The ongoing great I AM

Exodus 15:1-21

The first 13 verses of this psalm may not raise any great question for you. They do bring out more of the obviously and directly miraculous, supernatural way of understanding the deliverance of the Israelites through the sea. Then, starting in verse 14, the song celebrates events that will yet occur, from the perspective of the time of the sea crossing, and that did occur, from the perspective of later history. So what’s that about?

One possibility is that Moses and the Israelites (verse 1) were given a special vision of the future. The other thought that is put forward is that a song of praise from a later time is inserted here in the final form of the Scripture. Most of us would judge this according to our already existing assumptions about the nature of Scripture, and I think that’s OK because the essential meaning is the same. That is, either understanding enhances the witness to the reality of the God who is the ongoing I AM in history, the God who has been made known in powerful ways both to the Israelites and to the Egyptians. The song now celebrates that in times to come after this epochal event, he will similarly be known. The question of which side of the historical events the telling of them comes from does not strike me as critical, as long as we allow for the possibility that the events could have been revealed in advance. That would be a small thing for the God with the power to do what he has done, and to bring about our own deliverances from various forms of captivity.

Prayer:
God, you can do all things. It is by your power that you held back the waters. That itself was a small thing for you who brought beauty and order from the watery chaos at creation. Surely you can meet our needs of this day. Give us this day our daily bread. Through Christ. Amen.