Yet I Will Praise Him

Today's passage is packed with glory. But in order to see that, we need to remember where we've been and see how this passage fits into this whole book.

So let's remember that Habakkuk the prophet lived in the kingdom of Judah during its final years. This book began with him complaining to God about the wickedness that he saw all around him, and the fact that God didn't seem to be doing anything about it.

God responded by telling Habakkuk that He did see and was going to deal with it by sending the Babylonians against Judah as a tool of His judgement.

Habakkuk then shifted his complaint, basically arguing that this wasn't fair because Babylon was even worse than Judah, and when was God going to do anything about their wickedness?

God responded by telling Habakkuk to be patient, giving him a reminder about the importance of living by faith, and telling him that yes, He did see Babylon's sin—and He was going to deal with it at a time in the future when the tables turned and all the evil that Babylon did came back on them.

Habakkuk responded by exercising his faith and writing a song that retold the story of God delivering Israel from Egypt. It might have seemed so hard to believe that Judah was going to survive the onslaught of Babylon's military power, but Habakkuk remembers what God did to Egypt when they tried to oppress and destroy His people.

So he goes back to remember what God did with Egypt, to help himself believe that God will do what He's promised to do with Babylon. Which is why he says in verse 16, "Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us” (Habakkuk 3:16).

And with that we come to verses 17-19, where he tells us what he's going to do in the meantime. As Habakkuk waits for God to deal with Babylon, this is what we'll find him doing.

“Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:17–18).

What's Going on Here? (V. 17)

We're going to come at these verses by asking a series of questions about them. The first is, what's going on in verse 17? What's being described?

When we read about fig trees and fruit on the vines and olives and flocks and herds, all of those might sound a little cute to us—like a nice country scene. And if there was a year where none of these things produced, that might be like a bad year in the garden for you. We might be sad, but we'd be okay.

That's not what Habakkuk is talking about. In the place and time where Habakkuk lived, what he has described here is basically their whole economy. Fig trees, the grapes on the vines, olives, fields yielding wheat and barley for food, flocks and herds of sheep and goats and cattle—these aren't just a few examples.

No, Habakkuk has given pretty much a comprehensive list of the industries that made Judah survive.

So this is kind of like someone in Saskatchewan saying, "though the wheat, canola, soybeans, peas, and all other crops stop growing, though the oil and natural gas dry up, though there be no more potash in the mines…" And you're thinking, "you've just described our whole economy."

But even if that were to happen to us, we could probably count on some level of government bailout. Which wasn't a thing in 600 BC. They didn't have grocery stores. If the land didn't produce food, they didn't have food. People died.

So what's going on here in verse 17 isn't just a bit of a bad growing season. Habakkuk is describing the complete devastation of his people.

What Makes This Happen?

Now, we might ask, where is Habakkuk getting this from? Where does this worst-case scenario come from? What makes this happen?

And a big part of the answer is that what verse 17 describes is exactly the kind of thing that God promised would come upon His people when they broke His law and refused to repent. And specifically, there's a connection between all of this and the Babylonian invaders that God has said are on the way.

Back in Deuteronomy 28, God promised His people that if they refused to obey Him and keep His covenant, “The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle [which is how Babylon is described in 1:8]… It shall eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; it also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish” (Deuteronomy 28:49–51).

So there's a connection here as Habakkuk says in verse 16 that he's going to wait for the invaders to be dealt with, and verse 17 he describes the total devastation of his land. Because verse 17 is the kind of thing that's likely to happen while he waits.

Now remember all of this against the backdrop of Habakkuk's initial complaint. He starts off by asking God, "when are you going to do something about all of this wickedness?" And eventually, he comes to realize that God is going to do something… and it's not going to be pretty. It's going to be one of the worst things that's ever happened to the nation. And it's going to mean the total collapse of everything that Habakkuk has known and loved. The total erasure of his nation's economy and food supply.

What Will Habakkuk Still Do? (v. 18)

So this leads to our next question: what will Habakkuk still do? Despite the worst things that might happen, what's he going to do?

The answer is in verse 18. And we might expect verse 18 to say something like, "yet I will trust in the Lord." Or "yet I will keep waiting."

I don't think we're prepared for what Habakkuk says here. Habakkuk says that, though the worst-case scenario falls upon him and his people, “yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3:18).

He's going to rejoice. He's going to take joy. Even in the middle of the worst-case scenario, he will rejoice.

That is an incredible statement to be made by a man who started off saying “O Lord, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?” (Habakkuk 1:2a). A man who complained that God was idle and his law was paralyzed (1:3-4). A man who wasn't satisfied with God's answer, and informed God that he was going to wait around for an answer.

And here he is saying, whatever happens, I'm going to rejoice in God. That is a stunning place for him to land. That is an incredible character arc.

And friends, it's even more stunning when we know that the words that he uses here for "joy" and "rejoice" are not weak words. We need to understand that these are strong words for joy.

The first word, "rejoice," is often translated "exult" and shows up in passages like these.

• Psalm 96:12: “let the field exult, and everything in it! Then shall all the trees of the forest sing for joy.”
• Zephaniah: “Sing aloud, O daughter of Zion; shout, O Israel! Rejoice and exult with all your heart, O daughter of Jerusalem!" (Zephaniah 3:14).
• “Let the godly exult in glory; let them sing for joy on their beds” (Psalm 149:5).

That's just a sample, but a sample that shows a pattern I saw across the whole Old Testament—how often this word for joy is connected to singing.

One way of defining joy is that it's the kind of thing that makes you want to sing. Or maybe for you that's putting a song on really loud. Shouting "yes!" as your team scores the winning goal. That's the kind of joy that's described here.

The same goes for this next word—"take joy." This is a word used often of joy before God, and also connected to singing and shouting.

• “The Lord your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing” (Zephaniah 3:17).
• “Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem!” (Zechariah 9:9).
• “Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, O righteous, and shout for joy, all you upright in heart!” (Psalm 32:11).

Kids, you know that song you've sung at Faith Night this year: "We will sing and shout, sing and shout, open up our hearts and pour your praises out." That's what Habakkuk is describing here. The kind of joy that makes you do something loud.

Not a quiet, private, "I've accepted my situation." No, a fist-in-the-air kind of joy.

Habakkuk is not necessarily experiencing this joy right at this moment—but he's declaring that he will. As he stares down the disaster, he declares that even if he walks through barren and dry fields and comes home to silent stalls and nowhere finds anything to satisfy his gnawing hunger, he will be playing "Sing and Shout" in his earbuds. And he will be singing along.

How Could Habakkuk Do This? (vv. 18-19)

Which brings us to our next important question. How is this even possible? How could Habakkuk be capable of this?

We can find some answers as we look closer. Pay attention to who Habakkuk says he is going to rejoice in. First, he says he's going to rejoice in the Lord. If you look in your Bible, you'll see all capital letters there. Habakkuk wrote in Hebrew and the capitals show that he was using God's personal name here—Yahweh.

That's a name that speaks to God's promise-keeping nature. It speaks to His relationship with Israel and the way that he showed them faithful, steadfast love over and over again over centuries. So he will rejoice because God who has never once abandoned his people or broken any of His promises to them. That reality will sustain his joy.

Second, he will take joy in the "God of his salvation." In this setting, in the context of this whole book, the word "salvation" almost certainly speaks to salvation from his enemies and from trouble. That's how this phrase, "God of my salvation" is used elsewhere in the Bible (Psalm 18:46, 25:5, 27:9; Micah 7:7).

Habakkuk is basically expressing confidence that God is going to save him—and his nation—from their enemies. He is believing God's promises that salvation is coming, and that "if it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay" (2:3).

Which means, he is doing what God said in 2:4: "The righteous shall live by his faith." We saw there that these words called him to a steadfast confidence that God was going to keep His promises.

And knowing that God is going to do what He said He was going to do means Habakkuk can shout for joy while his world falls apart. Because these circumstances are not ultimate. They are not the end of the story. God is going to save him and deliver him.

So in other words, Habakkuk announces that he is going to rejoice by faith. And not just that he has faith that he will rejoice, but that when he rejoices, his joy will be the joy of faith.

Because it has to be, right? It won't be a joy in his circumstances. There's no joy in no food and no economy. This, rather, is joy in the God who is behind his circumstances and will be there after his circumstances have passed.

As we move into verse 19, we find more reasons for Habakkuk's confidence that he is going to rejoice. "God, the Lord, is my strength." Habakkuk knows that this whole experience is supernatural. It's not like Habakkuk is not a naturally happy person. I think we can tell that from this book already. So any of you thinking, "This doesn't apply to me because of my personality," that's not going to work.

Habakkuk is strengthened for this joy by God himself. He is not just mustering this up. He is strengthened by God. And in particular, he speaks in the rest of the verse how God makes his feet like the deer's.

If you watch deer, and you watch them run, you know that God has given them an uncanny ability to put their feet in the right place. Have you ever seen a deer, bolting through the woods, trip on a root and go sprawling? That's a hilarious picture. It happens to us all the time, but God built them differently.

In that part of the world, they were used to seeing deer running along cliffs and rocks and, like mountain goats, knowing just where to put their feet so that they never trip or fall to their death.

And maybe that's why this image of having our feet be like a deer's was first used by David to describe the way that God guided him through the dangerous years when Saul hunted him. Psalm 18:33: “He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights” (Psalm 18:33).

So just like God guided David and protected and saved him from his enemies time and time again, so Habakkuk is able to rejoice because he knows that God is the same God and is going to do the same for him.

It's not that he'll have no enemies. It's not that he won't be hunted. It's that, like a deer, he'll be enabled to find a safe path through the danger and come out on the other side.

What Does This Passage Teach Us?

And that is the book of Habakkuk. What a journey. What a journey of faith taken by this prophet. What a God, who engages with him and dialogues with him and inspires and preserves this book for us to benefit from 2600 years later.

And that's where we want to go now. How should we benefit from this? What does this passage, as the conclusion to this whole book, teach us?

And there's a lot we could say, but let's zero in on three key truths.

We CanHave Joy in God Despite Our Circumstances

First, this passage tells us that we can have joy in God despite our circumstances.

Joy is not tied to what's going on in our life. Joy is not tied to what we have or don't have. Joy is not tied to whether or not bad stuff happens to us.

That's encouraging, isn't it? Maybe that's particularly encouraging to those of you today who struggle with fear. That's all of us, at one point or another. But some of us seem to be more easily given to fearing the future, or fearing the worst.

You feel a pain in a part of your body, and right away you're worried you have cancer, and it's probably going to be fatal, and then you're thinking about how your finances aren't in order, and you don't have a will, and now you can't sleep because you don't know who will be the executor. And I hope you don't think I'm joking, because this is real for more of us than you'd think.

A friend might offer you the advice: "Don't assume it's going to be the worst-case scenario. It probably won't happen." I remember hearing the advice, "If you hear hoofbeats, assume a horse, not a zebra." In other words, assume it's something normal—because it probably is—instead of assuming the worst.

But here's the thing: sometimes it is the worst. We live in a world in which awful things happen. There are people who woke up today to a normal life, and there're going to get a call or get in an accident that is forever going to change their life.

Habakkuk shows us a better way than just saying "that probably won't happen" or lying awake terrified that it might. Because what Habakkuk does here is embrace the worst-case scenario. Informed by Scripture, he stares right into the face of the worst thing that might happen to his nation.

And as he stares, he says, "Yet I will rejoice."

Brothers and sisters, some of you are going to live long and healthy lives. And some of you won't. Some of you are going to get cancer. Some of you are going to lose a child. Some of you already have.

Some of you are going to have people you trust betray you in ways that leave you staggering. Some of you are going to have the worst-case scenario play out.

And the good news of Habakkuk is that you can stare that worse-case scenario in the face and say, with confidence, "yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation."

Your joy is not at the mercy of your situation. Your joy is in the God who is sovereign over your situation. And so the good news here is that you can have joy despite your circumstances.

We MustHave Joy in God Despite Our Circumstances

That's not all, though. These verses also tell us that we not just can have this kind of joy—we must. We must have joy in God despite our circumstances.

And I say this because this is the only conclusion that we can come to. This is the only kind of way that the book of Habakkuk could have ended. Can you imagine if Habakkuk had ended by saying,

"If the fig tree doesn't blossom, and there's no fruit on the vines, and no herd in the stalls, I'm going to be miserable and grumpy and upset until you fix things."

What would we say about that? Wouldn't we say that this is pretty clear evidence of Habakkuk not getting it? Of him not actually believing God's promises?

Habakkuk has to say something like this if he actually believes what God has told him. If he actually believes that God's promises are going to outlast Babylon's fury. If he actually believes that he's going to make it by faith. If he actually believes that he serves the same God who delivered Israel from Egypt.

If he actually believes this, he has to say something like, "Lord, I know who you are and what you've promised, and even if things are really hard for a while, you haven't changed, and I believe what you've promised to do, and so I have a reason to be joyful in whatever comes."

Now, friends, I want to be careful here. We need to remember that joy and sorrow are not opposites. They go together. God wants us to lament. He wants us to call to him from sorrows deep.

But like we see again and again in the Psalms—and here in Habakkuk—that lament is the pathway to a joy that coexists with our sorrow and which cannot be killed by our sorrow. Like Paul says in 2 Corinthians 6:10: that he was sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.

So I'm not arguing here for a superficial person who tunes out their emotions and never laments and just sings "I've got the joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart" all the time.

But I am arguing here that if we can't rejoice in God even when we're suffering, then we don't actually know God yet. And we certainly don't love Him.

Because if you need to be healthy in order to be happy, or if you need money in your bank in order to be happy, or if you need your life to be filled up with blessings in order to rejoice, then God is just a heavenly vending machine, there to give you what you want.

And what do we do with a vending machine that doesn't give us what we want? We smack it a couple of times and walk away frustrated. Nobody cares about the vending machine.

But those who love God and who trust God are those who can be satisfied with all that God is for them even as their worlds are falling apart.

This is the unanimous testimony of Scripture, from Abraham to Job to Paul to how many saints since. What Habakkuk describes here is not unique to him. This is what genuine faith looks like.

We must have faith in God despite our circumstances.

How We Have Joy in God Despite Our Circumstances

And yet, as I say that, I want to remain ruthlessly Biblical as we think this through. Because there is a way to teach this truth—that you must have joy in God despite our circumstances—that is fairly unhelpful.

And this happens when we suggest that the joy in God that we have is an experiential kind of joy that comes from just knowing how wonderful God is, knowing that He is enough for you, enjoying sweet communion with Him, and having such a great relationship with Him that nothing bad can take that joy away.

And you might be thinking: what's wrong with that? Shouldn't that be true? And yes, it should be true. We should be the kind of people who are fully satisfied by contemplating the sheer beauty of God even as our lives fall apart around us.

But I am not that kind of person—yet. And I am encouraged by the fact that much of the time—maybe even most of the time—the joy that the Bible describes for us is a joy rooted, not just in our present enjoyment of God, but in the promises God has given to save and deliver us.

Think about Habakkuk. He rejoiced in the God of His salvation, the God who had given him promises about justice and salvation that were coming in the future. He rejoiced while he patiently waited for trouble to come on those who invaded them.

And for you and me, on the other side of the coming and the death and the resurrection of Jesus, it is much the same. In Romans 5, after recounting all that God has done for us in sending Jesus to die for us, Paul writes that "we rejoice in hope of the glory of God" (Rom 5:2). That's the hope that allows us to rejoice in our sufferings, because our sufferings ultimately result in more hope that won't put us to shame as he goes on to say.

Romans 8 says that we were saved in the hope that the whole creation—including our very bodies—are going to be redeemed. Philippians 3 says that Paul's great treasure was knowing Christ “and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead” (Philippians 3:10–11).

So our joy is not just, "I'm enjoying an experience of God right in this moment," and it stops there. Our joy is, "Jesus is going to deliver me and bring me into his kingdom forever."

And I hope I'm not confusing anybody, because I hope it doesn't sound like I'm taking back what I just said in the last section. I hope it doesn't sound like we're just back to vending-machine faith, and we just have joy because Jesus is going to get us out of our pain and free us from our bad backs and achy joints and let us spend time with our friends and family in heaven.

No, no, a hundred times no. Because what will be our greatest joy when we burst from the dirt on the great day of resurrection? What will be the greatest delight of the people of God?

Will it not be the joy of finally being able to experience and know God fully forever? Is it not the joy of Revelation 22: “No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants will worship him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads.” (Revelation 22:3–4).

Will it not be the experience of John 17? That, being with Jesus where he is, we might see his glory that he was given by the Father before the foundation of the world? And that, seeing that glory, the very love of the Father for the Son—the white-hot love that shouts from heaven and builds a universe to bring him glory—that very love might be in us, so that we get to love Jesus with the very love of the Father, forever? (John 17:24–26).

See, those people I criticized a moment ago are not totally wrong. Our ultimate joy is in knowing and loving our all-satisfying God. But the problem is that right now, with our broken bodies and distracted minds and weak hearts, we just can't. We can't see God and enjoy God and love God as we ought to.

So we rejoice in the hope that one day, when he appears, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. We believe that, when Jesus delivers us from our enemies and gives us Himself for all of eternity, He will be our joy as we know Him in a way that we couldn't even fathom right now but only taste in aching stabs of longing every once in a while.

And that great hope becomes our source of joy here and now.

This is exactly what Peter explains in 1 Peter 1, a passage we heard recently. But hear these words again, and think of them in the context of what we've heard this morning:

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, who by God’s power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:3–7).

So, brothers and sisters, because this is true, we can say with our ancient friend Habakkuk that “Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places” (Habakkuk 3:17–19).