December 11

What the Rescued Sing

A man who sings nowhere else in the year stands up in a cold church on a winter evening and gets through every verse, and nobody in the room finds it strange. The tune is older than he is, and his voice knows where it goes without being asked. All of it happens in the middle of an unfinished month, with the shopping half done and the year still running out.

Israel sang at the other end of things. The sea was behind them, the horse and its rider were in it, and the people who had been Pharaoh's slaves were free. The first thing they did with that freedom was sing.

Almost every verb in the song belongs to God. He triumphs, he throws, he becomes their salvation, he leads and he guides. Israel's own verbs are sing, praise and exalt. They had brought no rescue of their own down to the water, and their song says so on the first line.

Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord: I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song. He has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him.

Who is like you, 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 loving kindness, have led the people that you have redeemed. You have guided them in your strength to your holy habitation.

Exodus 15:1-2, 11-13

Partway through, the song stops to ask a question. Who is like you, Lord, among the gods? It is asked by people who have just watched the answer. And the answer arrives with two things held together: a right hand that ends an army, and loving kindness that leads a rescued people. Both belong to the same God, in the same breath, and the song then names where he is taking them.

The song comes back at the end of the Bible. Revelation shows the redeemed standing on the sea of glass, and it says what they are singing there: the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb. The song sung on the shore turns out to have a second half, and it is sung in front of Christ. God had a deliverance in mind that reached further than the water, and the child in the manger is how far it reached.

That kind of praise can be sung from the middle of the road. Israel's song credits God with the part already finished and names the place he is still leading them to, without waiting to arrive before it starts. Your December is unfinished too, and the songs will come at you anyway, in shops and in church. When the next one is put in front of you, what has God already done that you can sing about and mean?

Lord, you are my strength and my song. You have done for me what I could never have done for myself. Teach me to sing this month with my whole attention, and to sing about you.