Deuteronomy 32
1 - 12
Canticle - The deeds of kindness which God wrought for his people
How often have I longed to gather your children as a hen gathers her young under her wings (Mt 23, 37)
Listen, O heavens, and I will speak,
let the earth hear the words on my lips.
May my teaching fall like the rain,
my speech descend like the dew,
like rain drops on the young green,
like showers falling on the grass.
For I shall praise the name of the Lord.
O give glory to this God of ours!
The Rock — his deeds are perfect,
and all his ways are just,
a faithful God, without deceit,
a God who is right and just.
Those whom he begot unblemished
have become crooked, false, perverse.
Is it thus you repay the Lord,
O senseless and foolish people?
Is he not your father who created you,
he who made you, on whom you depend?
Remember the days of old,
consider the years that are past;
ask your father and he will show you,
ask your elders and they will tell you.
When the Most High gave the nations their heritage
and disposed men according to his plan,
in fixing the boundaries of the nations
he thought first of Israel’s sons.
For Israel was the Lord’s possession,
Jacob the one he had chosen.
God found him in a wilderness,
in fearful, desolate wastes;
he surrounded him, he lifted him up,
he kept him as the apple of his eye.
Like an eagle that watches its nest,
that hovers over its young,
so he spread his wings; he took him,
placed him on his outstretched wings.
The Lord alone was his guide
and no other god was with him.