On the far shore, Israel sings. The Song of Moses is the oldest hymn in Scripture — a burst of praise for a God who threw the horse and rider into the sea, and it does not stay in the past tense: it looks ahead to the nations that will hear and tremble, and to a mountain sanctuary where God will plant His people. Miriam takes up a tambourine and the women answer. Then, three days later, at bitter water, the singing stops and the murmuring starts.
A study in Exodus 15 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 8 min read
I Will Sing Unto The LORD
“I will sing unto the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously: the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father’s God, and I will exalt him.”
Exodus 15:1-2
This is the first song in the Bible, and it is all about God — what He did. Not “we escaped” but “he hath triumphed.” The line “he is become my salvation” is quoted straight into Isaiah 12 and Psalm 118 as the language of every later deliverance. Redemption produces music before it produces anything else.
“In freeing our souls from the bondage of sin, God has wrought for us a deliverance greater than that of the Hebrews at the Red Sea.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 289
The LORD Is A Man Of War
“The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name. Pharaoh’s chariots and his host hath he cast into the sea… Thy right hand, O LORD, is become glorious in power: thy right hand, O LORD, hath dashed in pieces the enemy.”
Exodus 15:3-6
“A man of war” is not a picture of cruelty; it is the promise that “the LORD shall fight for you” was kept. The enemy’s boast in the song — “I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil” (verse 9) — is answered by one line: “Thou didst blow with thy wind, the sea covered them.” Israel had no weapons. God did the fighting; Israel did the singing.
Who Is Like Unto Thee, O LORD
“Who is like unto thee, O LORD, among the gods? who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders?”
Exodus 15:11
Pharaoh asked “Who is the LORD?” (Exodus 5:2) as a sneer. The song asks it as worship, and answers it: no one is like Him. The gods of Egypt — the Nile, the sun, the frog, the bull — have all been publicly humiliated, one plague at a time. This is the verse the redeemed sing again at the very end of the Bible, standing on a sea of glass: “the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb” (Revelation 15:3).
Unto Thy Holy Habitation
“Thou in thy mercy hast led forth the people which thou hast redeemed: thou hast guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation… Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O LORD, which thou hast made for thee to dwell in… The LORD shall reign for ever and ever.”
Exodus 15:13, 17-18
The song stops looking back and starts looking ahead — to nations melting in fear, to a mountain, to a sanctuary God has made for Himself, to a King who reigns forever. Israel is only three days out of Egypt and singing about a temple that will not be built for four centuries. Faith sings the end of the story from the beginning.
“This song and the great deliverance which it commemorates, made an impression never to be effaced from the memory of the Hebrew people… It points forward to the destruction of all the foes of righteousness and the final victory of the Israel of God.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 289
Miriam Took A Timbrel
“And Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dances. And Miriam answered them, Sing ye to the LORD, for he hath triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea.”
Exodus 15:20-21
The sister who once stood “afar off” watching a basket in the reeds (Exodus 2:4) now leads a nation of women in the chorus. She is the first woman in Scripture called a prophetess. The whole camp is singing the same line back and forth across the water.
The Waters Of Marah Were Bitter
“And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter… And the people murmured against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the LORD; and the LORD shewed him a tree, which when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet.”
Exodus 15:23-25
Three days from the greatest miracle of their lives, and the song is forgotten. The people do not pray; they blame Moses. Moses does what they did not: he cries to God. A tree thrown into bitter water makes it sweet — the first of many times in this book that wood and water together mean life.
“In his grief at their distress Moses did what they had forgotten to do; he cried earnestly to God for help.”
Ellen G. White · Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 291
I Am The LORD That Healeth Thee
“If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God… and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians: for I am the LORD that healeth thee.”
Exodus 15:26
At bitter water, God gives Israel a name for Himself: the LORD that healeth thee. The plagues that fell on Egypt are held back from a people that will listen to Him. And just past Marah lies Elim — “twelve wells of water, and threescore and ten palm trees” — abundance that was there all along, one day’s walk beyond the complaint.
