{"id":373,"date":"2010-03-24T13:17:58","date_gmt":"2010-03-24T18:17:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/?p=373"},"modified":"2010-03-24T13:17:58","modified_gmt":"2010-03-24T18:17:58","slug":"singing-the-song-of-moses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/2010\/03\/24\/singing-the-song-of-moses\/","title":{"rendered":"Singing the Song of Moses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>How do we live in light of God\u2019s once and for all conquest of sin and Satan at the cross? How does knowing the victory is won affect our lives? If \u201cthe LORD reigns forever and ever\u201d (Exodus 15:18), how do we reflect that in our daily lives?<\/p>\n<p>I concluded Sunday\u2019s sermon with the first three verses of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hymntime.com\/tch\/htm\/h\/t\/c\/htctrium.htm\">this hymn by Charles Wesley<\/a>. He clearly had meditated on the Songs of Moses in Exodus 15 and Revelation 15 prior to writing these lyrics. Consider Wesley\u2019s answers to these questions:<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Head of Thy Church triumphant,<br \/>\nWe joyfully adore Thee;<br \/>\nTill Thou appear, Thy members here<br \/>\nShall sing like those in glory.<br \/>\nWe lift our hearts and voices<br \/>\nWith blest anticipation,<br \/>\nAnd cry aloud, and give to God<br \/>\nThe praise of our salvation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">While in affliction\u2019s furnace,<br \/>\nAnd passing through the fire,<br \/>\nThy love we praise, which knows our days,<br \/>\nAnd ever brings us nigher.<br \/>\nWe clap our hands exulting<br \/>\nIn Thine almighty favor;<br \/>\nThe love divine which made us Thine<br \/>\nShall keep us Thine for ever.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">Thou dost conduct Thy people<br \/>\nThrough torrents of temptation,<br \/>\nNor will we fear, while Thou art near,<br \/>\nThe fire of tribulation.<br \/>\nThe world with sin and Satan<br \/>\nIn vain our march opposes,<br \/>\nThrough Thee we shall break through them all,<br \/>\nAnd sing the song of Moses.<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px;\">By faith we see the glory<br \/>\nTo which Thou shalt restore us,<br \/>\nThe cross despise for that high prize<br \/>\nWhich Thou hast set before us.<br \/>\nAnd if Thou count us worthy,<br \/>\nWe each, as dying Stephen,<br \/>\nShall see Thee stand at God\u2019s right hand,<br \/>\nTo take us up to Heaven.<\/p>\n<p>The church is <em>already <\/em>triumphant. We \u201cgive to God the praise of our salvation\u201d for He is the author and finisher of our faith. His love has made us belong to Him, and He Himself will keep us, guard us, protect us, and bring us safely to His heavenly kingdom. Neither temptation nor persecution can separate us from His love. We together, as His beloved church, shall break through all opposition, and sing in triumph that <em>He <\/em>accomplished the victory; His deeds are great and amazing, His ways just and true.<\/p>\n<p>The last verse alludes to several passages we must keep in mind to understand it rightly:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u201cFor      the joy that was set before him [Jesus] endured the cross, despising the      shame (Hebrews 12:2).<\/li>\n<li>\u201cWhoever      does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me\u201d (Matthew 10:38)<\/li>\n<li>\u201cWe      ourselves boast about you in the churches of God for your steadfastness      and faith in all your persecutions and in the afflictions that you are      enduring. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may      be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also      suffering\u201d (2 Thessalonians 1:4-5)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So when Wesley writes, \u201cthe cross despise\u201d he is referring to the shame that results from taking up our cross and following Christ. We despise the loss of reputation or goods or jobs that comes from our identification with Jesus. And, praise God, He counts us worthy of His kingdom when He gives us the grace to persevere to the end. It is all of Him<\/p>\n<p>May we focus on His victory, His grace, His love, His joy, and thus live joyfully to His glory, knowing the battle is won.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How do we live in light of God\u2019s once and for all conquest of sin and Satan at the cross? How does knowing the victory is won affect our lives?&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15],"tags":[309,1480],"class_list":["post-373","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-devotions","tag-church-triumphant","tag-song-of-moses"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.desiringgodchurch.org\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}