Sing About Exodus with the Psalmists

“Look how united America was!” “Good people around the world stood against tyranny.” “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” “That’s why they call it the greatest generation!” “Scientific innovation reached new and deadly heights.” “The military industrial complex was born.”

World War II was such a vast and multifaceted historical phenomenon that modern people refer to it regularly. Some references are positive. Some are negative.

The same is true of Israel’s exodus from Egypt. Yair Zakovitch isn’t exaggerating when he says, “No other event in the history of Israel is given so much attention by biblical writers as is the exodus—as many as one hundred and twenty references in a variety of literary genres.” The Psalter probably tops the leaderboard with dozens of allusions to Exodus across 23 psalms.

These allusions occur for various reasons. Some positive. Some negative. Here are five reasons that Israel’s psalmists recollect or allude to the book of Exodus.

Praising God’s Work

Six psalms allude to events or words from Exodus in order to praise the Lord (Pss. 66; 103; 105; 135; 136; 145). For example, Psalm 105:24–43 retells Exodus 1–15 and ends like this: “He brought his people out with joy, his chosen ones with singing” (105:43). Why retell the Exodus story? So that worshipers will follow suit: “Sing to him, sing praise to him; tell of all his wondrous works!” (v. 2).

Other praise psalms reuse the Lord’s self-description from Exodus 34:6–7 to extol his character. For example, David proclaims in Psalm 103:8, “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love” (see also 145:8).

Challenging God’s People

Five psalms use Exodus to challenge worshipers to faithfulness (Pss. 15; 32; 81; 95; 114). Sometimes this involves legal material, like when Psalm 15:5 uses keywords from Exodus 22:25 and 23:7–8 to describe an ideal worshiper “who does not put out his money at interest and does not take a bribe against the innocent.”

Sometimes this involves recounting events in Exodus like Psalm 95’s reference to the “test” at Meribah (vv. 8–9; Ex.17:7). Psalmists recognized that Exodus conveys not only a record of the Lord’s deliverance (Ex. 1–15) but also the covenantal way of life into which he delivers the redeemed (Ex. 16–40).

Seeking God’s Intervention

Five psalms of lament employ Exodus material as they wrestle with God in their suffering (Pss. 10; 17; 77; 80; 86). Lament psalms usually contain five components visualized in the acronym GRIEF:

• God’s name is called on
• Reasons for suffering are listed
• Innocence or confession of sin is asserted
• Escape from suffering is sought
• Faith is expressed (usually at the end)

Sometimes psalmists refer to Exodus in the fourth section (Escape) as if to say, Lord, you delivered then . . . so please do it again (Pss. 17; 80). Psalm 17:7 does this when it uses the keywords “wonder,” “steadfast love,” and “right hand” from Exodus 15:11–13 to plead, “Wondrously show your steadfast love, O Savior of those who seek refuge from their adversaries at your right hand.”

Other times, the concluding section of the laments (Faith) uses words from Exodus (Pss. 10; 77). For example, Psalm 10:16’s confession of faith mimics the end of the Song of the Sea (Ex. 15:18) when it proclaims, “The LORD is king forever and ever.”

Comforting God’s People

Three psalms teach worshipers how God protects his people by alluding to his sovereign care displayed in Exodus (Pss. 18; 91; 118). Psalm 91:11 famously says, “He will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways,” and uses the keywords “keep” and “angel” from Exodus 23:20’s promise of protection for redeemed Israel.

Psalm 118 recounts how the psalmist was “falling” (v. 13) but then the Lord helped him: “The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation” (v. 14). The keywords “strength,” “song,” and “salvation” come from Exodus 15:2, where the Israelites nearly fell and then the Lord intervened. The psalmists wanted believing worshipers to take comfort that the God of Exodus is with them.

Responding to God’s Correction

Four psalms explore the “shadow side” of the events of the exodus (Pss. 42; 78; 88; 106). Two are known as historical psalms (78; 106) because they retell large swaths of Israel’s history. Unlike the other positive historical psalms (105; 135–136), Psalms 78 and 106 remember Israel’s sinful responses to God’s mighty acts (78:17; 106:13).

The psalmists wanted believing worshipers to take comfort that the God of Exodus is with them.

Psalm 78 recollects these dark memories so God’s people will remember his mercy in the present and future (vv. 6–8). Psalm 106 recalls the sinful past to plead with God to do what he did in Exodus: deliver his people even when they don’t deserve it (vv. 44–47).

In two other psalms, the psalmists characterize themselves as recipients of God’s discipline in ways that remind them of how God treated his enemies in Exodus (Ps. 42; 88). For example, the psalmist says tears, not daily bread (Ex. 16), are his “food” (literally, “bread”) all day, every day (Ps. 42:3). Instead of God’s enemies being covered with the deep waters (Ex. 15:5), God’s enemies are taunting the psalmist (Ps. 42:10) while he tumbles in the deep waters (v. 7).

Delight in Christ’s Person and Work

Unsurprisingly, the New Testament portrays Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection as what Greg Lanier calls “a new Exodus event” (see Luke 9:31). The psalmists beheld the first exodus, and now believers can follow their gaze from the first exodus to the new exodus it foreshadowed. Therefore, cross-shaped believers can relate to God in praise, worship, and lament in all five ways outlined above.

According to Psalm 118, we cling to the work of Christ in the cross and resurrection as our ongoing strength, song, and salvation.

Following the gaze of Psalm 105, we praise God for his unparalleled saving work through the cross and resurrection. Following the gaze of Psalm 15, we see the cross and resurrection as fuel for a new, ethical way of life by the Holy Spirit. Following the gaze of Psalm 17, we weave the message of the cross into our laments as we identify with Jesus’s suffering and take heart that our greatest enemy was defeated through his suffering.

According to Psalm 118, we cling to the work of Christ in the cross and resurrection as our ongoing strength, song, and salvation. Psalm 106 teaches us that we should acknowledge when we don’t remember the cross rightly, even as, following the gaze of Psalm 42, we trust that the floodwaters of God’s wrath engulfed the Lord Jesus in our stead.

News Source : https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/psalmists-sing-exodus/