The First Song in the Bible

The first song in the Bible is the Song of Moses, found in Exodus 15. We know the story: Israel has been living as slaves for 400 years when God sends a deliverer; through a series of incredible miracles and plagues, culminating with the death of the Passover lamb, the Egyptian king (Pharaoh) relents and let’s God’s people go.

The Israelites leave Egypt and slavery with “high hand” the Bible says. They were celebrating the victory of God, and for a brief moment, everything looked good. Before too long they’d marched to something of a dead end though, Migdol on one side, Pi-hahiroth on the other, and the Red Sea straight ahead. And on the horizon behind them they could see dust clouds rising from oncoming chariots and the hard hearted Egyptian king and his army.

The people complain and prepare to kill their leader, Moses, but Moses stretches out his hand. Psalm 114 describes the scene and says “The sea looked and fled.” Psalm 77 says “The waters saw you O God, and were in anguish.” What an awesome image: the waters running off in fear, dividing to the left and right, to let the King of Glory pass.

In Exodus 14 we see Israel walk through the divided sea, from death into life. The Apostle Paul talked about this in, 1 Corinthians 10, saying this is a picture of a baptism. Just like Israel, we too are saved from our oppressor and captivity by the death of the Passover Lamb–Jesus the Christ–and, like them, we part the waters in baptism as a sign of moving out of death, and into life and out of bondage into freedom.

Exodus 15 then is Moses’ worshipful response to that experience. They sing this glorious song; look at some of these lyrics:

V1 I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted; the horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea.

V2 The Lord is my strength and song, He has become my salvation; this is my God, I will praise Him.

V3 The Lord is a warrior, the Lord is His Name.

V6 Your right hand, O Lord, is majestic in power

V11 Who is like You among the gods, O Lord? Who is like You, Majestic in Holiness, Awesome in Praises, Working Wonders?

V13 In your loving kindness You have led the people whom You have redeemed; in your strength You have guided them to your holy habitation.

And then Moses wraps up his song with a summary statement. After everything Moses has seen and experienced, see his final lyric. Note that it’s just as true for us today as it was for Moses thousands of years ago:

V18 The Lord shall reign forever and ever.

I hope that in reading this that you might rise in confident boldness, calling on God as the Mighty Warrior that He is. May you find shelter behind His Shield, Strength beneath His Sword, and Victory in Every Battle.

Finale Thought: 

The Song of Moses is the first song in the Bible. Remarkably, it’s also one of the last. In Revelation 15 we read about a worship set in Heaven; it says they sung two songs: The Song of the Lamb, and the Song of Moses.

Get this: Heaven is still singing the Song of Moses. Apparently, God really loves this song. Not only that, think about this: the worship of heaven is impacted by the worship of earth. The lofty angels in heaven are singing songs written by lowly man on earth.