The Mekhilta interprets the verse "You have led forth in lovingkindness" (Exodus 15:13) as a startling admission: Israel had no merit of their own when they were redeemed from Egypt. God delivered them purely through chesed (Lovingkindness) — lovingkindness — because they possessed no redeeming deeds to justify their salvation.
The proof texts pile up like witnesses in a courtroom. Isaiah proclaims (Isaiah 63:7): "The lovingkindnesses of the Lord will I proclaim." The Psalmist echoes (Psalms 89:2): "The lovingkindnesses of the Lord will I ever sing." These are not casual references. They establish a theological principle: God's chesed is something so extraordinary it demands perpetual singing and proclamation.
Then the midrash (rabbinic interpretive commentary) makes its boldest claim. Not only was Israel redeemed through chesed — the entire world was built on it. The Psalm continues (Psalms 89:3): "I said that the world with chesed will be built." Creation itself rests on a foundation of unearned grace. The cosmos exists not because anything deserved to exist, but because God chose to extend kindness before anyone could earn it.
This reading transforms the Song at the Sea from a victory hymn into a confession of radical dependence. Israel sings not because they were worthy, but precisely because they were not. Their rescue mirrors the logic of creation itself — both are gifts of pure, inexplicable lovingkindness.