A Prayer/Song

 

“A prayer of the prophet Habakkuk, according to Shigionoth” (Hab. 3:1a, CSB).

 

“For the choir director: on stringed instruments” (Hab. 3:19b, CSB).

 

 

“Lord, I have heard the report about You; Lord, I stand in awe of your deeds. Revive your work in these years; make it known in these years. In your wrath remember mercy!” (Hab. 3:2, CSB).

 

 

 

 

8 Are you angry at the rivers, Lord?

Is your wrath against the rivers?

Or is your fury against the sea

when you ride on your horses, 

your victorious chariot?

9 You took the sheath from your bow;

the arrows are ready to be used with an oath. Selah

You split the earth with rivers.

10 The mountains see you and shudder;

a downpour of water sweeps by. 

The deep roars with its voice

and lifts its waves high. 

11 Sun and moon stand still in their lofty residence, 

at the flash of your flying arrows,

at the brightness of your shining spear.

12 You march across the earth with indignation;

you trample down the nations in wrath.

13 You come out to save your people, 

to save your anointed.

You crush the leader of the house of the wicked

and strip him from foot to neck. Selah

14 You pierce his head

with his own spears;

his warriors storm out to scatter us, 

gloating as if ready to secretly devour the weak.

15 You tread the sea with your horses,

stirring up the vast water.

 

Habakkuk 3:8-15, CSB

 

 

“I heard and I trembled within; my lips quivered at the sound. Rottenness entered my bones; I trembled where I stood” (Hab. 3:16, CSB).

 

 

“Though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails, and the fields produce no food, though the flocks disappear from the pen and there are no herds in the stall” (Hab. 3:17, CSB).

 

 

“Yet I will celebrate in the Lord; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!” (Hab. 3:18, CSB).

 

 

“The Lord my Lord is my strength; He makes my feet like those of a deer and enables me to walk on mountain heights!” (Hab. 3:19, CSB).

 

 

“The righteous one will live by his/her faith” (Hab. 2:4).

 

 

To live by faith, we must –

 

1. Remember who God is in Scripture (Hab. 3:2-15).

 

 

 

2. Accept our reality (Hab. 3:16).

 

 

“For it has been granted to you not only to believe in Him (Jesus Christ) but also to suffer for Him, since you are engaged in the same struggle that you saw I had and now hear that I have” (Phil. 1:29-30, CSB).

 

 

3. Pursue spiritual joy so that we may live the Christian life well (Hab. 3:18).

 

“The joy of the Lord is your strength” (Neh. 8:10, CSB).

 

 

“But not only does the pursuit of joy in God give strength to endure, it is the key to breaking the power of sin on our way to heaven.” – John Piper

 

 

“I know of no other way to triumph over sin long term, than to gain a distaste for it, because of superior satisfaction in God.” – John Piper

 

 

“May the living God, who is the portion and rest of the saints, make these our carnal minds so spiritual, and our earthly hearts so heavenly, that loving Him, and delighting in Him, may be the work of our lives.” – Richard Baxter

 

 

“The joy of the Lord will arm us against the assaults of our spiritual enemies and put our mouths out of taste for those pleasures with which the tempter baits our hooks.” – Matthew Henry

 

 

4. Rely on God to see us through it safely (Hab. 3:19)

 

“The Lord my Lord is my strength.”

 

“He makes my feet like those of a deer and enables me to walk on mountain heights!”