Prayer as a Song

Deuteronomy 32-33

Moses' last words appear this time in the form of a song that summarizes the story of Israel's election, apostasy, punishment, and, in the end, God's gracious vindication.  It contains praise and prophecy.

The Song of Moses functions as a justification of God's ways with Israel.  While some think it is cast in the form of a hymn because of the calls to praise that frame the song, most continue to see, lying behind the poem, a framework known as the prophetic lawsuit, in which God brings charges against Israel.


And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Yeshua (Joshua) son of Nun.

Give ear, O heavens, and I [Moses] will speak; and let the earth hear the words of my mouth.

It's called a song, yet Moses says he spoke,  I wonder if he's a Roger Whittaker-style singer?

My message shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distill as the dew, as the light rain upon the tender grass, and as the showers upon the herb.  For I will proclaim the name [and presence] of the Lord. Concede and ascribe greatness to our God.

He is the Rock, His work is perfect, for all His ways are law and justice. A God of faithfulness without breach or deviation, just and right is He.

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.  When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the children of men, He set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the Israelites.

For the Lord’s portion is His people; Jacob (Israel) is the lot of His inheritance.

He made Israel ride on the high places of the earth, and he ate the increase of the field; and He made him suck honey out of the rock and oil out of the flinty rock,  Butter and curds of the herd and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and he-goats, with the finest of the wheat; and you drank wine of the blood of the grape.

But Jeshurun (Israel) grew fat and kicked. You became fat, you grew thick, you were gorged and sleek! Then he forsook God Who made him and forsook and despised the Rock of his salvation.

They provoked Him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations they provoked Him to anger.  They sacrificed to demons, not to God—to gods whom they knew not, to new gods lately come up, whom your fathers never knew or feared.

Of the Rock Who bore you you were unmindful; you forgot the God Who travailed in your birth.  And the Lord saw it and He spurned and rejected them, out of indignation with His sons and His daughters. And He said, I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation, children in whom is no faithfulness.

They have moved Me to jealousy with what is not God; they have angered Me with their idols. So I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a people; I will anger them with a foolish nation.

For a fire is kindled by My anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth with its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.  And I will heap evils upon them; I will spend My arrows upon them.  They shall be wasted with hunger and devoured with burning heat and poisonous pestilence; and the teeth of beasts will I send against them, with the poison of crawling things of the dust.

From without the sword shall bereave, and in the chambers shall be terror, destroying both young man and virgin, the sucking child with the man of gray hairs.

I said, I would scatter them afar and I would have made the remembrance of them to cease from among men, had I not feared the provocation of the foe, lest their enemies misconstrue it and lest they should say, Our own hand has prevailed; all this was not the work of the Lord.

For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no understanding in them.  O that they were wise and would see through this [present triumph] to their ultimate fate!

How could one have chased a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, except their Rock had sold them, and the Lord had delivered them up?  For their rock is not like our Rock, even our enemies themselves judge this.

For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of [poisonous] gall, their clusters are bitter.  Their wine is the [furious] venom of serpents, and the pitiless poison of vipers.  Is not this laid up in store with Me, sealed up in My treasuries?

Vengeance is Mine, and recompense, in the time when their foot shall slide; for the day of their disaster is at hand and their doom comes speedily.

For the Lord will revoke sentence for His people and relent for His servants’ sake when He sees that their power is gone and none remains, whether bond or free.

And He will say, Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge, who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offering? Let them rise up and help you, let them be your protection!

See now that I, I am He, and there is no god beside Me; I kill and I make alive, I wound and I heal, and there is none who can deliver out of My hand.

For I lift up My hand to heaven and swear, As I live forever,

If I whet My lightning sword and My hand takes hold on judgment, I will wreak vengeance on My foes and recompense those who hate Me.

I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the long-haired heads of the foe.

Rejoice [with] His people, O you nations, for He avenges the blood of His servants, and vengeance He inflicts on His foes and clears guilt from the land of His people.

With this song, the case for God's gracious care of Israel and an accusation of Israel's covenantal neglect is brought to the court of "heaven and earth." For exilic readers, the destruction of Jerusalem and their subsequent deportation to Babylon are understandable consequences of Israel's lack of faithful obedience. The argument can be outlined as follows:

A. Introduction, calling on heaven and earth to serve as witnesses
B. History of God's relationship to Israel
1. Accusation: God's faithfulness and Israel's apostasy
2. Recital of God's care for Israel
3. Indictment of Israel's apostasy
C. God's decisions
1. To punish Israel
2. To deliver Israel and punish the enemy
a. God's punishment of Israel might be misunderstood by the enemy as weakness on God's part
b. God relents and punishes the enemy
D. Summons for the heavenly council to praise God

Most important is the dramatic reversal, where God decides the punishment of Israel could be misunderstood as weakness in God or, worse, victory due to the enemy's own might. Therefore, God decides to punish the enemy and deliver Israel as a graphic illustration of divine sovereignty.