In Exodus 15, we find the song of Moses which is one of the earliest of the songs found in the Scriptures. These early songs were always songs of victory.
As civilization deteriorated (from the head of gold down through the silver and the other symbolic stages depicted in Nebuchadnezzar’s vision in Daniel 2:31–35), we find that songs have also changed. In fact, sometimes it is not possible to discern what is a song. The themes vary. A study of the themes of songs down through the ages would be interesting.
If we Americans were a happy people and a people who had been serving the Lord, what marvelous songs might have come through that field of western music.
The Negro spiritual was born of a great deal of trial and persecution. After the blacks were set free, they did not have the drive to create songs, so they stopped insofar as being creative in their music.
In contrast to the songs of the world, the Scriptures are constantly speaking about songs of victory. The songs which God brings are sung in triumph.
All the songs of the Kingdom will be slanted toward the victory and the glorification of Jesus Christ. They will be slanted toward that appropriation, that realization of who we are, that comforting which comes when we voice again and again what God has said, what God has proclaimed, what God has provided.
The book of Revelation from chapter four to chapter fifteen parallels very closely the first fifteen chapters of the book of Exodus. You can understand the book of Revelation by reading the book of Exodus.
Exodus records the plagues which came upon the gods of Egypt. Plague after plague came—the darkness, the flies, the lice, the boils, the frogs, and the water turning into blood. The culmination of those events was the slaying of the firstborn. After that, the Israelites were delivered and passed over the Red Sea. Then they sang the song of Moses. From there they went on into the wilderness and on to possess their promises.
God is promising another Passover for us which is coming in much the same way as the first one. It will come with the trumpets sounding. After the angels sound the trumpets, plague after plague will come, and finally, the fifteenth chapter of Revelation says that the song of Moses and the Lamb will be sung. Then comes the real deliverance. After the song is sung, seven angels with bowls of wrath pour them out upon the earth.
We are facing a beautiful deliverance, and we are not going to wait until it is all over to start singing our songs. We are going to be singing with great faith and revelation as a prelude to that which is coming.
Whenever God wants to be greatly pleased and glorified in people’s faith, He gives them their instructions, and they have their time of shouting and rejoicing before they see the action. They do not sing about heartbreaks and such things as the world does today. They sing songs of victory as are found in the Scriptures.
I am sure that it was praises to God that Paul and Silas were singing in the Philippian jail (Acts 16:25). It was not some lonesome, sad song: “If I had the wings of an angel, from this prison house I would fly.” That type of song belongs to the modern day.
Paul and Silas were singing and rejoicing, and they did get out of jail. The songs in the Bible often came as a result of victories, but some of the victories came as a result of the songs. Do not forget that.
We recall how Jehoshaphat appointed the singers, and they went out singing and praising at the front of the army of Israel. What a day! By the time they got to the battlefield, the enemy had all died (2 Chronicles 20:21–24). That was really exceptional singing! When the Lord wanted some real warriors, He picked a choir. The people were singing prophetically for the glory of God, and the victory did come in the name of the Lord.
When the Israelites marched around Jericho, it was a similar situation. God did not tell Joshua to wait until the walls fell down to shout. He commanded that the people walk around Jericho once a day for six days, and on the seventh day, after seven times around, they were to stand and shout (Joshua 6:3–5). When they shouted, they shouted the victory.
We yell before we get our victory. We shout, we cry, we praise the Lord, and we rejoice; then the victory will come. We believe, and we start singing.
Revelation 15 speaks of those who had the victory over the beast singing the song of Moses and of the Lamb. What was the song of Moses?
God took the horse and rider and hurled them into the sea. They went down like a rock. They sank like lead. The waters passed over them. It was the end of the power of Egypt. The Israelites were singing and rejoicing, but they were rejoicing over a current historical fact of deliverance. We are rejoicing over a real victory that is to come, and we will have that victory.
We will have a different kind of Passover than the world has ever seen. It will be a time of judgment that will settle upon the whole world like darkness. From the viewpoint of an airplane, darkness seems to rise up from below to meet the plane. It seems to come up out of the very valleys of the earth. In the dreadful judgment that is coming, a darkness will cover the whole earth. But we are looking unto the Lord, the Sun of righteousness, who comes with healing in His rays (Malachi 4:2). For us it is a time of deliverance.
This end time will be the greatest time of psalms the world has ever known. Already we seem to be tuning in to it. In the church services the word should do one thing for the people who want to be creative: it should set them on the track.
Someone should give the guideline, and then everyone can tune in to it and participate with prophecies and psalms. Someone with revelation pinpoints where the action is and where the blessing is, and the rest of the people tune in to that. They can preach on it; they can sing about it; they can prophesy about it. It is real to all because someone has pointed out where God is moving.
I will tell you where the Holy Spirit is moving now. He is moving to prepare the greatest song of victory ever sung: the song of Moses and of the Lamb.
The hymns that will be sung over the coming years will not be the grief of a funeral song. We will leave Egypt as did the Israelites: as we move out in the end-time Passover, we will go out boldly in the sight of the Egyptians while they are singing their sad tunes and burying their dead (Numbers 33:3, 4).
We are moving out. God is getting ready to bring judgment, and the song of triumph, the song of glory and praise to the Lamb—that is our song. If we want to be on the right track, we should start writing songs about victory, about the Kingdom of God.
There are prophecies in the Scriptures telling us that the song of Zion will be heard to the ends of the earth (Isaiah 24:16). Who will sing the songs of Zion? We are the ones who will sing these songs. There will be songs composed that will far outshine the psalms of David. Some of David’s psalms were rather sad, while some of them were very angry. Some were just the mournful wailings of a man crying for help. Some were songs of triumph.
There are songs of victory that will come to the people of God who will stand and sing. Reach for something new. You can get into a rut, and before you know it, you are singing something that is meaningless.
Stay in the creative flow. Be ready for things that are different. There will be all kinds of music and all kinds of sounds coming forth. There will be songs with fantastic words which, when sung, will transform a whole congregation, changing their mood and setting them in a whole new pattern of victory.
Whatever you have seen in the world, you must be prepared to see something far different. You must be prepared for the worship and the songs that will come forth in the Lord.
Our heritage in the Lord is perfect victory. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, speaking to yourselves in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord” (Colossians 3:16). This admonition applies to us. Some way we must come into it the song of Moses and of the Lamb.
While the earth is filled with judgment, this song will come forth. Many things will happen in the earth; then the song will come. While the remnant is singing and worshiping, the other events will follow in rapid sequence. God is going to be glorified to the accompaniment of the heavenly choir. That anointing of the Lord, the great Passover, is coming.