“Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel” (Deut. 31:19).
“And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished, 25 That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying, 26 Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee. 27 For I know thy rebellion, and thy stiff neck: behold, while I am yet alive with you this day, ye have been rebellious against the Lord; and how much more after my death” (Deut. 31: 24-27).
Deuteronomy 32:1-43 is the song, which Moses wrote for the people before his death.
The book of Psalms was essentially a songbook for Old and New Testament Jews, while other songs are scattered throughout Scripture written by a variety of prophets and leaders. Our text tells us that the Lord commanded Moses and Joshua to write aspects of the Law and details of God’s dealings with the nation, as well as His promise of judgment, should they disobey—in a song.
This song would serve several functions. First, it would be a memory device. “It shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed” (Deut. 31:21). Those who have been around good church music probably know many portions of Scripture set to music, including the grand old hymns of the faith which are frequently conglomerates of many verses around a doctrinal theme. Many of us probably have memorized without trying, and maybe without realizing it, many, many Scripture verses. In fact, this may be the very best way to build biblical principles into the lives of our children.
The second function of Moses’ song would be to convict those in disobedience (Deut. 32:7, 47, etc.). As with the people of Israel, our hearts should be receptive to the teachings contained within the songs that we know.
Unfortunately, Israel seldom listened, even to those songs they had memorized. Thus, the third and evidently primary function of this song was to “testify against them as a witness” (Deut. 31:21). Much of this song carefully explains their coming apostasy and inevitable judgment. No doubt many remembered this song and its message with tears as they marched into captivity, unable to charge God with unfaithfulness.
(Borrowed from: The Institute for Creation Research)
Personal comment:
As long as David was playing and singing to the Israelites and enforcing the Law of Moses, things went well. Solomon seemed to fall in line, and Israel complied with the rules during that time. However, from that point on, even though most kings of Judah were good, it was enforced obedience for the people (2 Chr. 34:32-33; Jer. 3:10). There seem to be no way to make a nation follow the Lord’s commands unless he does the same as he did with Hezekiah. He caused the folks to listen to Hezekiah (2 Chr. 29:36; 2 Chr. 30:12).
One person suggested that if we want crowds of people to attend our gospel meetings we must have a lot of singing. Unfortunately, the songs today may be more for attraction than for teaching, because there are only a few songs in our hymnbooks that the average person hasn’t sung and heard a myriad of times – yet they don’t pay much (if any) attention to the words. In fact, they are just as likely to be signing outright false doctrine with the same gusto they sing a Psalm or a spiritual song. The Lord has a good purpose for our singing (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16). We need to listen to the words of the scriptural songs more closely! What better work could there be than to listen to and sing the Psalms set to music!
Little children need an easy way to memorize scripture and one way to help them is to set simple verses to familiar tunes or even new tunes. One such resource may be found at Bible Songs for Children here. Adults would also profit from such a songfest.
—Beth Johnson
Bible Studies for Women: Muliebral Studies; Muliebral Viewpoint; Articles and Books by Beth Johnson