Habakkuk 3
Notes
Transcript
A Psalm
A Psalm
A quick recap since it’s been a couple weeks, so far we’ve been going through Habakkuk with questions first about the problem of evil in a world with a good and just God. Then with God’s use of the wicked to punish lesser wicked Southern Kingdom. We dove into Habakkuk 2:4 where we learned in the future the justified will live by faith and there was a lot to unpack there. Then all the woes of the rest of chapter 2. Those woes, or declarations that God is just in the bigger picture of space and time which is possibly beyond what we can see at any point seems to then finally answer Habakkuk’s concerns at what seem to initially be a contradiction of the universe, namely Omnipotent Good vs the existence of evil. That leads us into chapter three where the book concludes this, which we will make it through this week. Specifically that this last chapter is a psalm. Yes there are psalms outside of the book of psalms.
A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.
This is a prayer not a psalm you tricked us Micah! Okay hold on, yes it is a prayer it says it’s a prayer and it’s very poetic, doesn’t mean it can’t also be a psalm. I think it’s a Psalm because it has this musical term. Shigionoth isn’t a person. It’s not this was the prayer according to this Shig dude. No, it’s a unique word and we don’t entirely know what it means which is why most bibles just transliterate the word so they don’t have to go on record with what they think it means. The only other place we find it is the preface of Psalm 7 and it just seems to be some particular type of musical thing.
Now on to the song/prayer.
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.
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.
This is a faith of history. It’s the historical reality of God’s real work in creation and his sovereign rule of the planet that has given us the confidence to trust him. And trust how he will act in justice. The only request that comes out of the chapter happens here and it is just that the Work of God stays alive/remembered and that in wrath would there be mercy. The answer seems to be the conclusion of verse 3 that God came from Teman to the south. Like where the Israelites came from through the exodus.
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 Cushan in affliction;
the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.
Here we again have some very vivid language that paints a picture but also reminds us again of the exodus and his power and justice.
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. Selah
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. Selah
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.
You trampled the sea with your horses,
the surging of mighty waters.
The question that seems to start this section is rhetorical - which usually means what? - the negative reply NO what was the point of these questions then? Well the whole things puts together a picture of this path of destruction that goes through the earth. In verse 13 though it tells us he came to deliver his people and save the annointed one. Who is the annointed one? It’s the people, the prophets, the davidic lineage, and it’s Christ. It depends on our context and I think this kind of has all in view to some degree.
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.
We get a brief response from Habakkuk here that we can learn from be patient for God, it is God who avenges.
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,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
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.
Finally we rejoice in a soverein God. We don’t dump God when things aren’t going well. We know we have a sovereign Lord.
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