At the end of his life Moses has a few last things to accomplish. God has him appear with Joshua at the tent of meeting for Joshua's commissioning (v 14). God encourages Joshua: "Be strong and courageous, for you shall bring the people of Israel into the land that I swore to give them. I will be with you" (v 23).
On the other hand, God has discouraging words for Moses. The Israelites, he says, will eventually fall into apostasy. To head this off, Moses is to present a special song to the people that will act as a witness against them. (Commentator Daniel Block refers to this song as Israel's national anthem.)
There is some tension between the encouraging words to Joshua and the disouraging words to Moses. There is a tradition that God gave the discouraging words to Moses privately, since letting Joshua hear them might have been counterproductive.
As a whole, Deuteronomy lays out what Block calls "the gospel according to Moses." Deuteronomy also belongs to a genre that has been called a "death narrative." a presentation of Moses' last words before his death. Can there be good news in a death narrative? Rob Wilson explored this question in a sermon at Church of the Messiah on September 9. 2023.
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