The song of Habakkuk (1):
‘O Lord. Revive Your work in the midst of the years’
[Habakkuk 3:2]
What is “revival”? Our church used to have once a year ‘The Word meetings’ around our church anniversary which is in July. But now, we have ‘The Word meetings’ twice a year. Each Word meeting, I invite two guest speakers for two days meeting and they give us the messages of God. I think our church formal pastor used to call it “Revival meeting” but I changed it to “The Word meetings” because I think there is wrong meaning of revival that we have in our mind. That wrong meaning is that we think revival is a church that has grown so large that it has built a large church, a large number of believers, and a large amount of offerings and so on. I think the perception of our Christian revival seems to be related to “growth first,” “performance first,” and “economic first.” This is a secularized world, deceived by world logic (Internet). That's why I call our church meetings “The Word meetings,” not “revival meetings.” I believe that if we Christians really want the true revival, we should return to the word of God. And I believe that we should listen to the word of God and should truly repent our sins. The reason is because there is no revival without repentance.
In Habakkuk 3:2, Prophet Habakkuk prays to God like this: “LORD, I have heard the report about You and I fear O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years, In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy.” Habakkuk 3:1 says, “A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth” and Habakkuk 3:19b says “… For the director of music. On my stringed instruments.ents.” Verse 1 says that it is a “prayer” but verse 19 says it is “music.” Then, is Habakkuk 3:2 prayer or music (song)? Another question is what does the word "Shigionoth" mean in verse 1? This word is found only twice in the Bible. It is found at the beginning of Habakkuk 3:1 and Psalm 7 (superscript). The meaning is not clear, but Dr. Park Yoon-sun says, ‘It seems to be a kind of enthusiastic character here simply as the name of tunes’ (Park). And, according to Pastor John MacArthur, the word is meant for music-worship, and Habakkuk Chapter 3 was sung as music (MacArthur). In short, the prayer of Prophet Habakkuk in Habakkuk 3:2 is a prayer expressed in his passionate song. So I want to meditate on the Habakkuk’s prayer that he prayed to God in a song, especially verse 2 and want to receive the Lord’s instruction. I hope that we can pray and sing for revival of His church.
Looking at Habakkuk 3:2 again, the Bible says, “LORD, I have heard the report about You and I fear O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years, In the midst of the years make it known; ….” Here, what was “the report” about God that Habakkuk heard? The report is that God would judge Judah (1:5-11) and Babylon (2:2-20). Why did God say that God would judge the people of Judah, the God's people? The reason is because they were wicked, committing “iniquity”, “destruction” and “violence” and there was strife and contention among them (1:3). In other words, because the people of Judah were doing evil and unrighteousness, they had to be judged by God. To what extent did the people of Judah do evil to God was that “the wicked sound the righteous; Therefore justice comes out perverted” (v. 4b). As a result, “the law was ignored And justice is never upheld” (v. 4a). Aren’t we like the people of Judah? Aren’t we doing all the wickedness and iniquity like the people of Judah and our zeal to keep the God's law (the commandments) has cooled down? What is the result? The result is that we Christians don’t play the role of light and salt in this world. More specifically, now we Christians don’t contribute in making our society just by doing justice instead we are doing injustice and unrighteousness. Just as the wicked people surrounded the righteous in Habakkuk's day, there are more Christians living in disobedience to God's commandments in this society than righteous people living in faith. Hence, a holy and just God told the people of Judah in Habakkuk 1:5 – “Look among the nations! Observe! Be astonished! Wonder! Because I am doing something in your days-- You would not believe if you were told.” What is “something” that God would do that the people of Judah were astonished? That is, God would raise up “the Chaldeans (the Babylonians), That fierce and impetuous people Who march throughout the earth To seize dwelling places which are not theirs” to punish the people of Judah. However, Prophet Habakkuk, who heard the words of this judgment, knew that it was vigilance that God would punish the people of Judah (v. 12). He also knew that the God of Israel was holy and would not destroy Israel completely with the hands of the Babylonians, who were more wicked than Israel (v. 12). Rather, he knew that God, who lived before the ages, would love the chosen Israelites and take care of them forever (Park). Therefore Habakkuk had no choice but to fear God. Habakkuk was astonished to hear the Lord’s report not because God would punish the Israelites in the future through the Babylonians, but he expressed the awe in God's presence, or His mysterious way in praise and worship (Lloyd Jones). That mystical way of God was, as Habakkuk chapter 2 says, that after God would punish Judah, He would punish Babylon in order to save the people of Judah. In other words, Habakkuk couldn’t help to fear God because he heard that God would punish the Babylonians who were the proud ones (2:3, 4) who were sinning against themselves (v. 10), and like those who were drunken (vv. 5, 15) who couldn’t control themselves in plundering the nations, shedding the blood of men and doing violence to the land (v. 8). In this awe, Habakkuk sang and played to God, “… O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years, …” (3:2). What is the work of the Lord here? It is the salvation of Israel, God's people, by punishing Babylon. Habakkuk asked God in song to revive this work of the Lord in the midst of the years.
Why do we come to God's presence and give thanks and praise to God? Why do we come to God's presence with praise and worship in awe of God? Isn’t it because of the mystical way that God saves us? How did God save us, who supposed to be perished forever, by letting His begotten Son Jesus Christ to die on the cross? How can we come to God's presence without giving respect to God in awe and give praise and worship God with pride as we consider this wonderful work of God’s salvation? What Habakkuk could do was to sing and pray “O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years” (3:2). What does it mean? Pastor Lloyd Jones said: ‘He (Habakkuk) didn't ask for salvation and comfort, he didn't ask the Israelites to live, nor asked Him not to have war against the Chaldeans. He also didn’t ask God not for the Israelites to suffer, not to be plundered, or to prevent the destruction of the Jerusalem temple. It was because he realized that these things should be done and that they deserve go through them. He didn’t pray for God to change His plan. The only concern of the prophet was that God's work and purpose would be done in the kingdom of God and the whole world. He just wanted everything done right. In fact, he came to confession as follows: ‘No matter what suffering I or my people will go through, if the Lord's work will be revived and be done purely, then I will not concern about it.' His only concern was that the Lord to revive His work in the midst of the years’ (Jones). What “revival” did Habakkuk's really want? Wasn't it that God's people Israel repent their sins and turn to God even by all the suffering that would come from God's punishment that is Babylon's invasion, and to live as God's holy people? Although in Hebrew the word “revival” has meaning “to preserve” or “make to live” it also has meaning “to cleanse, correct, and remove all evil” (Jones). God raised up the Babylonians to punish the transgressive and unrepentant Israelites to remove all their evils and to cleanse them and make them pure people of God. Having heard this report, Habakkuk sang in amazement to God: “O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years” (3:2).
Then in the second half of Habakkuk 3:2, Prophet Habakkuk prayed to God in song: “… In wrath remember mercy.” Habakkuk knew that if God punished the Israelites for their sins, then they would be destroyed. In other words, he knew that if holy and just God would pour out all the wrath to the sinful Israelites, then no one could survive and be destroyed by Babylon's invasion. That was why Habakkuk's humbly begged God, “In wrath remember mercy” (3:2). The meaning of this supplication is that even though if God would repay the Jewish people according to their sins, they would be destroyed and nothing would be left. But Habakkuk asked God for mercy in the midst of pouring out His wrath and punishing the Israelites so that they might be saved’ (Park). This prayer is like the psalmist’s prayer of Psalms 85:2-3, “You forgave the iniquity of Your people; You covered all their sin. You withdrew all Your fury; You turned away from Your burning anger.” Habakkuk prayed to God like this, ‘May You soften Your wrath with Your mercy. We can only ask the Lord to act according to His nature and to be merciful for us even in wrath’ (Jones). Shouldn't we pray like this too?
Personally, when I sing the gospel song of “Revival,” the words of praise often come to heart. Especially when I sing this part of the song “O, Lord, Look at the lands of desolated. O God of Heaven, who has pity on us,” I sing this song as my prayer to God in seeking His mercy upon our church as I see the church of desolated. In the midst of this, I sing to God with heart of asking Him for forgiveness for our church's sins and for the church to become one and to rebuild foundations that were destroyed. The Lord will renew the churches by the Words of truth. The river water of God's grace will flow in the church, and the winds of the Holy Spirit will blow. The Lord will give us a new day that is full of His glory. I earnestly hope and pray that the kingdom of God will come to this earth.
May the Lord revive His work in the years to come,
Pastor James Kim