Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1867
“Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song unto the Lord, and spoke, saying, I will sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider has He thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation: He is my God, and I willprepare Him an habitation, my father’s God, and I will exaltHim.” Exodus 15:1,2.
THIS is the first song unto the Lord which is recorded in Holy Scripture. In Jacob’s blessing of his children there are verses which may be regarded as songs, but they are mere fragments and can scarcely be said to be sung unto the Lord. There are other couplets in the Book of Genesis, but this is the first connected song upon record. I should think that Abraham often sang unto the Lord, but we have no record of it. We can hardly doubt but that Isaac had his quiet Psalm, as Enoch had—and Noah and others who called upon the name of the Lord. But none of these hymns are left to us. This is the very first of those sacred songs preserved in Scripture and, in some respects, it is first in merit as well as in time. At any rate, its august occasion lifts it into the highest place among patriotic hymns.
The Song of Moses appears to have been chanted by an exceedingly great multitude. Miriam, the Prophetess, took her timbrel and led the strain—all the daughters of Israel going forth with her with their timbrels and dances—and the whole multitude of the people taking up the strain. Never had the shores of the Red Sea, or any other sea, heard such a song! There were at least 600,000 men, beside women and children. What an assembly! Millions made up that choir! Though their voices were little tuned to music, yet as they lifted them up, each one throwing his whole strength into the strain, it must have sounded like the noise of many waters, especially when they repeated the refrain, “Sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider has He thrown into the sea.”
We saw just now, in our reading in the 15th Chapter of Revelation, that the Song of Moses, the servant of God and of the Lamb, will be sung toward the close of this dispensation when those who have gotten the victory over the beast and his image shall stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God. Before the seven last plagues shall be poured out upon the earth and God shall overthrow the hosts of Antichrist once and for all, then shall this song be heard, sung, not by the Israelite nation, but by that higher Israel who have escaped by the Grace of God from the power of the spiritual Pharaoh and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb! How sweetly will they together take up the song, “Sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously! Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty.”
It is obvious, then, from the plentiful allusions to this song in Holy Scripture, that it is full of deep spiritual significance. It teaches us not only to praise God concerning the literal overthrow of Egypt, but to praise Him concerning the overthrow of all the powers of evil and the final deliverance of all the chosen. It is God’s intent that from the day of Moses, downward, even to the hour when flames of fire shall lick up the works of men and the heavens, themselves, shall be dissolved with fervent heat, that this shall be the song of the chosen people everywhere, “Sing unto the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously.”
The first verse of this song was quoted by David. I think you will find it in almost the same words three times in the Psalms, but especially in the 118th Psalm you have the exact words, “The Lord is my strength and song, and is become my salvation.” As if the Holy Spirit, when He furnished Isaiah with his noblest minstrelsy, could not excel the earlier strains of Moses. Isaiah himself, in Chapter 12, has the same words—“Jehovah is my strength and my song; He also is become my salvation.” It is evident that this patriotic song was interwoven with the life of Israel and that when good and gra-
cious men would express themselves in praise at their very best, they fell back upon this Song of Moses and they sang unto the Lord who had triumphed gloriously! So full of significance, then, as this song is, there is something for us to learn from it this morning. May God the Holy Spirit, who dictated this song to Moses, now write it afresh upon His people’s hearts! Breathe on us, Holy Spirit, that we, also, may be filled with the praises of Jehovah!
First, I shall want you to notice the time for singing this song. The text begins, “Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song.” Secondly, I shall want you to observe the tone of this song—it is worthy to be sung in Heaven itself—it is, indeed, high and lofty! And thirdly, we will consider the first clauses of the song itself—“The Lord is my strength and song, and He is become my salvation: He is my God, and I will prepare Him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt Him.”