Deuteronomy 32
This portion of Deuteronomy is designed to echo the creation account of Genesis 1-11. After defining the nations as He did in Gen 10-11, God chose Abraham in Genesis 12. Here in verse 8, He explains again how He made the nations and starting in verse 9 is speaking of His people as His special creation with language that would connect it to Genesis 1.
9 But the Lord’s portion is his people,
Jacob, his own inheritance.
10 He found him in a desolate land,
in a barren, howling wilderness;
he surrounded him, cared for him,
and protected him as the pupil of his eye.
Desolate here in verse 10 is 'tohu'. The only other use of this word in the Bible is in Gen 1:2 when the chaos was tohu before Day 1.
11 He watches over his nest like an eagle
and hovers over his young;
he spreads his wings, catches him,
and carries him on his feathers.
Hovers is the same word as Gen1:2 where the Spirit is hovering over the chaos waters. The only other place that word is used.
12 The Lord alone led him,
with no help from a foreign god.
The other nations were ruled by foreign gods. This was part of the story of choosing Abraham as His own, from this sea of nations ruled by false gods, to make His name great.