ISSL Reflections September 5 2021 Exodus 15:1-3, 11-21 Post 3

VII.
Once more let’s return to our focus passage. As you read it, take in all the feeling and emotion these folk bring to the words they now offer to their God.

Exodus 15:1-3

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

“I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.
The Lord is my strength and my might,
and 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 warrior;
the Lord is his name.

Exodus 15:11-21

“Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods?
Who is like you, majestic in holiness,
awesome in splendor, doing wonders?

You stretched out your right hand,
the earth swallowed them.

“In your steadfast love you led the people whom you redeemed;
you guided them by your strength to your holy abode.

The peoples heard, they trembled;
pangs seized the inhabitants of Philistia.

Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed;
trembling seized the leaders of Moab;
all the inhabitants of Canaan melted away.

Terror and dread fell upon them;
by the might of your arm, they became still as a stone
until your people, O Lord, passed by,
until the people whom you acquired passed by.

You brought them in and planted them on the mountain of your own possession,
the place, O Lord, that you made your abode,
the sanctuary, O Lord, that your hands have established.

The Lord will reign forever and ever.”

When the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his chariot drivers went into the sea, the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them; but the Israelites walked through the sea on dry ground.

Then the prophet Miriam, Aaron’s sister, took a tambourine in her hand; and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with dancing. And Miriam sang to them:

“Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously;
horse and rider he has thrown into the sea.”

VIII.
The Apostle Paul counseled,

… be filled with the Spirit, as you sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, singing and making melody to the Lord in your hearts, giving thanks to God the Father at all times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. (Ephesians 5:18-20)

The impression I have of the Israelites singing is that it was certainly “filled with the Spirit.”

I also get the impression it was immediate and about “everything” that was happening in their lives.

When do you and I sing (or voice in some other manner) songs of praise?

When it is prescribed to do so? When it is convenient to do so? When someone else is doing so?

Or, in the moment when somehow “praise” is demanded from us? I don’t mean when someone else demands it. I mean when our inner most spirit is bringing us to voice praise, is forcing us to acknowledge a moment in which nothing but praise is right and is called for.

Have you ever been there?

Give it a moment or two and see if you recall times, events, when your very nature demanded you offer praise.

What about now? Do you have reason to offer words of praise? Or even maybe a song of praise?

charles
{ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est}


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