The Pulpit Commentary — Exodus — Volume 2 — Section 12

supplied some needs, but all needs wherein Israel was able to receive his aid. More !1eeds ,rnuld h:we been supplied, if more had been felt; more causes of gratitude given, if runre could ha,·e been brought into operation. God is now felt to be a guide (vcr. 1:3), and tlic land that was thought to fasten the people in, now takes its right place in th_e memory ~f the d~vout as an evident part of the highway of ~•s holy ones. \\ hat cxprcss10ns of mdebtedness could be more complete? It was impossible to exagl!erate the debt, and God took care that the words of the song should not fall short in acknowledging it. Thus let it ever be our aim to thank God for his goodness to us, in such words as he supplies, and fill his forms full with the devotion of meditative and observant hearts. . II. THis EXPnEssroN Is A PERSONAL ONE. The word "I" stands out prominently. 'I he song was not only for a delivered nation, but for a nation in whose deliverance every indi\'idual was blessed. It was emphatically a song for every Israelite. God had done all this for Israel, not that he might have a nation for his own to be looked. at in the mass, aveniged over the whole, the good along with the bad; it was to be a nation made up of holy, obedient, and grateful individuals. Even already, God is indic>1ting that his true people must be bound to him by personal attachment and .ser,,ice. Pharaoh had said in his haste and thoughtlessness, "I and my people are wicked" (eh. ix. 2i). Here Jehovah gives something for each one of his own people to say; and if each of them labours to say it with a feeling corresponding to the words, then indeed there will come an outburst from the nation such as could not in any other way be produced. III. THIS EXPRESSION BEING PERSONAL, IS ALSO AN EXPRESSION AS TO THE SOURCE OF PERSONAL ABILITY. "The Lord is my strength." The strength of a believer just amounts to that which God puts into him according to his need and according to his faith. Bring to God as many vessels as you will, and if it be wise to fill them, then God can fill them all. Learn that the natural strength of man, even at its best, is inadequate for some purposes and uncertain for any. It breaks down, often without warning and without recovery. Therefore it is a great matter for me to feel that "the Lord is my strength." He himself comes in, not to supplement human efforts, nor to fill up human defects, but rather to make his presence felt with men in the choosing of right purposei;, and the carrying of them out to a full and satisfying attainment. 'rhe Israelite had been nothing in himself; nothing as against the tyranny of Pharaoh in Egypt; nothing as against the pursuing chariots by the Red Sea. And now all at once he is able to sing as if he were a portion and a factor of Omnipotence. IV. THIS EXPRESSION DEIKG PERSOS-AL IS ALSO AN EXPRESSION AS TO TilE SOURCE OF PEBSONAL GLAD~'ESS. "The Lord is my song." From him comes real and abiding gladness, such gla.dness as becomes man at his best estate. 'l'he world has its great singers, and what it reckons imperishable songs. Each nation has its own patriotic effusions, and excited and often half-drunken crowds will roar themselves hoarse over national anthems. There are love songs, drinking songs, war songs, and all that great number besides which elude classification. It would be foolish indeed of the Christian, in his haste, to despise these productions, for many of them are very beautiful, and they have an unquestionable and not astonishing hold on the general heart. But after all, we must escape into higher and holier associatioilll, and dwell in them, if we would have gladness, such as will satisfy. The Lord must be owr song. He, in his attributes, his actions, and the history of his dealings with the children of men, must be the topic of our praise. The great thing to make each of us glad must be that our minds are kept in perfect peace because they are stayed upon him. .All other gladness, sweet as it may be in the beginning, will prove bitter, perhaps very bitter, in the end. Nor was .1 ehovah any less the song of every true Israelite here, because he was shown acting in such a stem, uncompromising way. The people had to praistl God for an actual, present, and overwhelming mercy; and if they had to sing of destruction, that was a necessity not to be escaped. True, there is no word of pity all the way through this song for the deRtroyed host of Pharaoh, simply because it was not the place for such an expr~eion. The thing to be here expressed and dwelt upon is praise to Jehovah, because of the greatness and completeness of the Divine action. And what an impressive contrast there is between the conduct of these Israelites when delivered and the conduct in the hour ,,f victory, which only too many pages of history record· indeed, such conduct is Cll. XV, 11.] 'l'llE IlOOK OF EXODUS.