Passage: Exodus 15:1-18
The Big Idea
On the far shore of the Red Sea, Israel sings the first great song of Scripture: “The LORD is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation.” Only the redeemed can sing it. You can’t fake it, and you can’t learn it from a page; it erupts from a heart that has been delivered. The Lamb paid the ransom; the Lion goes to war and sets us free. When we’ve truly tasted His deliverance, worship stops being an effort and becomes an overflow.
A Boulder in the Valley
When you see a huge boulder sitting in a valley, made of a completely different rock than everything around it, you know it came from somewhere else, carried by a glacier or thrown by a volcano.
This song is that boulder. Nothing like it appears in the story before this. It’s the first great song in the Bible. And what could compare to the music that pours out of a newly delivered heart?
It’s the Song of Redemption, and only one kind of person can sing it.
- Only someone who has passed through the sea of death and is standing on the other shore.
- Only someone who has stepped out in faith and trusted God for salvation.
- Only someone who has died with Jesus by faith and received His life in exchange.
Can you sing it?
Someone who has never been made alive doesn’t know what life outside sin and death looks like (Ephesians 2:1). And even believers who doubt their standing with God and what He has done can find it hard to worship from the heart.
You can’t fake this song. You can’t just hum along. You can’t learn it by reading the sheet music. It flows out of a heart like light and heat, like lava pouring out of an erupting volcano. A volcano can’t hide what’s inside. When it blows, you know what’s coming out. So it is with the song of the redeemed.
Ransom and Redemption
- Ransom: paying the price for someone’s freedom.
- Redemption: actually setting free the person whose ransom has been paid.
The Lamb was the ransom for Israel at Passover. Jesus is the Lamb.
Now God completed the redemption by fully delivering His people from everything against them. Jesus is also the Lion (Revelation 5:5-6).
Before this, how did Israel sound? Crying, sighing, groaning, despair, complaining. No joy.
I’ve been to churches that sound like that when they sing. I’ve sounded like that.
But when the fullness of redemption is realized, the sound changes: joy, praise, singing, eyes on God instead of self. What produced the change? Not a new arrangement, a new instrument or a new sound. The blood of the Lamb and the power of God.
“The LORD Is My Strength and Song” (Exodus 15:1-5)
Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:
They sang that the Lord had triumphed gloriously, throwing horse and rider into the sea. The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation. He is my God and I’ll praise Him; my father’s God and I’ll lift Him high. The Lord is a warrior; the LORD is His name. Pharaoh’s chariots, his army and his finest officers went down into the Red Sea and sank to the bottom like a stone.
This is a new song, an honest expression of what had become real in their hearts.
Spurgeon pointed out that it doesn’t say, “The Lord gives me strength,” but “The Lord is my strength.” How strong is a believer? Spurgeon dared to say: as strong as God.
“My strength and song.”
- Nehemiah said, “The joy of the LORD is your strength” (Nehemiah 8:10).
- Does that mean every Christian is always happy? No.
- It means that as we rejoice in the Lord, we’re strengthened for the walk.
- Rejoicing in the Lord is another way of saying abiding: thinking about, meditating on and talking about what God has done and who He is, longing to connect with Him for real (John 15:5).
“He has become my salvation.”
- Only someone who has personally been delivered can say this. Israel couldn’t say it before. Only now.
- Have you been delivered from a life-dominating sin? Or are you still in bondage?
- If I stand up and proclaim, “God is good! God is wonderful! He has triumphed gloriously!” but I’ve never actually seen it in my own life, my praise rings hollow. I may genuinely want it to be real, but wanting it doesn’t make it happen.
- I have to come to the end of my road, tell God my weakness, my sin and my need, and ask Him in simple faith and total dependence to deliver me today: “God, I’m still in bondage to this sin. Deliver me! I can’t do it myself!”
- His answer will always be “Yes” and “Amen” (2 Corinthians 1:20). He delivers the one who calls on Him.
I’m convinced that secret, persistent sin hinders worship more than anything else. We think it’s self-consciousness, or embarrassment about our voices. But all of that disappears in a second when our hearts erupt with rejoicing because we’ve truly been set free.
- This isn’t about whether we’re saved. We’re under the blood. But crossing the sea is the experience of being delivered.
- The Lamb pays the price. The Lion goes to war against the sin in our hearts and sets us free. Both are Jesus.
- They don’t always feel simultaneous in our experience, but both are guaranteed by faith in Jesus alone.
“Your Right Hand, O LORD” (Exodus 15:6-10)
The song goes on: the Lord’s right hand is glorious in power and has smashed the enemy. In His majesty He overthrew those who rose against Him, and His anger burned them up like straw. At a breath from His nostrils the waters piled up and stood like a wall. The enemy bragged, “I’ll chase them, catch them, divide the plunder and get my fill; I’ll draw my sword and wipe them out.” But God blew with His wind, the sea covered them, and they sank like lead in the mighty waters.
- God’s power is put on display when we trust Him to deliver.
- His strength is seen. He is enough.
- God’s grace is His power fighting for you, His strength displayed on your behalf.
- He isn’t intimidated by the enemies in your life. He isn’t afraid. He is strong, and willing to fight for you. You’re His chosen, His own special people.
“Who Is Like You?” (Exodus 15:11-13)
Who is like You, LORD, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, awesome in praise, doing wonders? He stretched out His hand and the earth swallowed them. In His mercy He leads the people He has redeemed; in His strength He guides them to His holy home.
This is the theme of the whole book: redemption, actually setting free those whose ransom has been paid.
- Who is like Him? No one else can deliver us from sin. No other religion or philosophy can do it. Yet we usually try everything else before we bow before God in humility and ask Him to save us.
- He leads the people He redeemed. He works all things together for good for those He has called (Romans 8:28). His leading is full of mercy. He knows we’re weak and bears with our weakness and doubt. But He’s leading us to freedom.
- He guides them to His holy dwelling. His goal is for them to live with Him, at home with Him. A holy family, children He can call His own and pour His love on. That’s His heart.
- He takes unholy rebels, makes them holy by the blood of the Lamb, and invites them to live with Him forever.
Future Victories (Exodus 15:14-18)
The nations would hear and shake: Philistia, the chiefs of Edom, the warriors of Moab, all the people of Canaan would melt with fear. By the greatness of His arm they would be as still as a stone until the people He purchased had passed by. He would bring them in and plant them on His own mountain, the sanctuary His hands established. The LORD shall reign forever and ever.
- Israel sings with complete confidence that God will finish the job against the enemies still ahead.
- Edom came from Esau, and in Scripture Esau often pictures the flesh, the one who traded his birthright for a bowl of stew (Hebrews 12:16). Moab and the Canaanites stood in the way too.
- Spiritually, this song expresses confidence that God will defeat the enemies still living in our lives, including our flesh.
- Those enemies rise up at different times, and they need to be defeated. God always delivers. But there will still be battles. That doesn’t mean you aren’t delivered.
- We experience more of His victory as we face each new enemy. He always leads us forward in triumph (2 Corinthians 2:14).
Grace Takeaway
Israel didn’t sing on the Egyptian side of the sea. They sang on the far shore, after God had done what they could never do. If your worship feels forced, don’t try harder to sing. Bring Jesus the bondage you’re still in and ask Him to deliver you. The Lamb has paid your ransom; the Lion will fight for your freedom. And when He does, the song will come on its own: “The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation.”
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