15:1 Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the LORD: “I will sing to the LORD, for he is highly exalted. The horse and its rider he has hurled into the sea.
An appropriate response to God doing great things is singing. We sing at many celebrations in our culture. We sing I’m dreaming of a white Christmas, Happy Birthday, and we will, we will rock you all in an attempt to express solidarity during an event. Music has the power to convey not only the content of the event but the emotions as well. As we join together in singing we share the event in a new way. I remember singing with thousands of Jesus-followers many years ago. We were in a large auditorium in Switzerland. People from all over the world had gathered for this event. As we sang I heard multiple languages all voicing the same praise to the Lord. There was a unity during our singing that did not exist when we started to talk. When we talked we stumbled over our individual languages. We needed an interpreter if we really wanted to understand or be understood. But when we sang together, I had no idea what they were singing, but I knew they were singing the same praise to the Lord. The singing seemed to bridge all the gaps. When we were worshipping none of the human barriers were present. All the cultural barriers seemed to drop. I held hands with people from lands I probably will never visit. We had no earthly common ground. But when we were singing, we were united. So as the Israelites cross the Red Sea and the Egyptians are drown in that same sea, the Israelites unite in song. The overwhelming fear that had consumed them the day before as they saw the Egyptian chariots approaching became overwhelming joy. The weight had been lifted off their shoulders and they were able to let loose. And Moses has a song to unite them. This is one of the reasons we join together weekly in worship. We need songs telling our salvation story uniting us, drawing us closer to each other and to the Lord. Even if our voices sound like fingernails on a chalkboard, we need to sing together the great story of God’s work in our lives and in history.
The Arnold Journey 