Exodus 15:23
And when they came to Marah, they could not drink of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter: therefore the name of it was called Marah.
Something happened to Israel’s song. After God delivered them from Egypt by way of the great victory at the Red Sea, they all sang a song to praise God for what He had done for them. However, they lost their song when they came to the waters of Marah. Something happened that turned their song to murmuring. Something happened that turned joy into complaining. It was not the waters of Marah that caused them to lose their song, though that was their excuse, but it was their focus of life that caused them to lose their song.
I enjoy singing the song, “I sing because there is an empty grave; I sing because there is a power to save.” Oh, I sing this song, and the joy of the LORD fills my heart. There is something about singing that brings joy to one’s heart. However, you will always see complaining and murmuring quickly fills the mouth of the one who loses the LORD’s songs. Israel said in Psalm 137:4, How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a strange land? Israel used to sing the LORD’s song when they were in Israel, but because they were in captivity, they chose not to sing His song. Losing your song happens because you lose your focus on three things.
First, you lose your focus on faith and choose to focus on life by sight. Israel lost their song because they focused on the waters of Marah instead of focusing on faith. Had they stayed focused on faith, they would have known that God had a solution for their situation. When you choose to live by sight, you will lose your focus on faith, and everything in life will seem to be bitter. We can focus on what all is going wrong, or we can focus on faith and keep our song as we anticipate how God will work through our life situations. We cannot choose what life brings to us, but we can choose to sing the LORD’s song in anticipation that God knows the way through our wilderness. If you lose your faith focus, you will most certainly lose your song.
Second, you lose your song because you focused on the temporal instead of on the eternal. The temporal always makes things worse, but looking by faith to the eternal reminds us that God will reward us for doing right. Israel stopped looking ahead and started looking at the temporal, and they lost their song. You cannot live for the temporal, stay focused on the temporal, and keep your song. One reason I don't watch the news is because I want to stay focused on the eternal so that I can keep my song. If I watch the negativity of the news, I will lose my song.
Third, you lose your song because you focused on man’s abilities instead of on God’s omnipotence. Israel murmured at Moses as if he was the one who parted the Red Sea and delivered them from Egypt with the mighty plagues. Israel was looking at Moses’ abilities instead of focusing on God’s omnipotence. If you look at life’s bitter situations through how man can deal with them, you will lose your song and quickly murmur about life. However, if you look at the bitter situations of life through God’s omnipotence, you will keep your song because you will see an opportunity for God to do something through your life again.
Have you lost your song? Let me challenge you to stay focused on the eternal by faith and on God’s omnipotence, and you will find that you will never lose your song.