Habakkuk 3:1–16 (ESV__
A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth,
O Lord, I have heard a report of you, and your work, O Lord, do I fear.
In the midst of years, revive it. In the midst of the years, make it known.
In wrath, remember mercy.
God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran.
His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise.
His brightness was like the light.
Rays flashed from His hand, and there He veiled His power.
Before Him went pestilence, and plague followed at His heels.
He stood and measured the earth.
He looked and shook the nations.
Then the eternal mountains were scattered.
The everlasting hills sank low.
His were the everlasting ways.
I saw the tents of Kushan in affliction.
The curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord?
Was your anger against the rivers or your indignation against the sea when you rode on your horses, on your chariot of salvation?
You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows.
You split the earth with rivers.
The mountains saw you and writhed.
The raging waters swept on.
The deep gave forth its voice.
It lifted its hands on high.
The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped, at the flash of your glittering spear.
You marched through the earth in fury.
You threshed the nations in anger.
You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed.
You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck.
You pierced with his arrows the heads of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.
You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters.
I hear and my body trembles, my lips quiver at the sound.
Rottenness enters my bones, and my legs tremble beneath me.
Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon the people who invade us.
How should we read this text?
Well, this part of Scripture is a prayer. It shows Habakkuk's response to everything that God has revealed to him. And so, after wrestling with these big questions about justice, the prophet now bows before the Lord in awe and in hope.
Now, when we read here in chapter 3 Habakkuk's prayer, the tone is quite different from the earlier sections. You see, he's no longer asking why God is allowing all this evil to happen, and he's not debating God's timing anymore. Instead, here he turns to praise God, and he does so by recalling how God worked in Israel's history.
You see, he remembers the times that God brought deliverance and struck fear into the heart of his enemies. So Habakkuk is using these memories of God's power to give him hope and to inspire this trust in God in the present time.
Now, notice this is a prayer that is specific. It's not just generic. It's kind of poetic. It's got a form much like a psalm would. And Habakkuk even includes musical instructions, these selahs that happen throughout the passage (which I did not read out loud). This makes us think of the songs of Israel's worship.
He's highlighting God's majesty. He speaks of God coming in splendor. He talks about God's power over nature. This prayer is a vision of God's presence that reminds us of the Exodus and the wilderness wanderings that Israel had to go through. There, you see, we saw God split the seas, He shook the mountains, He upset empires that oppressed His people. And so Habakkuk believes that God can do it all again—if only God would act.
Now, in this, we see statements about God's wrath and anger, and these things can make us a little bit uneasy. But this text shows us that God's wrath is targeted at evil and injustice. God's anger is directed. It comes to destroy the thing that is threatening the thing that God loves. This mighty act of God doesn't show us an unstable God or a harsh God or a vindictive God. It shows us a holy God and a righteous God who is not going to let sin endure forever.
Habakkuk's prayer is again quite honest. He admits that fear grips him. He even trembles at the thought of this judgment of God. And he knows that when God acts, it changes things, but he trusts that God will do what is right. Yes, he may be terrified, but he knows that God's plan is true.
So Habakkuk's big idea is that the Lord who carried His people through in the past is the same Lord who is judging evil and will rescue those who wait on Him even today. And so this truth has brought Habakkuk to his knees in prayer before God. And I think it should do the same for us.
How should the text read us?
Well, I think we should first of all see that Habakkuk's prayer is very relatable. He's not pretending to have it all together, but he is, even in the midst of his difficulty, in awe—because God is so big and His power is so great and His righteousness is so honest and true.
It's true he's uneasy, because God's power can shake the world. And sometimes I think we can kind of feel the same conflict in our hearts. We want God to fix what is wrong, but then when He shows up, we realise that actually we're also vulnerable—because what's wrong with the world is also wrong with us.
We forget that we ourselves often deserve God's discipline too. And our text here highlights the fact that as we approach God, we need to approach Him with a humble and an honest heart that really knows who we really are.
But we should also see that real faith leaves room even for fear—the fear of God. You see, we often in today's day and age see fear as the opposite thing to faith. But this chapter shows us that there actually is quite a healthy kind of fear. We can stand in awe of God's judgment and trust in His mercy.
That's the kind of Christian fear we should have before God—taking God seriously, because sin and judgment are real. But for the Christian today, we also cling to the cross. God's mercy wins the day for us. We don't need to be afraid with only fear, but we can be in awe of God because of what Jesus has already done.
And so how do we respond to that? Well, we respond with worship. Here Habakkuk sings or prays this great psalm-prayer that praises God for His greatness. He's singing about the same God who in the past has performed mighty deeds for Israel. And our worship should be shaped by that same reality.
God is big, but that doesn't mean He's distant. He's close to us. He rules and sovereignly governs over nations and nature. That is good news when our hearts feel weary.
You see, we can worship God, and when we worship God, we declare that we believe in God's power to save. And in doing so, we're surrendering ourselves to God's perfect plan.
And perhaps the challenge is here for you even today: will you surrender yourself to God's perfect plan?
Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father,
We stand in awe of your power. When we think of your holiness and your decision to judge all evil, we can tremble before you.
But remind us, we pray, help us to rest in your track record of mercy. Help us to look to the cross and remember what you have already done for us.
May our memories of your greatness and of the greatness of what you have achieved in the cross drive us to worship you.
We pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.