March 17, 2026 - Exodus 15 & Psalm 61

We read Exodus 15 and Psalm 61 and hear how God’s rescue turns into clear, specific praise. God's Word challenges us to face how quickly memory fades, both in the wilderness and in our lives today.  Lastly, repeating and memorizing God’s word prepares us to respond with faith and thanksgiving, rather than grumbling when trials draw near. 

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading, keep growing. God’s word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path. 

For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compassbiblesv.org. Keep reading. Keep growing. God’s Word is a lamp to your feet, and a light to your path. 

Transcript

Welcome And Reading Plan Setup

SPEAKER_00 0:01

Welcome to the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Plan, where we are seeking to love the Lord our God with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength with God's word lighting the way. I'm Tyler Sanborn, Student Ministry Director at Compass Bible Church South Valley. Today is Tuesday, March 17th, 2026. Listen intently to God's written word. Exodus 15. Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying, I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song, he has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him. The Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name. Pharaoh's chariots and his host he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk in the Red Sea. The floods covered them, they went down into the depths like a stone. Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power, your right hand, O Lord, shatters the enemy. In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your adversaries, you send out your fury, it consumes them like stubble. At the blast of your nostrils the waters piled up, the floods stood up in a heap, the deeps congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall have its fill of them, I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. You blew with your wind, the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who is like you, O Lord, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? You stretch out your right hand, the earth swallowed them. You have led in your steadfast love the people whom you have redeemed. You have guided them by your strength to your holy abode. The peoples have heard, they tremble, pangs have seized the inhabitants of Philistia. Now are the chiefs of Edom dismayed, trembling seizes the leaders of Moab, all the inhabitants of Canaan have melted away. Terror and dread fall upon them because of the greatness of your arm. They are still as a stone, till your people, O Lord, pass by, till the people pass by whom you have purchased, you will bring them in and plant them on your own mountain, the place, O Lord, which you have made for your abode, the sanctuary, O Lord, which your hands have established. The Lord will reign forever and ever. For when the horses of Pharaoh with his chariots and his horsemen went into the sea, the Lord brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the people of Israel walked on dry ground in mid in the midst of the sea. Then Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines in dancing, and Miriam sang to them, Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. Then Moses made Israel set out from the Red Sea, and they went into the wilderness of Shur. They went three days in the wilderness and found no water. When they came to Merah, they could not drink the water of Merah because it was bitter, therefore it was named Merah. And the people grumbled against Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried to the Lord, and the Lord showed him a log, and he threw it into the water, and the water became sweet. There the Lord made for them a statue and a rule, and there he tested them, saying, If you will diligently listen to the voice of the Lord your God, and do that which is right in his eyes, and give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases on you that I put on the Egyptians, for I am the Lord your healer. Then they came to Elam, where there were twelve springs of water and seventy palm trees, and they encamped there by the water. Psalm sixty one. Hear my cry, O God, listen to my prayer. From the end of the earth I call to you when my heart is faint. Lead me to the rock that is higher than I, for you have been my refuge, a strong tower against the enemy. Let me dwell in your tent forever, let me take refuge under the shelter of your wings, for you, O God, have heard my vows, you have given me the heritage of those who fear your name. Prolong the life of the king, may his years endure to all generations, may he be enthroned forever before God, appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him. So will I ever sing praises to your name as I perform my vows day after day. Have you ever disagreed with someone, maybe a friend or a family member, about the specific lyrics to any given song? Yeah, if you're like me, this has happened to you at least once in your life. And uh both of our scriptures today have to do with singing. We have in Exodus also in Psalm 61, we see the conclusion of another song of David, a psalm of David, Psalm 61, uh concluding with praises to the name of God as he performs his vows day after day. And of all the different themes and all the different focuses that a song could uh could be focused around, there are a vast majority of songs that were written over the course of history. Most of them have to do with a love or a certain love interest or a person, uh a passion of some sort. And we can look to these psalms and we can look to our passage today in Exodus and see that both of these uh passages have to do with lifting up praises to God for what he has done. This relationship that was established, this covenant relationship between Yahweh and his people, continues to play out right before our eyes. And the people of Israel have much to thank Yahweh for. Moses and the Israelites have so much to say thank you for to the Lord. Uh, they were uh many times on on the brink of uh of destruction. They are literally walking through walls of water, and they, as they're walking through, must have been thinking to themselves, How can this be? We should not be here. If anything goes wrong, we will all be surely dead. And God is faithful to um to hold up the walls of water as they cross the Red Sea, and uh by the breath of God's power, he is holding these walls of water up uh and he lets them crash down and throws the Egyptians into the water. They are are drowned at the end of it. So there's this this song um from Moses that we see as a a response, uh, and all of Israel is singing this song, and it begins by saying, I will sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously. And and that is that is a an accurate statement. That is something that we can be sure about. Uh, if we were to disagree on on this song lyric, uh we would be missing the point of this entire Exodus account uh so far in this second book of scripture here. And I would like to draw our attention today to words. Words have meaning, and and at times when I'm interacting with my my children and there's big emotions and nothing comes out other than sadness and crying and and grumbling. I I at times just I ask them, use your words, please. Could you please use your words to help me understand what you're thinking, what you're feeling? How can I help you? There's something that's off, there's something that's wrong, there's something that is um to be done, and I I can't do anything unless I know what you're thinking and what you're feeling. And in in a way here, we know exactly in Exodus chapter 15, we know exactly how the people of Israel are feeling. Their lives were spared, and God's power was put on display as he rescued them. He is their refuge. And as we look to the rest of this song here, it's an account of what God did. The armies of Pharaoh come to battle. And in verse three, we see the Lord is a man of war, the Lord is his name. Um, praises are being uh awarded to God, and he is titled as Strength and their song. Verse 2 the Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. That is 100% accurate. This these words have real meaning and um accompanied with great emotion, I'm sure, as they're singing these songs. Um, these Israelites have much, much to be thankful for. And the nations are around, um, have been made aware of this as we look to the the middle section of Exodus 15. We see the peoples have heard, they tremble, pangs have seized the inhabitants uh of Philistia, and now the chiefs of Edom are dismayed. God has made his name known, and people are aware of the great power and might that have uh that has been displayed. And what can we say other than who is like you, O Lord? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders? Verse 12 says, You stretched out your right hand, the earth swallowed them. God put his power on display, and his people were spared, and his name is being made great in the land. We see this Exodus account, and now the Israelites are gonna be led into the wilderness, and uh, we have a few days of uh of journeying, and what happens? We see we see Israel's memory fading. Uh they're their recollection of God's great power uh is being swept away, they have not found water, and they're crying out, Moses, what are we gonna drink? They're grumbling at him, they're complaining, and uh Moses is surely remembering God's God's power and his might, his provision, uh salvation uh given to his people, and we see the the response from God. He's he's going to the Lord, he's crying out to God, and God shows him a log and throws, he throws the log into the water and it becomes drinkable. And uh we we too can forget. Uh let's not let's not look to Israel today and think, like, what are you doing? Uh God in in many ways has provided for us and uh how quickly we too can forget sometimes his faithfulness, his provision, um, and how easily our hearts uh are prone to wandering. We can uh we can sing songs um that that affirm this. We're we're prone to wander, we're we're prone to leave the God that we love, um, but and we need God's help, we need his power to to keep us close. We in our own ability do not stay close to the shepherd. We're like sheep proning, uh prone to wander, and uh we need God's word to direct us, to to guide us, and uh we often think that we we have the right path in mind, we have the right way. Um Proverbs 21, uh verses two and three says, uh every every way of man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs his heart to do righteousness and justice is more acceptable to the Lord than sacrifice. And and this is a great charge and an encouragement for us to continue to pursue righteousness uh and perform justly as we seek to follow and obey God, who is our healer, who is our provider and our protector and our savior. And as we think about just the the songs that are being sung and just remembering, what an encouragement for us today to continue to remember. And how do we do that? How do we recall the things? How do we solidify facts in our mind and hold them, hold them for the long run? Speaking to long-term memory, not just facts that you memorize for the test and you forget the next week if if you're a high schooler or a middle schooler listening to this. So I'm thinking about things that you can call to memory uh at any given time. And and how do we do that? We we have to repeat, we have to go back over and over and over again the things that are most important, and and that is that is God's word. So that way, when trials stack up against us, we have a frame of reference and how we're going to respond. And we can go to God, we can cry out to him, knowing that he hears us, knowing that he is with us, even though our hearts may be faint. Um, we can have a solid rock, um, the rock of uh the rock of ages, um, the cornerstone, our savior uh is our firm foundation. And we see in Psalm 61, that the title there, Lead Me to the Rock, there is this constant, this eternal power uh that is full of righteousness, and he is full of glory, and he is perfect in every way. His name is King Jesus. And for us to um to this desire that we should have here, like like David is crying out, he's calling out to the Lord, let me dwell with you, let me dwell in your tent forever, let me take refuge in the shelter, under the shelter of your wings. Um, David is expressing, God, you you know me, you know my heart, you know the commitments and the promises that I've made uh to you. And God, I remember your promises to me. I remember the the the covenant that you have established with me. He's calling out and even maybe even reflecting as we look to uh to verse six for for his own for his own life, but also um he's looking to to call out and and remember the the promise that God has made him that there will be someone from his line, uh from one from someone from his seed that will be uh an eternal king who will rule with justice and uprightness, and his throne will be established uh forever. May he in verse seven it says, May he be enthroned forever before God, uh appoint steadfast love and faithfulness to watch over him. Uh he may be saying this to and of himself, but also to this future eternal king. And uh he says here uh to conclude in verse eight, he's going to ever sing praises to your name, to Yahweh. And this is a a good reminder for us, and even I'd like to challenge us to consider if words do have meaning and we're to uh express and we have this ability to communicate with one another, God has communicated to us in his word. God wrote us a book, and and oftentimes when we're singing uh praises to God, uh, they are just rich and and fully infused with scripture. So maybe even a uh a challenge or a um an assignment that you might be able to give yourself or to someone in your family, maybe you have a student, uh, maybe you are even identifying and examining some of the songs that we sing uh in Compass Kids or in South Valley Student Ministry. If you're in either of these ministries, I'd like to challenge you to pick a song and try to find scripture references that these lyrics are pointing to. And if you're not sure where to start, maybe maybe you start with uh one of the songs that you would hear on a Sunday. Maybe it's uh All Sufficient Merit, or maybe uh Christus Victor, or maybe you have a favorite song, um uh maybe Rock of Ages, maybe it's a hymn or a modern hymn, a song that you remember because you've sung it so many times. The challenge I have for you today is to look to that song and try to attach and memorize scripture uh from that song. And likely you've already memorized a good chunk of that scripture, but go ahead and find that that reference, find that chapter and verse and uh try to memorize that so you can uh pull these songs uh and bring these songs to mind when you're in a conversation with someone, or maybe you're going through a moment of temptation or a struggle of some kind. You can bring these lyrics to mind uh to honor God with the way that you respond. So hopefully this is an encouragement to us today. Thanks for joining us today on the Lamp and Light Bible Reading Podcast. For more information about Compass Bible Church South Valley, visit compass bible sv.org. Keep reading, keep growing. God's word is a lamp to your feet and a light to your path.