The Song of Moses and Miriam

Introduction

We have all been following the Afghani crisis over the past week and a half. What has happened there, and what is happening there is a horrible humanitarian crisis as the Taliban continues to wreck havoc upon the entire nation. We know that Afghanistan is a primarily Muslim country, but unknown to most people, the church in Afghanistan has been rapidly growing over the last 15 years.

However, with the Taliban takeover, these Christian communities are in deep trouble. The Facebook quote that you have seen over the past week is true. The Taliban did send a letter to a Christian church, telling them, “We know who you are, what you do, and where to find you.”

A man by the name of Mark Morris who lives in Memphis actually had a retreat this last weekend with Afghan pastors, as there are many refugees in the area. The entire weekend, the wept, the prayed, the read Scripture, and they sang.

He describes the experience this way, “Our song leader chose the hymn, “A MIghty Fortress is Our God.” As we sang the final verse, an Afghan brother came and whispered in my ear, “Ashraf Ghani, Afghanistan’s president, just resigned. The Taliban are now in control.” And we sang,

“Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also; the body they may kill: God’s truth abideth still; his Kingdom is forever.”

Can you imagine these Afghan leaders, getting messages possibly from their family and certainly from the people that they know - sing? That’s what they do… sing? How in the world can they sing.

They sing, because they have been delivered. They might not be delivered from their immediate danger, but hear me. We know this to be true this morning. (1) God has not left them. (2) They are in his care. (3) The salvation of the Lord belongs to them. (4) God holds them in His Hands. (5) Their sin and death has been conquered by Jesus Christ.

CIT: The Christian response to God’s salvation is worship.

Explanation

The Israelites have been rescued from the hands of the Egyptians, and they have crossed the Red Sea.

The first thing that they do in their deliverance is worship the Lord. They stop and worship. There are times in our lives that God brings us through something incredibly difficult, and we know that we have other things to do, but the most important is worship.

They sing a song, formally known as the “Song of Moses” to worship the Lord.

Miriam grabbed a tambourine and the women went out with her to play the tambourine and dance. She also sang a song to God.

Application

DISCLAIMER: I am going to point out issues that I see in the contemporary worship movement as well as issues that I see in the traditional worship movement. We can flesh out issues in our contexts to see if we have any idols. The enemy will distract us from worship or ruin our worship in any way he can, because worship is one of the most wonderful things that we can do to relate to God and grow in Him.

Worship is more than a song, but it is not less than a song.

You have to do more than sing to worship, but you also cannot do less. Singing is a very big part of worship.

The people of Israel could have done 100s of things on the other side of the sea. They sang.

There are actually three songs of Moses. Moses was a man’s man who sang and wrote songs. David was a man’s man who wrote songs and sang unto the Lord.

Singing in corporate worship is an imperative. If you don’t sing, I want to invite your to find that joy in Jesus. Singing enflames our passions for God and our Savior, Jesus.

Singing is the most counter cultural thing that we do. When the world is burning, we sing, because God fights our battle.

Colossians 3:17 // teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your heart to God.

Your singing matters to the people around you.

The modern worship movement has done something subtle. The darkened room, the stage lights, the loud music has caused a spectator mentality. Slowly, people began to sing less and less.

Worship is the natural response to someone who has been delivered by God. It is emotive and responsive. Singing, in general, is an emotional expression to something.

We worship, because we have been saved.

If you have no desire to worship, at all, it might lead to the fact that you are not saved.

Miriam’s song was accompanied with singing and dancing. (v20-21).

Some people think that worship should only be dignified, solemn, and controlled.

My admonishment for you is not to lighten up but to get serious about worship.

Worship is meant to bring us to the throne of grace where God resides, our sins are forgiven, and our lives are changed.

Baptists used to be notoriously opposed to dancing which included the worship service. They were wrong.

Worship is a “storying” of God’s people.

The “worship wars” of the last decade were catastrophic on the church.

Some people only wanted to sing hymns, but forgot (or didn’t care) that God has given this generation a “new song” which is good.

Some people who will only sing new songs, but forgot that God has been faithful in generations past.

Worship, singing, stories us. We sing old songs, because we remember what God has done. We sing new songs, because we see that God is still working.

In our worship, we look back to Jesus, the cross, the resurrection, and we look forward to his coming again.

When your family sits around your bed in your final hours, they won’t recite a sermon that I have preached. They will sing. They will sing hymns, spiritual songs, and praises to God.

Worship is about God, not about us.

Notice in each of these verses how often they share the attributes of God: (1) triumphed gloriously, (2) strength and song and salvation, (3) man of war, (4-5) sovereign, (6) glorious power, (7) great and majestic, (10) over creation, (11) holy, glorious, wonderful, (13) loving and steadfast, (18) reigning forever and ever.

The real tragedy of the worship wars isn’t contemporary, traditional, or blended worship. It is a people to fixated upon themselves and their own preferences to worship the Lord who is worthy.

We celebrate good music, but we don’t need it to worship God. Our hearts are set on fire by Him. Anything that we need to worship God other than God himself can quickly become an idol. I noticed this in my own life, I wanted my coffee, my book, my comfortable chair, my christian music, etc.

There is a word in worship music that sets my pastoral spidey senses. The word is “I.” The more I hear that word, the more I, the more closely I have to listen, because I might have stumbled upon a man-centered song.

I remember my time in India, the songs that the believers sing there were from one of the preset tracks on a keyboard and the same phrase over and over. Yet, their worship was authentic and powerful. Why? It was about God - not them.

How much of the church sang this morning without guitars, pianos, organs, air conditioning, or the comfort of their freedom to worship? Yet their worship was sweet and good.

Conclusion - How do we fuel our hearts to worship?

We only become worshippers of God through deliverance. We see Israel’s first moment of worship in this text. It is centered upon God’s deliverance.

Christ is the only one worthy of worship. We make him the object of our worship. We look at the cross, the empty tomb, and the right hand of the father, and we get our minds off of ourselves.

Can we take our minds off of ourselves this morning and sing this song simply and in faith to our God.