NOTES for Deu 31:8

It is wonderful to receive such a promise and encouragement from God. The people of God, both Old Testament and New Testament, can rejoice. Indeed, how wonderful it is to live: God is near; He will not withdraw and He will not abandon us.

So then, everyone else can go where they like, but I am off to sin! After all, God is always with me; more than that, He goes before me! Will you say that I am blaspheming? No, I am simply carrying to absurdity what all of us do every day when we say to God in prayer: "I want this and that, I plan to do this and that, and You do not abandon me!"

Of course, one cannot do this. God is with me when I fear leaving Him; God goes before me when I have first taken care to learn where He is going and have tried to follow Him. Lord, teach us to hear and see Your will!