Sing to the Lord

"Then Moses and the people of Israel 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.'

Exod. 15:1

Salvation is God's act. The only appropriate response, therefore, is to attend to this God who saves. But the way in which this attention is given is critical. So far in Exodus, response has taken the form of telling the story and remembering the event in a ritual meal. What comes next? For many the next step in understanding salvation follows along the lines of study and analysis; we get out our concordances and lexicons and sharpen our pencils. But not here: here the God of salvation is worshiped. Story and ritual are now taken up into an act of worship that makes every Israelite a participant in salvation. Not a single Israelite, not even Moses, did one, solitary thing to bring about salvation. There is nothing to sing about on that front. So if neither Moses nor the Israelites are the subject and if human experience is not the subject, that leaves God as the subject: 'I will sing to the Lord . . . .' ."

Eugene Peterson