NOT REQUIRED: DEUTERONOMY songs (November 2009)

BIBLE SONGS
for DEUTERONOMY
TEACH THE CHILDREN

This song, by Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, a Folk-Rock group, is based on Deuteronomy. It follows the teaching of the Exodus story (retold in Deuteronomy) fairly closely. The "road" is the Wilderness, or the later path the Jew must follow in Canaan (the Promised Land). The "past ("fathers' hell") is just a goodbye" means the people must forget their slavery days. The dreams they "fix" seems to refer to the muzzazah or tefillim (phylacteries) or the blue thread on the edges of the cloak to remind the Jews of their Law. The children themselves should teach the parents, for the same reason that is clear in Numbers: the parents are still bound by their past memories of slavery in Egypt and are not yet free to follow the Law completely.

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You who are on the road Must have a code that you can live by
And so become yourself Because the past is just a goodbye. Teach your children well, Their father's hell did slowly go by, And feed them on your dreams The one they fix, the one you'll know by. Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry, So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.
    And you, of tender years, Can't know the fears that your elders grew by, And so please help them with your youth, They seek the truth before they can die. Teach your parents well, Their children's hell will slowly go by, And feed them on your dreams The one they fix, the one you'll know by. Don't you ever ask them why, if they told you, you would cry, So just look at them and sigh and know they love you.

For the studio recording of the song, which charted, see icon below.

CHOOSE YE THIS DAY
This song, by Gospel singer, Shirly Caesar, suggests Moses' great sermon in chapter 30 of Deuteronomy, demanding that the people agree to the covenant and choose life over death. As usual in Gospel music, Old and New Testament themes are linked; after all, the Law in Deuteronomy is a reformed law (a repeat of the Old Law, as the Ten Commandments make clear); in that sense, nothing is new in Deuteronomy; rather the people are asked to rededicate themselves to the law, "heart and soul"; in other words, that the people be, in Jesus' phrase: "born again." As in Deuteronomy, there's the complete emphasis on changing one's way of life, in social terms; everything must be reformed.

I was sitting in the back of the church one night. I didn't have a God in my life. In fact, I didn't know nothing about salvation. It was during a revival meeting. I sat there with a contrary spirit.
    All of a sudden there came a knock in the door in my heart. I ran to  the window of my soul. and I looked out.
    Jesus was standing there, saying, "Behold I stand at the door and knock. If any man will hear my voice I'll come in. and I'll sup with him. I'll make my abode with him."
    All you got to do this day is choose ye this day whom you shall serve. Will it be God or will it be man? Don't count the cost, before it's too late! Choose ye! choose ye! oh, choose ye this day whom you shall serve!
    I sat there and I stayed there. All at once I heard the minister say, "Shirley, it's getting late in the evening, the sun is going down. If I were you I'd make a decision."
    Good God, from a burning world, I heard that same minister say. "The Lord God Almighty, (The Lord God almighty), oh he's soon to come, he's coming to judge everyone. There's no place to hide, there's no place to run! Choose ye! choose ye! choose ye, oh choose ye this day whom you shall serve!
    Good God Almighty, I was standing there, all of a sudden, I made up in my mind to give my life to Jesus. I ran down to the altar, I fell down on my face before the Lord, I said, "Jesus, save me today!"
    That night the Lord saved me. I've come to be a witness, Lord.
    He told me to go yonder and tell the policeman (tell the policeman) as he walks his beat, tell the governnor (tell the governor) throwing dice in the street (dice in the street), tell the lawyer, tell the judge, choose ye! choose ye!  choose ye! choose ye this day whom ye shall serve.
    Bless you, Jesus! I got blessings from the Lord. I went to and fro telling God's men and women, that Jesus, the only begotten son of God, was coming back to judge the world. Some of them laughed at me, some of them called me foolish, but I kept talking about Jesus. The other morning, I went downstairs, I saw the postman standing there.
    God said, "Shirley, this mailman needs to be born again." He said, "Tell the postman what he must do, tell the president to get ready too, tell the governor, the Internal Revenue, choose ye! choose ye! oh, yeah, choose ye this day!"
    I feel the power of God moving now! Now listen. You got to make a decison, you got to make a choose. You might be sitting in your places of business, but God says you got to make a choice. For you can't go to Heaven straddling the fence. Either you got to be born again or you ought to get out of the church.
    God told me to tell you one more time. Tomorrow might be too late. Don't put off for tomorrow what you can do today.
    What are you saying? Choose ye this, yeah, choose ye this day whom you shall serve.

HOLD FAST TO THE RIGHT
This also might be taken straight out of Deuteronomy: the idea that people must be taught the Law (right and wrong) so they never forget it. "Hold fast to the right" is a paraphrase of the famous phrase in the Deuteronomist writer (not only in Deuteronomy, but in later Deuteronomist texts that follow: Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings): do not go either to the left or to the right of the Law, but keep a straight path. This motif appears frequently in Psalms and Proverbs too. Country singer, Dolly Parton, wrote this song.
Embedding disabled. To hear the song, go here.

Come and sit by the side of your mother, my boy, you have only a moment, I know. And stay while I give you this parting advice, it is is all that I have to bestow. Hold fast to the right, hold fast to the right, wherever your footsteps may roam, and forsake not the way of salvation, my boy, that you learned from your mother at home. In your satchel you'll find there's a Bible my boy, it's the book of all others the best. It will teach you to live and prepare you to die and will take you to the home of the Blessed. Hold fast to the right, hold fast to the right, wherever your footsteps may roam, and forsake not the way of salvation my boy that you learned from your mother at home. Hold fast, hold fast to the right.