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Are we to understand this passage as revoking all the threatened judgments previously denounced against Israel? No. But Moses saw, amidst all the rebellion with which Israel as a nation was to be chargeable, and amidst all the reverses which they were consequently to experience, that the true Israel would be preserved, defended, and cared for. That in these words Moses addresses the true Israel, the spiritual seed of Abraham, is evident from the name he gives them Jeshurun, "upright," or "righteous." He begins by exalting the God of Jeshurun above all other gods; and he does so in language fitted to impress them with a conviction of the utter impotency of the gods of the nations.

1. The description conveys the idea of glorious majesty, absolute sovereignty, power infinitely beyond comprehension or resistance. But while thus reminding them of this view of the Divine character, he introduces it in a connection fitted to awaken confidence. He does not merely tell them that the God of Jeshurun rideth on the heaven, but that He does so as Jeshurun's help; and that if He revealed His own excellence and glory, it was in working out their deliverance, and making bare His holy arm for their protection. There as none like, etc. What peace should this truth inspire! What patience should it inspire! What confidence should it awaken and keep alive, even in circumstances the most gloomy and perplexing! If it does not produce this effect, must it not be because they are remaining contentedly in doubt whether they have really been justified and accepted with God, or are culpably insensible to the value of their privileges in. having all their best interests bound up with the manifestation of His own glory?

2. The security of God's justified people is still further set forth. God is declared to be their refuge, or rather dwelling place — not a temporary, but a perpetual refuge; and they are reminded that He is the eternal God, unchangeable in His being, and equally unchangeable in His purpose. They might feel at times as if they were altogether unequal to any new conquest over the adversaries which still remained to be subdued; but God Himself was to thrust out the enemy from before them, and to say, "Destroy them." So it is, and has always been, in regard to the spiritual conflict of believers. The Scripture saints, in relating their experience — their fears and hopes, dangers and deliverances, seasons of depression and times of triumph, painful struggles with temptation and the strength by which they successfully resisted it — employ the very language which might have been appropriately used to describe the conflicts and conquests of Israel in Canaan (Psalm 27:3, 5; Psalm 91:1-4). To all who know anything experimentally of the spiritual warfare of the believer, such language will be not only intelligible, but faithfully descriptive of what they have experienced, and in so far as they have been enabled to contend successfully with the risings of a corrupt nature within, the temptations of a sinful world without, the suggestions of Satan — with everything that would have brought their spiritual interests into jeopardy, everything that would have marred their peace and robbed them of their comfort — and in so far as they can now cherish the good hope of ultimately gaining the victory over all these, their spiritual enemies, it is because they have experienced the faithfulness of this declaration.

3. From this description of the conflict of God's people, Moses proceeds to foretell their final and glorious triumph. "Israel then shall dwell," etc. Viewing this prediction merely as referring to the settlement of Israel in Canaan, it was, in the first instance at least, only partially fulfilled. Israel did not so conquer the land as to dwell either in safety or alone. Through their unbelief, the command, "Destroy," which otherwise would have been accompanied by a Divine power, was not fully carried into effect. But even had Israel literally dwelt alone and in safety, yet it would have been but a type of the still more glorious state of things to which Moses was instructed to direct the faith and hope of the Church. Nothing short of the glory of the latter day can exhaust the meaning of this passage. Many generations, indeed, have passed away, and we, too, may follow them, and still the prediction remain unfulfilled. But we have in Moses an example of the satisfaction and delight with which the saints of old contemplated the future prosperity of the Church, even when they should be gathered to their fathers; for though he was not to enter on the promised land, or participate in the rich blessings which awaited Israel there, yet could any one of them, even the man who had the prospect of sharing the longest and the most largely in these blessings, have expressed himself more joyously and with warmer gratitude in that prospect than Moses did in his last words to Israel?

(R. Gordon, D. D.)

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KJV: There is none like unto the God of Jeshurun, who rideth upon the heaven in thy help, and in his excellency on the sky.

WEB: "There is none like God, Jeshurun, who rides on the heavens for your help, In his excellency on the skies.