Miriam sang to them:
“Sing to the Lord,
for he is highly exalted.
Both horse and driver
he has hurled into the sea.”
-Exodus 15:21
This verse of scripture is identified at Mariam’s Song in most of my Bibles. The verses prior to it in Exodus 15 are identified as Moses Song. Moses Song is an account of crossing the Red Sea while Mariam’s Song focuses on Pharaoh’s army being destroyed. These songs immediate follow that Exodus account of the crossing of the Red Sea. I was inspired by Mariam’s Song to write a chorus for a song about this story. Here is my chorus:
Oh no! What do I see?
Pharaoh’s chariots coming after me.
Praise the Lord, Mighty is He
The horse and the rider drowned in the Red Sea
The verses of the song mirror the account of the story told in Moses Song but also draws on the account in Exodus 14.
This song reminds me of one of my other songs, A Little Faith, in that it focuses on some gruesome details of a story from the Bible. A Little Faith mentions the beheading of Goliath while this song talks about Egyptians drowning. I thought if Mariam can sing about it, so can I. I don’t think we should back away from the unsavory details of the stories that shape our faith.