and every wrong he will redress. The mighty God of our salvation will judge the world in righteousness. Amen. Amen. And let's turn to the Word of God, Exodus chapter 15. That's page 72 in the Bibles under the seats. And we'll look a little bit at the details of the song itself. But as we move from the historical narrative of the crossing of the Red Sea to the song of praise after the crossing of the Red Sea, We're going to think especially about song this morning. We're going to think about singing praise to the Lord, even as we'll look a little bit at this song itself in Exodus chapter 15. Our scripture reading and our text is verses 1 to 21 of Exodus chapter 15. Let us hear the word of God. Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, 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 my song. He has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise Him. My Father's God, and I will exalt Him. The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. The floods covered them. They went down into the depths like a stone. Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power, your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy. In the greatness of your majesty, you overthrow your adversaries. You send out your fury. It consumes them like stubble. At the blast of your nostrils, the waters piled up. The floods stood up in a heap. The deeps congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue. I will overtake. I will divide the spoil. My desire shall have its fill of them. I will draw 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, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them. You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed. You have guided them by your strength to your holy abode. The peoples have heard, they tremble. Pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia. Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed. Trembling seizes the leaders of Moab. All the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. Terror and dread fall upon them because of the greatness of your arm. They are still as a stone. Till your people, O Lord, pass by, till the people pass by whom you have purchased, you will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain, the place, O Lord, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established. The Lord will reign forever and ever. For when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them, by the people of Israel walked on dry ground in the midst of the sea. Then Miriam the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and dancing. And Miriam sang to them, Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. And so far the reading. The grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our Lord endures forever. Well, dear congregation of our Lord Jesus Christ, what is the oldest hymn of the New Testament church? Well, for that, we can look at the text of the New Testament itself. There are a few places that are generally considered to be a song, You know, we don't... Greek poetry and that works a little bit different than English, and so it's a little hard for us to pick out, but especially, especially it's widely agreed that Philippians chapter 2 verses 5 to 11 is part of a hymn. The Apostle Paul goes to part of a hymn in his letter. And so the ancient name in Latin for that text is the Carmen Christi, which is just Latin for hymn of Christ. So we can probably say that's the oldest New Testament hymn of the New Testament Church. If we go outside of the scriptures and if you think of a hymn in terms of lines of words with musical bars and notes next to it, well then the oldest hymn we have with musical notes is the Oxyrhynchus hymn and it's about 1700 years old or older. And it's this little fragment of a hymn found in the Egyptian town of Oxyrhynchus, after which the hymn is now named. It's a Trinitarian hymn, as many of the very old hymns that we still have are. And so the concluding line from the fragment parts that survived is this. Father and Son and Holy Spirit, let all the powers answer, Amen, Amen. Strengthen praise and glory forever to God, the sole giver of all good things, Amen, Amen. And since the musical notes are there with it, you could even try to look it up. You might just look up Oldest Tim instead of trying to spell Oxyrhynchus, and you can even hear the notes that go along with that very ancient hymn. But if we think, brothers and sisters, about the oldest hymn of the Church, well we know that the New Testament Church is just the continuation of God's people. The Old and New Testament saints are united together in the same faith. And so really it's not about thinking about the very old Egyptian hymns or or some hymns which may have been written before that. It's not about going to the Carmen Christi in Philippians chapter 2. It's to go right here to Exodus chapter 15. God's people almost certainly sang before this. We know from Genesis 4 that music was there very early. But this is the first recorded hymn of God's people that we have. It is the hymn of victory on the eastern shore of the Red Sea. It was, on that day, a new song for the new deliverance and the new salvation that the Lord had given to his people. And it says something to us about when we can and should sing new songs still today. And so our theme, again, we'll look a little bit at the hymn itself, but we're thinking partly about singing as God's people. As a whole, our theme this morning is this. Sing a new song of praise as we see God's deliverance in the morning. And we begin first with this song at the eastern shore. The night of flight is over. The night of marching over the miraculously dry seabed is over and it is given way to the morning we see that language in chapter 14 verse 27 and there is salvation at the break of day after that long night I don't think anybody slept that night you're walking through the held up walls of water and everything else going on. After that night of deliverance has come the morning light and with the morning light the people of God see the salvation that God has given. They sing a new song of praise at the break of dawn. The armies of Egypt have pursued from the west but the Lord has delivered over his people to the eastern shore. And so they sing this song of praise beginning with these words, I will sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. And just like brothers and sisters and boys and girls, you may have noticed especially if you're old enough that you're beginning to read, when you turn to songs in our hymn book, usually the title of the song is the first line of the song. Well, that's what we have here. The first line of the song is the title of the song. And so when Miriam teaches the women the song at the end of our text, in verse 21, we get the title of the song, the first line of the song. Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider. He has thrown into the sea. And brothers and sisters, what a song of praise this is. We have repeated use of the name of the LORD, Yahweh, LORD in all caps. Eleven times we see that name in this song. And then repeated use of pronouns that refer to, this is God's work, God has done it. And so we see you or your with reference to the Lord more than 30 times in this hymn. And so people of God, even as the historical narrative would, yes, show us that God does use means, God does use human agents. We think about the Exodus and we might say Moses planted, Aaron watered, and God alone gives the increase using the language of the Apostle Paul. And yes, we can look back at the historical narrative and we can see the human agents that God used. And so, verse 21 of chapter 14, Moses stretched out his hand over the sea. And we see also the means of God's creation that he used. And this was done by a strong east wind in the middle of 14 verse 21. But when we turn to the song, the human agency and the means that God uses fade to the background. And so now the emphasis is entirely upon how God has done it. 15 verse 8, At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up. This is a song of praise to the Lord. for what he has done. Yes, the Lord uses human agents and the means of his creation, but ultimately the victory is his victory. It is his doing. And so when we move from the historical narrative to the song of praise The emphasis is entirely upon the Lord's doing. The only time the song begins to speak in terms of, I will, I will, I will, it's with reference to what the enemy said in verse 9. But everything that the enemy says they will do, the Lord overthrows it with the breath of his own power. Verse 10, you blew with your wind. The sea covered them. So let's just pick out a few more things from the song itself, brothers and sisters. First, there is an emphasis on salvation. Look at the end of verse 2, that God has become my salvation, the middle of verse 2. And then this deliverance is a deliverance through the overthrow of the enemy, yes. The horse and his rider, a poetic description of a chariot horse and the chariot driver or rider. God threw them into the sea, for the Lord is, verse 2, a man, verse 3, a man of war. And so Pharaoh's chariots are drowned. Verse 4, and his chosen officers were sunk into the sea. Just pausing there for one second. This was no half-trained army that God defeated. This was the most powerful, most well-trained army of the ancient world. Yes, the plague has decimated their numbers somewhat, but the soldiers who are still there, they have not lost any of their training, any of their military precision. God completely overthrows them. And then for the surrounding world and for the witness of this might of God to the ancient world. The thought was not only that we each, us in Canaan, will worship our local Canaanite gods, and the Philistines, they'll worship their local Philistine gods, and the Egyptians, they'll worship their own gods. But it wasn't like our Canaanite gods are the best. It was more like, well, we worship our gods because this is the place where we are. But we're really kind of jealous of Egypt, because look at how powerful they are, and look at how powerful their gods have made them. In other words, brothers and sisters, the worldview of the day was, Egypt is the most powerful. They have the most powerful gods. We kind of wish we had their gods and lived in their place, because look at how great they are. and God has totally overthrown the powers and the world views of the day. That says no. Egyptian gods are nothing, the Egyptian army is nothing. The people of God sing the song of praise, for God alone is awesome and mighty. He strikes down those who stand against him. And again, it doesn't matter if it's a trust in human military strength or a trust in human ideas. God is the man of war. He will judge rebellion against him. We all must repent and stand in humility before him. And standing in humility before him, acknowledging our own humble place, our own sinfulness. We elevate God's glory. And that's just all through the song. Let's just pick out three examples. Verse 1, the Lord has triumphed gloriously. Verse 6, the Lord is glorious in power. Verse 11, who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds. Brothers and sisters, this is the oldest song of God's people recorded for us. And it teaches us about what singing is. Singing is giving glory to God. So then we stop and we think about singing praise together. Is this not part of what we do as we gather together as God's people? And truly, it does not matter how well we sing or do not sing. There's only a few here who are brave enough and skilled enough to really sing the harmony lines well. Some of us don't even really know what a harmony line is. But that is not what matters. What matters is not the skill of our voices, which may not be even with the same strength that they used to have. There can be all different reasons why our singing is maybe not itself what we want it to be. But that's not what matters. What matters is our hearts in crescendo together. The voice is just an avenue. The voice and the accompaniment is just an avenue so that we can lift up praise to the Lord together. That is what we are called to do. God's people are always to be singing the Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs together from week to week. And so we are to sing the glory of the Lord and what he has done together and we're to do this from generation to generation. With that we'll look a little bit here at the role of Miriam in the last few verses. What is her role? She is a leader in in the people of God. She has her own role. Micah chapter 6 verse 4 mentions Moses and Aaron and Miriam. But her leadership is of course different from that of Moses and Aaron. She leads, who does she lead? She leads the women. So she has especially a leading role for the women. And she is a prophetess, which says something about her teaching, but it's It's not an ordained position. She's not a priest, nor is any other woman ever a priest in the Old Testament. No, she is not ordained for holy service like her brothers are and will be, but she does have a role. And it is not a role that we should neglect, even if we have to stop and clarify, living in a time when all kinds of people think that women should be priests in the New Testament sense. So even as we have to stop and clarify, let's not gloss over the importance of what she is doing. Moses wrote the song, but now Miriam is playing a key role in the song to be remembered from generation to generation. Because what happens after Miriam teaches the song to all the women of Israel? Who is in the home with the next generation? all the women of Israel. Who has the most time and an important task of teaching this song to the next generation when they are young children? The women of Israel. And so Moses writes the song and let us all sing a song of praise together and let us not stop singing the song of praise but from generation to generation with mothers even having a special role and women whether that's the mother in the home, or grandmothers, or aunts, or whatever, women having a special place in teaching the next generation. And so now, we're not only singing this song together on this day, but the people of God should remember this song from one generation to the next. And people of God, is it not a beautiful thing to hear the next generation singing songs of praise to God. And children, are you learning songs of praise from your mother and your father? Let us sing a song of praise. Let us sing a new song. And let us sing from generation to generation. And so, this great day of deliverance, it is remembered. And there are other newer songs written about this deliverance many years later. If we turn to the Psalter, which is the inspired song book that we're given in complete form as God's people, and it should continue to have an important place in our singing together. Well, that song book called the Psalter, the first Psalter, the Book of Psalms, it has a number of psalms that make reference to the deliverance at the Red Sea, including one that Most of the Psalms that mention the Red Sea specifically are undated, or we don't know exactly the author, but Psalm 136 certainly looks like it was written in the days of David. That would have been 400 years after this. Psalm 106 was written, we can see, in the days of exile, and so that would have been 800 years after this. And those are two of the Psalms that make specific reference to this deliverance at the Red Sea. The people of God are to continue to sing, and also to sing new songs written 400, 800, however many years later, about the deliverance that God has given. And certainly, people of God, those songs, they should have an important place in our praying and our singing together, even as we can also look at the 50 other songs or so that we find throughout scriptures, including this one here. So we have 150 songs, we also have about 50 other songs within scripture itself, starting again with this song at the eastern shore. But we do not only sing psalms, we can also sing new songs. And the Psalms themselves say that. Psalm 98 verse 1, Sing to the Lord a new song for he has done marvelous things. And here, brothers and sisters, was a day that the people of God sang a new song using language of the new deliverance that God had brought. When they were on the western shore the day before, they did not know that the waters would part and they would be brought across and God would judge the Egyptian army trying to follow after them. But now they know. Now they have seen. Now the exodus, which began with a measure of trepidation, when are those chariots going to chase after us, has reached a climax. And in that climax, their hearts are lifted up to the Lord in this new song of praise. And brothers and sisters, when we think about new songs of praise, do we not know of, yes, even the greater deliverance? Yes, we certainly do. Please turn with me to Mark chapter 16. Mark chapter 16. because we move from the new song of deliverance at the eastern shore to the new song of praise that we sing at the empty tomb. God worked a great deliverance in the Old Testament, which the people saw at the light of day, and here we have the Great deliverance completed at the light of day. We see the victory. Mark 16, beginning at verse 1. When the Sabbath was passed, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James and Salome, brought spices so that they might go and anoint Him. And very early on the first day of the week, when the sun had risen, they went to the tomb. And they were saying to one another, who will roll away the stone for us from the entrance of the tomb? And looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled back. It was very large. And entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting on the right side dressed in a white robe. and they were alarmed. And He said to them, Do not be alarmed. You seek Jesus of Nazareth, who was crucified. He has risen. He is not here. See the place where they laid Him. But go, tell the disciples and Peter that He is going before you to Galilee. There you will see Him, just as He told you." And brothers and sisters, The implication in Exodus is that Moses wrote the song that very day. As great as the deliverance was, it was not too astonished to write a song. When we come to the empty tomb, nobody's writing a hymn on the very first day. It is too glorious. It is too astonishing. All they can do is flee from the tomb for trembling and astonishment had seized them and they said nothing to anyone for they were afraid but as the Church of Jesus Christ sees the risen Lord and hears the risen Lord and as his disciples see him, and behold him, and hear his words, and see him ascend to heaven, we come to know this truth. And we are not trembling and astonished. We are trembling with joy. And we write one song after another, one new song after another of the greater deliverance. Because what is the crossing of the Red Sea? The eastern shore is nothing compared to the empty tomb. It is nothing. Brothers and sisters, for those who are here, did we not talk about how scripture gives warnings about those who cross through the Red Sea, and yet they rebelled against God in the wilderness? Well, that's because the crossing of the Red Sea was not an ultimate deliverance. It was something that worked in history. It was great, but it was not salvation itself. It was just deliverance from physical slavery. The empty tomb is the deliverance from sin. It is so much greater. The empty tomb is complete victory over sin. and death. And it is the promise of the complete renewal of all things. The Old Testament people knew something of this when they sing the song of the Eastern Shore. There is the anticipation of faith looking forward. They're seeing about how they're going to enter the promised land in the last verses. And in the last verse of the song, they sing of the eternal reign of God. Exodus chapter 15 verse 18, the Lord will reign forever and ever. But it is at the empty tomb where we see the risen Lord. And where we see the eternal victory. Where we see the entrance into the eternal promised land. because He is the first fruits of our resurrection. O death, where is your sting? The deliverance, the Red Sea. It was a deliverance from Egyptian slavery, A deliverance which began with the plagues, including the plague of death, but safety from the sign of blood. The plague started it. The crossing of the Red Sea finished it. At the empty tomb is deliverance from sin, started by the blood of Christ on the cross poured out for our sins. and finished as he rises from the grave, never to die. At the eastern shore, there was no longer any need to fear the Egyptian army. At the empty tomb, there is no longer any fear of death itself. And so we sing, brothers and sisters. We sing, praise the Lord. We sing a new song to the Lord with language of His resurrection power and victory. If we go to our hymnal and look at the 15 songs specifically in the Resurrection of Christ section, There's more songs that make reference to the Resurrection. And there are many, many more songs written in many, many different languages by the New Testament Church all throughout the centuries. But we'll just take the 15 in the Resurrection of Christ section of our hymnal as a sampling. One was written in the 6th century. Two were written in the 8th century. One was written at least as early as the 9th century, maybe before that. One was written in the 10th century, one was written in the 15th, one in the 16th, one in the 17th, two in the 18th, three in the 19th, and two in the 20th century. From generation to generation, the people of God have sung a new song to Lord and sung the older songs of the new deliverance that He has won. I did a little digging into one of those, the one written in the ninth century. It's hymn number 361. And all that the hymnal says at the bottom is an early medieval Latin hymn. And that's because, when I looked it up, it's because there's a Frankish, 19th century hymnal that survived that has this hymn, but it could have been older than that. It doesn't say who wrote it or anything. And then I was thinking just a little bit, well, as we think about singing this song from generation to generation, as we think of the hope of the resurrection in any circumstances, my medieval history is not great, but wait, who were the Franks? Yeah, they were destroyed in the 9th century. They ceased to exist as a people. Why? Because together with England and the rest of Northern Europe, they were being killed by the sword of Vikings. But that generation of a largely Christian people in Northern Europe faced with the fear of the sword, and many of them soon to die from Viking swords, they were singing about what? Verse 1, that Easter day with joy was bright. The sun shone out with fairer light. When two their longing eyes restored, the apostles saw their risen Lord. And then brothers and sisters, when our When our spiritual brothers and sisters, now long dead, sang this song so long ago, and when they sang it knowing that Viking hordes were coming down and wiping them out, what was the fourth verse of the hymn that they sang? O Lord of all, with us abide in this our joyful Eastertide. From every weapon death can wield. thine own redeemed forever shield." People of God, do you see the song of victory at the resurrection tomb is a song even when the army is coming to kill you. It's a song even when whatever pains and trials are coming upon us. As Christ's people, we have the victory trusting in Him by faith for every situation, for every weapon that man can wield, for every word that man seeks to wield apart from God, for every pain that comes upon us, for every loss that comes upon us. Songs and prayers are closely related. I'm not going to tell you you have to write a song. That would be very difficult for us, but a prayer. You can write a prayer. And you can include the details of your own situation. And you can say, Lord, I bring this to you. And I know there's victory only because of this, because of what Christ has done. And so I sing about the joy of Easter morning and that fair light. And I sing for whatever trial is going on in my life. Oh, people of God, let us praise the Lord together from generation to generation with our voices lifted up together. Ephesians 5, verse 19 gives this word to the church that we should be addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. Again, it's your heart. that matters more than how your voice can actually sing or not sing. Giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. And yes, we are thankful for the ancient Psalter and how we can bring all different situations of life to Lord in prayer and song and this altar does mention Christ because it mentions the Messiah but we also sing a new song with the name of Jesus Christ and what he has done from his coming to his life to his death to his resurrection to his ascension he has won the victory that will never be lost. Amen. Let us pray.