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experience filled them with joy and happiness and gratitude. In other words, it strengthened their religious life and was a source of their inspiration.69

      The presence of יהוה reflects very early on the basic and central theological conviction that יהוה acts on behalf of the people of יהוה.

      Another early psalm of praise to יהוה was initiated in that crucial hour following the event of the Exodus (15:1–17). Women under the leadership of Miriam sang and danced to an astounding poem accompanied by music, inviting all the people to join them in hymnic praise. The text in Ex 15:20–21 is very explicit that instrumentation was used to accompany the women in song.

      Israel’s history of worship, which reached its climax in the praises of the Psalter, was initiated in that crucial hour at the beginning of the tradition when women, under the leadership of Miriam, sang and danced to music, inviting the people to join them in hymnic praise (cf. The Song of Miriam in Ex 15); cf. The Song of the Sea, a longer poem, influenced by Canaanite literary style and mythical imagery, apparently comes from the period of the tribal confederacy that flourished before the rise of the Davidic monarchy (1200–1000 BCE).70

      Dance and song are forms of religious prayer and praise in the Hebrew Bible and there are many references to Israel’s singing and dancing before יהוה. Perhaps the most famous instance of celebratory song and dance involves David in a later era (2 Sam. 6), dancing openly and in joyful abandon before יהוה and in the sight of the people! This was considered scandalous by his wife, Saul’s daughter Michal, and David was upbraided by her for his unrestrained exuberance. She failed to appreciate the depth of the intimacy in the relationship that existed between David and יהוה.

      The Jewish Study Bible [Tanakh] says: “she despised him for it!” This bond between the anointed of יהוה and יהוה was never more evident, never more pronounced, than in the charismatic and gifted person of the young shepherd lad who was to receive Samuel’s approbation, the man after God’s own heart (I Sam 13:14). Luke’s account of Paul’s sermon in Antioch in Pisidia includes the following quotation: In his (Samuel’s) testimony about him (David) he said, ‘I have found David, son of Jesse, to be a man after my (Yhwh) heart, who will carry out all my wishes. Of this man’s posterity God has brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, just as he promised’ (Acts 13:22, 23, NRSV).

      It was David who celebrated the entrance of the ark of יהוה into the newly captured royal city of Jerusalem.

      It has often been suggested that David’s decision to bring the ark to Jerusalem in the presence of all the elite warriors of Israel (2 Sam. 6:1) indicates the acuity of his political flair. To be sure, the king probably saw in the cultic object of the ancient tribal confederation a rallying force that was attractive to both northerners and southerners. Beyond its Philistine fiasco, the ark summoned to the popular mind the memories of the Holy Warrior in Sinai and Edom as well as the Magnalia Dei in the conquest of Canaan. David’s act was probably meant to unite under Yahweh the tribesmen of Israel properly speaking with the brash young heroes of Judah as well as the keepers of the Yahwist tradition in the southern shrine of Hebron. There is no evidence, however, that his move was solely dictated by political opportunism.71

      It is there and then that the Davidic dynasty is announced to David by the prophet Nathan. This is confirmed subsequently in the entering of יהוה into a solemn oath or covenant with David (2 Sam 7). Here we have the beginning of the royal theology of Jerusalem that is to dominate the Psalter. Psalms 2 and 110 are fine examples of this motif.72

      The event of the Exodus ordeal and subsequent deliverance was celebrated in another unparalleled hymn of praise and thanksgiving. Liberation from Egypt became the core hallmark of the religion of the Hebrews. As a celebration of thanksgiving and gratitude Exodus 15 is unrivaled by any of Israel’s later deliverance hymns. Though it was never incorporated into the Psalter, it is used effectively by the writer (s) of the book of Exodus to make the central theological point: God is involved in Israel’s history and thereby in her deliverance. The psalm of Moses is written in archaic Hebrew verse and, using parallelism, expresses Israel’s trust. Egyptian paintings and reliefs dating to the late second millennium BCE picture horses pulling chariots but not being ridden. But other biblical texts of the eighth-century BCE (Isa 31:1) write of Egyptians traveling on horseback. Regardless, this psalm is a potent hymn marking their deliverance by יהוה and the defeat of the Egyptian pharaoh. This hymn accentuates the fact that Israel’s God, Yhwh, acted directly in human history on Israel’s behalf. This is the core event in ancient Israel’s story.

      Exodus 15: 1–18

      The Song of Moses

      Then Moses and the Israelites sang this song to יהוה

      I will sing to יהוה, who has triumphed gloriously;

      horse and rider are thrown into the sea.

      יהוה is my strength and my might,

      and has become my salvation;

      this is my God whom I will praise,

      my father’s God, whom I will exalt.

      יהוה is a mighty warrior;

      יהוה is [his] name.

      Pharaoh’s chariots and his whole army

      are cast into the sea;

      his elite officers sank in the Sea of Reeds.

      The floods covered them;

      they sank down into the depths like a stone.

      Your right hand O יהוה, glorious in power -

      your right hand, O יהוה, shattered our enemies.

      In the greatness of your majesty you overthrow your enemies;

      you sent out your wrath, and it consumed them like stubble.

      At the blast of your nostrils the waters were gathered in a heap;

      the deeps congealed in the midst of the sea.

      The enemy said, “I will pursue, I will overtake them,

      I will divide the spoil; my desire shall have its fill of them.

      I will draw my sword; my hand shall destroy them.”

      Then you blew with your wind, the sea covered them;

      they sank like lead in the mighty waters.

      Who is like you, O יהוה, among the gods?

      Who is like you, majestic in holiness,

      awesome in splendor, doing wonders?

      You stretched out your right hand,

      the earth swallowed them up.

      In your constant love you led the people whom you redeemed;

      you guided them by your strength to your holy dwelling.

      The peoples heard and they all trembled;

      terror seized the inhabitants of Philistia.

      Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed;

      trembling seized the leaders of Moab;

      all the inhabitants of Canaan melted away.

      Terror and dread fell upon them;

      by the might of your arm, they became still as stone

      until your people, O יהוה, passed by,

      until the people whom you purchased passed by.

      You brought them in and planted them especially

      on the mountain of your own possession,

      the place, O יהוה, that you made your dwelling,

      the sanctuary, O יהוה, that your hands have established.

      יהוה will reign forever and ever!”

      The Song of Moses is accompanied

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