The people of God are free for the first time in 400 years and what do they do? They have a hymn sing. 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.
Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron [and also the sister of Moses], took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. 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.
So she leads the women in what is essentially an echo of what the whole congregation has been singing, a refrain, a repeated chorus, if you will. Now as I read that account, it reminds me of another example in the Scripture where women again celebrated and applauded a major military victory, which is what this was. God was the general. He was the commander in chief.
But another occasion you read about it in 1 Samuel chapter 18. It says,
As they were coming home, when David returned from striking down the Philistine [Goliath], the women came out of all the cities of Israel, singing and dancing, to meet King Saul, with tambourines, with songs of joy, and with musical instruments. And the women sang to one another as they celebrated, "Saul has struck down his thousands, and David his ten thousands (verses 6-7).
So they were celebrating. They‘re military heroes, David and Saul. As we come to the Red Sea hymn sing with Moses and Miriam, they are celebrating God‘s triumphs over the Goliaths of their day Pharaoh and the Egyptian army.
Music has always been an important part of everyday life in Israel. From the time of the Old Testament, its been used in celebrations, in weddings, in funerals. Even in war there were special instruments that would sound the call to battle. Music was an important part, and is an important part, of religious life in Israel. Both in their formal worship, in the temple, in services and rituals that God prescribed, and also in other religious occasions, feast days.
You see, for the Jewish mind in the Old Testament everything that happened in life was somehow connected to God. So everything that happened in life was an occasion for music of some sort and good things that happened blessings, the first fruits of the harvest, the last of the harvest coming in, the special feast days, the Passover. These were occasions for celebration and singing.
Now the Scripture gives us some interesting details here about this hymn sing. We read that Miriam took a tambourine in her hand and all the women went out after her with tambourines. Some of your translations instead of tambourine may have the word timbrel. Do some of you see that in your Bible the timbrel, the tambourine? Its the same thing.
Its a small hand drum, essentially what we think of as a tambourine today. But it would have had a parchment stretched over a wooden hoop and then small pieces of brass or tin that were attached to make a jingling noise. So you hold it in one hand and then hit it with the other hand. Its a small percussion instrument, a small hand drum but also makes this jingling noise.
It was usually played by women, and it was usually an accompaniment to singing and dancing. In the Old Testament when the tambourine is referred to, or the timbrel, its always associated with joy and gladness. Its an instrument of celebration.
Interestingly, the tambourine was forbidden in the temple, but it was often used at other religious occasions. Feasts and celebrations and triumphal processions, such as the one we just read about with David and Saul and this one at the Red Sea.
So it says Miriam took a tambourine in her hand and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing.
In this passage we see that Miriam begins what became an Israelite tradition of celebrating God‘s victories through dance. Now there were other means of celebrating those victories but it brings to mind the passage that says let all that is within me bless His holy name! (Psalm 103:1).
An Israelite worship dance was often used to reenact the battles that God had fought for them. Its interesting as you look at some more pagan cultures, you’ll sometimes see and you‘ve heard described these war dances that are done before the battle as people are hoping for a victory, trying to work up a victory.
You don‘t see the Israelites dancing before the battle. You see them dancing after God has won the battle to reenact what it was like when God sent that victory. I think that this kind of dancing was a way of remembering God‘s deliverance.
So I see it as a spontaneous, joyful dance, but I also see it as being an intentional means of capturing our faith. Remember they didn‘t have the written Word of God. They had to have oral and verbal and visible means of capturing these faith experiences and remembering them and passing them on to the next generation.
I want to point out three things about the praise that took place in this hymn sing. First, that it was corporate. Secondly, that it was celebrative. Third, that it was Christ-centered praise. Let‘s just take a few moments to look at each of those.
First of all this was corporate praise. We‘ve seen a progression here of how the Israelites got to the Red Sea and they were faced with this hopeless challenge of the Red Sea in front of them, mountains on either side, the Egyptians breathing down their necks behind them. They were hemmed in.
So they were panicked. They were terrified. Out of their panic they prayed. They cried out to the Lord. So panic turned to prayer. God heard their prayers. God delivered them and prayer turned to praise. Isn‘t that often the way the progression is in our lives?
Panic. Then you remember, Oh, yeah, God‘s in Heaven. He‘s on His throne. Maybe He can do something about this. We don’t know what to do. We have no hope. But Lord, our eyes are upon You.� Isn‘t it true that often its the panic places that press us to our knees to pray? But remember prayer will turn to praise as we see the deliverance of the Lord.
So in these verses we see that Moses and the people sang this song of praise to the Lord and that Miriam led the way with her tambourine. But all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. This is a corporate worship experience. This is not a private worship experience. This is two million liberated Jews rejoicing together in what God has done.
I see here when it comes to this matter of worship the power of example. The power of Moses example. He influenced the children of Israel and Miriam to praise the Lord. And the power of Miriam‘s example as she began to celebrate and to praise the Lord the other women joined in with her.
It reminds me that as you and I lead out in a lifestyle of praise even in difficult or desperate circumstances and certainly at times when we need to be celebrating God’s victories and His triumphs, as we lead out, as we lead the way in praising, others will follow. They will come after us.
Now, if we are slow to praise or if we‘re quick to whine, others will follow us in that example also. As Miriam picked up her instrument, then the other women picked up their instruments. Others will join in with you in singing the song of redemption and in playing their instruments of praise as you join in.
Sometimes we wait for others to start the celebration. There may be a time when nobody else is celebrating, but we say, You know what, though everything is going wrong or though nobody else is celebrating, I‘m going to be the first. I will lead out. Its interesting that Moses and Miriam‘s songs are very similar but there is a slight difference. Moses says in verse 1, I will sing to the LORD. There‘s the singular there. The verb there is singular. When Miriam picks up the chorus in verse 21 she says, Sing to the LORD, and its a plural word that means all us sing.
Graham Kendrick is a worship leader in the United Kingdom, and he points out that in all the songs in the book of Revelation, of which there are many songs in that book, not one of them is a solo. It’s corporate praise. It’s corporate worship. There are 24 elders who sing hymns and cast crowns before His feet. There are myriads of angels. Thousands and thousands of angels.
Every living creature in heaven, in earth and under the earth and all that is in them join together in singing to the Lamb. Those who overcome the beast, multitudes of people and multitudes of angels. People from every tribe, every language, every nation. What do they do? They join together corporately to praise the Lamb.
So it was corporate praise that took place there on the other side of the Red Sea. It was celebrative praise in the second place. Celebrative praise. There are times for singing somber songs. There are times for singing laments, dirges. You have examples of laments in the Scripture, including many in the Psalms. But this was a time not for dirges, not for laments, but for a song of celebration. This is passionate, joyful, exuberant, celebrative music.
The reason is the occasion. The whole event surrounding the exodus, the Passover, the coming out of Egypt, the coming through the Red Sea is a picture and the foundation of the redemption story, and that‘s something worth celebrating. You read about this over and over again in the Scripture. You read about it in the Psalms.
Psalm 66 is an illustration.
Shout for joy to God, all the earth; sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise! Say to God, �How awesome are your deeds! So great is your power that your enemies come cringing to you. All the earth worships you and sings praises to you (Psalm 66:1-4).
"Come and see what God has done; he is awesome in his deeds toward the children of man. He turned the sea into dry land; they passed through the river on foot. There did we rejoice in him, who rules by his might forever� (Psalm 66:1-6).
It goes on to talk in that Psalm about how God overcame the enemy and set His people free. That is something worth singing about. How much more we who have been redeemed from sin and Satan and from bondage to ourselves, how much more occasion do we have to sing and to celebrate the goodness of God?
We need to remember to celebrate God’s miraculous intervention in our lives in the big things and in the little things. His everyday deliverances. His major deliverances.
That‘s what Psalm 66 says.
Bless our God . . . who has kept our soul among the living and has not let our feet slip. For You, O God, have tested us; you have tried us as silver is tried. You brought us into the net; you laid a crushing burden on our backs; you let men ride over our heads; we went through fire and through water; yet you have brought us out to a place of abundance� (Psalm 66:8-12).
That‘s what we celebrate. We celebrate that the victory is the Lord‘s, His divine intervention. We celebrate in a sense the judgment of God on all forces of evil and the final judgment of God and the safe passage of His people to the other side. We celebrate that day yet to come when we‘ll be free from all enemies, sin and Satan and self.
Finally, our praise is Christ-centered centered on Christ. Now the Jews didn‘t know Christ in the way that we have come to know and love Him. So much of what happened in the Old Testament was meant to point us to Christ. In verse 2 as you read the song of Moses, he says. The LORD is my strength and my song, and He has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him.
That word salvation is the Hebrew word Yeshua, the Hebrew name for Jesus. It means salvation. Literally that passage says, Yeshua, He is my God. They were proclaiming that Jesus was their God. They had to do it with eyes of faith because Jesus had not yet come. But anticipating the coming of God‘s promised Redeemer, they centered their praise in Christ my God.
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