This chapter records the remarkable "prayer" or "Code" of Habakkuk. The superscription contained in the first verse and a cursory glance at the chapter as thus described may be found suggestive of important teachings respecting the sacred exercises of prayer and praise. Note -
I. THE TEACHINGS CONCERNING PRAYER.
1. We do well to solicit present blessings. "In the midst of the years make known" (ver. 2); i.e. he sought the Divine manifestation in mercy to be granted to his people in his own day.
2. We should recount God's goodness in the past. The prayer abounds in reminiscences of God's favour as bestowed upon his chosen in the days of yore.
3. The comprehensive nature of prayer. This prayer of Habakkuk contains
(1) petition;
(2) adoration;
(3) devout contemplation of God in his character and works;
(4) review of his providential doings; and,
(5) pervading the whole, the spirit of confiding and joyous trust.
II. THE TEACHINGS CONCERNING PRAISE.
1. The desirability of employing in this exercise the devout compositions of God's servants in past ages, which have been preserved, in his Word.
2. The appropriateness of the language of prayer as the medium of expressing praise to God. "The prayers of David the son of Jesse" are contained and expressed in his Psalms. "The prayer of Habakkuk" is also "an ode" set to music, and used at his suggestion in the liturgical services of the temple.
3. The importance of cultivating correct musical expression in the presentation of the sacrifice of praise to God. The tones should be in harmony with the character of the thoughts and sentiments of the words being sung. This is probably the meaning of the expression, "upon Shigionoth' (ver. 1), 'al shigyonoth meaning "in wandering measures," the tones to be varied according to the character of the thoughts and words. The term "Selah," used by him (vers. 3, 9,13), and the direction, "To the chief singer on my stringed instruments," with which he closes his book, also indicate the carefulness in execution the prophet would have exercised. All true worship to God must proceed from humble and trusting hearts, and be presented "in spirit and in truth," and this is perfectly compatible with regard for all that is cultured and artistic in method. Our motto should be, "The best for the Lord." - S.D.H.
A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth.
Homilist.
This chapter presents to us God in three aspects, as devoutly addressed, as poetically portrayed, and as triumphantly enjoyed.
I. IT WAS COMPOSED FOR GENERAL USE. It is not an extemporaneous address; it is a settled form of devotion. Pre-arranged forms of devotion are both scriptural and expedient. There is a set form given to the priests for blessing the people in Numbers 6:2, 3. Psalm 92. is called a psalm for the Sabbath, and Psalms 102. a prayer for the afflicted. Hezekiah commanded the Levites to "praise the Lord in the words of David and of Asaph the seer," which is Psalm 106. And Christ Himself gave His disciples a form of prayer. Whilst it is scriptural it is also expedient. To get a whole congregation into the channel of devotion, a pro-arranged form seems desirable.
II. IT WAS IN PROSPECT OF A TERRIBLE CALAMITY. "O Lord, I have heard Thy speech, and was afraid." Terrible was the calamity now looming on the vision of the prophet. The Chaldean army was approaching; the ruthless troops would soon be in his country, sack Jerusalem its metropolis, and bear his countrymen away into captivity. In view of this the prayer is addressed. "Call upon Me in the day of trouble," etc. Surely, if men fully realised the predicted judgments that will fall on this world, prayer would be the habitude of their souls.
III. IT WAS FOR A REVIVAL OF DIVINE WORK. "Revive Thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy." Kiel thus renders the passage — "Jehovah, Thy work in the midst of Thy years call to life, in the midst of the years make it known." This may mean, Perfect the work of delivering Thy people; let not Thy promise lie as it were dead, give it new life by performing it. Do it now, in the midst of the years, when our calamities are at their height, when Thy wrath seems to be at high tide and terrible. Now "revive Thy work." Three thoughts are suggested —
1. The work of human deliverance is the work of God.
2. This work of God may appear to decline.
3. This decline of God's work can only be overcome by His intervention. "Revive Thy work."
()
People
Habakkuk,
TemanPlaces
Cushan,
Lebanon,
Midian,
Mount Paran,
TemanTopics
Erring, Habakkuk, Habak'kuk, Music, Ones, Prayer, Prophet, Shigionoth, Shigion'oth, VictoriousOutline
1. Habakkuk, in his prayer, trembles at God's majesty.17. The confidence of his faith.Dictionary of Bible Themes
Habakkuk 3:1 7773 prophets, role
8604 prayer, response to God
Library
September 7. "I Will Joy in the God of My Salvation" (Hab. Iii. 18).
"I will joy in the God of my salvation" (Hab. iii. 18). The secret of joy is not to wait until you feel happy, but to rise, by an act of faith, out of the depression which is dragging you down, and begin to praise God as an act of choice. This is the meaning of such passages as these: "Rejoice in the Lord alway, and again I say, rejoice"; "I do rejoice; yes, and I will rejoice." "Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations." In all these cases there is an evident struggle with sadness and …
Rev. A. B. Simpson—Days of Heaven Upon Earth Spiritual Revival, the Want of the Church
NOTE: This edition of this sermon is taken from an earlier published edition of Spurgeon's 1856 message. The sermon that appears in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, vol. 44, was edited and abbreviated somewhat. For edition we have restored the fuller text of the earlier published edition, while retaining a few of the editorial refinements of the Met Tab edition. "O Lord, revive thy work."--Habakkuk 3:2. All true religion is the work of God: it is pre-eminently so. If he should select out of his …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 44: 1898
What a Revival of Religion Is
Text.--O Lord, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.--Hab. iii. 2. IT is supposed that the prophet Habakkuk was contemporary with Jeremiah, and that this prophecy was uttered in anticipation of the Babylonish captivity. Looking at the judgments which were speedily to come upon his nation, the soul of the prophet was wrought up to an agony, and he cries out in his distress, "O Lord, revive thy work." As if he had said, "O Lord, grant …
Charles Grandison Finney—Lectures on Revivals of Religion
The Highway
"The Lord God is my strength, and He will make my feet like hinds' feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high places."--Hab. iii. 19. Mechthild of Hellfde, 1277. tr., Emma Frances Bevan, 1899 It is a wondrous and a lofty road Wherein the faithful soul must tread, And by the seeing there the blind are led, The senses by the soul acquaint with God. On that high path the soul is free, She knows no care nor ill, For all God wills desireth she, And blessed is His will. …
Frances Bevan—Hymns of Ter Steegen and Others (Second Series)
The Believer's Sure Trust. --Hab. Iii. 17, 18
The Believer's sure Trust.--Hab. iii. 17, 18. Though the fig-tree's blossom fail, And the vines should bring no fruit; Though the olive, smit with hail, Cast its foliage round the root; Though the fields should yield no meat, And the herds forsake the stall, In the folds no flocks should bleat At the shepherd's well-known call:-- Yet will I in God rejoice, In Jehovah I will trust, And extol, with heart and voice, His salvation from the dust; He can raise my fallen head, He can all my sickness cure; …
James Montgomery—Sacred Poems and Hymns
The Holy Spirit in Relation to the Father and the Son. ...
The Holy Spirit in relation to the Father and the Son. Under this heading we began by considering Justin's remarkable words, in which he declares that "we worship and adore the Father, and the Son who came from Him and taught us these things, and the host of the other good angels that attend Him and are made like unto Him, and the prophetic Spirit." Hardly less remarkable, though in a very different way, is the following passage from the Demonstration (c. 10); and it has a special interest from the …
Irenæus—The Demonstration of the Apostolic Preaching
Life of Jerome.
The figures in parentheses, when not otherwise indicated, refer to the pages in this volume. For a full account of the Life, the translator must refer to an article (Hieronymus) written by him in Smith and Wace's Dictionary of Christian Biography. A shorter statement may suffice here, since the chief sources of information are contained in this volume, and to these reference will be continually made. Childhood and Youth. A.D. 345. Jerome was born at Stridon, near Aquileia, but in Pannonia, a place …
St. Jerome—The Principal Works of St. Jerome
The Coming Revival
"Wilt Thou not revive us again: that Thy people may rejoice in Thee?"--PS. lxxxv. 6. "O Lord, revive Thy work in the midst of the years."--HAB. iii. 2. "Though I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou wilt revive me: Thy right hand shall save me."--PS. cxxxviii. 7. "I dwell with him that is of a humble and contrite heart, to revive the heart of the contrite ones."--ISA. lvii. 15. "Come, and let us return to the Lord: for He hath torn, and He will heal us. He will revive us."--HOS. vi. 1, 2. The Coming …
Andrew Murray—The Ministry of Intercession
A Prayer when one Begins to be Sick.
O most righteous Judge, yet in Jesus Christ my gracious Father! I, wretched sinner, do here return unto thee, though driven with pain and sickness, like the prodigal child with want and hunger. I acknowledge that this sickness and pain comes not by blind chance or fortune, but by thy divine providence and special appointment. It is the stroke of thy heavy hand, which my sins have justly deserved; and the things that I feared are now fallen upon me (Job iii. 25.) Yet do I well perceive that in wrath …
Lewis Bayly—The Practice of Piety
How to Make Use of Christ as the Life when the Soul is Dead as to Duty.
Sometimes the believer will be under such a distemper, as that he will be as unfit and unable for discharging of any commanded duty, as dead men, or one in a swoon, is to work or go a journey. And it were good to know how Christ should be made use of as the Life, to the end the diseased soul may be delivered from this. For this cause we shall consider those four things: 1. See what are the several steps and degrees of this distemper. 2. Consider whence it cometh, or what are the causes or occasions …
John Brown (of Wamphray)—Christ The Way, The Truth, and The Life
Messiah's Entrance into Jerusalem
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: He is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. -- And He shall speak peace unto the heathen. T he narrowness and littleness of the mind of fallen man are sufficiently conspicuous in the idea he forms of magnificence and grandeur. The pageantry and parade of a Roman triumph, or of an eastern monarch, as described in history, exhibit him to us …
John Newton—Messiah Vol. 1
The Unchangeableness of God
The next attribute is God's unchangeableness. I am Jehovah, I change not.' Mal 3:3. I. God is unchangeable in his nature. II. In his decree. I. Unchangeable in his nature. 1. There is no eclipse of his brightness. 2. No period put to his being. [1] No eclipse of his brightness. His essence shines with a fixed lustre. With whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.' James 1:17. Thou art the same.' Psa 102:27. All created things are full of vicissitudes. Princes and emperors are subject to …
Thomas Watson—A Body of Divinity
The Lord of Glory.
1 Cor. ii:8. OUR ever blessed Lord, who died for us, to whom we belong, with whom we shall be forever, is the Lord of Glory. Thus He is called in 1 Cor. ii:8, "for had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory." Eternally He is this because He is "the express image of God, the brightness of His Glory" (Heb. i:3). He possessed Glory with the Father before the world was (John xvii:5). This Glory was beheld by the prophets, for we read that Isaiah "saw His Glory and spake of Him" …
Arno Gaebelein—The Lord of Glory
Habakkuk
The precise interpretation of the book of Habakkuk presents unusual difficulties; but, brief and difficult as it is, it is clear that Habakkuk was a great prophet, of earnest, candid soul, and he has left us one of the noblest and most penetrating words in the history of religion, ii. 4b. The prophecy may be placed about the year 600 B.C. The Assyrian empire had fallen, and by the battle of Carchemish in 605 B.C., Babylonian supremacy was practically established over Western Asia. Josiah's reformation, …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament
Links
Habakkuk 3:1 NIVHabakkuk 3:1 NLTHabakkuk 3:1 ESVHabakkuk 3:1 NASBHabakkuk 3:1 KJV
Habakkuk 3:1 Bible AppsHabakkuk 3:1 ParallelHabakkuk 3:1 Biblia ParalelaHabakkuk 3:1 Chinese BibleHabakkuk 3:1 French BibleHabakkuk 3:1 German Bible
Habakkuk 3:1 Commentaries
Bible Hub
