Deuteronomy 32
[1] Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak;
and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth.
[2] My doctrine shall drop as the rain, my speech shall distil as the dew, as
the small rain upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass:
[3] Because I will publish the name of the LORD:
ascribe ye greatness unto our God.
[4] He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment:
a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he.
[5] They have corrupted themselves, their spot is not the spot of his
children: they are a perverse and crooked generation.
[6] Do ye thus requite the LORD, O foolish people and unwise?
is not he thy father that hath bought thee?
hath he not made thee, and established thee?
[7] Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father,
and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.
[8] When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he
separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according
to the number of the children of Israel.
[9] For the LORD's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his
inheritance.
[10] He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness;
he led him about, he instructed him, he kept him as the apple of his eye.
[11] As an eagle stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth
abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings:
[12] So the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange god with him.
[13] He made him ride on the high places of the earth, that he might eat the
increase of the fields; and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and
oil out of the flinty rock;
[14] Butter of kine, and milk of sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the
breed of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat; and thou didst
drink the pure blood of the grape.
[15] But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown
thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him,
and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.
[16] They provoked him to jealousy with strange gods, with abominations
provoked they him to anger.
[17] They sacrificed unto devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to
new gods that came newly up, whom your fathers feared not.
[18] Of the Rock that begat thee thou art unmindful, and hast forgotten God
that formed thee.
[19] And when the LORD saw it, he abhorred them, because of the provoking of
his sons, and of his daughters.
[20] And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end
shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no
faith.
[21] They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have
provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy
with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a
foolish nation.
[22] For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest
hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the
foundations of the mountains.
[23] I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.
[24] They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and
with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them,
with the poison of serpents of the dust.
[25] The sword without, and terror within, shall destroy both the young man
and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of gray hairs.
[26] I said, I would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance
of them to cease from among men:
[27] Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest their
adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say,
Our hand is high, and the LORD hath not done all this.
[28] For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any
understanding in them.
[29] O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would
consider their latter end!
[30] How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight,
except their Rock had sold them, and the LORD had shut them up?
[31] For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being
judges.
[32] For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah:
their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:
[33] Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.
[34] Is not this laid up in store with me, and sealed up among my treasures?
[35] To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence; their foot shall slide in
due time: for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that
shall come upon them make haste.
[36] For the LORD shall judge his people, and repent himself for his
servants, when he seeth that their power is gone, and there is none shut up,
or left.
[37] And he shall say, Where are their gods, their rock in whom they
trusted,
[38] Which did eat the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their
drink offerings? let them rise up and help you, and be your protection.
[39] See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me: I kill, and
I make alive; I wound, and I heal: neither is there any that can deliver out
of my hand.
[40] For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, I live for ever.
[41] If I whet my glittering sword, and mine hand take hold on judgment; I
will render vengeance to mine enemies, and will reward them that hate me.
[42] I will make mine arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour
flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the
beginning of revenges upon the enemy.
[43] Rejoice, O ye nations, with his people: for he will avenge the blood of
his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will be
merciful unto his land, and to his people.
[44] And Moses came and spake all the words of this song in the ears of the
people, he, and Hoshea the son of Nun.
[45] And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel:
[46] And he said unto them, Set your hearts unto all the words which I
testify among you this day, which ye shall command your children to observe
to do, all the words of this law.
[47] For it is not a vain thing for you; because it is your life: and
through this thing ye shall prolong your days in the land, whither ye go
over Jordan to possess it.
[48] And the LORD spake unto Moses that selfsame day, saying,
[49] Get thee up into this mountain Abarim, unto mount Nebo, which is in the
land of Moab, that is over against Jericho; and behold the land of Canaan,
which I give unto the children of Israel for a possession:
[50] And die in the mount whither thou goest up, and be gathered unto thy
people; as Aaron thy brother died in mount Hor, and was gathered unto his
people:
[51] Because ye trespassed against me among the children of Israel at the
waters of Meribah-Kadesh, in the wilderness of Zin; because ye sanctified me
not in the midst of the children of Israel.
[52] Yet thou shalt see the land before thee; but thou shalt not go thither
unto the land which I give the children of Israel.
2) Our Daily Bread for 20 March 2026 titled
Beyond the Blues
Psalms 59:9-17
9 (Ps 38:6; 18:2) O my strength, I will wait on You;
for God is my refuge.
10 (Ps 42:3; Joel 2:17) The God of lovingkindness will go before me;
God will cause me to look in triumph on my enemies.
11 (Ps 42:5; 43:5) Do not slay them,
lest my people forget;
scatter them by Your power,
and bring them down, O Lord our shield.
12 For the sin of their mouth
and the words of their lips,
may they be snared by their pride,
and because of curses and lies that they speak.
13 Consume them in wrath,
consume them so they no longer exist;
and let them know that God rules in Jacob
to the ends of the earth. Selah
14 At evening they return,
and growl like a dog,
and go around the city.
15 They roam about to eat,
and if they are not satisfied, they complain.
16 But I will sing of Your power;
I will sing aloud of Your lovingkindness in the morning,
for You have been my refuge
and escape in the day of my trouble.
17 To You, O my strength, I will sing,
for God is my refuge, and the God of my lovingkindness.
[9] Because of his strength will I wait upon thee: for God is my defence.
[10] The God of my mercy shall prevent me: God shall let me see my desire
upon mine enemies.
[11] Slay them not, lest my people forget: scatter them by thy power; and
bring them down, O Lord our shield.
[12] For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be
taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak.
[13] Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: and let them
know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth. Selah.
[14] And at evening let them return; and let them make a noise like a dog,
and go round about the city.
[15] Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not
satisfied.
[16] But I will sing of thy power; yea, I will sing aloud of thy mercy in
the morning: for thou hast been my defence and refuge in the day of my
trouble.
[17] Unto thee, O my strength, will I sing: for God is my defence, and the
God of my mercy.
Canadian singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot is best known for enduring
classics like "The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald" and "If You Could Read My
Mind." But one of his lesser-known songs is titled "The Minstrel of the Dawn."
(A minstrel is a troubadour, a singer who puts his poetry to music.) Like us,
Lightfoot's troubadour longs to be "more happy than blue." Although there are
always "blue" things to think about or dwell on, the minstrel chooses to
focus on happy things as the new day dawns and then to sing about them.
The minstrel of the psalms, David, penned a similar line: "In the morning I
will sing of your love" (Psalm 59:16). David had plenty of "blue" things to
dwell on - from enemies ready to attack him to fierce men slandering and
conspiring against him (vv. 1-3). "They return at evening," he sang, "snarling
like dogs, and prowl about the city" (v. 14). But he chose, as the new day
dawned, to focus not simply on something happy but on someone good - God - and
then sing of God's love, "my fortress, my refuge in times of trouble" (v. 16)
on "whom I can rely" (v. 17).
You may not be a singer-songwriter, but you can still be a minstrel of the
dawn. Like David, you can tell God, "I will sing of your strength, in the
morning I will sing of your love" (v. 16).
Reflect & Pray
What is it that makes you blue or causes you concern?
What would it look like for you to sing of God's love in the morning?
God my fortress and shield, I'm choosing
to sing beyond the blues this morning, to sing of Your steadfast love.