We continue with our final lessons from the story of Yehoshafat. The prophet says, “As Yehoshafat started to sing, God sent out ambushes against the enemy.” And eventually, as we mentioned at the beginning of the week, it created a war between the different factions. And Yehoshafat did nothing but sing.
The Midrash says, “Even before the enemies came, he started to sing. All he did was sing songs of praise to Hashem.”
The Midrash says this applies this to pasuk 18,4 in tehilim,
מְ֭הֻלָּל אֶקְרָ֣א ה׳ וּמִן־אֹ֝יְבַ֗י אִוָּשֵֽׁעַ׃ “I call out to Hashem in praise and I'm saved from my enemy.” Not that first I'm saved and then I sing, but rather, because I sing, I'm saved. That's how I get saved- through singing songs. Rashi says,
Even before the salvation, I praise Him, and I’m guaranteed that I'm going to be saved.
This is an unbelievable concept. We've heard many stories about this, but here we see it in Yehoshafat live. He sings songs, and in the merit of the songs he is saved.
The sefer Shneh Luchot HaBrit says something fascinating. He says the reason the Jewish people did not sing the song of Az Yashir before the sea split (they really should have done it beforehand), is because their Emuna was not yet strong. That's why it says right before that,
ויאמינו בה׳ ובמשה עבדו
They had faith in Hashem and His servant Moshe
They didn't sing until then because their Emuna wasn't strong enough. But if their Emuna was strong enough, they would have started to sing immediately. Once Hashem told them, “You be quiet and I'll fight the war,” they should have started to sing.
They shouldn't have waited until they after the sea split to sing Az Yashir.
The Malbim has a similar explanation for a pasuk in tehilim 42,9:
יוֹמָ֤ם יְצַוֶּ֬ה ה׳ ׀ חַסְדּ֗וֹ וּ֭בַלַּיְלָה שִׁירֹ֣ה עִמִּ֑י תְּ֝פִלָּ֗ה לְאֵ֣ל חַיָּֽי׃
During the daytime, God commands His kindness, And at night, my song is with me.
Day always symbolizes goodness, and night symbolizes bad times. Like it says, “In the morning, the day, I talk about God's kindness is, and I have Emuna at night.”
Malbim explains that God commands His kindness during the day, and at night means the night before the day, when there was still a difficulty, I already started to sing because I knew that there would be a salvation in the future.
This is a concept that's repeated constantly in our writings.
We’ll end with the words of the Kedushat Levi in Parashat Beshalach, who says, “Someone that cleaves to Hashem and is feels guaranteed that it will surely save him, says the song on the salvation( Shira) like David Hamelech.
It’s not a game.
People say, “Okay, fine. I'll sing the song.” But you have to have the bitachon. You can only sing the song if you really feel like it happened already. It's not a game. You have to really feel like you're already saved. It's a vadai. It's in your pocket already, even though it didn't happen. You're sitting there, you can't pay your mortgage..You're in a difficult situation, but you're already singing your song because you're so guaranteed. So we can't fool ourselves. But the point is that this is a level, and it’s brought down in the sefarim. It's something that we have to strive for.
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This is basically the end of our Pesukim of Bitachon, as listed by Rav Yosef Zundel of Salant, taken from throughout the Torah, Neviim and Ketuvim.
We took a lot of breaks, but Baruch Hashem, we finally finished.
Thank Hashem that helped us to get to this point.
Have a wonderful day.