Deuteronomy 31:30 - 32:18 - Proclaim the Greatness of His Name!

Deuteronomy 31:30 - 32:18

The Song of Moses

30 Then Moses spoke in the hearing of all the assembly of Israel the words of this song until they were ended:

1 “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak;
And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.

2 Let my teaching drop as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew,
As raindrops on the tender herb,
And as showers on the grass.

3 For I proclaim the name of the LORD:
Ascribe greatness to our God.

4 He is the Rock, His work is perfect;
For all His ways are justice,
A God of truth and without injustice;
Righteous and upright is He.

5 “They have corrupted themselves;
They are not His children,
Because of their blemish:
A perverse and crooked generation.

6 Do you thus deal with the LORD,
O foolish and unwise people?
Is He not your Father, who bought you?
Has He not made you and established you?

7 “Remember the days of old,
Consider the years of many generations.
Ask your father, and he will show you;
Your elders, and they will tell you:

8 When the Most High divided their inheritance to the nations,
When He separated the sons of Adam,
He set the boundaries of the peoples
According to the number of the children of Israel.

9 For the LORD’s portion is His people;
Jacob is the place of His inheritance.

10 “He found him in a desert land
And in the wasteland, a howling wilderness;
He encircled him, He instructed him,
He kept him as the apple of His eye.

11 As an eagle stirs up its nest,
Hovers over its young,
Spreading out its wings, taking them up,
Carrying them on its wings,
12 So the LORD alone led him,
And there was no foreign god with him.

13 “He made him ride in the heights of the earth,
That he might eat the produce of the fields;
He made him draw honey from the rock,
And oil from the flinty rock;

14 Curds from the cattle, and milk of the flock,
With fat of lambs;
And rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats,
With the choicest wheat;
And you drank wine, the blood of the grapes.

15 “But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked;
You grew fat, you grew thick,
You are obese!
Then he forsook God who made him,
And scornfully esteemed the Rock of his salvation.

16 They provoked Him to jealousy with foreign gods;
With abominations they provoked Him to anger.

17 They sacrificed to demons, not to God,
To gods they did not know,
To new gods, new arrivals
That your fathers did not fear.

18 Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful,
And have forgotten the God who fathered you.

We read this song of Moses given to encourage and warn the people of the LORD (Deuteronomy 31:22-23) as he was about to go to his God and Joshua was to lead them into the promised land with this song on their lips.  Moses read the words of this song first in its entirety, from beginning to the finish, to teach them before they would sing it together and teach their children and their children throughout the coming generations.  It began as a witness to God in the heavens above and all those with Him there as well as ever on earth below.  It was to bring life and growth as the rain does by God’s hand from heaven to the world beneath as God greatness was to be proclaimed and His name honored by all who sang and listened attentively with the heart and soul to the words.  He is the Rock, our solid and unmoving foundation whose works are perfect, whose ways are completely fair and true, who is righteous and true in all He is and what we see Him do.  Unfortunately, that generation as many others to follow, wandered off the path of righteousness into a crooked path of idolatry and immorality due to the blemish of the sin nature that had corrupted their souls with this sin-filled bent that had been acquired from birth (Romans 5:12, 17) as sons of Adam.  This phrase, “A perverse and crooked generation” was later repeated by the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 17:17 and Luke 3:5 (and again in Acts 2:40, Philippians 2:15) as a warning to those rejecting Him and the Word of the Lord (John 1:14) made flesh to turn (repent) from sin and turn towards Him in the obedience of faith.  The song of our salvation we now sing (Ephesians 5:14, 1 Timothy 3:16) is of our deliverance from that corruption and the consequences of sin as we are bound for the heavenly promised land.  Even Israel was warned and called to deal faithfully and wisely with their Father who bought them at a price and made them in His image as His chosen ones to establish them as His people, looking back to consider and respond in thankful obedience to His work in calling them and leading them along life’s narrow way, just as He continues to do for we His people in Christ.  The Lord’s portion remains His people.  We are all called to be His inheritance and are promised a place (John 14:2-3) in His heavenly kingdom to come (Matthew 6:10) with Him as foreshadowed by the earthly inheritance of Canaan promised to Israel which many of them rejected by their response of sin in serving other gods and living immoral lives that further marred the ones created in His holy image.  This is also a warning to teach us to lead holy lives and not put anything or anyone above Him.  May we learn to highly esteem and appreciate the Rock (Psalm 18:2, 46, Luke 8:13, 1 Corinthians 10:4) of our salvation and never forget Him or His work to draw us out of sin (John 6:44, 65) to Him!  Sing praise to our Lord as we continually remember our calling as we look back and in the future to our election made certain by promise in His work on the cross of our sin’s curse.  Proclaim the greatness of His name!