New Song We’ve been in a series from the Old Testament Book of Deuteronomy for almost a year now… not every Sunday, but a few Sundays at a time, on and off, distributed among other series and such.

This last chunk of Deuteronomy contains the conclusion of the sermon Moses preached to the People of God as they stood on the edge of the Land God had promised them. These were the final words before his death… before Joshua would cross the Jordan, leading the people into the land.

As we might expect, these words are focused on the future, and I’ve titled these last four sermons (chapters):

1. New Leader (last week’s message) 2. New Song 3. New Blessing 4. New Home

I’m calling today’s message, from Deuteronomy 32, New Song because it is dominated by a song. Here’s what the end of the chapter says about the Song of Moses: 44 Moses came with Joshua l son of Nun and spoke all the words of this song in the hearing of the people. 45 When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. 47 They are not just idle words for you—they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” 1

Songs are important, especially to people of faith. We are a singing people; we’ve sung together today, I plan to sing together again today, and we’ll sing together over and over again in the days and years ahead.

Songs are important because they teach us and help us remember.

1 The New International Version. (2011). (Dt 32:44–47). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

For example, if you have ever been around during a sound check here, you might have heard me recite the names of our 50 states. I don’t do it to show off (I know… it is pretty impressive); I do it because it is a handy way to give the sound tech a steady stream of sound out of my head. I know from being a sound tech from time to time that it is really frustrating to ask someone to check a microphone only to hear the one at the mic say “I don’t know what to say.” The sound tech can only do their job if they are getting a steady stream of sound to adjust… hence I give them a steady stream; most sound techs can get what they need by about Oklahoma.

The reason I know the 50 states in alphabetical order is because of a song we sang in an elementary school music concert about 50, nifty, United States from the 13 original colonies... It is stuck in my head, and I’ve made some use out of it.

Of course there are all sorts of things that are stuck in my head because of a song that are of no use whatsoever. I know, for example, that “we’ve got a gorilla for sale, Magilla Gorilla, for sale… won’t you try him, take him home and try him?” I also know that Hong Kong Phooey is a number one super guy who is quicker than the human eye. I have a number of Hanna-Barbera cartoon theme songs stuck in my head.

Advertisers are on to this. Right? I know that I deserve a break today, and weekends were made for Michelob. We all know what number to call if we want to give a car to kids… 1-877-kars4kids. (By the way… if you want to give a car away, give it to your church. With Cedar Park’s mechanics ministry, we have great ways to put your car to use.)

Songs are great for remembering Scripture too. There are a number of verses of Scripture that I have memorized because we played Bible songs for our kids. I know that “this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us, and He gave His Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.” Are there Scriptures you know because you learned them with a song as a kid, or (like me) you learned them even as an adult from kids songs?

Knowing the power of songs, we probably ought to really pay attention to the songs God gives us in the Bible. There are a number of them (like the whole Book of Psalms, but they don’t stop there).

This Song of Moses is not a song not like most of our songs… the songs we sing together on a day like today.

First, even though we call it the Song of Moses, recited by Moses, and penned by Moses… these words are not from Moses. The Song of Moses is not merely from the heart, mind, and mouth of Moses; this Song is from the heart and mind of God. This is a prophetic song. Words from God to His people. While the grammar is a mix of first-person and third-person voice, we can know that this is the Word of God, best understood as coming directly from the perspective of the Divine.

Moses was many things. A great leader, judge, military strategist, mentor… but I believe the most important role of Moses was his role as prophet. Moses spoke on behalf of God.

In the case of this song, Moses is being prophetic both in forthtelling and foretelling. He is forthtelling, in that Moses is speaking for God, and He is also foretelling in that much of what is described in the song describes the future for people of God.

When we sing our songs together as a congregation, we are usually singing to God, proclaiming our praise and devotion. Through this song in Deuteronomy, God is singing to His people.

Another significant difference between this song and the songs we generally sing together is that this song isn’t all positive and wonderful. When we sing, we generally keep it pretty positive. Right? We don’t dwell on our shortcomings and failures, or the consequences of such resulting in the God’s wrath. We tend to keep things up, especially these days (there are some periods in church-music history when it wasn’t so universally cheery, possibly a bit more real, but that was another time). Maybe there are folk who would want to sing a bunch of sad songs about how depraved we are these days… but we aren’t generally those kinds of folk.

This song, the Song of Moses, is mostly negative. Not entirely negative… but word for word, it is certainly more negative than positive.

With that said, it starts out generally positive.

Listen, you heavens, and I will speak; hear, you earth, the words of my mouth.

2 Let my teaching fall like rain and my words descend like dew,

like showers on new grass, like abundant rain on tender plants. 2

Just as we have already established, songs are a great way to learn. The Lord begins His song by call for all of creation to listen and learn… to let it soak in and nourish like rain gives life.

3 I will proclaim the name of the LORD. Oh, praise the greatness of our God!

4 He is the Rock, his works are perfect, and all his ways are just.

A faithful God who does no wrong, upright and just is he. 3

We’ll see that the song both begins and ends with doxology, with proclamations of praise. God is great… the Rock, whose ways are just.

As the Rock, God is utterly dependable, empty of any wrongdoing, the very foundation of all integrity and justice4

2 The New International Version. (2011). (Dt 32:1–2). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. 3 The New International Version. (2011). (Dt 32:3–4). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. 4 Wright, C. J. H. (2012). Deuteronomy. (W. W. Gasque, R. L. Hubbard Jr., & R. K. Johnston, Eds.) (p. 298). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

He is faithful, perfect, and upright. Here at the beginning, this is more than merely praise, it is also the foundation/standard that forms the basis for judgement.

He is always perfect, faithful and just… sadly, His people are not. 5 They are corrupt and not his children;

to their shame they are a warped and crooked generation.

6 Is this the way you repay the LORD, you foolish and unwise people?

Is he not your Father, your Creator, who made you and formed you? 5

Of all His creation, the ones He made in His image, humans, are His most prized creation. He is the Creator of all things living and not, of this world and the spiritual world… yet He is not Father to the animals or angels, only to us humans is He Father. As it says in verse 9: 9 For the LORD’s portion is his people, 6

He cares for His people like both a father and a mother: 10 In a desert land he found him,

in a barren and howling waste. He shielded him and cared for him;

he guarded him as the apple of his eye, 11 like an eagle that stirs up its nest

and hovers over its young, that spreads its wings to catch them

and carries them aloft. 12 The LORD alone led him;

no foreign god was with him. 7 Regardless of the Lord’s love and care and provision, His people wander… even turning away from Him and turning to others:

5 The New International Version. (2011). (Dt 32:5–6). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. 6 The New International Version. (2011). (Dt 32:9). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. 7 The New International Version. (2011). (Dt 32:10–12). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

15 Jeshurun k grew fat and kicked; filled with food, they became heavy and sleek.

They abandoned the God who made them and rejected the Rock their Savior.

16 They made him jealous with their foreign gods and angered him with their detestable idols.

17 They sacrificed to false gods, which are not God—

gods they had not known, gods that recently appeared, gods your ancestors did not fear.

18 You deserted the Rock, who fathered you; you forgot the God who gave you birth. 8

Jeshurun was an alternative poetic title for Israel, probably derived from the word yāšār, “upright one.” Its use here is therefore deliberately ironic9

The ones who should have been upright, because that is what we were created for, were bent over fat. This isn’t a matter of God body shaming anyone, but rather a picture of self-indulgence that turns people selfishly inward and eventually to worshiping false gods… gods made out of our own greed… little, weak gods we can control.

This, inevitably, leads to destruction (remember how I said a lot of this song is negative?).

19 The LORD saw this and rejected them because he was angered by his sons and

daughters. 20 “I will hide my face from them,” he said,

“and see what their end will be; for they are a perverse generation,

children who are unfaithful. 10

Yet, with a complete prophetic picture of the future, God’s purposes will be accomplished, He will have a People:

8 The New International Version. (2011). (Dt 32:15–18). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. 9 Wright, C. J. H. (2012). Deuteronomy. (W. W. Gasque, R. L. Hubbard Jr., & R. K. Johnston, Eds.) (p. 307). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books. 10 The New International Version. (2011). (Dt 32:19–20). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

36 The LORD will vindicate his people and relent concerning his servants

when he sees their strength is gone and no one is left, slave or free.

37 He will say: “Now where are their gods, the rock they took refuge in,

38 the gods who ate the fat of their sacrifices and drank the wine of their drink offerings?

Let them rise up to help you! Let them give you shelter!

39 “See now that I myself am he! There is no god besides me. 11

The Lord has vindicated His people throughout history, and He will vindicate His great name, through a people, in the end. Hear what He says, starting with verse 40:

40 I lift my hand to heaven and solemnly swear: As surely as I live forever,

41 when I sharpen my flashing sword and my hand grasps it in judgment, 12

Notice how it matches the Bible’s final revelation of the end (Revelation 14): 14 I looked, and there before me was a white cloud, and seated on the cloud was one like a son of man p with a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. 15 Then another angel came out of the temple and called in a loud voice to him who was sitting on the cloud, “Take your sickle and reap, because the time to reap has come, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 16 So he who was seated on the cloud swung his sickle over the earth, and the earth was harvested. 13

God is God. He will be the Victor. He will rule and judge righteously. Therefore:

11 The New International Version. (2011). (Dt 32:36–39). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. 12 The New International Version. (2011). (Dt 32:40–41). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. 13 The New International Version. (2011). (Re 14:14–16). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan.

43 Rejoice, you nations, with his people,, for he will avenge the blood of his servants;

he will take vengeance on his enemies and make atonement for his land and people. 14

Why would the nations rejoice? If we are bound to the ancient context of merely the people Moses led, then it was the Jews against the world… so why would the nations rejoice? But we are not bound to that context.

Again, notice what it says in the Book of Revelation, the prophesied end of things as we currently know and experience… this is what John saw:

I saw in heaven another great and marvelous sign: seven angels with the seven last plagues—last, because with them God’s wrath is completed. 2 And I saw what looked like a sea of glass glowing with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and its image and over the number of its name. They held harps given them by God 3 and sang the song of God’s servant Moses and of the Lamb:

“Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty.

Just and true are your ways, King of the nations.

4 Who will not fear you, Lord, and bring glory to your name?

For you alone are holy. All nations will come

and worship before you, for your righteous acts have been revealed.” 15

They sang the Song of Moses, this song I believe.

It is not surprising, then, that in the final biblical vision of all the nations of redeemed humanity acclaiming the rule of God and Christ, the song on their lips will be “the song of Moses the servant of the Lord and the song of the Lamb,” celebrating precisely the ingathering of all nations through the saving work of God (Rev. 15:3f.).16

14 The New International Version. (2011). (Dt 32:43). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. 15 The New International Version. (2011). (Re 15:1–4). Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. 16 Wright, C. J. H. (2012). Deuteronomy. (W. W. Gasque, R. L. Hubbard Jr., & R. K. Johnston, Eds.) (p. 304). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books.

Yes, the nations will rejoice! God’s faithfulness and character demonstrated through a chosen people, God’s love and grace and mercy poured out on all who believe. Great and marvelous are your deeds, Lord God Almighty!

So what do we do with all this today?

We could simply focus on the bookends of the Song of Moses… the doxologies at the beginning and end, the proclamations of praise. That might suit us well.

But today I’m going to suggest we give the seemingly negative in our text the attention it is due.

We can identify with the failure in the text. We can identify with the history of failure revealed in it, because we all have failure that we can look back on. We can also identify with the foretelling of failure, because we know ourselves and know that we’ll most certainly fail again. We’ll not live up to the calling of our Creator, the righteous standing of our Holy Father. Perhaps we are really feeling that failure right now in the present… but even if we aren’t, we can both reflect on past failure and anticipate future failure.

What, then do we conclude? Do we simply give up? Was that the message intended by the Song of Moses… that there is no hope of success… that He is too holy, and we are too weak?

No, the message of the Song of Moses is that our only hope is in God alone. That if we rely on ourselves, we will fail. But we have hope… we have hope because of God’s love demonstrated through His mercy and grace.

Confronting our sin and shortcomings does not have to drive us to defeat; it drives us to victory when it drives us to God’s mercy and grace.

Today we sang Lord, I Need You. If we didn’t fully mean it then, perhaps after working through our text, we can more fully mean it now. Lord, I need You!

I need You to save me. I need You to keep me.

Let’s make this a day to believe, proclaiming again, Lord, I Need You!