The song of Habakkuk (2): 'I will rejoice in the Lord'
[Habakkuk 3:16-19]
Last week I received a second book from my beloved pastor, Pastor K. W. Kim. The book titled ‘God is asking you,’ in which the author went to write the book centered on the twenty-two questions God asked the people in the Bible. For example, the author went from the first chapter of the book to write around the God’s first question to the first man Adam “Where are you?” (Gen. 3:9). I would like to share the part of what he wrote about this question to Adam: ‘Since God is a God of justice, for sure He asks for the responsibility of sin. God asks, Why did you disobey My command? Why were you proud? Why did you disobey My will? Why did you sin? If we sin, we must know that God seeks, reproves, and disciplines us. God who sought Adam and reproved him also sought not only Achan’s sin but also caught disobeying and running away Jonah by the storm and rebuked David who was hiding his sing through Prophet Nathan. In this way, God convicts us of our unbelief, disobedience, unrighteousness, and all sins and causes us to repent.’ What do you think of this? What do you think about the word “Since God is a God of justice, for sure He asks for the responsibility of sin”? Do we really believe that our God seeks, reproves, and disciplines us who have sinned against Him and eventually makes us to repent our sins?
We have already received the message from the first song of Habakkuk as we meditated on Habakkuk 3:2 under the heading “The song of Habakkuk (1): ‘O Lord. Revive Your work in the midst of the years.’ The message was that we, like Habakkuk, pray to God in song, “O LORD, revive Your work in the midst of the years, In the midst of the years make it known; In wrath remember mercy” (v. 2). After receiving this word of God, we earnest sang the gospel song “Revival” with prayerful hearts to God: “O, Lord. Look at the lands of desolated. O, God of Heaven, who has pity on us. O, Lord, Forgive our sins, And heal these lands. Now, We become one, So we start to rebuild foundations that were destroyed. The fire that will burn down our fake idols, Bring us Holy Spirit’s fire. Let the fire of revival burns. Let renew these lands by the Words of truth. Let river water of grace flow. Now winds of Holy Spirit blow. Oh ~ Give us a new day that is full of Your grace. Oh ~ Let the Lord’s Kingdom come down.“
I want to meditate on the second song of Habakkuk based on Habakkuk 3:16-19, under the heading “The song of Habakkuk (2): ‘I will rejoice in the Lord.’ In particular, I want to ask two questions and to learn the lessons that God gives to us.
First, under what circumstances did Habakkuk commit himself to rejoice in the Lord?
Look at Habakkuk 3:16 – “I heard and my inward parts trembled, At the sound my lips quivered Decay enters my bones, And in my place I tremble Because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, For the people to arise who will invade us.” Habakkuk's commitment to rejoicing in the Lord was when he was waiting quietly for “the day of distress”. Here, what was “the day of distress”? In short, it was the day when God raised up the Babylonians to judge (discipline) the people of Judah (1:6ff.). As we have already learned by meditating on Habakkuk 3:2, the first song of Habakkuk, God said that He would judge the people of Judah by raising Babylon (v. 6) because they were wicked, committing “iniquity”, “destruction” and “violence” and there was strife and contention among them (1:3) and their zeal to keep the God’s law cooled down (v. 4). What will happen to the nation of Judah if this word of the prophecy is fulfilled for the people of Judah? Look at Habakkuk 3:17: “Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls.” In the end, Habakkuk knew that the war with Babylon would destroy all crops and livestock in the land of Israel. Nevertheless, he was silently waiting for God to fulfill His prophecies, even in that situation and he committed to God that “I will rejoice in the Lord.” Isn't this amazing? How could Habakkuk wait for the day silently, knowing that the nation of Babylon would invade and destroy the nation of Judah? How could he commit himself to God, saying, “I will rejoice in the Lord” even in the face of war when all crops and livestock in the land of Israel were gone?
We can dedicate ourselves to God joyfully in the rich ‘blessing’ God gives us. But can we, like Job in the Old Testament book of Job, dedicate ourselves to God in saying ‘I will rejoice in the Lord’ even when we lose all our wealth and all our children through the ‘disaster God allows us to go though (Job 2:10)? We are so tamed by God's blessing. We are overly accustomed to rejoice because of God's blessing. As a result, we don’t rejoice in the Lord even in the midst of adversities or crises that God permits in our journey of life. I think there are at least two causes:
(1) The first reason is that we don’t want to let go of our will and don’t want only the will of the Lord will be done.
Apostle Paul rejoiced and rejoiced in the Lord even when he was in prison (Phil. 1:18). Why did he rejoice and rejoice in such a situation? It was because Christ was proclaimed (v. 18). In other words, Paul was pleased and rejoiced even in prison because the Lord’s will that he really wanted to fulfill, was being accomplished which was Christ was proclaimed. No matter how difficult or painful we may be, we are people of faith who are pleased and rejoiced if the good, pleasing, and perfect will of the Lord is being fulfilled even through our difficult and painful circumstances.
(2) The second reason that is the greater reason why we don’t rejoice in the Lord even in the midst of adversities or crises that God permits in our life's journey is because we are used to rejoice in God's act, rather than rejoice in who God is.
What does it mean? For example, we are used to receive answers of our prayers from God but we aren’t use to receive unexpected results of our prayers to God. So we go through very difficult and painful times when God’s answer of our prayers is unfamiliar to our expectations (even though we want to deny that it is God's answer of our prayers). Sometimes we are immersed in sorrow and tears.
But even in such a situation, there are people of faith who thank God and rejoice in the Lord. Who are they? They are those who are fulfilling the chief end of man that is they are glorifying God and enjoying Him forever (cf. Short Catechism #1). In other words, no matter what the situation they are in, those who believe in God, who want to know God, who trust God, and who only want to fulfill God's will as they focus on who God is rather than what He does, will rejoice in the Lord because they live for God’s glory and enjoy God even in persecution and suffering. d
Only Jesus is our joy and our delight. That is why we rejoice and rejoice in His resurrection, ascension, and second coming. Not only that, we rejoice and rejoice in His sufferings and His death on the cross. No matter what the situation is, we should commit ourselves to God saying, “Lord, I will rejoice because of You.” We must rejoice always because of our Lord who is our Joy (1 Thess. 5:16).
Second and last, why did Habakkuk rejoice by God under such circumstances? There are two reasons:
(1) The reason why Habakkuk rejoiced by God was because God was “my salvation”.
Look at Habakkuk 3:18 – “Yet I will exult in the LORD, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.” Habakkuk, who had waited silently for the day of trouble when God raised up the Babylonians and disciplined the people of Judah, was able to rejoice by God even in that situation because he believed that God was “my salvation”. As the God of salvation, who rode on His chariots like the triumphal army before the sea of the Red Sea in the days of Exodus (3:8) to judge the king and the army of Egypt, judged Babylon, the instrument used to discipline the people of Judah (2:2-20) and saved His people, the Israelites, Habakkuk believed that the same God would save the people of Judah by punishing the Babylonians. That was why he rejoiced in the Lord of his salvation.
Our Lord of salvation will save His church by punishing the Babylon like Satan. Therefore, we, the saved people of God, will go before God's throne and praise the song of Moses, the song of the Lamb. Let us sing “Short stop before eternity” to God: “At the throne of our God we gather And join to praise His holy name Because of His great love, God gave His only son Jesus Christ has redeemed us from our sins. On the cross, God poured out His love so freely A stream that flows forevermore to every tribe and tongue All nations join the song Endless praise to salvation’s one true Lord. To the Lord of all, who’s seated on the throne
And to the Lamb of God This saving grace belongs To the Lord of all, who’s seated on the throne And to the Lamb of God We cry aloud forevermore.”
(2) The reason why Habakkuk rejoiced by God was because God is “my strength”.
Look at Habakkuk 3:19a – “The Lord GOD is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds' feet, And makes me walk on my high places.” Habakkuk, who had waited silently for the day of trouble when God raised up the Babylonians and disciplined the people of Judah, was able to rejoice by God even in that situation because he believed that God was “my strength.” Since Habakkuk believed that Almighty God was his strength and He would deliver the weak and feeble Judeans from Babylon, who were their strong enemy, who hated them and who were too mighty for the people of Judah (Ps. 18:17), he was able to commit “I will rejoice in the Lord.”
The psalmist's confession comes to my mind: “I love you, O LORD, my strength” (v. 1). I also recall the words of the Lord, who is “my strength,” to Apostle Paul: “… My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness …” (2 Cor. 12:9). So Paul confessed: “… Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ's sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong” (vv. 9-10). Therefore, we can praise God with this gospel song “O Lord, my strengthen”: “I love you, O Lord, my strength The Lord is my Rock, my fortress My deliverer, my Lord my God My God is my rock, in whom I take refuge and my shield My God, my God, He is the horn of my salvation, my stronghold. My God, my God, He is my Lord, He is my Savior (2x).”
Pastor Martin Lloyd-Jones said in his book “Fear to Faith”: ‘The Christians can rejoice in tribulation and be victorious in the worst situation. … In this respect, we Christians must be different from the world. When the hellish environment unfolds and the circumstances that we think are the worst get worse, we must deal with more than just calmly enduring. We must recognize the divine joy and clearly show that joyous heart. … We must rejoice in the Lord and rejoice in the God of our salvation. I hope and pray that whatever difficult situations we may be in we may rejoice in the Lord because He is our salvation and our strengthen.
Devoting to rejoice in the Lord, who is my salvation and my strength,
Pastor James Kim