The LORD is my strength and song, and he is become my salvation: he is my God, and I will prepare him an habitation; my father's God, and I will exalt him.
These words burst from Moses and the Israelites right after God splits the Red Sea and swallows the Egyptian army. After four centuries of slavery, they are finally free, walking on dry ground between walls of water. The line is both a personal statement and a communal chant — "my" and "my father’s God" tie one generation of deliverance to the next, claiming God as the source of muscle, melody, and rescue.
God of the escaping slaves, You are still the muscle in my weak knees and the tune I hum when words fail. Make my life a loud, off-pitch gratitude that tells the next person there is water-splitting love. I lift my cracked voice to You. Amen.
Imagine the first gulp of air after the sea crashes closed behind you. Your ears still ring with chariot wheels and screaming; your feet are still dusty from the escape route. Then someone starts singing, and the words don’t describe theology — they describe lungs. "The Lord is my strength" isn’t a compliment; it’s recognition that every heartbeat from here on is borrowed. You may not have crossed a literal sea, but you’ve walked through something that tried to drown you: the diagnosis, the divorce papers, the depression that felt like chains. Exodus says deliverance comes with a soundtrack. Your story might be off-key and shaky, but belt it anyway. Because the next generation needs to know that God still parts waters and still gives songs in the night.
Why does Moses switch between ‘my’ and ‘my father’s God’ in the same breath?
What has been your personal ‘Red Sea’ moment, and what song did you sing afterward?
How does claiming God as ‘my strength’ differ from saying God gave me strength?
Who needs to hear your deliverance story so that their faith can attach to something real?
What daily practice could help you keep singing instead of just talking about the old song?
Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust, and not be afraid: for the LORD JEHOVAH is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation.
Isaiah 12:2
O LORD, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
Isaiah 25:1
A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah. O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;
Psalms 63:1
The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; my God, my strength, in whom I will trust; my buckler, and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower.
Psalms 18:2
A Psalm of David. The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?
Psalms 27:1
And thou, Solomon my son, know thou the God of thy father, and serve him with a perfect heart and with a willing mind: for the LORD searcheth all hearts, and understandeth all the imaginations of the thoughts: if thou seek him, he will be found of thee; but if thou forsake him, he will cast thee off for ever.
1 Chronicles 28:9
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David, the servant of the LORD, who spake unto the LORD the words of this song in the day that the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies, and from the hand of Saul: And he said, I will love thee, O LORD, my strength.
Psalms 18:1
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.
Habakkuk 3:18
"The LORD is my strength and my song, And He has become my salvation; This is my God, and I will praise Him; My father's God, and I will exalt Him.
AMP
The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him.
ESV
'The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; This is my God, and I will praise Him; My father's God, and I will extol Him.
NASB
The Lord is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him.
NIV
The LORD is my strength and song, And He has become my salvation; He is my God, and I will praise Him; My father’s God, and I will exalt Him.
NKJV
The LORD is my strength and my song; he has given me victory. This is my God, and I will praise him — my father’s God, and I will exalt him!
NLT
God is my strength, God is my song, and, yes! God is my salvation. This is the kind of God I have and I'm telling the world! This is the God of my father— I'm spreading the news far and wide!
MSG