Singing Songs Because God is Good
Exodus 15
We sing worship songs because God is good!
I taught about the significance of worship as a response to God’s goodness and faithfulness. Here in Exodus 15, we see the first song recorded in the Bible—a song from Moses—and as we look closely, we begin to understand that worship is more than just singing. As believers, everything we do can truly be seen as worship to our God. We worship Him for no other reason than He is worth it and worthy of it!
What is Worship?
Worship is fundamentally about ascribing worth to God. It means respecting and honoring what we deem worthy. In the context of our faith, worshiping God means recognizing Him as the most important part of our lives. It is a natural response to His actions and character.
Worship can take many forms, including:
Singing: Expressing our gratitude and adoration through music.
Serving: Using our gifts, talents, and time to help others.
Giving: Offering our resources to support God’s work.
Anything: Anything and everything we do, we can do in worship of God!
Worship is about acknowledging God’s worth and responding to His goodness regardless of the form.
The Song of Moses: A Model of Worship
In Exodus 15, the Israelites sing a song of praise directly to the Lord after their miraculous deliverance from slavery in Egypt. This song, known as the Song of Moses, was a spontaneous declaration of God’s might and faithfulness. They declare the goodness, strength, and glory of God and his work in their lives.
God’s Deliverance: The song celebrates God’s intervention and protection.
Gratitude: It reflects the Israelites’ thankfulness for their freedom.
Prophetic Declaration: The song also foreshadows future deliverance and God’s ongoing faithfulness. There is coming a day when all God’s people around the world will be delivered —a deliverance from the kingdoms of this world into the kingdoms of our Lord.
Reflect on Your Deliverance: Take time to remember the moments when God has delivered you from difficult situations. Let these memories fuel your worship.
Express Gratitude: Use songs, prayers, or journal entries to express your thankfulness to God.
Anticipate Future Deliverance: Keep hope alive by looking forward to God’s future interventions in your life.
Spontaneous Worship
True worship is often a spontaneous response to God’s work in our lives. I encourage you to look for the times in your life—moments when you can recognize God’s faithfulness and respond in worship. In 1 Samuel 7:12, the prophet Samuel sets up a stone to commemorate God’s help, calling it “Ebenezer,” meaning “stone of help.” This act of remembrance is a powerful way to acknowledge God’s faithfulness.
Worship Builds Our Faith
Worship has the power to build our faith. The Psalms often begin with despair but end with praise as the authors reflect on God’s goodness. This process of singing and remembering God’s faithfulness can strengthen our faith and encourage us in difficult times.
Corporate Worship
Worship in a corporate setting should be decent and orderly. While expressive worship is valuable, we never want people’s attention diverted from Jesus. We aim to see Jesus and focus on the Lord and all he has done in our lives.
The Lord is your Defender
It is so crucial for us to take the Bible at its word. These are real stories in history. Exodus 14:14 reminds us that “The Lord will fight for you.” He is our defender. Without weapons or strategy, the Israelites sang praises because God was their warrior and delivered them. As we face spiritual battles today, don’t grow weary in your waiting. God is ready to give you your promised land, but we must trust Him and allow Him to fight our battles. You can trust Him! He will tell you when to move and when to stand still and remain silent. You can trust Him as your defender and your protector.
FULL UNEDITED TRANSCRIPT
Open your Bibles. Exodus 15 is where we are. Exodus 15, in the Bible Study I’ve entitled, “Singing Songs Because God Is Good.” Exodus 15 contains the Song of Moses. The most important thing that we can do on Earth is worship God. We were created to worship. We were designed to adore Him. That is our natural tendency, to worship God. And we can worship God through our singing. Of course, that’s how we normally associate worship. We can worship God through our service, through our sacrifice, through our giving – really everything that a believer does can be done, and should be done, in worship and honor of God.
Today we have before us a song – a song that was written in reflection of the faithfulness of God. It is a time where the children of Israel are gathering together to look back on God’s faithfulness, to see it and to sing it. That’s why we place such a great emphasis on singing, because God is able to use music to attach our hearts to His. It becomes a reflection or a response, you know, really growing out of our appreciation of Him. You know, the word worship comes from two wordsworth and sipe. It’s been shortened so that we pronounce it worship. It means “to respect and to honor and to ascribe worth to.” The idea is to ascribe worth or value to someone or something. In other words, we worship what we deem worthy. You probably heard people say, “Oh, he worships money,” or “She worships her kids,” or “He worships his career,” and on it goes. And what’s trying to be said is that that person is placing the highest value of their life upon that which they are worshiping, that that seems to be the most important part of their life.
And so it’s in our worship of God that we worship Him being the most important person in our life, for no other reason that than He is worthy; for no other reason. We don’t sing songs for what we can get out of it, or because it makes us feel good, or because encouragement comes, although all of those are included. The reason we sing is because God is worth it and He has stirred in our hearts the desire to ascribe worship to Him, the highest activity that we can ever attain. Jot it down. I like this verse in the old King James. Many times people ask, “What is my purpose in life? Why was I created?” You might even have someone come to you just really wrestling with life, wrestling with a career decision, or a family decision, or singleness, or marriage. And they might ask you, “What is it…what am I created for?” You can take them to Revelation 4:11, and then the old King James, they translated it this way, “Thou art worthy, oh Lord, to receive glory and honor and power, for Thou hast created all things,” and listen, “for Thy pleasure they are and they were created.” You and I were created at the pleasure of God, and to bring Him pleasure, to give Him our lives which He purchased with His own blood.
When a person follows God, you come to admire Him and know Him deeper, and your worship grows every day. Psalm 9:1 says, “I will praise You, O Lord, with my whole heart, and I will tell of all Your marvelous works. I will be glad and rejoice in You, and I’ll sing praise to Your Name, oh Most High.” In Psalm 40:3, it says, “He has put a new song in my mouth. Praise to our God. Many will see it, and fear and will trust in the Lord.” Worship in song is so valuable, church. You may even today have a problem with some of the worship music, some of what might be considered modern worship music or the new worship music. And some of you may have gotten caught up in some of the arguments. “Well, we don’t sing this song,” and, “we don’t sing that song.” And I’m asking you to step back from that for a moment and just come back to a simple place of worship. And sing the songs that are before you, whether they’re in this church or a station that you’re listening to, a radio station or a playlist and just receive them. You can bring the old songs, maybe you like some of the older songs, you can bring them with you. That’s okay. Bring them with you. Sing those, too. I think I’ve shared this with you recently, but it’s worth repeating. At the beginning of the year, I felt a burden in my heart to, “return to my first love” (Rev. 2:4). Not because I had any gross sin, but at the end of last year, I just felt these this theme coming up over and over again in Revelation where, Jesus gives that little post-it note to the church in Ephesus, “Remember, from where you have fallen, repent and repeat the first works.” It was coming up over and over again, and in my quiet time, I’m like, I felt like the Lord is going, well, “That’s for you, Ed.” I’m like, “what do You mean ‘it’s for me?’” Like, I don’t have any major sin. And I’m searching and I’m praying and there’s nothing that I could see that I’ve left my first love. I’m enjoying it. But the application really became, as I was waiting upon the Lord for clarity, the application came that God wanted me to go back to a time in my life as a new believer where I had far less difficulty serving; I had far less complications. Like, you know how sometimes you wish for a simpler life because things have been complicated and you layer upon layer upon layer. And in ministry, certainly my life has become a little more complicated than it was when I was a new believer. And so God brought me back. And the way that I applied that was that I wanted to listen to the Bible studies exclusively this year of the five men that affected me the most on the radio, because I did a lot of commuting and a lot of driving as a new believer, and a lot of time I was listening to a radio station like Grace FM in Southern California called K-WAVE, and I went back to the podcasts and I started listening to the five pastors that impacted me the most.
So Chuck Smith was one of them. Jeff Johnson, my pastor, is one of them. Raul Reis had a very profound effect in my life and his testimony. Ray Bentley, a great brother in the Lord that pastored in San Diego had a great…because he just happened to be on the time I would come home from work. So he was on the radio, and that’s the guy I listened to. And of course, Skip Heitzig, was a brother. So I’ve been listening to them all year, just soaking it in. And I’m being built up in the Lord, but also remembering, “You know, Ed, when you were a new believer, you didn’t ask so many questions when I told you to do something. You didn’t put up so much resistance when I told you to do something. You didn’t wait so long to apply that scripture or to share that word.” And, just, the Lord’s refreshing me.
And on top of that, the second thing that I did is now I also began to listen to the music that had a profound effect on me in the early 90s when I was saved. And let me just say, the music of the early 90s is very different than the music today. And so, Henry, who has led us in worship today, he knows his music very well, I asked him to help me put together a playlist. So I have Henry’s playlist. I have my playlist of music that profoundly affected my new believer life. It’s what my kids had to listen to when they were in my car. It’s what was on around the house. It’s what replaced all the cassette tapes that I destroyed and threw into the trash as a new believer. And it’s bringing up memories, and it’s bringing up thoughts, and it’s ministering to my soul because they were formative. And I’m finding myself playing that playlist over and over again, and God ministering to my heart in a new way. In addition to singing all the stuff that we’re singing now, where God has broadened my heart of how He wants to speak to me in His Word, and how He wants to speak to me in worship.
This, in Exodus chapter 15, is the first song recorded in the Bible, and it has great meaning, of course, to the children of Israel in this season of their life. You’ll recall, as you’ve been studying with us, that the place where the nation is right now, the people, are a very grateful people. They’re no longer slaves. They’re relieved. They were led into this place of a trap, remember? And God made a way where there was no way. And He delivered them. And they’re relieved and excited. Deliverance is theirs. God’s Word has come through. Not only that, but they have a new identity. They are no longer slaves. They’re not waking up in the morning and having to go to work and work 15, 16, 17 hour days. They look…and now they have a new identity. They are no longer slaves, but children of God. They have a new authority. Pharaoh is no longer number one in charge. They don’t need to worry about what Pharaoh has to say. They’re done with him. They can look directly to God now. Even though they did call out to God, they did call out to God. Because remember, that’s how God responded. He heard their cries (Exodus 3:7). So it wasn’t disconnected, but they had layers in between them and God, but no longer. Not at this point. It’s just now, man, “We look to You, Lord. We’re ready. We see Your power.” They also have a new location. They’re headed to the Promised Land. It’s going to be theirs. They are no longer living in Egypt. Can you imagine the sound of this song?
A couple of things I want you to notice before we get into the essence of the song and the chapter. But notice in verse one of chapter 15 it says, “Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord and spoke, saying,” and I want you to notice a couple of things. Number one, I want you to notice when they sang, they sang to the Lord. Don’t ever forget that you’re singing to the Lord. You’re not singing to the person next to you, or the person in front of you, or to the worship team, or whoever’s up on the stage or leading you with a with a piano, or you’re singing to the Lord. When we sing in worship, the focus and emphasis is upon God. And although we may have a band up here, or we may have stage presence or an atmosphere to create, or the lights might be on or lights off, or there may be haze on the stage or color, whatever that is, in order to enhance or even create the environment in the room, you are only singing to the Lord. Don’t forget that.
And I believe He is well pleased with our worship here in our church. I believe that with all my heart I believe that He’s well pleased when you come in and you don’t want to sing it all, so you sing in your heart. You just making, “melody in your heart to the Lord” (Eph. 5:9). Why? Because you’re down. Maybe you’re even embarrassed right now. You know, and “I don’t…I just don’t sing.” I don’t sing here. I don’t sing there. I don’t sing in the shower. I do not sing. I will never sing. And I would just challenge you. Say that out loud. Send me an email and tell me you’ll never. I love to see the “nevers,” in life where the Lord will melt your heart, and they’ll be coming a day where your heart is so in tune with the Lord that you can’t help but sing because of His faithfulness. So it’s okay. Let the Lord draw out from you. It’s good that you’re in the atmosphere. Other people are singing. We’re singing for you right now. We’re singing for you. You can lean on us during this time.
You know, I think of the times where you’re singing and you don’t know the words and you’re just making them up. The Lord’s well pleased with that. Or the times where you’re just humming along and you go, well, you know, I’m not really singing. No, you’re singing just fine. You’re “making a joyful noise unto the Lord” (Psalms 66:1, 81:1, 95:1-2, 98:4, 98:6, 100:1). He’s well pleased with that. I think at the time of when you’re criticizing the lyrics, He’s not well pleased with that. No. Just kidding. You know, you’re just like, I don’t like this song. Well, you know what the Lord’s like. You know, the song’s not for you. It’s for me. Have you ever thought of that? I don’t like this song. Well, who said the song was for you to begin with? The song is for the Lord, and He’s well pleased with these songs.
They’re vetted and prayed over. We’re careful to make sure the lyrics honor God. There’s even debate today on the lyrics of songs. Well, “You know, that’s just an emotional song.” Well, wait a minute. Aren’t we emotional? Give me an amen if you’re emotional. I mean, aren’t we emotional? Isn’t worship of God going to elicit some kind of emotion? Well, you know, “The song is all about us.” Now, nobody’s singing songs around here…I’ll tell you this right now…nobody’s singing songs, “It’s all about, me, Lord.” Nobody’s singing songs like that. So you don’t need to worry about that. It’s all about You, Lord.
Now, in your heart it might be all about me, but the Lord’s going to deal with that. But we’re not singing songs about me. However, there may be in songs, as the writer of the song was sitting down just thinking, “You know what, I really have an expression of life to God right now; I want to write it down; this is my expression.” And we’re reading it, and we’re reading the lyrics and seeing the song, we go, “Oh man, I think that would resonate.” Just sensing that the church, like Pastor Ian or Pastor Sean or even Henry, like, “I think the church is going through this right now, would be a really good song for us to respond to the Lord.”
Because I want you to notice also, secondly, in verse five and verse one of chapter 15, number one, they sing to the Lord, but also number two, it comes after a “then.” Do you notice that, “then?” Then. It starts right there, “Then Moses and the children of Israel sang this song to the Lord.” So, notice, that the worship began after a “then.” Worship of God, true worship of God, is a spontaneous response of what God has already done. We’re not trying to work anything up. We’re not trying to stir anybody up. We’ve come into the sanctuary of God. We’ve set our hearts toward Him, and we want to respond to who He is.
Some of you, you’re responding because He had a great day, or He was faithful today, or you were responding because of something that the Lord is just you’re just responding. Some of you are responding to the presence of God, but some of the lyrics of the song are going to…they’re by faith. You’re singing them by faith. You ever sing a song by faith? He’s like, “man, I’m not really experiencing that right now, Lord, but I want it. It’s going to be all about You, Lord. Last week it’s been all about me. But it’s about all about You, Lord. You’re our God.” And it’s a “then.” You want to look for the “then’s,” in your life.
God gave me a scripture. I meant to share it before service, but I’ll share it as a part of the message. Turn over. This is a scripture for someone today. Turn over to 1 Samuel 7 and you may just respond to this. This may be what you’re responding to, and you needed to put it into words. But the Lord was just really ministering to me in 1 Samuel 7. And it came back to me in our prayer time. And it’s 1 Samuel 7: 12. I’m praying about teaching this study again that I taught a couple of years ago, but it’s so good. It says in verse 12, “Then Samuel took a stone and he set it up between Mizpah and Shen. And he called its name ‘Ebenezer,’” which means the stone of help. And then he says this, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” Or another way of saying, that is, “look how far God has brought you.” He’s brought you this far. That’s how you made it today. He’s brought you this far. It hasn’t been your devoted life and your faithfulness and your obedience and your good works, although those are all great i n response to the Lord. You know Who’s brought you this far? The Lord! And you set up those Ebenezer Stones along the way that are reminders that you go back and go, “Oh, God brought me this far, and I’m going to the next one.” “God brought me this far; I’m going to the next one.” “God brought me this far….” And as our pastor taught us, Pastor Chuck, he would say, “God hasn’t brought you this far just to drop you.” That what He has begun in you, He is faithful to complete it until the day of Jesus Christ (Phil 1:6). And when we worship, we’re responding. It’s a response. It’s a response. They’re delivered. There’s joy in the Lord.
The third thing I want you to notice, and then we’ll jump into the text itself, I want you to notice that this worship is a declaration of God’s goodness, and you’ll just see it throughout the rest of the song. There’s a declaration, but there’s also a, like “God, look what You’ve done.” This is what we’re experiencing. But, “You’re so good.” We’re experiencing, “You’re so good.” With that in mind, pick up in verse one,
I will sing to the Lord for He has triumphed gloriously!
The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea.
The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation.
He 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 army He has cast into the sea;
His chosen captains are also drowned in the Red Sea.
The depths have covered them; they sank to the bottom like a stone.
Your right hand, O Lord, has become glorious in power;
Your right hand, O Lord, has dashed the enemies in pieces.
And in the greatness of Your excellence You have overthrown those who rose against You;
You sent forth Your wrath; it consumed them like stubble
And with the blast of Your nostrils the waters were gathered together.
The flood stood upright like a heap; and the depths congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, ‘I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil;
My desire shall be satisfied on 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, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?
You stretched out Your right hand, the Earth swallowed them.
You in Your mercy have led forth the people whom You have redeemed;
You have guided them in Your strength to Your holy habitation. Exodus 15:1-13
We’ve even sang songs that are derived right from here. As I’m reading it through, I’m reminded of some of the songs that we’ve sang throughout the years that come right from this text, but it’s such an encouraging song. It’s so encouraging, as they’re looking back on their present condition, extolling and worshiping God for all that He’s done. What’s encouraging and what’s interesting is that in the Hebrew, this is both a song that looks backwards, but in some of the words in the Hebrew, there’s a future tense attached to it. A future tense. Moses is singing it, but also this will be a song that’s sung in the future.
Let me show you. Go over to Revelation chapter 15. So there’s a sense where Moses gets to look at it and sing this song in his own present condition, but there’s also a prophetic part to it that he doesn’t even know. He’s not even sure yet what, during the time of the Great Tribulation, when the glory of the Lord is ready to come from Heaven to the Earth, we find that there’s going to be a time that we’ll be singing the Song of Moses, the glorious time. Notice it says in Revelation 15:3, “and they sing the song of Moses.” They sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb saying, ‘great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty. Just and true are Your ways, O King of the saints, who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? You alone are holy. For all the nations shall come before You. Your judgments have been manifested.’ These things I looked, and behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in Heaven was opened,” and on with Revelation 15.
There’s going to be a time in the future that this song is going to be sung! And the idea is because there’s a greater exodus to come. So there’s a prophetic word in this exodus. That’s God saying, “I’m showing you a pattern of deliverance. I want you to get this. Very early on in the Bible, that I am a God that delivers, and I am a God that defends, and I am a God that shows Himself faithful, and I am a God that you can rely upon.” But also there’s a greater exodus that’s going to be experienced, that’s happening in the future. A greater deliverance than what the children of Israel experienced. It will be the deliverance of all God’s people around the world, a deliverance from the kingdoms of this world.
Do you ever get, you know, of all the emotions, and certainly they’ve been rising in this latest political realm, this latest generation, what’s going on and all the emotions that you have, you know, the angst, the frustration, the fears, all the emotions. Have you ever had the emotion of anticipating the soon return of the Lord? Not just, “God, please come,” but the reality that He is coming and that God is going to deliver whoever is alive at the time of the Rapture. He is going to deliver the men and women, the boys and girls at the time of the Rapture from the kingdoms of this world. Don’t you want to be delivered from the kingdoms of this world, from the political leaders of this world, from the nonsense of this world, from all the rules and all the just…? The kingdom of this world will pass and be replaced with the kingdom of God.
And you’re going to sing the song of Moses. You better learn it, and you better be ready for it, and you better start living it out. It’s going to be a song that we have in the future, so I thought that was really cool. Moses doesn’t know this yet. He’s just singing just right in song, Miriam leading him in worship. He doesn’t know this yet, which also speaks to me just thinking about a life lesson for us, right? It speaks to me is what you’re doing right now. What you’re involved in right now is for now, and could be for the future. It could be. You don’t know. You don’t know what God is doing. That’s why you want to be faithful, today. You have a song to be written? Write that song! Because that’s how you are right now. But I wonder how God might use it in the future. You need to make a phone call? Make the phone call and reach out. And God uses it now. But how will God use it in the future? You need to send that text message? Be faithful. Send the text message. God could use it now, but who knows, He might be moving you for now and in the future. Imagine that. Oh, what God wants to do with your life, how He wants to use you and grow you and mature you. He wants to use your gifts and your talents. He wants to see you not only enjoy today, but be a blessing to the future.
And Moses doesn’t have any idea that this will be the song sang during the Great Tribulation period, in the middle, in the midst of the Great Tribulation period, they’re going to sing the song of Moses looking to the deliverance from the kingdom to this world, and that the kingdoms of our Lord. Notice again, come back in Exodus 15, it says, “the Lord is mystrength, He is my God.” This is a reminder that when we worship, we remember that it’s relational. Worship is not, singing is not, service is not….
Before our time, before we open up in prayer today, I invited you to be a part of something really important to us. Something that God has entrusted to us. That we need some special help for our conference. This is something that God has given to us, so we have been faithful with it, and we believe He will provide all that’s necessary for something He led us to do. And I shared that with you. And in the response, it’s…if and when you step into serving, it is not transactional. Even though you might feel like you got to sign up, you got to show up. It’s not transactional, it’s relational. That becomes a worship of the Lord. It’s relational because God has touched your heart. I mean, if you think about it, you may not think about the fullness of it, but think about this. I want to step away from song just for a second because it happens in song, too. But service, your service, like, first of all, you’re born again. So God has brought you into the family of God. You’re adopted. Then He’s filled you with His Holy Spirit. Some of you baptized by the Holy Spirit, and now you’ve got the newness of life. You’re a new creation in Christ. “Old things have passed away; you’ve got new thoughts, new habits, new direction; everything about your life is new (2 Cor 5:17).
You make some progress. You stumble. You have some victories. You have a few failures along the way. But your life is under the Lord. It’s totally changed. You’re not living for the world anymore. You’re not partying anymore. You’re not involved. You’re completely changed. Not a perfect life, always looking to grow. But the Lord is doing things. Why? Not because of a bunch of minor transactions. It’s because God loves you. You were out in the middle of the world doing your own thing. And, you know, generally okay with it. You weren’t too happy with the effects of sin, but you were generally okay with a life lived apart from God. This is the way you were. It’s the way you were raised, the home you were in, whatever it might be. You adapted yourself. You learn how to cope with things and maybe it got bad. Maybe you start drinking, maybe, you know, have a messed up home, you know. It got bad. But you learn how to live with it.
And in the middle of that, God opened your heart and your eyes to a real love. I mean real love. Sacrificial love. That your Creator God reached down in time, from eternity, into time, to open your eyes and your heart to Him, and you responded. And everything started in relationship and continues in relationship. So that when you’re sitting in a church now, so many years later, or so many months later, and you’re hearing, you go, “Yeah, I want to give to God, what could I give back to Him?” But if you only look at your life as transactional, you’ll hear an invitation and go, “No, that’s not for me.” How could you say that so quickly? How do you even know? How do you know what the Lord has? “Well, that’s because I don’t want to do it.” Oh…
And, “I’m just not ready, and I don’t….” So your worship songs are still, “It’s all about me, Lord.” That’s where you’re at right now. Because it’s all transactional. It’s just, “Well, I’m going to do it; What am I gonna get back. I’m going to do it; what am I going to get back?” And it’s all about transaction. But that’s not the joy of ministry. And so song is like that “Okay, I’ll do it. I’ll just sit through the music because that’s part of my church service, but I don’t wanna be….” It’s all transactional. You may have so quickly forgotten what God has done for you and so you’re not worshiping. You may have so quickly forgotten the Ebenezer stone, the Ebenezer stone. “The Ebenezer stone? How many stones?” Yeah, you just forgotten the faithfulness of God.
Even if you don’t have anything else since the moment you were born again, which you do, but let’s just say you don’t, I’ll go…you’ve forgotten that you were taken from darkness into light (Eph 5:8). And it becomes just, you know, “I’m going to do what I want, when I want, how I want.” And that’s not how you begin. And that’s not God’s will for you in the future. And that’s a miserable religious experience. For the Lord, God has so much more. He’s my God. And you can say that just as much as I can. He’s my God. I worship my God who called me out of darkness. I worship my God. And these songs, if you notice, there’s such great words of faith where songs, they inspire us, they encourage us. True worship builds the faith of the believer. It’s true that, “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). But it’s also true that when you sing and you rehearse the goodness of God, your faith is built.
Some of you may say, well, “prove that biblically, pastor.” I’m glad that you challenged me to do such, I will. When you read through the Book of Psalms, which is the Bible’s songbook, notice what it did to the author. He starts out, you know, David so often will start out, “I’m so…it’s so hard; I’m so tired; I don’t know what I’m going to do.” And then, “People are after me; I have so many enemies; break their teeth, Lord!” That’s how he starts many of his psalms. But by the time he ends, he’s like, “But Lord, You’re so good. You’re so faithful.” Don’t break their teeth. That’s not in the Bible. But he changed his mind, you know, it’s like, “don’t break their teeth, Lord.” Like, “I just commit ‘em to You.” “You do whatever You want,” because his faith was built just by sitting down and writing it out. The hymn book of the Bible.
Worship never replaces His Word. You can’t substitute a diet of music for the digestion of His Word, but you can add it to your life. That’s why I am so convinced, more and more every single year, that for us in our little church who’s been given the stewardship of GraceFM, I believe that GraceFM is absolutely essential for the spiritual life of this city. That it was God’s will, that it be here. And it was God’s will that we steward it. Why? Because we place a great emphasis upon the Word of God. But there’s also worship on it. There’s also music. In between the songs, you might get a few little worship snippets in there; all day Saturday. In the landscape of YouTube, in the landscape of podcasts, in the landscape of all the technology today that seems to be gaining greater audiences, and for good reason, there’s still a place for that little radio in your car. That you’re just flipping through the dial and some dude’s on there and you’re like, “what is this?” And then you’re like, oh man, it’s not some dude, like, “God is speaking to me.” God is ministering to me. And through the teaching of the Word, your faith is built up.
Notice, come back to Acts 15. Now it says in verse 14, “The people will hear and be afraid; sorrow will take hold of the inhabitants of Palestina,” or Philistia, some of your Bibles say.
Then the chiefs of Edom will be dismayed; the mighty men of Moab, trembling will take hold of them; all the inhabitants of Canaan will melt away. Fear and dread will fall on them; by the greatness of Your arm they will be as still as a stone, till Your people pass over, O Lord, till the people pass over whom You have purchased. Exodus 15:15-16
Verse 17,
You will bring them in and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, in the place of the Lord, which You have made for Your dwelling, Your sanctuary. Oh Lord, which Your hands have established. The Lord shall reign forever and ever. For the horses of Pharaoh went with his chariots and his horsemen into the sea. And the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them. But the children of Israel went on dry land in the midst of the sea. Exodus 15:17-19
And, notice, “Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took the timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrel and with dances. And Miriam answered, ‘sing to the Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously, and he is the horse and its rider. He is thrown into the sea’” (Exodus 15:20-21).
And I just…it begs, you know…it remains to be said again that God loves true worship. He takes great joy in the worship of His kids in every form and fashion. Singing and dancing unto the Lord, and, you know, being in a place where you’re triumphing over…. And you go, “wait a minute, dancing? I don’t see dancing around Calvary Chapel. I don’t see that around here. Why aren’t we dancing?” Well, why aren’t we waving flags? Why aren’t we running laps in the sanctuary? Why aren’t we running up and down the aisles during song? And that’s a good question. I mean, we want to remind you that in those outward activities, they have a tendency to draw attention to the person doing them. So you bring your flags to church. “And so I want to wave my flags.” Well, why? “Well, just because I want to wave my I want to wave my flags up on the stage.” Well, why does that have to be on the stage? Why can’t it be in the parking lot? “Well, nobody will see me in the parking lot.” Exactly. “Why can’t I run?” Well, it’s probably not wise for you to be running around the sanctuary while we’re all singing in the dark. However, if only a few decide to run laps, or dance…and it always has to be up at the stage, you know it always has to be up front. Like, you want to find yourself a quiet corner in the back and have an emotional time with the Lord, that’s probably okay. If you want to do a little dance in your chair, back in the back, that’s probably okay. Especially on a midweek Bible study.
But when you start to draw attention to yourself, who’s going to give permission to tell you that? It’s like, “hey, bro, like, it’s all about you.” “It’s all about you wanting to be seen in your brand new flags you just bought.” Or, you know, “you want to bring your tambourine and you want to lead worship from the front row.” No! Tambourines belong outside and, just, “the service is live in your car, play your tambourine in your car.” And to which some would say, “Well, it’s not the same…we should be able…we should have the freedom.” Come on. You got to really examine your heart. Why do you want to do that? Is it really worship of the Lord? “Yeah, it’s really worship.” Then go ahead and tell me when you’ve done it for a year in the car, and maybe we’ll consider. “Now, pastor, I don’t like this church. You’re so restrictive!” Nobody’s restricting you. Play your tambourine, play both your tambourines in the car, and have your kids in the back with the flags. Whatever you want to do. But to bring it here, to draw attention to yourself, we won’t allow that. We won’t allow it. It just won’t be good. It won’t be good for the flock. Because you have to remember when you come together for corporate worship, God values, He says it in His Word…He values…He likes things, “done decently and in order” (1 Cor 14:40).
That’s what the Bible says. That’s His heart. Its desire is so that there’s decency, and an order. And different people have different definitions of that, for sure. But I want you to examine your heart. In a service setting, when everyone’s here together, things can get out of control very quickly. People’s attention would be diverted away from Jesus. And so our goal is to have your attention focused upon the Lord, to the best of our ability. But there is great freedom here. If you want to find a place in the corner and, we’ll just see what the Lord does, fine, go for it. I mean, don’t…not with a tambourine. Don’t misunderstand me. You’re listening on the radio, “Honey, you will not believe it, call our friends, we found the tambourine….” No, no, no. Not here. Oh, we have a tambourine detector at the doors. You know, it’s like, *ERRRNNNT*, “Oh, can you go back, please, sir?”
Like, no. Like, no, no, no, no. We’ve got the worship team is fine here. They’re great. It’s wonderful. But you can raise your hands here. You can stand here. You can find yourself in a place if you want to move and you want to sway. You have opportunity there. There’s a whole space open up here. You want to kneel to the Lord. You want to lay face down to the Lord. You want to express yourself. There is great freedom. Just understand. The line that we try to draw the best of our ability is we won’t allow people to draw attention to themselves. Because even coming up to the front to kneel before the Lord, like some people won’t come because they’re so, you know, thinking of themselves, they’re so self-conscious. “You know, if I do that, what will people think?” And I say, just get over that and use it if you can. And the Lord would have you.
But other people, you may make the coming up the way, and you make it a big deal, and you’re hopping up and it’s like, “Oh look, oh look at brother so-and-so’s going up.” You don’t want people to see brother so-and-so. You want people to see the Lord. And that’s how we’re trying to disciple you to the best of our ability. But you see this this was a very emotional time, a really opportune time. And Miriam had the authority in verse 30 to take out the timbrel in her hand. And then the women followed her, and it was just a special occasion. So it was really cool and really great. Now I’m going to probably have to skip the last half of this section because I want to take a moment and I want to speak to…so we’ll stop in verse 21 today because I want to address this phrase, or the whole psalm here, or the whole song here, is kind of built upon verse two and three. This is the theme, “the Lord is my strength and my song. He’s become my salvation. He’s my God. 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.”
Now, these people are rejoicing because they thought they were dead. You remember that moment? They thought they were done. They looked forward. Read. See? Look to either way. To the left. They have nowhere to go. And behind them is the marching army of Egypt, ready to kill them or return them to Egypt. They thought they were done, and dead. Instead, their enemies have perished. That’s what has inspired this song. They thought they were done, but God came through. Therefore, Moses speaks of God as a man of war. Again, this is an anthropomorphism. It’s a describing an eternal God in temporary terms. He’s ascribing human terms to God so that we can understand. God is not literally a man. He’s referred to as a man of war.
Now, I realized that in these times in which we live, and I hadn’t heard it for a while, but it’s so weird, man. Our phones listen to us. They literally listen to us because I had this thing pop up on my Instagram this week as I was putting this study together of somebody actually saying the exact same…I haven’t heard it in so long. And they were saying how, “We’re just not going to sing songs about God being a man of war or all these violent words and songs, because we just don’t think God is like that.” And I’m like, wow! Unbelievable! And now that all your phones are listening to me, you’re going to all get that on your algorithm right now.
And that is a popular view in very progressive churches; churches that do not believe in a literal interpretation of the Bible; Cchurches that don’t believe in the relevance of the Old Testament today; and churches that like to do whatever they want with the Bible instead of letting the Bible do whatever God wants in your life. There’s a big difference. Add to that a very large part of the so-called church, whether the real Church or not, I’ll leave it unto the Lord, that we might refer to as very liberal in their theology, who see everything through the lens of pacifism, and never violence and never…God is, Jesus is, very pacifist. And you know, when they say, “turn the other cheek,” they think turn the other cheek. It’s actually, you know, in those theology, it’s almost always everyone else has to turn the other cheek, but I’ll defend myself. But that never comes out that way. But that’s theology that they impose upon the scriptures. But church, I want you to understand you have to abandon the Bible in order to come to that conclusion. You have to abandon the Bible.
I mean, churches today, they’ve become so, you know, some denominations today, they’ve, even in their hymnals of the old standards, the old hymns, they’ve stripped some of their hymns of songs like, “Onward Christian Soldiers.” They don’t sing it anymore. It’s like, “No, no, no, nothing like war, nothing to enhance war.” But church, we need to know our Bibles. And this is the value. Whether you realize it yet or not, you will soon enough. But this is the value of being in a church that will teach the Bible verse by verse by verse, by verse by verse, all the way through. This one is very important. I just want you to turn back a page or two to chapter 14. We have already studied this, so someone that will come to you and go, “no, no, God’s not into war. He’s not a ‘man of war.’ You can’t say that. That’s not relevant anymore.” No, no, no, you have to look back and see what the promise of God was. How did God describe Himself? Well, it says right here in chapter 14, verse 14, “the Lord will fight for you.” And so now God has fought for them.
And the song in response is God is a man of war. You have to understand that Pharaoh not only had an army, but he had like Special Forces. He had implements of war. He had chariots, our modern day tanks and modern day air warfare would be like the chariot of the day. The most advanced technology of war available to man came after the children of Israel. The children of Israel had nothing! They had a lot of gold and a lot of things that they took that God gave them from, from the Egyptians so that they could start their new life. But they didn’t have weapons, weapons of war where they were; they were slaves. They weren’t organized that way. They had no general. They had no chariots. They had no weapons of war. Moses was a prophet. He wasn’t a general, but Moses was a spokesperson for God. So therefore, if this was a battle against from army, against army, and Israel had no army…God was their army. I want you to let that sink in. God was their protector and God was their defender.
Again, we don’t have time to get deep into it, but one of God’s names that’s mentioned 285 times in the Old Testament is the, “Lord of hosts,” or the “Lord of armies.” The Lord of hosts. And then when you fast forward in the New Covenant, how does God describe our everyday life? Our everyday life is a spiritual war, Ephesians chapter six. Except that God wants us to understand that the spiritual war we’re engaged in is not physical, it’s spiritual. “The weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They’re mighty in God” (2 Cor 10:4). So still to this day, old covenant, new covenant, you don’t have an army, and I don’t have an army in my life. Who’s your army? God.
I wonder who needs to hear that today? Who’s seeking out to defend yourself and to fight all the battles. And you feel like you’ve got to fight every battle that comes your way. You’re just a fighter, “I’m gonna fight.” But God is your army. You can trust Him. You can lean into Him. He’s your defender. That’s how you sing this song – when God has come through; when He’s been your protector; when you held your tongue; when you went to your prayer closet. When you just committed, you know, that situation, “You just know, Lord, You’re just gonna have to deal with them; You’re just gonna have to deal with them. I can’t deal with them. Every time I talk to him it upsets me and he starts…You’re just going to have to deal with them, Lord. You’re just going to have to take care of her.” And you see the victory today, the desire today that what God is doing today is, is the victory that’s won today is somebody won over to Him. Because we’re not praying that the children of Israel were just praying to live. They weren’t asking for the armies to be destroyed. They just wanted to live. That’s it. And God said, “I’ll take care of you. I’ll get you where you need to go. I’ll fight your battles. I’ll defend you. I’ll protect you.” And today we are engaged in a battle and a struggle for the destiny of our futures, of what God wants to do. It’s a battle royale, but it’s not flesh and blood. We’re at war with principalities and powers and the Lord is our protector.
And here’s what I have found, maybe you can relate, but as I commit these things to the Lord in my life, a couple of things happen. Number one, people around me, they want me to fight. That’s their advice, “If I was you, I….” All right. And so that puts pressure. It puts pressure on us. They want me to fight because that’s what they would do. But it’s not their battle. It’s my battle. And so you feel that pressure. The second thing I find out in my life when I’m fighting these battles is – I want to fight. It’s not just them. I want to fight. Because in my mind, I think that if I did this and this and said this and put this, and if everybody knew the whole story and…I mean, this is a real example. I really…if everybody knew the whole story, everybody would be on my side. But my story, my whole story of my life, is not for everybody to know. God knows. God knows. And so He’ll take care of it, even though at times I want to fight.
And the third thing that I find that happens when God reminds me of this spiritual warfare is that I get tired of waiting. I just get very impatient. Because, I mean, after all, if I can get through this battle, I’ll get to the next one, get to the next one, and we’ll take more ground for the Lord. But with the children of Israel, I just want you to know He’s ready to give them the whole land, and He’s going to take care of them. And today, your destiny, your future, what’s up ahead for you, “The Promised Land,” as a type and a picture of what’s to come for you, the promises of God – God is ready to give them all to you. You’ll get it eventually. All of us will get the inheritance of God in its fullness. But, church, you got to let Him fight your battles.
Now, this isn’t a general statement for every situation in every…because you know you’ll interpret it…you’re just going to have to take this to the Lord and pray. Sometimes it’s important to speak up. Sometimes it’s important to stand your ground. I’m not speaking to every single situation that everyone’s going through, just generally. If you trust the Lord as your protector, He will lead and guide you in the battle to make the right decisions of when to speak, when to stay silent, when to turn left, when to turn right, when to stand still and see the power and the victory of the Lord. Stand still. Move forward. He’ll tell you. You can trust Him. You can trust Him. And we’ll get the rest of the chapter when we get to the waters of Mara, the first thing that the children of Israel deal with is bitterness. Do you want to know why? You’ll have to come to the next Bible study.
So, Lord, we thank You for the songs that You give us and the teams that lead us and Your Word that speaks to us. We, we want to be the women of war. We want to be the men of war sometimes. And You’re just calling us to Yourself, reminding us of Your faithfulness, that You are protector, You are our defender. And You’ll lead and guide and guard and protect us, Lord. And so give us strength, wisdom. Give us the beauty of trust and peace. Faith and peace, Lord. And we’ll sing our songs to You. These beautiful, wonderful songs that You have given to Your church. In Jesus name, Amen.
