Poetry and Song
123
“The Lord shall reign for ever and ever....
Sing ye to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously.”
Exodus 15:1, 2, 6-11, 18, 21
, R.V.
Great have been the blessings received by men in response to songs
of praise. The few words recounting an experience of the wilderness
journey of Israel have a lesson worthy of our thought:
“They went to Beer: that is the well whereof the Lord spake unto
Moses, Gather the people together, and I will give them water.”
Num-
bers 21:16
. “Then sang Israel this song:
“Spring up, O well; sing ye unto it:
The well, which the princes digged,
Which the nobles of the people delved,
With the scepter, and with their staves.”
Numbers 21:17, 18
, R.V.
How often in spiritual experience is this history repeated! how
often by words of holy song are unsealed in the soul the springs of
penitence and faith, of hope and love and joy!
[163]
It was with songs of praise that the armies of Israel went forth to
the great deliverance under Jehoshaphat. To Jehoshaphat had come
the tidings of threatened war. “There cometh a great multitude against
thee,” was the message, “the children of Moab, and the children of
Ammon, and with them other beside.” “And Jehoshaphat feared, and
set himself to seek the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all
Judah. And Judah gathered themselves together, to ask help of the
Lord: even out of all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord.”
And Jehoshaphat, standing in the temple court before his people,
poured out his soul in prayer, pleading God’s promise, with confession
of Israel’s helplessness. “We have no might against this great company
that cometh against us,” he said: “neither know we what to do: but our
eyes are upon Thee.”
2 Chronicles 20:2, 1, 3, 4, 12
.
Then upon Jahaziel a Levite “came the Spirit of the Lord; ... and he
said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou
King Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor
dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours,