Singing A Sacred Song (Judges 5)

There have been many famous composers, there have been famous singers and there have been famous composer/singers. Also there have been soloists, duets, trios, quartets and so on. Here in Judges 5, we have a song composed by Deborah, and which Barak joined, perhaps by repeating the lines. They are an unlikely duet because she was a prophetess and he was a soldier.

Does their song mean that Christians can write and sing a song whenever they wish? Of course they can, although they cannot claim divine inspiration for their song. Deborah could, because she was a prophetess, and she is the main author as we can see from the personal pronouns used in the song (e.g. v. 7). This song is inspired in two ways; first, it was inspired when the composers originated it and, second, the author of Judges was guided by the Holy Spirit to include it in this biblical book so that it is now part of the inspired Word of God.

When we see this song in the pages of the Bible, we might not wish to ask how it was originally composed. After all, it is sufficient that it is found in the Bible. Yet it may have been the case that God directly guided Deborah to sing this song without any preparation. It could be similar to the songs that Mary and which are recorded in Luke. And if that is how the song originally appeared, then it is of miraculous origins and we are listening to a particular description of divine inspiration when God takes over the minds and voices of his servant.

The account does not say to whom they sang the song initially. Perhaps they sang to the other Israelites or perhaps they sang it to God alone at first. Verse 3 addresses the kings and princes of surrounding nations, but that does not mean that they literally heard it. We can see from the contents that it is a song of instruction, which means that eventually the people of Israel would have sung it, and this is important because it is likely that most of them could not read.

Putting accounts of events into the form of a song is one of the best ways to teach people. We know that is the case from our own Scottish heritage in that the singing of the metrical psalms greatly helped the progress of the Reformation. And even in the area around Inverness, during the days when Robert Bruce was a preacher here, a laird with the gift of turning Bible passages into rhyme did so, and his songs were sung for generations, although they have all disappeared, as far as I know. But during the period in which they were used, they helped many people understand the Bible.

This song of Deborah and Barak is one of the oldest songs in the Bible. There are older songs, such as Psalm 90 which was written by Moses or the song that Miriam, another prophetess, composed and sang as she led the ladies of Israel to celebrate on the shores of the Red Sea. It is good to be able to listen in and hear what those saints of old had to say to God.

The timing of the song is notable because it was sung after a great victory. We could say that is the most obvious time to sing. Sadly, this song would lose its relevance in a sense when the period of rest brought about by the victory came to an end. But we as Christians are called to sing after the greatest victory of all, the victory of Jesus over death and the grave. And we have no reason to stop singing about it.

Time of revival

The detail that seems to have caused the song is recorded in verse 2 and it was the wonderful experience of some leaders doing what they should have been doing and of some of the people participating willingly in the battle for the kingdom of God. It was obviously a time of spiritual revival, even if it was connected to a battle. Yet we should remind ourselves that sometimes revivals and battles go together. The famous revival of 1859 began in New York and spread round America and the world. What was going on in America after 1859? They were the years of the Civil War and books have been written about the revivals that occurred in both armies during that period.

Singing to the covenant God

Moreover, although it is a song about a battle, it is an item of praise because it says in verse 3 that it was sung to the covenant God of Israel. They refer to him as Yahweh, the God who had showed his control over the powers of nature and used a storm to overpower the forces of the enemy (vv. 4-5). When we sing to God, we should sing about his great exploits that are unique to him. We can sing about him as the Creator or sing about him as the Rescuer of his people or sing about him as the Judge of all.

Rehearsing the times of sadness

The song moves on to describe what life was like when Deborah was raised up by God to be a judge (vv. 6-9). They were terrible days as whole villages ceased to exist, probably because of invasion by hostile peoples. We saw in chapter 4 that the Canaanites had been causing trouble and taking land from the Israelites in the north and 3:31 tells us that the Philistines, probably in the south were doing the same. But God sent deliverance. It is beautiful how Deborah describes that period. A secular historian might have called it ‘in the days of Jabin, king of the Canaanites’. Deborah names the period after Shamgar and Jael, the deliverers of Israel. I suppose it is similar to saying ‘in the days of John Knox’ rather than ‘in the days of Mary, Queen of Scots.’ Or ‘in the days of George Whitefield’ instead of whoever the monarch was at the time.

By calling the period after Shamgar and Jael, she was acknowledging that God had done something amazing. Because he had done so when he brought about a great victory through a people who had no real weapons. Imagine being a commander of an army without the latest weapons! Yet God moved their hearts and the commanders dedicated themselves to serve God and fight his enemies. And Deborah loved them for their dedication. It does Christians good when they see their leaders willing to fight against the odds. And Deborah here gives the credit to God for bringing this change of heart.

In verses 10 and 11, the song exhorts everybody in the country to sing about the Lord’s triumphs. She begins with the wealthy and noble (they sat on donkeys) and includes those who can now freely travel the roads because the enemy has gone. Whenever they come to a watering place – a spring or a river, they will find people gathered to sing about the triumphs of God and when they join these celebrations they should not change the theme. What a transformation in the country! Revival has come and the land is full of singing.

The victory parade (vv. 11-18)

In the last line of verse 11 down to 18, the song focuses on a victory parade and considers various aspects of what had taken place during the battle. Deborah is asked to sing on this occasion, and maybe this is when our song was composed. Barak is asked to lead his captives in a procession, which was a common way of showing the extent of a victory.

What is obvious from the words of the song is that some tribes of Israel participated and other tribes did not. The tribes who heard the call to help Barak were Ephraim, Benjamin, Manasseh, Zebulon, Issachar, and Naphtali. Sadly, the tribes of Reuben, some of Manasseh, Dan and Asher did not participate. It looks as if the song says that the tribes that did not help put their own interests first. But we are to imagine the participating tribes as their particular exploits in the battle are announced.

It is noteworthy that Paul uses the imagery of victory parades after a battle to depict the triumph of the cause of Jesus. What an amazing sight it will be to watch the heroes of the Lord from all the centuries march in the parade! Even some from this period will be there like Shamgar and Jael. But we would not expect the people from the non-participating tribes to be there, would we? And do we expect the non-participants of today to be there?

The battle described (vv. 19-22)

In her song, Deborah describes the enemy forces. Other kings of the Canaanites had decided to participate, perhaps because they had been promised a reward. Yet as Deborah notes, they got ‘no spoils of silver’. Instead, they were thoroughly defeated by the overflowing of the River Kishon, the water coming from the storm that Deborah had already referred to. Sisera’s chariots did cause havoc among the Israelites for twenty years, but the Lord made them useless in a very short time and all they could do was flee. The Lord has a way of showing the weakness of human armies – he had already done so with Pharaoh’s chariots – when they are fighting against him.

Three unexpected developments (vv. 23-30)

In verse 23, the song includes a statement from the angel of the Lord. If we know the story of Israel, we will know that this heavenly being appears at significant moments. And we know that he does so as both a divine being and as a representative of the divine being. It is generally acknowledged that this divine being is the second person of the Trinity. So we can say, here is Jesus in the song of Deborah.

We can see that on this occasion he is acting as a judge and has come to pronounce sentence on a particular city of Israel called Meroz whose inhabitants should have come to the help of the Lord, but did not. Perhaps the reason why no one has been able to find a trace of Meroz reveals the reality of the punishment they received. Thinking of the Angel, it is clear that he regarded those who flocked to the cause of Barak as his people, the ones he would bless with forty years of rest. And he decided that Meroz would have no part of it. But he still gives rest to those who follow him.

In contrast to the ones receiving a curse, we see an unexpected woman receiving a blessing (vv. 24-27). Truly, God’s ways are not our ways. Jael, we can say, came to the help of the Lord and was blessed. She has her critics, but not in heaven. Remember that this is an inspired song, and we are to note the details of her contribution to the victory, which Deborah stresses bit by bit.

Then in verses 28-30, Deborah describes the despair of the mother of Sisera. Some commentators think Deborah is imagining this, but I am not sure about that because she was a prophet and God could have told her the details. In any case, all the mother and her staff of counsellors had was vain hope.

Progress of God’s kingdom (v. 31)

The song closes with a vehement desire that all God’s enemies will be destroyed and that his friends will be like the sun. Is it merely coincidental that in Matthew 13:41-43, Jesus says, ‘The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father.’ Or is he saying that the prayers of Deborah and Barak, in this ancient song, will be answered one day?