Corporate
Worship: The First
We have referred to Psalm 96:1, 2 where the opening line says, “Sing to
the Lord a new song.” The idea of singing a new song means to sing a song,
right write a new song, as a result of new or recent activities of God in
history. Unfortunately it has been taken and abused in the contemporary worship
scene to think that every generation needs to wrote new kinds of music
consistent with whatever the music is that is popular among that generation. That
is bad exegesis and poor application. The idea through Scripture, whenever
there is this phraseology “sing a new song”—and there is also the use of that
phraseology in Revelation—is because God continues doing acts in people’s lives
in history. So singing a song is a response to the fact that God has acted in
history. It is bad, though, to reflect upon the fact that today we have little
solid, sound, appropriate music written churches in this vein. When we talk
about music, so often the issue that is raised is old versus new. It is not
really old versus new, that is not the issue; it is a matter of content and
quality of the music.
The first hymn that we have in the Bible is in Exodus chapter fifteen, a
song of praise written in response to God’s deliverance of
We also know that as God revealed the specific details and the blueprint
for the temple that Solomon was to build we are not told what that revelation
was. We are just told that he did. Solomon believed that God revealed certain
principles and patterns to Moses, as well as to David, and they exemplified
these principles but did not reveal those principles. So we have to think
through what is going on in the Scripture. We have to recognise that singing is
a very important and significant part of the life of the believer. Martin
Luther in preface to his hymnal in 1544, just before he died, wrote: “For God
has cheered our hearts and minds through His dear Son, whom He gave for us to
redeem us from sin, death, and the devil. He who believes this honestly cannot
be quiet about it.” When we understand what God has done for us then it is a
natural and a good response to sing in praise to God. This is exactly what we
see in Exodus chapter 15—a song of praise and celebration. Celebration is an
aspect or dimension of worship where we are celebrating what God has done in
history.
Exodus 15:1 NASB “Then Moses and the sons of
The song begins with the first person singular pronoun because this
reflects the writer himself. This is common in numerous hymns in the Scripture,
but just because it begins with “I” doesn’t mean it is a self-absorbed
reflection on someone’s experience with God. There are numerous hymns—Deborah’s
hymn, Judges 5:1; the hymn that is a meditation on the Davidic covenant, Psalm
89:1; Psalm 101:1—which all began with “I” because the writer is expressing his
praise to God. As we read through them we realise that even though they begin
with a first person pronoun it is not me-centred or subjectively-centred; it is
centred on what God has done objectively in history.
In Exodus 15:1 the emphasis immediately shifts to God: “I will sing to Yahweh.” This is in a causal form in the
Hebrew expressing the reason or the basis for seeing, “because God has
triumphed gloriously” or “God is gloriously exalted.” In fact the Hebrew is a
phrase of emphasis, a phrase where there is a repetition of the verb in a
structure that emphasises the certainty or is used for emphasis. Then it is
specific: “The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea,” not just that
He won the battle. So the opening verse is a summary but nevertheless it has
specificity to it.
In verses 2 & 3 we see that
he adds an admission or confession, a detailed expression of what has happened.
It begins with God as the focus: NASB “The LORD is my strength and song, And
He has become my salvation; This is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s
God, and I will extol Him.” God is our strength and is the cause of our
rejoicing by songs. This is not a sing about justification salvation, it is a
song about the physical military deliverance of the Israelites as they have
escaped from the oppression of the Egyptians. God has delivered them from
slavery. Of course, that has become the picture later on in Scripture of our salvation.
For just as the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt every human being is enslaved
in sin, and just as it was necessary for God to work on His own without any
human effort to redeem or purchase or deliver Israel from slavery, God and God
alone has performed what is necessary to deliver us from slavery to sin. That
occurred at the cross. So this is a type or picture of what God does for
everybody in salvation at the cross. When we trust in Christ for salvation then
we realise that deliverance. It is a deliverance from the penalty of sin as we
are justified and regenerated. The statement of purpose in the song is to extol
God; it is to talk about who God is and what God has done. Then in verse 3 it
focuses on the fact that the Lord is a “man of war,” a literal translation, but
really should be understood as an idiom for warrior: “The LORD is a warrior; The LORD is His name.” God
is not a pacifist.
The next division beginning in verse 4 focuses again on what God has
done and the details are more fully developed. NASB “Pharaoh’s
chariots and his army He has cast into the sea; And the choicest of his
officers are drowned in the
Verse 11 begins to reflect upon who God is. NASB “Who is like
You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working
wonders?” The word “Awesome” should be understood as “honoured”—“honoured in
praises.” The word “majestic” is the idea of being magnified, glorified. [12]
“You stretched out Your right hand, The earth swallowed them.” A picture of
power. [13] “In Your lovingkindness You have led the people whom You have
redeemed; In Your strength You have guided {them} to Your holy habitation.”
This is what is behind God’s work: He is mercy.
Exodus
Exodus 15:17 NASB “You will bring them and plant them in the
mountain of Your inheritance, The place, O LORD, which You have made for Your
dwelling, The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established.” This is
looking forward to a permanent dwelling of God in their midst. Then the
eventual manifestation and presence of God: [18] “The LORD shall reign forever and
ever.”
So this gives us a sample of the kind of lyrics that should be in a
song. It is theocentric, God-centric; it focuses on His character. And then
there is even application of what he has in the past to what He can do in the
future. The sense is that it is a reminder to people of who God is, what He has
done, so that in future similar events they have strength and confidence in
God.
In verse 19 there is a historical note added about how God did destroy
the forces of Pharaoh: NASB “For the horses of Pharaoh with his
chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, and the LORD brought back the waters of
the sea on them, but the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of
the sea.”
Verses 20, 21 give for us a
recognition of a level of complexity in this; that there was some antiphonal
singing. The men sang one part; the women sang another part that was like a
summary or a chorus. “Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took the timbrel
in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with
dancing.” The word “prophetess” is an interesting word. There are several women
in Scripture who are mentioned as prophetesses, and it is an interesting use of
the word because in several cases—Deborah, Judges chapter five, also 2 Kings