A Song of Praise / Exodus 15:1-21

Welcome and Context

Well, it’s good hanging out with you here this week. How many of you, by the way, were out at the rodeo? My daughter had a deal on Friday night—she went to see a play at Mercedes Edwards Theater, which is right there at Clark Intermediate School. She calls me at ten and says, “Hey, can you pick me up?” So I roll over there. I made the mistake of driving down Clovis Avenue at ten o’clock at night on Friday. Every single dude was wearing plaid. Every guy, and every girl in cut-off jeans. I’m thinking, My daughter’s out here standing by herself while guys have been drinking buckets of beer all day, geared up and ready to fight. I thought, What kind of parent are you? But anyway, I heard the rodeo was awesome. One cowboy in the midst—good for you!

For those of you who might be guests with us, welcome to The Well. My name is Brad, and I’m glad you chose to hang out with us. As I was pulling into the parking lot, I was thinking there is just something so cool about being able to worship the Lord together and sit under the authority of the Word together. If you have your Bibles, open them to Exodus 15. We are going to walk through that text in just a little bit.

To our guests: we would love to get to know you. We’re not trying to be stalkers. We’re not going to come knock on your door and hand you a gift bag of things you don’t care about. But we want you to find a place where you can get to know people and feel like family. Life is hard, and doing life alone is no fun. The goal is to find relationships with people who love Jesus and are trying to grow in Christ.

When I first came to faith in Christ, I was living in some low-income housing over by Fresno State—places infested with more roaches than people. Some athlete buddies invited me to move in with them. It was like the beginning of a bad joke: a basketball player, a golfer, a baseball player, and a football player all living in the same apartment. It reeked to high heaven of “boy.” But I went from living in the Sigma Chi fraternity to moving in there, and the difference was night and day. Being around guys who were growing spiritually helped me tremendously to get sober, to figure out what sexual morality looked like, and to walk with Jesus. If you’re a guest, we want to help you connect to relationships like that. Come meet me or Mark afterward. If you’re a gal, Chelsea is in the back and would love to meet you. We want you to feel like family here.

The Story Behind the Song

Let’s get to work in Exodus 15. We are at a fascinating pivot point in our series. You might look at your Bible, see Exodus 15, flip the page, and ask, “Why stop here when there’s a chapter 16?” In the first fifteen chapters of Exodus, God is getting the people out of Egypt. From chapter 16 all the way through the rest of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, God is working to get Egypt out of the people. We are pausing at this exact pivot point to look at chapter 15, which is a song.

To understand the song, we have to understand the backdrop. I’m going to date myself here, but I am a huge James Taylor fan. JT is my boy. He shot a concert DVD back in Massachusetts where he introduced all these classic songs I’ve loved for years. Hearing the backstory of why he wrote each song and understanding his frame of mind made the music come alive in a whole new way. Though I’m not James Taylor, I want to walk you through the history that brings us to Exodus 15 so that this song makes sense.

When the book of Exodus opens, the people of God are in Egypt. They didn’t arrive as slaves; they arrived as guests. There was a famine in the land, and they heard there was food in Egypt. When they arrived, they discovered that Joseph—the brother who had been sold into slavery—was effectively managing the front door at Costco. Joseph welcomed them in and provided for them. But over time, generations passed, the guests became slaves, and they suffered severe oppression.

Eventually, God raised up a deliverer. On paper, Moses was the number one draft pick: a Hebrew baby saved by God’s providence, raised in Pharaoh’s household, educated in the Ivy Leagues, and trained like Navy SEAL Team Six with the Egyptian military. But while he looked great on paper, he didn’t yet have a heart fully submitted to God. Moses tried to deliver God’s people in his own strength.

Here’s a note to self that might save you some “dumb tax” and painful consequences: whenever you try to deliver yourself in your own strength, brace for impact. It will be like an airbag to the face. When we try to operate independently of God, it rarely ends well. Moses tried to break up a fight by killing an Egyptian, became a wanted murderer, and fled into the desert.

Moses spent forty years in the desert—the best place he could ever be, because that is where he found God. When we got our first microwave when I was a kid, I was thrilled because I could heat up a frozen bean burrito in ninety seconds. I wanted everything instantly. The idea of waiting thirty minutes for an oven felt unbearable. But God kept Moses in the desert for forty years to teach him the essential lesson of trusting Him.

Finally, God appeared in a burning bush and called Moses to stand before Pharaoh.

Exodus 3:1-10 (NASB)

Now Moses was pasturing the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian; and he led the flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. The angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed. So Moses said, ‘I must turn aside now and see this marvelous sight, why the bush is not burned up.’ When the LORD saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, ‘Moses, Moses!’ And he said, ‘Here I am.’ Then He said, ‘Do not come near here; remove your sandals from your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.’ He said also, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’ Then Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. The LORD said, ’I have surely seen the affliction of My people who are in Egypt, and have given heed to their cry because of their taskmasters, for I am aware of their sufferings. ’So I have come down to deliver them from the power of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and spacious land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanite and the Hittite and the Amorite and the Perizzite and the Hivite and the Jebusite. ’Now, behold, the cry of the sons of Israel has come to Me; furthermore, I have seen the oppression with which the Egyptians are oppressing them. ‘Therefore, come now, and I will send you to Pharaoh, so that you may bring My people, the sons of Israel, out of Egypt.’

God told Moses to command Pharaoh to let two million slave laborers go free. Moses asked, “If they ask me who sent me, what should I tell them? Who are you?” That fundamental question—Who is the Lord?—shapes the first fourteen chapters of Exodus. When Moses approached Pharaoh with God’s command, Pharaoh asked the exact same question.

Exodus 5:2 (NASB)

But Pharaoh said, ‘Who is the LORD that I should obey His voice to let Israel go? I do not know the LORD, and besides, I will not let Israel go.’

In response, God unleashed ten plagues upon Egypt. These were not random acts; they systematically discredited the entire pantheon of Egyptian gods. This was not merely a jailbreak—it was a theological confrontation of Egypt’s worldview. Yet, time after time, Pharaoh hardened his heart and refused to repent.

Exodus 13:15 (NASB)

‘It came about, when Pharaoh was stubborn about letting us go, that the LORD killed every firstborn in the land of Egypt, both the firstborn of man and the firstborn of beast. Therefore, I sacrifice to the LORD the males, the first offspring of every womb, but every firstborn of my sons I redeem.’

Every family in Egypt lost a firstborn child. The devastation rocked Egypt so deeply that the Egyptians opened their doors and urged the Israelites to take their valuables and leave immediately. Two million Israelites marched out of Egypt toward the Promised Land.

Shortly after, Pharaoh had a change of heart. He mobilized six hundred elite chariots, along with the rest of his army, to hunt them down. The Israelites found themselves trapped in a geographic cul-de-sac: the Red Sea in front of them, mountains on either side, and a furious Egyptian army advancing from behind. Moses raised his staff, and God parted the waters.

Exodus 14:26 (NASB)

Then the LORD said to Moses, ‘Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen.’

The sons of Israel walked through the sea on dry ground with walls of water on their right and left. The Egyptian army pursued them into the seabed, but God caused the waters to crash back down, completely destroying Pharaoh’s forces.

Exodus 14:30-31 (NASB)

Thus the LORD saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore. When Israel saw the great power which the LORD had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the LORD, and they believed in the LORD and in His servant Moses.

Imagine standing on the shore as a young Hebrew parent with your children, looking out over the sea. At your feet lie the bodies of the oppressors who enslaved you. In that moment, you would feel profound awe and sober reverence. God had demonstrated His unmatched supremacy over the greatest empire on earth.

What do we do when we encounter God like that—when He is no longer tame, safe, or easily fit into our small boxes, but revealed as the Almighty? Exodus 15 is the response of a people who have seen God as He truly is.

The Song of Deliverance

Exodus 15 breaks down into three distinct movements, marked by verses 6, 11, and 16.

Exodus 15:1-3 (NASB)

Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the LORD, and said, ’I will sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted; The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea. ’The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; This is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will extol Him. ’The LORD is a warrior; The LORD is His name.

Notice who is singing: Moses and all the people together. This isn’t a solo performance; it is the entire community responding collectively to the majesty of God. They answer Pharaoh’s question, Who is the Lord? He is Yahweh, the covenant-keeping God. He is our strength, our song, our salvation, and a mighty warrior.

Exodus 15:7-11 (NASB)

’And in the greatness of Your excellence You overthrow those who rise up against You; You send forth Your burning anger, [and] it consumes them as chaff. ’At the blast of Your nostrils the waters were piled up, The flowing waters stood up like a heap; The deeps were 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 gratified against them; I will draw out my sword, my hand will destroy them.’ ’You blew with Your wind, the sea covered them; They sank like lead in the mighty waters. ’Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? Who is like You, majestic in holiness, Awesome in praises, working wonders?

The second verse of the song celebrates God’s effortless power. In ancient agriculture, farmers took wheat to a hilltop threshing floor, where the wind easily blew the lightweight chaff away. The text tells us that God consumes His enemies just as easily. With merely “the blast of your nostrils,” the sea parted. God didn’t need to strain or summon extra strength; with a single breath, the waters stood firm.

Exodus 15:14-16 (NASB)

’The peoples have heard, they tremble; Anguish has gripped the inhabitants of Philistia. ’Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed; The leaders of Moab, trembling grips them; All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. ’Terror and dread fall upon them; By the greatness of Your arm they are motionless as stone; Until Your people pass over, O LORD, Until the people pass over whom You have purchased.

The third movement looks ahead to the journey into Canaan. The surrounding nations—Philistia, Edom, Moab, and Canaan—heard what God did at the Red Sea and were paralyzed with fear. God cleared the way for His people, guiding them by day with a pillar of cloud that provided shade in the scorching heat, and by night with a pillar of fire that lit their way like a comforting nightlight.

Exodus 15:17-18 (NASB)

’You will bring them and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, The place, O LORD, which You have made for Your dwelling, The sanctuary, O Lord, which Your hands have established. ‘The LORD shall reign forever and ever.’

God did not rescue them from Egypt to abandon them in the wilderness. His purpose was to bring them into the inheritance He established for them, a place where His presence would dwell among them.

Exodus 15:20-21 (NASB)

Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took the timbrel in her hand, and all the women went out after her with timbrels and with dancing. Miriam answered them, ‘Sing to the LORD, for He is highly exalted; The horse and his rider He has hurled into the sea.’

Miriam, Moses’ sister—who decades earlier stood watch over baby Moses in the Nile—picked up a tambourine, and all the women joined her in dancing and singing praises to God. Their immediate, unhindered reaction to God’s salvation was an outpouring of communal worship.

Rethinking Our Worship

If the Israelites responded with overwhelming praise after being delivered from physical slavery in Egypt, how much more should we praise God today? We have been rescued not from Pharaoh, but from the power of Satan; not from earthly bondage, but from the dominion of sin and death. Through the cross of Jesus Christ, we have been fully redeemed and reconciled to a holy God.

When we gather each week, does our worship reflect that reality? Do we come with shared anticipation, eager to celebrate the finished work of Christ? If we are honest, we often fall short.

Why is that? Worship languishes when we develop a small view of God and a big view of self. We sometimes treat church like a consumer service where we evaluate the music, critique the style, and focus on what we can receive rather than what we have come to offer. That is why we prefer to call our gathering a “gathering” rather than a “service”—we are not here to consume religious goods, but to assemble as the redeemed body of Christ.

We don’t need to be self-conscious or timid about worshiping God. Scripture encourages us to lift our voices and raise holy hands to the Lord. When we grasp the depth of our brokenness and the magnitude of God’s grace, heartfelt worship is the only fitting response.

I had the privilege of preaching at Westside Church of God on California Street, celebrating Pastor Paul Binion’s fortieth anniversary of ministry. It was an honor to stand in that predominantly African American congregation and open God’s Word. The worship there was filled with profound joy, freedom, and passion. It didn’t feel manufactured; it came straight from the heart. We can learn a great deal from that posture of wholehearted praise.

Apart from Christ, we bring nothing of merit to the table. But God has redeemed us, forgiven us, and brought us into His family through the sacrifice of His Son.

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NASB)

He made Him who knew no sin [to be] sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.

We have every reason to celebrate. You don’t need a perfect voice to praise God—I certainly don’t have one. But because of what Jesus has done, we can lift our voices together in gratitude. Let’s be a people who unashamedly praise the Lord for who He is and what He has done.

Closing Prayer

Father, thank You for Your Word. May it accomplish in our hearts everything You intend. Make us a people of genuine praise who worship You with joy, delight, and reverence. Let our voices rise together in unity to honor You, because You alone are worthy.

Thank You for redeeming us through Jesus Christ, for forgiving our sins, and for making us alive in Him. May we live and sing every day as people who are truly alive in Christ. We pray all these things in the precious name of Jesus. Amen.