The Mekhilta presents a remarkable statement from the congregation of Israel, addressed directly to God, that explains exactly why they are singing at the Red Sea.
"Lord of the world," Israel declares, "it is not for the miracles that You performed with me alone that I chant song before You, but for the miracles that You performed with my fathers and with me in all of the generations."
This is a profound reframing of the Song of the Sea. The Israelites are not simply celebrating the fact that they just walked through the Red Sea on dry ground while the Egyptian army drowned behind them. They are singing for the entire accumulated history of divine intervention — every miracle, every rescue, every moment when God stepped into history to save their ancestors.
The splitting of the sea is the latest in a long chain of wonders: Abraham rescued from the furnace, Isaac saved on the altar, Jacob protected from Esau and Laban, Joseph raised from the pit to the palace. The song encompasses all of it. The Israelites at the shore are not merely survivors of one event. They are the inheritors of an entire tradition of divine faithfulness.
That is why the verse says both phrases: "This is my God and I will extol Him" — for what He has done for me, right now, today — and "the God of my father, and I will exalt Him" — for everything He has done across all the generations. The song is personal and historical at once, a celebration of both present miracle and ancient covenant.