Habakkuk’s Prayer of Awe and Joy

Minister:
Date: PM
Text: Habakkuk 3:1-19
Psalters: 248, 295, 166, 253
  1. His awe.
    1. Habakkuk experienced great awe of God: “was afraid” (2), “trembled” and “lips quivered” (16).
      1. Habakkuk’s awe was because he “heard Thy speech” in the previous chapter.
      2. Habakkuk was awed when he heard of God’s judgment because Judah and he are worthy of the same.
    2. Awe is not only consciousness of my own sin, but also amazement at the might and holiness of the Most High Majesty.
      1. First, we must see God in His holy temple above history and every circumstance of time.
      2. Second, reverence and godly fear are ours as we consider all that did in the creation to deliver Israel out of Egypt and bring them safely through the wilderness (3-15).
  2. His prayer is that God would “revive Thy work” and “make known.”
    1. His focus is now on God’s Word, God’s cause, God’s purpose, and God’s name.
      1. “Revive” means to preserve, in the sense of purifying and correcting something which needs renewal and restoration.
      2. God’s “work” is creation, but also and especially His work of saving unto Himself a people in the promised Messiah.
    2. Habakkuk adds “in wrath remember mercy” because he was well aware of how Judah deserved wrath.
  3. Though he trembled, yet Habakkuk’s faith enabled him to “joy” and “rejoice” (18).
    1. We are not to found our joy in ourselves nor our earthly circumstances, but “in the Lord” and “in the God of my salvation.”
    2. When we are afraid, we are to consider what God has done to save His people in the past.
    3. This God will surely bring us through and do so in strength (19).