“The First Worship Song” (Exodus 15:1-21) | 4/16/23
Exodus 15:1-21 | 4/16/23 | Will DuVal
I don’t know if you heard about the church where the preacher and the worship leader were fighting, and things got so bad they started spilling over into the worship services.
Like, when the pastor preached on TITHING, and how the church needed to step up and give more, the worship leader decided to end the service with “Jesus Paid it ALL”.
So the next Sunday, the preacher used his sermon to WARN against disrespecting their pastor. But the worship guy ended with the song “Yes I Will”.
Fed up, the pastor confessed the following Sunday that he was considering leaving the church. So the worship leader closed with “I Can Only Imagine”.
Well, the pastor decided he refused to let the worship guy get the better of him, so the next Sunday he announced that there was NO WAY he would ever resign. The worship leader closed with “Way Maker”.
Finally, despondent, the pastor resigned. But he still didn’t want to admit defeat, so he informed the church that JESUS had called him to bigger and better things.
So, of course, the worship guy closed that last week with “What a FRIEND we have in Jesus.” “O Happy Day”... “Glorious Day” - they did LOTS of singing that Sunday. ;) (Joke adapted from: https://gcfl.net/archive.php?funny=6800)
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The songs we sing, especially together as a church, are IMPORTANT. Music SHAPES us, it MOVES us, it STAYS WITH US in a way - if I’m honest - that few sermons ever will. If I asked you tomorrow morning to name 3 of the 5 main points from this sermon, I suspect most of you will have already forgotten. But you MAY still be humming along in your head the tune to “Grace Alone”. We hear stories all the time of someone lying there, unresponsive on their deathbed, or someone suffering from dementia who no longer even knows who she IS, but the minute the family starts singing “Amazing Grace”, all of a sudden they’re singing along. Because the best music supersedes the mind, and comes directly from the HEART.
Well this morning, we are going back to the HEART of worship, in Exodus ch15, where we find the first worship song EVER recorded in the pages of Scripture: the “Song of Moses”. And since it is THE prototypical, paradigmatic, precedent-setting song of worship in all of God’s word, this song has MUCH to teach us still today about what worship IS. Or at least what it OUGHT to be. As I mentioned, I’ve condensed it down to just FIVE points for us.
Would you STAND with me, as you are able… Exodus, ch15, vv1-21:
“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.
2 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.
3 The Lord is a man of war;
YHWH is his name.
4 “Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast into the sea,
and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea.
5 The floods covered them;
they went down into the depths like a stone.
6 Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power,
your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy.
7 In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries;
you send out your fury; it consumes them like stubble.
8 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.
9 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.’
10 You blew with your wind; the sea covered them;
they sank like lead in the mighty waters.
11 “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?
12 You stretched out your right hand;
the earth swallowed them.
13 “You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed;
you have guided them by your strength to your holy abode.
14 The peoples have heard; they tremble;
pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia.
15 Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed;
trembling seizes the leaders of Moab;
all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away.
16 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.
17 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.
18 YHWH will reign forever and ever.”
19 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. 20 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. 21 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.””
This is the word of the Lord… You may be seated…
5 things we learn about WORSHIP here:
#1- Worship is always RESPONSIVE. (v1-21) Worship is a RESPONSE.
That much is INDICATED by the very first WORD of this passage: “THEN”. “Then” tips us off that whatever it is we are about to read, it happened as a natural consequence, a direct RESULT, of whatever came just BEFORE this. And what DID come just BEFORE this?
If you joined us last Sunday on Easter, you know: Israel’s DELIVERANCE from bondage in Egypt in ch14; when God split the sea to FREE His people from SLAVERY. Friends: when God does THAT for you - when He miraculously intervenes in time and space, in history and in nature, and He does the IMPOSSIBLE, the UNIMAGINABLE, in order to RESCUE you, how do you RESPOND?
In a word, with WORSHIP. To “worship”, at the most basic, etymological level, means “to assign worth”. To attribute, ascribe, attach WORTH to something. And in that sense, all of LIFE is worship. We are CONSTANTLY “assigning worth” to things: this meal is worth the $15 I’m willing to pay for it, this show is worth the 45 minutes I’m willing to spend watching it…
Similarly, then, Psalm 29:2 calls us to “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name; worship the Lord…” And how much “glory” IS “due his name”? How much “worth” should we “assign” to God?
ALL glory, ALL worth!
Psalm 71:8 declares “My mouth is filled with your praise, and with your glory ALL the day.”
Hebrews 13:15 “let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God… lips that acknowledge his name.”
And not just our LIPS; Romans 12:1 exhorts us to “present your [entire] bodies as a living sacrifice… which is your spiritual worship.”
WHY? Why does God deserve that we “LOVE [Him] with ALL our hearts, ALL our minds, ALL our strength”? Why does God deserve it ALL?
Because of 1) who He IS, and 2) what He’s DONE for us.
Who He IS - “my strength”, “my song” - v2 - “my salvation”; he is “my GOD”, therefore, “I will PRAISE Him”, for who He IS.
AND… for what He’s DONE: v1, “he has triumphed gloriously” (we worship Jesus because He conquered Hell and Death FOR us thru His resurrection); “the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea” (it’s an allegory for SIN; we worship Jesus because He has cast all our sins to the BOTTOM of the sea, thru His crucifixion).
Our worship is a RESPONSE. And this is so important to emphasize because I fear that so MUCH of what PASSES as “worship” these days is really more about trying to GET something from God, than it is about offering Him praise and thanks for something He’s already GIVEN.
Instead of a CONSEQUENCE, we treat worship like a CATALYST.
Instead of a RESPONSE, worship becomes a REACTANT. You remember high school chemistry? Catalysts and reactants? They’re the ingredients you throw in the test tube to cause a chemical reaction. To make something HAPPEN.
That’s what a lot of “worship” sounds like today; just listen to some of these lyrics:
“God we believe for it
From the impossible
We will see a miracle…
We believe for it”
If I just believe hard enough, worship sincerely enough, God WILL work that miracle for me.
“Favor, favor, let it fall on me
'Til I'm the conversation
Of all my enemies…
God, BLESS me, BLESS me.”
Instead of “God: I praise YOU, because you have ALREADY shown me favor, grace has ALREADY fallen on me, you’ve ALREADY defeated my greatest enemies - sin and Hell and Death through the death and resurrection of your Son, Jesus; Jesus: you ALONE deserve to be the center of ALL “conversation”...”
“I’m gonna see a victory, I’m gonna see a victory…”
How about “I HAVE SEEN a victory, because Jesus came into my life and RESCUED me ETERNALLY”! So I can lose EVERY other “battle” this life might throw at me - I might get fired, dumped, cheated, KILLED; Jesus hasn’t PROMISED me victory in all of life’s little battles, as a matter of fact, what He DID promise was that “In this world you will have TROUBLES”, you will LOSE battles. But He said: “Take heart”, I’ve already won the WAR!
So we don’t worship to try and GET something from God - a miracle, a victory, favor; NO - we WORSHIP as a RESPONSE to what God has already GIVEN: JESUS! His Only SON! SALVATION! Eternal LIFE! Isn’t that ENOUGH for us?!
That’s why WE sing:
“What gift of grace is Jesus my Redeemer
There is NO MORE for Heaven now to give”
That’s why WE sing: “Christ is ENOUGH for me”
Why WE sing:
“Jesus There’s NO ONE like you…
All we have, all we NEED, all we WANT is YOU,” Jesus.
Worship is responsive.
#2- Worship CAN be MUSICAL. (v1, 20-21) It CAN be MUSICAL.
Remember: all of LIFE is “worship”, in a sense. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God.” There’s a way to WORSHIP God, to bring Him GLORY - or not - even in the way we EAT, the way we DRINK… the way we do ANYTHING. So worship can’t be confined to JUST music. We should really call Brian the Pastor of MUSICAL Worship. And I’m the Pastor of EXPOSITORY Worship (my job is to facilitate your worship of God as you understand and apply His WORD), and Thad is the Pastor of ASSOCIATIVE Worship (he facilitates your worship through associating, connecting, with fellow believers for communal worship in life groups and discipleship groups), he’s the Pastor of MISSIONAL Worship (we worship God by serving those in need whom God LOVES). It’s ALL worship.
But worship CAN, of course, be musical. And rightfully, biblically, so. It is the appropriate, worshipful RESPONSE of Moses and all the people of Israel here in v1: they “sang this song to the Lord”; and the first LINE of their song highlights the importance of the MUSICAL expression of worship: ““I will sing to the Lord”. HOW? HOW do we sing?
Well, first of all, we sing GRATEFULLY. Colossians 3:16 encourages us to “sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God.” If worship is a response, then it’s a response of GRATITUDE.
SECOND, we sing JOYFULLY. Psalm 95:1 invites us: “Oh come… let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation!”
Now notice: the Bible never says “make a BEAUTIFUL noise”; that would preclude SOME of y’all from singing on Sundays. It doesn’t have to be ANGELIC; it’s just gotta be JOYFUL. And the beauty in God’s design for our corporate worship is that the louder that person sings off-key behind you, the louder the REST of us who CAN carry a tune have to sing to make UP for it.
Which brings us to our THIRD descriptor: we sing LOUDLY; Psalm 98:4 says, “Shout for joy to the LORD, all the earth, burst into jubilant song with music” (NIV). Loudly.
Fourth, we sing FRESHLY; Psalm 98:1 calls us to “sing unto the Lord a NEW song.” Our worship should never grow STALE. God’s mercies are NEW every morning, so our songs of praise should be TOO.
Lastly, we sing GRATEFULLY, JOYFULLY, LOUDLY, LIVELY, and most importantly, we sing SINCERELY, GENUINELY… WHOLEHEARTEDLY. Ephesians 5:19 instructs us to “sing and make melody to the Lord from your heart”. True worship is never just “going through the motions”; it comes from the HEART.
Oh, and BONUS adverb: we ARE called to sing CORPORATELY; we sing TOGETHER. Psalm 95 emphasizes this: “Come, let us sing… to the Lord;
let us shout… Let us… extol him with music and song.” (vv1-2)
Exodus 15 may be titled “the Song of MOSES”, but he’s clear with us that ALL the “people of Israel” were singing along, v1; then in v20, when Miriam REPRISES the first stanza, and throws in a little tambourine, we hear: “and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing.” So we can add a SEVENTH adverb: we worship not just “corporately”, but corPOReally, as well; BODILY. Our worship isn’t just whole-HEARTED; it’s supposed to be a whole-BODY experience. That’s a COMMAND in Scripture: Psalm 150, v4 instructs us to “Praise him with tambourine and dance”. We’re gonna make some Baptists uncomfortable this morning!
But some of us are too self-conscious: “Should I raise my hands during worship? Who ELSE has their hands up…” God tells us who SHOULD have their hands up: EVERYONE! It’s another COMMAND: Psalm 134,v2 “Lift up your hands… and bless the Lord!”
There’s no ROOM for SELF-consciousness in worship; cuz if we’re thinking about SELF, then it’s not worship in the FIRST place. Because…
#3 - Our worship MUST be GOD-CENTRIC. (v1-21) It might be musical, but it MUST be GOD-CENTRIC.
He is the central focus of all true worship. That’s why here in Exodus 15, God is mentioned by name - YHWH - 10x in just 18 verses of their song (remember: every time you see the words “the LORD” in all caps like that in your Bible, that’s a placeholder for God’s personal name, Yahweh).
True worship is all about GOD, EXALTING Him for who He IS and what He’s DONE! And who IS He, according to Exodus 15? I find at LEAST 10 of God’s perfections here:
V1: God is VICTOR; “he has triumphed gloriously…”.
V2: God is SAVIOR; “[YHWH] has become my salvation”
V3: God is a WARRIOR; “The Lord is a man of WAR”; and that’s actually what the BULK of the song is about: God “sinking” Pharaoh’s chariots (v4); dropping them “like a stone” (v5); God “shattering the enemy” (v6); “overthrow[ing] [His] adversaries;” “consum[ing] them like stubble” (v7). It’s very militaristic language. Which has fallen out of popularity in the Church these days; our kids don’t grow up singing “I’m in the Lord’s ARMY” and “Onward Christian Soldiers” as much anymore; we think that’s too violent.
But friends: the Bible is VIOLENT. Exodus 15 is violent: “[God] sends out [His] fury… the blast of your nostrils… You blew your wind [so that] the sea buried them… YHWH is a man of WAR.”
Related, v6: God is POWERFUL. “glorious in power”; “In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow [them]”; “Terror and dread fall upon [God’s enemies] because of the greatness of [God’s] arm”; He is “my STRENGTH”.
But fifthly, God’s judgment on those who OPPOSE Him also highlights His JUSTICE. Three times Moses sings of God’s “RIGHT hand”, which signifies not just strength, but righteousness. Our God sets things RIGHT. And we should WORSHIP Him for it, EVEN for his righteous WRATH against sin; Psalm 76:10 declares of God: “Surely your wrath against mankind brings you praise”.
Sixth here, God is UNRIVALED; v11: “Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness”. God is HOLY; he is “set apart” in his majesty and in his perfection. No ONE, no THING, COMPARES to Him. He is UNEQUALLED. PREEMINENT.
And YET, this same God who is utterly transcendent and holy is ALSO equally LOVING, REDEMPTIVE, SHEPHERDLY, and WELCOMING toward us! I’m giving you the final 4 traits here all at ONCE, cuz that’s how MOSES gives them to us in v13 - this GLORIOUS verse:
“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 same God who HATES sin really does LOVE us, despite our sin.
The same God who punishes sin really has REDEEMED us from sin; v16 reminds us that we are “the people… whom [He] purchased.”
And now he GUIDES us in love, right to HIMSELF, His “holy abode”; he WELCOMES us, no longer as rebels, by nature “children of wrath”; but as the heavenly sons and daughters he has now MADE us.
Brothers and sisters: this is our GOD. And He is worthy to be PRAISED for it. Our worship MUST be God-centric. That was Pharaoh’s biggest problem, after all: His SELF-centeredness, His SELF-importance. PHARAOH wanted to be worshiped as God; he was “ME”-centric. V9 here REMINDS us of that:
“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.’”
How many “I, me, and my”s did YOU count there? I count SEVEN in just one verse!
Pharaoh would have fit in WELL in 21st c American society; our society applauds self-centeredness, self-absorption… Self-WORSHIP! I know I’ve drawn attention to this ad before, but it never ceases to SHOCK me: Nair’s advertising slogan from a couple years back: “WORSHIP YOURSELF”. And that really is the prevailing zeitgeist of today; Nair just put it a little more bluntly than most companies do.
But friends: you and I don’t need any HELP, any ENCOURAGEMENT, to be SELF-worshippers; we are predisposed for it. And that’s WHY our worship is so important because it re-centers us; it puts the focus back where it BELONGS: on the LORD.
Or at least it’s SUPPOSED to. I checked Spotify’s top 10 Christian songs of just last week. And I read the lyrics to ALL of them, and I just counted the “I, me, and my”s… and then I counted the “God, Jesus, He, Him”s… and you wanna GUESS how many of the top 10 are more GOD-centric? How many are TRULY worshipful?
ONE. “The Lord’s Prayer”, by Matt Maher, and he was just plagiarizing JESUS!
Church: we DO need to come back to the HEART of worship, where “it’s all about HIM, all about JESUS”. We need more Exodus 15 worship songs in our churches, that are COMPLETELY God-centric. He alone is WORTHY of ALL our attention, ALL our affection, ALL our PRAISE!
And yet, while our worship MUST be God-centric, #4 - it must ALSO be PERSONAL. (v2)
Look back with me at v2:
“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.”
There IS a place for “I, me, and my”s in worship. Now, we should pause and note two things: first, that whereas the “I”s and “my”s dominate this ONE verse, v2, GOD is the focus of TWENTY-ONE verses. And second, even here IN verse 2, we should acknowledge that the “I”s and “my”s are ultimately intended to point us back to THE LORD: HE is “my strength”, HE is “my salvation”... “I will praise HIM.”
But nevertheless, the point remains, that it’s not enough for us to merely sing truths about God - albeit GLORIOUS truths, OBJECTIVE truths. But friends: they’ve gotta be OUR truths: MY truth, YOUR truth. They’ve gotta be PERSONAL.
Just consider some of the wonderful “I, me and my”s that we’ve already SUNG this morning:
“I was an orphan… but you ADOPTED ME as your own…
I'm a child of God by… grace alone”
“Jesus, you paid my debt…
By your blood I have redemption and salvation…
I am born again by… grace alone”
“Spirit, you moved in me…
On my darkened heart the light of Christ has shone…”
It’s not enough for us to sing of ADOPTION, REDEMPTION, CONVERSION - as glorious as those truths may be. They must be MY truth - MY adoption, MY redemption, MY conversion.
“This is amazing grace…
That You would take my place
Bear my cross…”
The good news of the gospel is not just that Jesus “laid down His life”, but that He DID it so that “I” would be set free.
So I now SING for “All that He’s done for me”, PERSONALLY.
When “I was buried beneath my shame…
He called my name
And I came out of that grave…
His mercy has saved my soul…
The old made new
Jesus, when I met You”.
How about YOU, friend: have YOU met Jesus, personally? Have YOU been made new? Has His mercy saved YOUR soul?
If He HAS, then your worship WILL NECESSARILY be heartfelt.
I don’t care HOW big the fight was, with your spouse on the drive over…
I don’t care HOW bad the sound is, up there in the balcony…
I don’t care HOW bad David BUTCHERED the guitar solo (I’m just kidding David; you KILLED it this morning, brother)...
But friends: NONE of that MATTERS, when we are singing, reminding ourselves, of these glorious PERSONAL truths: that…
“I needed rescue / My sin was heavy
But my chains break at the weight of [Christ’s] glory” - you can’t half-heartedly MUMBLE that under your BREATH while you fold your arms and scan the room for the cute girl from Young Adult Ministry.
You won’t DO that if they’re YOUR truths, if it’s PERSONAL.
Our worship must be personal.
Lastly, #5 - Worship is inherently ANTICIPATORY. (vv17-18) Notice how Moses’ song ENDS here; Miriam will reprise v1, but the song concludes in vv17-18 with these reassurances:
God, “You will bring them [Your people] in and plant them on your own mountain, the place, O Lord, which you have made for your abode…
[And] The Lord will reign forever and ever.”
Worship helps us not ONLY look BACK, to what God HAS done for us, but it helps us look FORWARD, in anticipation of what He Has PROMISED to do for us in the FUTURE, as well.
In Israel’s case, it was God’s promise to bring them ALL the way, safely, into the Promised Land, his holy “mountain”, Mt. Zion.
But friends, you and I are now the recipients, Hebrews 8 says, of an infinitely greater promise… WE are awaiting, Hebrews 11 reminds us, an infinitely greater HOMELAND: we get to look forward to HEAVEN! PARADISE! Eternal GLORY, with Jesus, forever.
And what are we gonna do when we GET there, FOR the rest of eternity? We’re gonna WORSHIP! That’s why ALL our worship down here is INHERENTLY anticipatory, because it reminds us and it PREPARES us for what we’ll be doing for all eternity as we gather around God’s throne! This is good PRACTICE; you better get your vocal cords warmed up, your tambourine hands, your dancing feet - get ‘em warmed up. If you don’t like worshiping down here, you’re gonna HATE Heaven! Actually, if you don’t like worshiping down here, I don’t think you need to WORRY about Heaven. Cuz it’s apparently not HEART-felt for you! It’s not PERSONAL yet.
But I PRAY that’s not true of anyone here this morning. I PRAY that West Hills is filled with grateful, joyful, LOUD, lively, whole-hearted, whole-BODIED worshipers. I pray that our worship is MORE than a song, but certainly not LESS than it.
So in just a minute, we’re gonna close in worship, MUSICAL worship. It seemed appropriate, in light of this passage, to save a little extra time this morning to SING together. And after a whole SERMON about how and why we worship, if you’re not careful, you could get extra self-conscious about your worship: your attitude, your unworthiness, your volume, your posture, your performance. So let me just leave you once again with the GOSPEL: the good news that worship isn’t ABOUT your performance; it’s not about anything you have done or could do… it’s not about YOU at ALL! Worship is all about JESUS; who HE is, and what HE has done for you. It’s our response - our grateful, joyful, PERSONAL response - to HIM.
“It’s ALL about YOU, Jesus”.