Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to the Lord:

‘I will sing to the Lord,

    for he is highly exalted.

Both horse and driver

    he has hurled into the sea.

2 ‘The Lord is my strength and my defence;

    he has become my salvation.

He is my God, and I will praise him,

    my father’s God, and I will exalt him.

Sinners saved by grace tend to become singers saved by grace. When the Lord ‘becomes’ your salvation, He puts a song in your heart. You will see the repeated ‘I” and “my” in these verses. Personal salvation leads to personal praise. This is the first song of praise recorded in the Bible. Many more such songs were to be written, both in Scripture and in church history. All the way down to present times the song composition continues, in an outpouring of thanks to the saving God.

Notice here:

  • A statement of theological truth: God is “highly exalted” (1). He is far above all;
  • An expression of personal praise: “…and I will exalt him” (2b). To “exalt” the Lord does not mean we can lift Him any higher than He already is, but it means to recognise and acknowledge Him in the highest place. It is another way of saying that we “praise him” (also verse 2).

“Sing to the LORD a new song, for he has done marvellous things” (Psalm 98:1).

‘They had no part to play in, or contribution to make to, the acts they were celebrating, and so their song expressed their joy at entering freely into the good of what the Lord had done for them…the whole people were caught up in the excitement of what the Lord had done and they had experienced.’ Alec Motyer: ‘The message of Exodus’, pp.164, 165.