Deuteronomy 32:7, commentary and pictures

The verse is a command to remember the days of old and consider the years of many generations by asking the father to show and the elders to tell what God has done, so that God's dealings are learned, remembered, and handed from one generation to the next. The remembrance it commands looks back to when the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance and separated the sons of Adam, setting the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. It recalls that the Lord's portion was His people and Jacob the lot of His inheritance, whom He found in desert land and waste howling wilderness, led about, instructed, and kept as the apple of His eye. It stands in the song that publishes the name of the Lord and ascribes greatness to God as the Rock whose work is perfect and whose ways are judgment, a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right.

The song recounts God's past dealings with His people and warns that Israel had departed from God, declaring beforehand the consequences of disobedience and of persistent rebellion. In that warning it reveals God's love for His people and His abhorrence of sin. Its warnings formed part of the prophecies that made Josiah tremble for Judah's future as he considered the nation's continued apostasy. The same sacred song recounts God's dealings in the past and foreshadows future events, including the final victory of the faithful when Christ returns in power and glory.

Moses was commanded to preserve Israel's history and God's acts, including the wilderness wanderings, in a song to be memorized, taught to children and later generations, sung in worship, and repeated in daily life so its words would remain with them. Parents were to teach it to their children, and when children asked what the songs meant, fathers could recount that history and teach its lessons. The command also involved framing God's acts toward ancient Israel into song, setting up waymarks and gathering memorials and keeping them in sight, and repeating the whole story of providential care, marked goodness, mercy, and deliverance when children inquired.

Recalling God's past guidance, power, mercy, and deliverance keeps that history alive, strengthens faith, and deepens knowledge of God and His ways, and His dealings should be often repeated and kept in mind. The same duty remains for this generation to often bring the past history of God's wonder-working power before young and old and to recount His goodness and wonderful works. That recounting is to be joined with claiming His blessing with praise, thanksgiving, joy, and gladness for the glory of His name, for He can make the wilderness a fruitful field for the people that keep His commandments.