standing feud between two countries.
As the U.S. colonial settlements were expanding to the northwest,
the U.K. obviously was not happy about that,
and they opposed the territorial expansion by arming some of the Native Americans.
And they also meddled in U.S. international trade,
and at times impressed American citizens into their service as British subjects.
And because of these rising tensions,
it brought the sovereignty of the United States as a new nation into question.
And that's why some American historians call the War of 1812
the Second War of Independence.
And in August 1814, the British troops burned Washington, D.C.
And in September, the Royal Navy had formed a blockade,
and they were bombarding Fort McHenry in Baltimore all night long.
People, some people were watching and wondering whether the fort would survive the night,
whether the U.S. would survive the war.
And Francis Scott Key, who happened to be a witness on a boat,
observing what was happening in the bombing,
saw an oversized U.S. flag, the Star Spangled Banner,
fluttering in the wind, waving,
as the bomb was beginning at night.
And in the morning at dawn,
he looked again in that direction,
and he saw that
the flag was still standing
and gallantly streaming.
And from that, he was inspired to pen the poem right in that moment.
That's what he wrote.
He says,
O say,
When the smoke dissipated and the dust settled and the darkness faded as the sun peeked over the horizon,
and Francis Scott Key glimpsed the stripes and stars of the U.S. flag still flying triumphantly over the fort,
and he was awestruck.
And so he wrote this poem because just narrating and writing in prose such an event is not enough.
It doesn't adequately capture the moment.
He could only write about it in verse, in poetry, in song.
How much more, then, if that were the case in that war,
is it the case with the passage this morning,
after God's great deliverance of his people at the Exodus,
and at splitting the Red Sea,
that people are to praise the Lord in song?
We have seen in Exodus 14,
the recount of God delivering Israel.
He split the Red Sea.
He created a wall of water on either side
so that the Israelites could walk through on dry ground.
And then he routed the Egyptians with the pillar of cloud and fire,
and then he collapsed the wall of water upon the Egyptians and drowned them.
And Israel really was at the edge of disaster,
of national disaster.
Before them stood the untraversable Red Sea,
and behind them pursued this unassailable Egyptian elite army.
And people were wondering whether this fledgling nation
who had just won freedom recently would survive the onslaught.
But it says,
In the morning, the Lord God fought for them,
and when the last man and woman and child and livestock of Israel
had crossed the Red Sea on dry ground,
they turn around and look,
and they see the dead bodies of the Egyptians washing onto the shore.
They had survived.
They had actually won.
They had been saved and delivered.
And the Lord had triumphed.
And so there, as they stood in awe,
still free to worship the Lord and serve the Lord,
the Lord, just tell them that it wasn't enough.
And so they erupt in poetry and song.
It says in verse 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.
This song can be divided up into two main parts.
First is remembering our redemption.
It has a retrospective perspective.
And then the second half is anticipating our coming.
It looks into the future.
And the main lesson of this song that it preserves for us
is that the Lord is the warrior king
who redeems us and leads us to His dwelling place.
So we're going to first look at how we should remember our redemption.
With the redemption that the Red Sea fresh on their minds,
the people of God sang in verses 1 to 3.
The Lord is my strength and my song.
This is my God, and I will praise Him.
My Father's God, and I will exalt Him.
The Lord is a man of war.
The Lord is His name.
The Lord is my strength and my song.
He has become my salvation.
That's a refrain that you hear over and over again in the Old Testament.
It's first heard here in the Exodus,
but then it's taken up again later in Psalm 118.14
and in Isaiah 12.2 as well.
And it's such an intimate and beautiful way to praise God.
The Lord is not only my strength,
someone who sustains me and saves me and keeps me going,
but He's also my song, the object of my love,
the object of my adoration and affection,
the one I delight in, the person I love to sing about.
So then we sing to the Lord, but the Lord is also our song.
We sing to Him, but we also sing of Him.
He's both our audience and the content of our song
because that's what He deserves for all that He has.
And Moses says that the Lord is my Father's God.
This is very meaningful for him because if you recall,
Moses was exposed as an infant,
an orphan picked up by the Egyptians from the Nile River
and then raised in the Egyptian court.
And God had said to him when he first called Moses in Exodus 3.6,
I am the God of your Father, singular.
And in doing that, God was connecting,
reconnecting Moses to the history of God's people
and saying, you are not an orphan,
you are not a no-name nobody,
but instead you are one of my people.
I am your God.
I'm the God of your Father.
And that's the same thing that God does for us.
He has taken spiritual orphans
and he has adopted us as his sons and daughters,
as his own, and he says, I am your God.
The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and Moses
is the same God that we worship today also.
But note that Moses does not merely call Yahweh
my Father's God, but he also calls him my God.
There's an intensely personal dimension
to the profession of the song.
Notice all the first person singular pronouns
in verses one to three.
I will sing to the Lord.
The Lord is my strength and my song
and he's become my salvation.
This is my God and I will praise him.
My Father's God and I will exalt him.
What is the significance of that?
God is not an abstract idea
or a philosophical principle
or some spiritual force.
No, God is a person
whom we know and love and worship.
He is my God.
He is not only the song of God's people,
he is my song.
He's not merely a savior of the world,
he is my salvation.
There is an important aspect to worship
that is communal that people often miss,
but we also must not miss
the personal individual aspect of worship.
Do you know the Lord as your God?
Or do you know the Lord as your God?
When you hear of God and his love
and his saving deeds,
does your heart well up with love
and joy and gratitude for him
so that you can't help but burst into song?
Do you come to the church gathering
to worship my God
or the church's God
or to worship your God?
I hope every single one of you can say,
the Lord is my strength,
my song,
my salvation,
and my God.
Having professed that the Lord is my God,
in verse three,
it begins to describe what the Lord is like
and what he has done.
It says,
the Lord is a man of war.
The Lord is his name.
The expression man of war
is simply another way
to say that the Lord is a warrior,
which is exactly how
some other translations have it.
The CSB,
the Christian Standard Bible,
and the NIV,
New International Version,
translated that way.
And if talking about God as a warrior
makes you feel uneasy
or fidgety,
then you are likely missing
a critical aspect
of the way you perceive
and relate to God.
Yes, God is our loving Father.
Yes, God is our good shepherd.
And yes, there are other images
in Scripture that emphasize
God's tender care.
We need all of those images
and metaphors as well.
We don't want an imbalance
and only talk about God
as a warrior either.
However, we must not forget
that the Lord is a man of war.
He is a warrior.
In the peace and security
and comfort of 21st century
United States,
it's easy for us to say,
oh, let's dispense with this talk
of God as a man of war.
That sounds so militant,
so masculine.
But for victims of injustice
and oppression,
like the Israelites
who were enslaved in Egypt
for 400 years,
the fact that the Lord
is a warrior
is not a liability
or a fearful thing.
It is a wonderful comfort.
When evil enemies
are getting their way
and enslaving God's people
and slaughtering them,
we need not only
the divine counselor,
we need a divine warrior.
It's precisely because
the Lord is a man of war
that we can be peacemakers
in this world.
We Christians are never
to repay evil for evil.
We are never to avenge ourselves,
but leave it to the wrath of God,
for it is written,
vengeance is mine.
I will repay,
says the Lord.
It's precisely because
the Lord says
He will see to justice.
Precisely because
the Lord has said,
I will fight on behalf
of the oppressed.
Precisely because
the Lord has said,
I will return to judge
the earth
and the living
and the dead
that we can rest assured,
trust in Him
and promote peace
in this world
and even suffer
unjustly in this world
because we know
He'll put it all to rights.
Verses fortified
and describe
how the Lord
is a warrior.
Pharaoh's chariots
and his host
He cast into the sea
and His chosen officers
were sunk
in the Red Sea.
The floods cover them
and they went into the depths
like a stone.
I love how,
you know,
Moses keeps rubbing in
the fact that
Pharaoh sent his
elite forces,
the chosen officers,
not just everyday infantrymen.
He sent his navy seals out
to get these Israelites
running away from
without weapons
and yet
the Lord
defeated
the strongest army
of that ancient world.
And then in verses 6 to 12,
the Israelites
transitioned
telling of God's mighty deed
to addressing
and praising God directly.
And this section
is structured
in a fascinating way.
Right in the middle of it
in verse 9
we see the enemy's
presumptuous boast.
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.
It's very repetitive.
A lot of I's,
the first person singular pronouns,
and the short
kind of staccato sentences
convey the enemy's
overweening sense
of pride and confidence
and egotism.
His victory to him
is a foregone conclusion.
Oh, I will do these things.
Yes.
And he expects to make
quick work of the Israelites.
But then,
that boastful statement
in the middle
is framed
by verses 6 and 12
which both mention
the right hand of God.
He says in verse 6,
Your right hand,
O Lord,
glorious in power.
Your right hand,
O Lord,
shatters the enemy.
And at the end
of the section,
verse 12 says,
You stretched out
your right hand
and the earth
swallowed them.
Now,
this is in contrast
with the enemy's hand
which was mentioned
in verse 9.
The enemy said,
My hand shall destroy them.
But instead,
it's the power
of God's right hand
that shatters him
and humbles him.
And so,
on either side
of verse 9,
the enemy's boast,
you see praises
of declarations
of God's glory
and might.
And those statements
kind of like squeeze
that middle boast
like a vice grip.
You know,
so it's a really wonderful way
to write about this.
Verse 7 speaks
of the greatness
of God's majesty.
Now,
the Lord sends out
his fury
which consumes
his enemies
like stubble.
You've seen stubble burn,
right?
It's instantly incinerated
by fire.
Poof.
Right?
And verse 11 says,
Likewise,
that the Lord
is majestic in holiness
and that he stretched
out his right hand
so that the earth
swallowed his enemies.
And then verse 8 says
that at the blast
of the Lord's nostrils,
the waters piled up,
the floods stood up
in a heap,
the deeps congealed.
And verse 10,
it matches that
and it says,
the Lord blew
with his wind,
the sea covered them,
they sank like lead
in the mighty waters.
So the boastful enemy
sinks into the sea
like lead,
like stone
that sinks instantly
to the bottom
of the ocean.
And that's how large
the gap is
between the power
of the Lord
and the power
of the enemy,
between Egypt
and the Lord.
The mighty winds
that piled up the waters
and split the Red Sea
is amazingly described
as due to the blast
of the Lord's nostrils.
Just imagine that.
I can't blow my nose
that loud,
but imagine just
blowing my nose.
And that's how God
defeated the Egyptians.
He just blew his nose.
It's an amazing statement
of God's power.
And this deliverance
becomes a paradigm,
a pattern
that all subsequent
deliverances of God
follow.
And so in Psalm 18,
where David is writing
about how God
delivered him
from his enemies
and from King Saul
in particular,
he says this
in verse 15,
then the channels
of the sea were seen
and the foundations
of the world
were laid bare
at your rebuke.
Oh Lord,
at the blast
of the breath
of your nostrils.
David's deliverance
didn't have anything
to do with the sea.
It didn't have anything
to do with the
splitting of the Red Sea.
It didn't have anything
to do with the blast
of the Lord's nostrils.
And yet,
David appropriates
the language
of the Exodus
and uses it
to describe
his own deliverance
in his life.
Because the Exodus
is the pattern
that subsequent
deliverances follow.
And so it is not
inappropriate then
as David did
for us to apply
this salvation
to ourselves
as well.
And I think
it's actually intended
by the New Testament
writers to be
applied that way
because we see
the way the Gospel
of Matthew
makes the connection
between the Exodus
and the life
of Jesus.
Just like Pharaoh
who ordered
all male Hebrew
children be killed,
King Herod
at the time
of Jesus' birth
seeks to kill
all male Hebrew
children in Bethlehem
because he wants
to kill Jesus,
the Messiah.
Just like Israel
which had to sojourn
in Egypt for a time,
Jesus sojourns
in Egypt
for a little while
to escape
Saul's murderous
search.
And just as Israel
had to go through
the Red Sea
which is described
in 1 Corinthians 10
as a baptism
into Moses,
so in Matthew 3,
13-17,
Jesus goes through
the waters
at baptism.
And just as Israel
right after going
through the Red Sea
goes into the wilderness,
Jesus right after
his baptism
goes straight into
the wilderness
to be tempted.
Israel wanders
the wilderness
and is tempted
for 40 years
Jesus wanders
in the wilderness
and is tempted
for 40 days.
But unlike the Israelites
who fail every single
one of their tests
in the wilderness
and grumble against God
as we'll see
in the immediately
following passage
next week
and have refused
to believe in him
and disobey him,
Jesus passes
every single test.
And so this deliverance
is ultimately
foreshadowing
and is fulfilled
by Jesus' deliverance
of redemption
of us.
In the same way
that it's later
in verse 13,
it speaks of God's people
here in the Exodus
as the redeemed.
And it's the Lord Jesus
who redeemed us.
Ephesians 1-7
says that in Christ,
we have redemption
through his blood,
the forgiveness
of our trespasses.
Jesus is the ultimate
divine warrior
who has conquered
sin and death.
Just as God
purchased Israel
from their slavery
with the blood
of the Passover lamb,
Jesus purchases us
from our slavery
to sin
with his own blood
on the cross.
And so this is ultimately,
it's fitting therefore
to apply it to ourselves.
And in the same way then,
we had an enemy
that we could not
put away in our own strength.
Egyptians that we could not
cast into the sea.
And likewise,
our sin,
the debt of it,
the weight of it,
the burden of it,
the shame of it,
was too much for us to bear.
We could not shake it off.
And yet,
it's Jesus
who through his victory
casts all of it
into the sea.
And when we remember
this great redemption,
we can't help but sing out
like verse 11,
who is like you,
O Lord.
Who is like you,
O Lord,
among the gods?
This is not to say
that there are other gods
besides Yahweh.
He is without a peer.
But there are many
false gods
that the nations
throughout the world
worship,
but none of them
is like the Lord.
Who is like you,
majestic in holiness,
awesome in glorious deeds,
doing wonders?
Moses and the Israelites
in the song
do not supply an answer
to that question
because no answer
is needed.
It's a rhetorical question
and the answer
is obvious.
There is no one,
no one like our God,
no one like the Lord
who saves with his mighty hand
and an outstretched arm.
There is no one
like our God
who is merciful
and gracious
and compassionate
and abounding
in steadfast love
and faithfulness.
There is no one
like our God
who gave his only son,
Jesus,
to redeem us
from our sins.
And after remembering
our redemption
in verses 1 to 12,
we turn to anticipating
our homecoming
in verses 13 to 18.
Again and again
throughout the book of Exodus,
whenever God reiterates
his promise
to bring Israel
out of Egypt,
he also promises
to bring them
into the promised land,
canon.
And that's what
the second half
of the song speaks of,
how God would lead them
into the promised land
and ultimately
to the mountain of God,
God's dwelling place.
But interestingly,
even things,
even though
this hasn't happened yet,
God has not yet led them
into the promised land,
verse 13 speaks of it
like it's already happened.
He says,
you have led
in your steadfast love
the people
whom you have redeemed.
you have guided them
by your strength
to your holy abode.
We know from verse 17
that this hasn't happened yet.
God's going to lead them
into the promised land.
But verse 13
is using what
Hebrew grammarians
call the prophetic perfect.
Past tense is used
to describe something
that will happen
in the future,
that is prophesied
of in the future,
to convey the definiteness,
the certainty
of its fulfillment.
Because the Lord
has decreed it,
it's as good as done.
You can count on it.
It's as if you have
already entered
the promised land.
And so he says
in verses 14 to 16,
the peoples have heard,
they tremble.
Pangs have seized
the inhabitants
of Philistia.
Now are the chiefs
of Edom dismayed?
The trembling seizes
the leaders of Moab.
All the inhabitants
of Canaan
have melted away.
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.
Again,
it's using
the prophetic perfect.
News travel fast,
but not that fast.
But it's as
it's done.
All the nations
that lie between Israel
and the promised land,
they have heard
of the greatness
of the Lord's deliverance,
his right hand,
his strong arm.
And their courage
will melt away.
They will writhe in pain
and they will fall,
the terror and dread
will fall upon them.
They'll be paralyzed
like stone.
It still is stone,
just like the Egyptians
were at the Red Sea.
And we see the fulfillment
of this prophecy
in Joshua 2.9
where Rahab,
the resident of Jericho,
says this to the
Israelite spies.
I know that the Lord
has given you the land
and that the fear of you
has fallen upon us
and that all the inhabitants
of the land
melt away before you.
Exactly as this prophecy
is said.
Passing through
these nations,
the Lord will bring Israel
into the promised land
and verses 17-18
tell us why God
is doing that.
It says,
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.
The Lord will reign
forever and ever.
This is the wonderful thing
about our God.
God is not
someone who saves
sinful,
dirty,
wicked people
and then keeps them
in isolation
and quarantine
somewhere far away
while he dwells
on high on a lofty mountain,
safe from our defilement.
The Lord saves us
and he sanctifies us
and he cleanses us
and his design
in saving us
and this has been
his design
from the very beginning
of creation
is to have fellowship
with us,
to dwell with us,
to make us make a home
with us
in his family
so that he can reign
over us
in his gracious
lordship,
kingship.
And this bringing
of Israel
into the land of Canaan
is also a pattern
that points
to our ultimate deliverance
into our heavenly kingdom.
Hebrews 11, 10 to 16
tell us
that the patriarchs
live by faith
in the land of Canaan,
looking forward
to the city
that has foundations
whose designer
and builder
is God
desiring a better country
that is a heavenly one.
That's what
the Israelites
being led
into the promised land
points to.
All of God's saints,
all of us
being led
into his heavenly kingdom
and ultimately
to the new heavens
and the new earth.
We Christians
are still sojourners
on earth.
We are pilgrims
in a foreign land
but we are journeying
toward our homeland,
our father's land,
his house,
our heavenly city.
Many of you
have experienced
what it's like
to travel
to a foreign country
and to feel
like an outsider.
If you're traveling
for like a few days
for fun,
you know,
I mean,
it doesn't really bother you
but if you're there
and you're trying
to fit in
and you're trying
to live there,
it could be very
alienating
and isolating
when no one
speaks the language
you speak,
no one dresses
the way you dress,
no one eats
the stuff you eat
and you don't know
how to get anywhere
and you're lost
all the time.
That's,
in some way,
that's the life
of pilgrims,
the life of Christians
here on earth
because our purposes
and priorities
are set by the Lord
and because of that,
it's at odds
with the purposes
and priorities
of the world,
the sinful world.
Satan,
the prince of this world
still has power
over the people
who are living in sin
and he opposes us.
He fights against us.
His desire
is to do
what the enemy says
in 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
and my hand
shall destroy them.
He's seeking
to destroy us
but the Lord
has defeated
our enemy.
He has overthrown
the prince of the world
through his death
and resurrection.
The Lord has redeemed us
and he will
lead us
home.
And that homecoming
is gonna be glorious.
Instantly,
we will be fully known,
fully loved.
we will know
this is what
we've been waiting for.
And it is for that reason
we gather together
for worship,
week in and week out
and we sing our hearts
out to the Lord,
remembering our redemption
and anticipating
our homecoming.
at the end of this passage
in verses 19 to 21,
the lyrical reprise
of the song
of the redeemed
and the Lord's
deliverance of Israel
is again
recounted
in prose
in verse 19
and then in song
in verse 20 to 21,
it says,
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
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.
So you could tell
this is not just
a one-time rendition
of the song.
They sang it once
and now they're done
and let's start marching.
No, they're celebrating
again and again
after the entire
congregation of Israel
has sung.
Here comes the choir
and the dance troupe
and they repeat
the song again
and it's not uncommon
in the Old Testament
for the woman
to welcome
and celebrate
the men
who are returning
victorious from war
with tambourines
and dances.
We see that in Judges 1134
when Jephthah returns home
from defeating
the Ammonites
and we see it in
1 Samuel 18-17
when King Saul
and David return
from defeating
the Philistines.
It says the woman
came out of all
the cities of Israel
singing and dancing
to meet King Saul
with tambourines,
with songs of joy
and with musical instruments.
The same thing
is happening here
with one notable difference.
The women are not praising
or welcoming the men.
They're praising the Lord,
the warrior king
because the men
didn't do any fighting
but the Lord
fought our battle for us.
Did you notice that
in the entirety
of this song
that not even Moses
is mentioned?
Moses' name
is not mentioned once
in this entire song
but again
and again
I will sing
to the Lord.
The Lord
is my strength
and my song.
The Lord
is a man of war.
The Lord
is his name.
Your right hand,
O Lord,
glorious in power.
Your right hand,
O Lord,
shatters the enemy
who is like you,
O Lord,
among the gods.
The Lord will reign
forever and ever.
This song
is an unabashed,
unbridled,
irrepressible overflow
of enthusiasm
for Yahweh,
the Lord alone.
It's all about him
and all glory is to him
and that's going to be
what it's like
at the end of our days,
brothers and sisters.
brothers.
No one's going to be
talking about Sean.
No one's going to be
talking about you.
No one's going to be
talking about John Piper.
No one's going to be
talking about any
of these people
but we will
sing about the Lord.
Can't wait.
And it says,
we have a picture of that
actually in Revelation 15,
two to four.
after the wrath
and judgment of God,
God's people,
it says,
harps of God
in their hands,
they sing the song
of Moses.
Isn't that amazing?
This song's going to be sung
but not
exactly as it is
because then what follows
is this.
They sing the song
of Moses,
the servant of God,
and the song
of the Lamb
saying,
great and amazing
are your deeds,
O Lord,
God the Almighty.
Just and true
are your ways,
O King of the nations,
who will not fear,
O Lord,
and glorify your name
for you alone
are holy.
All nations will come
and worship you
for your righteous acts
have been revealed.
The song of Moses,
it's a reference
to this song
in Exodus 15.
That song of Moses
is fulfilled
by the song
of the Lamb
and we're going
to sing that song
for eternity.
And until that day,
in this present day,
we sing,
remembering God's redemption,
anticipating our homecoming.
And that's why
Miriam's response
in verse 21.
In verse 1,
it says,
I will sing to the Lord.
Verse 21,
it's changed to an imperative.
Sing to the Lord.
It's an instruction
to future generations.
Sing this song
again and again.
Sing to the Lord
of how he has delivered you.
Remember that.
And the people of God
have not stopped
singing since then.
And I will talk about that
briefly as I close.
As Christians,
we're so familiar
with the experience
of gathering together
and singing songs
that we forget
what an odd thing it is
that we do.
I remember four years ago
that a non-Christian neighbor
that visited
our worship service
a few times,
she was eating with us
at our home
and then she asked me,
why do you guys
sing on Sundays?
And I was kind of
taken aback
by the question
because
I'd taken our time
of singing
for granted,
but the experience
was so foreign
and surreal to her
that she kept commenting
on how beautiful
and special it is
that Christians
gather together
to sing together
among other things.
That's when I realized
what a unique experience
our musical worship time is.
People don't normally
do that kind of thing.
Yeah,
you might go to Fenway Park
and sing
Take Me Out to the Ball Game,
but people who go
to Fenway Park
are not going over there
to sing.
They go over there
to watch a baseball game,
so a lot of people
actually don't sing.
Similarly,
you know,
some people go to concerts
and they sing along,
but people buy concert tickets
to hear the band,
not some tone-deaf stranger
blaring out the songs
behind them
with jumbled-up lyrics.
In certain moments,
they might invite you
along,
but most of the time,
the song is probably
going to be in a key
that's too high
for you to sing.
They're going to rap
at a speed
that you probably
can't follow,
and they're definitely
not going to project
the lyrics for you
on the screen
because those songs
are written
not to be sung by you,
but to be performed
by the artist.
But when we gather,
we sing songs
that were written
for us to sing along to
in keys that we can reach,
and the band's volume
is not overwhelming
intentionally
because the intention
is for all of us
to sing together to God
and to one another.
The band does not perform.
They lead us in song.
It really is a peculiar thing
that we do together
on Sundays,
but why do we do it?
Because we can't help
but sing of how great God is
and how wondrous
it is what he has done
for us.
I did a quick research
on Google
for songs entitled
How Can I Keep
From Singing
or I Can't Help But Sing,
any song kind of
along those lines.
I'm aware of only
four songs
in the English language
with titles like that
or similar to that.
How Can I Keep
From Singing?
And every single one
of them
is a Christian worship song
because it is Christians
who can't keep
from singing.
And one of my favorites
is this one
by Robert Lowry
from the 1800s.
It says,
What though my joys
and comforts die,
the Lord my Savior liveth.
What though the darkness
gather round,
songs in the night
he giveth.
No storm can shake
my inmost calm
while to that refuge
clinging.
Since Christ is Lord
of heaven and earth,
how can I keep
from singing?
Here's why the people
of God have been singing
from the very beginning.
Here's why we have
never stopped singing.
Because we cannot
keep from singing
when we think of
how glorious
and gracious
our God is.
Let's pray together.
Oh God,
it is true
as we sing sometimes
when we think
about the Lord,
we can't help
but shout
hallelujah.
Praise the Lord.
Lord,
when we think
about you,
Father,
all we have
is love.
When we think
about you,
all we have
is gratefulness.
When we think
about you,
all we have
is worship,
all reverence.
and it is
the greatest,
the deepest
desire of our hearts
to see every
person in the world
worship you
because you are
worthy of it.
Fill our hearts
with the songs
of the redeemed
this morning.
In Jesus' name
we pray.
Amen.