Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Exodus 15:18
The LORD shall reign forever and ever.
18. With this short concluding verse, ‘glancing at Jehovah’s lasting kingship (Deu 33:5) over His people, settled round His sanctuary, the hymn is brought to a fine and effective close’ (Di.). The thought of Jehovah as King occurs already in Deu 33:5, and in the seemingly early Psa 24:7-10; Psa 29:10; but the stress laid on His active exertion of sovereignty occurs first in Mic 4:7, but is chiefly later, Isa 52:7 (hence Psa 93:1; Psa 96:10; Psa 97:1; Psa 98:1), Isa 24:23 (post-exilic), Psa 146:10 (with ‘for ever,’ as also Mic 4:7).
Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges
Exo 15:18
Hast led forth the people which Thou hast redeemed.
Lessons
1. Gods future providence as well as past deliverance is the matter of faiths praise.
2. God, as a shepherd, leadeth His people through their course to rest, and will lead, as if it were done.
3. Mercy is the rule of all Gods conduct to His Church here below.
4. God hath saved, and will redeem His Israel out of all their troubles. It is His promise (Psa 130:8).
5. Gods holy habitation, Sion in type and heaven in truth, is the end of all His providential guidance unto His.
6. Gods strength secureth the Churchs conduct to His holy habitation.
7. Tender, sweet, and gentle is Gods guidance of His Church through their way to rest (Isa 40:11).
8. All this promised guidance faith must return to the praise of God. (G. Hughes, B. D.)
The song of Moses
I. Past mercies acknowledged. The fact celebrated is redemption from Egypt–Thou in Thy mercy hast led forth Thy people which Thou hast redeemed. The whole glory of deliverance is ascribed to the Lord, without any reference to second causes. The believer will often look back and contemplate his mercies, and celebrate his deliverances; like Samuel, he will raise his Ebenezer (1Sa 7:12).
II. Future mercies anticipated. Thou hast guided them, in Thy strength, unto Thy holy habitation. Here is the language of strong faith, as if they were already in Canaan. Moses knew that God had promised to bring them to His holy hill, and to His dwelling; he knew that Gods promises were as good as His performances; and we may say so too, for they are all yea and amen in Christ Jesus. The Lord had done so much for Israel, that Moses felt no doubt as to the future–Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of Thine inheritance.
III. Israels enemies confounded. The people shall hear and be afraid, sorrow shall take hold of the inhabitants of Palestine, etc. The world has now much to say against the people and cause of God. Religion is denounced by them as a delusion–a gloomy thing–as madness; but then every objection will be silenced. Satan, too, is now very busy with his temptations and accusations; but this state of things shall not always last. Trembling shall take hold of the believers enemies, when the people of God are safely brought to the heavenly Canaan. Then where will be the venom of the world? where the accusations of Satan? Not one mouth will then be opened against the meanest and most neglected of Gods people on earth. He shall then have nothing to fear; admitted within the pearly gates of the heavenly Jerusalem, he shall be for ever with the Lord. All enemies will be for ever excluded. The Church shall be saved and God glorified.
IV. The Kingdom of God permanently triumphant. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.
1. To the enemies of Christ. You see that the Lord must reign; then what must become of you?
2. To the friends of Christ, yea, to those who wish to love the Saviour.
(1) Look back and review your mercies; how numerous, how seasonable, how undeserved! See the Lords hand in them, and this will add to their sweetness.
(2) Look forward. Consider what God has promised to do for you. You have your trials, and you will have them; but you have not one too many.
(3) Look upward to that promised rest–that inheritance which is incorruptible, undefiled, and fadeth not away, etc. (George Breay, B. A.)
Fuente: Biblical Illustrator Edited by Joseph S. Exell
Verse 18. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.] This is properly the grand chorus in which all the people joined. The words are expressive of God’s everlasting dominion, not only in the world, but in the Church; not only under the law, but also under the Gospel; not only in time, but through eternity. The original leolam vaed may be translated, for ever and onward; or, by our very expressive compound term, for EVERMORE, i.e. for ever and more-not only through time, but also through all duration. His dominion shall be ever the same, active and infinitely extending. With this verse the song seems to end, as with it the hemistichs or poetic lines terminate. The 20th and beginning of the 21st are in plain prose, but the latter part of the 21st is in hemistichs, as it contains the response made by Miriam and the Israelitish women at different intervals during the song. See Dr. Kennicott’s arrangement of the parts at the end of this chapter.
Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible
The Lord shall reign for ever and ever. Even that same Lord that is spoken of throughout this song, and to whom everything in it is ascribed, and who is no other than the Lord Jesus Christ; his reign began in eternity, when he was set up and anointed as King over God’s holy hill of Zion, his church, the elect, who were a kingdom put under his care and charge, and which he will deliver up again one day, complete and perfect: he reigned throughout the whole Old Testament dispensation, and was acknowledged as well as prophesied of as a King; in his state of humiliation he had a kingdom, though not of this world, and upon his ascension to heaven he was made and declared Lord and Christ; and thenceforward his kingdom became very visible in the Gentile world, through the ministration of his word, accompanied by his almighty power; and ever since, more or less, he has ruled by his Spirit and grace in the hearts of many of the children of men, and, ere long, will take upon him his great power, and reign, in a more visible, spiritual, and glorious manner, in the midst of his churches, in the present state of things; and then he will reign with all his saints raised from the dead, for the space of a thousand years on earth, and after that will reign with them for ever in heaven, in the ultimate state of glory and happiness: the reigns of all others are but short, or, however, but for a time, but the reign of Christ is for ever and ever; the reigns of sin, and of Satan, and of death, have an end, but of the government of Christ, and the peace thereof, there will be no end; the reigns of the greatest potentates, emperors, and kings, of cruel and tyrannical princes, such as Pharaoh, are limited to a certain time, as is the reign of antichrist, which when ended, and the saints will have got the victory over him, the song of Moses and the Lamb will be sung; but Christ’s kingdom is an everlasting kingdoms, and his dominion is evermore: the Targum of Jonathan is,
“let us set a crown on the head of our Redeemer, whose is the royal crown, and he is King of kings in this world, and whose is the kingdom in the world to come, and whose it is and will be for ever and ever;”
and to the same purpose is the Jerusalem Targum.
Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible
(18) The Lord shall reign for ever and ever.Compare Psa. 10:16; Psa. 29:10; Psa. 145:13; Psa. 146:10. In simplicity and consequent force the expression of the idea by Moses transcends all later ones.
Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 15:18. The Lord shall reign for ever and ever An exulting strain; expressing the absolute sovereignty of Jehovah, which he had demonstrated by this signal overthrow of the Egyptians, as the next verse declares; where the reason is given for this triumphant assertion; for the horse of Pharaoh, &c. This 19th verse contains what the Greeks call the epiphonema of the song, which includes the whole subject of it, like the first chorus; as we have remarked upon the place. The conclusion being simple, and less figurative than the former part of the song, has led some writers to suppose, that the poetical part ends at the 18th verse: but this is a mistake; as the 19th verse is, in the Hebrew, no less metrical than the others.
Fuente: Commentary on the Holy Bible by Thomas Coke
What an everlasting cause for joy, amidst all the disappointments of life. Psa 97:1 ; Rev 11:15 .
Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Exo 15:18 The LORD shall reign for ever and ever.
Ver. 18. The Lord shall reign. ] Gaudeo quod Christus Dominus est; alioqui totus desperassem, writes Miconius to Calvin, upon the view of the Church’s enemies. The Lord Christ reigneth: or else I had been out of all hope of better.
Fuente: John Trapp’s Complete Commentary (Old and New Testaments)
Psa 10:16, Psa 29:10, Psa 146:10, Isa 57:15, Dan 2:44, Dan 4:3, Dan 7:14, Dan 7:27, Mat 6:13, Rev 11:15-17
Reciprocal: Rev 4:9 – who Rev 14:11 – for
Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge
Exo 15:18-19. The Lord shall reign, &c. This concludes the whole song, by which Moses not only expresses his own faith and that of the people in Gods everlasting kingdom, but promises, in the name of them all, to bear eternally in mind the signal deliverance God had wrought out for them. For ever and ever They had now seen an end of Pharaohs reign, but time itself shall not put a period to Jehovahs reign, which, like himself, is eternal.