Praise: The Song of Grace and Glory.
“Whoso offereth praise, glorifieth me,” saith the Lord; God is pleased to receive our praises for what He has done for us, as also for what He is. Who would refuse to sing to His praise? Who would be silent in rendering to Him “the fruit of our lips; giving thanks to his name”? But mark the moment when the note is heard. The enemy was silent, he had “sunk to the bottom as a stone,” “like lead in the mighty waters.” God had wrought, and Israel was free; now He will have His weed of worship. How can He be worshipped when the heart is not free, when the conscience is not at rest? Impossible!
The ordinary thought of worship is the going through of certain religious formularies, and a routine of praying and singing, and perhaps bearing a sermon. All well in their place, but such things will not be in heaven. Worship characterizes heaven: “They shall be still praising thee;” “They rest not day nor night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty.” The Father seeketh those that worship Him in Spirit and in truth (John 4). Worship is the expression of our fullness, as of His blessedness. Prayer is the expression of our need and our dependence on Him.
God first cleanses us from our sins, that we may be happy in His presence. He bestows on us a nature which is capable of enjoying Him in the light of His presence. Then He sets us before Him, “holy and without blame” in Christ, seals us with the Spirit of God; then having redeemed us, Christ takes His place in the midst of His people to lead their praises up to God. He was alone in death, sin-bearing, and judgment; the moment He has accomplished this and has risen, He says, “In the midst of the assembly will I sing praise unto thee.” (Compare Psa. 22:2222I will declare thy name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee. (Psalm 22:22), with John 20:1717Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God. (John 20:17), and Heb. 2:1212Saying, I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. (Hebrews 2:12).)
Now I believe we should sing as Christians—believers, if you please—or not sing at all, The idea of setting sinners, as such, to sing, has no warrant from Scripture. We should sing in the consciousness of our blessing, and to Him, or of Him who has blessed us.
We will examine some features of interest in Moses’ song, the chorus of which was taken up by Miriam and her maidens, with timbrels and dances. “Music and dancing” were thus heard outside the house and bore their testimony towards others. Even if it provokes the elder son’s enmity, it tells out the father’s and the household’s joy! (Luke 15)
There are two distinct parts in this song; that of Moses, and that of Miriam. Moses’ song took in both the present grace that delivered, and also the future glory to which they were called. Miriam only sang of present grace, but did not take in the glory beyond. This is marked and striking, and the more so when we find that she died by the way, in the wilderness, before they entered the land. (Num. 20) Doubtless Moses too died on Mount Nebo; for the Law, of which he was representative, could never lead into the possession of the land; but that does not affect the lesson which we learn here; besides it must have been so, as he “spake unadvisedly with his lips,” and it “went ill with him for their sakes.”
His faith saw the delivering grace of the Lord, and so he sung. It also saw the sure glory that would come, and it took in the Jordan (v. 16) and the entrance into the mountain of the inheritance of Jehovah, which He had made to dwell in; the sanctuary which His hands had established.
Miriam only sang of present grace. A lovely note to be sure! But the heart must enter into something more than the look behind into those mighty waters of judgment, out of which Jesus rose, having left our sins, and death, and judgment forever! Such a joy would never carry us through the desert where faith and patience are tried and tested every day. It needs that the heart be carried into the glory beyond, where He is, and to rejoice in the hope of it in the time to come; in the present sense of peace with God, and the consciousness of standing in the present favor of God—that favor which is better than life. Compare Rom. 5, verses 1 and 2.
She pre-figures here the first bright joy, so full and real, which we have perhaps experienced ourselves, or have seen in others. It is bright and blessed, but it is a joy that never lasts very long on the journey. You see it at times in those freshly converted. In such a state the soul frequently becomes occupied with the joy, and this frequently takes it off true dependence on the Lord, and a fall is the result.
There is another kind of joy which is full and deep, and which never dies. It survives all the vicissitudes of the way. No desert sorrows or privations can ever touch its spring. “Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice” (Phil. 4:55Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand. (Philippians 4:5)). The Lord is the spring of it here, and He never fails. Paul was at the end of the desert journey there, and yet he never was so full of this joy. There was everything to try and wrench his heart. Like the caged eagle, he was pent up in the walls of a prison—shut out from the fellowship of the saints—all they that were in Asia, the scene of his most successful labors, had turned away from him; the saints were going on badly—the Church failing—need had pressed on his soul—and he was cut off too from that service which was his life: yet he finds marrow and fatness filling his heart, and his mouth is praising with joyful lips, in a dry and thirsty land where no water is (Psa. 63).
There is, as has been noted, another exceedingly lovely desire which springs up at once, seen in this song. It is to have God dwelling with them; the soul desires to prepare Him an habitation. It is going to dwell, by and by, with God in the land; but meanwhile it would have God dwelling with it in the desert: this is the alternative of John 14:22In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. (John 14:2) and 23. Satan is now in the Land; that is the strange anomaly in the present state of things. We are with God in the wilderness, and He with us: but with Satan, or rather against him in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus.
The holiness of the Lord too, is now spoken of for the first time. It was hinted at to Moses, in Ex. 3, in the words, “Put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy ground.” If God had come down to redeem His people out of bondage and corruption, He must have holiness; and now that they are free, they sing He is “glorious in holiness.”
I believe we never understand what holiness is until we know redemption. You will find a sincere soul distressing himself dreadfully because he does not find holiness in his heart. He thinks rightly, Must I not be holy? You ask, Where do you look for it? And you find he is looking for it in his own heart. The fact is, he is not established in righteousness yet, and he is looking for holiness where “there is no good thing.” But when he finds himself with God in righteousness, and redeemed, then it is all right to look for it as becoming the new sphere into which he has been introduced, to be with God. “Be ye holy, for I am holy” is all right then.
They are thus saved—but “saved in hope,” as Rom. 8:2424For we are saved by hope: but hope that is seen is not hope: for what a man seeth, why doth he yet hope for? (Romans 8:24) says. It never takes you further than the wilderness, with a hope of the land and the glory, and meanwhile the groaning in unison with the Spirit here; but singing the praises and blessings of the Lord.