Habakkuk 3:1-19 Hinds Feet on High Places

Aug 29, 2021

What though my joys and comforts die? The Lord, my Savior, liveth;
What though the darkness gather round? Songs in the night He giveth.
—Robert Lowry

Over the course of the previous two chapters, the prophet Habakkuk has cried out to God in despair over his people’s condition. The Lord answers his cry with a vision of judgement, both for the faithless Jews and for those who come to pillage their land. Humbled by this not entirely welcome answer, what does Habakkuk do? He sings. Just as the repentant prophet recounts the great deeds of the Lord (“I have heard the report of You and Your work…”), hymns like God, Thy King, Thy Might Confessing and Great Is Thy Faithfulness help us to confess God’s providential hand in history. Like Habakkuk crying “in wrath remember mercy,” so we will give thanks for His compassion with the hymns Jesus, Shepherd Of Thy People and There’s A Wideness In God’s Mercy. Habakkuk can rejoice even when famine wastes his land and invaders are sure to come (vss. 16-18), because he knows what Cowper says in God Moves In A Mysterious Way is true: “the clouds you so much dread are filled with mercy and shall break with blessing on your head.” In a world that seems ever more filled up with fear, uncertainty, and doubt, I pray that we all follow the prophet’s example, taking joy in the God of our Salvation. —Henry C. Haffner

Key Words: Heard, Wrath, Mercy, Rode, Marched, Pierced, Rejoice
Keystone Verses: O Lord, I have heard the report of You, and Your work, O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy. (Habakkuk 3:2)

Bulletin

Habakkuk 3:1-19
A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.
² O Lord, I have heard the report of You, and Your work, O Lord, do I fear. In the midst of the
years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy. ³ God came
from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah
His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of His praise. ⁴ His brightness was like the
light; rays flashed from His hand; and there He veiled His power. ⁵ Before Him went pestilence, and
plague followed at His heels. ⁶ 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. ⁷ I saw
the tents of Cushan in affliction; the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. ⁸ 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? ⁹ You stripped the sheath from Your bow, calling for
many arrows. Selah
You split the earth with rivers. ¹⁰ The mountains saw You and writhed; the raging waters swept on;
the deep gave forth its voice; it lifted its hands on high. ¹¹ 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.¹² You marched through the
earth in fury; You threshed the nations in anger. ¹³ 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. Selah
¹⁴ You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me,
rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret. ¹⁵ You trampled the sea with Your horses, the surging of mighty
waters. ¹⁶ I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my
legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade
us.
¹⁷ Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and
the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, ¹⁸ yet I will
rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. ¹⁹ God, the Lord, is my strength; He makes
my feet like the deer's; He makes me tread on my high places.
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.