1 A prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, set to victorious music. 2 Yahweh, I have heard of your fame. I stand in awe of your deeds, Yahweh. Renew your work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years make it known. In wrath, you remember mercy. 3 God came from Teman, the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and his praise filled the earth. 4 His splendor is like the sunrise. Rays shine from his hand, where his power is hidden. 5 Plague went before him, and pestilence followed his feet. 6 He stood, and shook the earth. He looked, and made the nations tremble. The ancient mountains were crumbled. The age-old hills collapsed. His ways are eternal. 7 I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction. The dwellings of the land of Midian trembled. 8 Was Yahweh displeased with the rivers? Was your anger against the rivers, or your wrath against the sea, that you rode on your horses, on your chariots of salvation? 9 You uncovered your bow. You called for your sworn arrows. Selah. You split the earth with rivers. 10 The mountains saw you, and were afraid. The storm of waters passed by. The deep roared and lifted up its hands on high. 11 The sun and moon stood still in the sky, at the light of your arrows as they went, at the shining of your glittering spear. 12 You marched through the land in wrath. You threshed the nations in anger. 13 You went forth for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the land of wickedness. You stripped them head to foot. Selah. 14 You pierced the heads of his warriors with their own spears. They came as a whirlwind to scatter me, gloating as if to devour the wretched in secret. 15 You trampled the sea with your horses, churning mighty waters. 16 I heard, and my body trembled. My lips quivered at the voice. Rottenness enters into my bones, and I tremble in my place, because I must wait quietly for the day of trouble, for the coming up of the people who invade us. 17 For though the fig tree doesn't flourish, nor fruit be in the vines; the labor of the olive fails, the fields yield no food; the flocks are cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stalls: 18 yet I will rejoice in Yahweh. I will be joyful in the God of my salvation! 19 Yahweh, the Lord, is my strength. He makes my feet like deer's feet, and enables me to go in high places. For the music director, on my stringed instruments.
The prophet, being apprised of the calamities which were to be brought on his country by the ministry of the Chaldeans, and the punishments which awaited the Chaldeans themselves, partly struck with terror, and partly revived with hope and confidence in the Divine mercy, beseeches God to hasten the redemption of his people, Habakkuk 3:1, Habakkuk 3:2. Such a petition would naturally lead his thoughts to the astonishing deliverance which God vouchsafed to the same people of old; and the inference from it was obvious, that he could with the same ease deliver their posterity now. But, hurried on by the fire and impetuosity of his spirit, he disdains to wait the process of connecting these ideas, and bounds at once into the midst of his subject: "God came from Teman," etc., Habakkuk 3:3. He goes on to describe the majesty and might which God displayed in conducting his people to the land of promise, selecting the most remarkable circumstances, and clothing them in the most lofty language. As he goes along, his fancy becomes more glowing, till at length he is transported to the scene of action, and becomes an eyewitness of the wonders he describes. "I beheld the tents of Cushan in affliction," Habakkuk 3:4-6. After having touched on the principal circumstances of that deliverance which he celebrates, he returns to what passed before them in Egypt; his enthusiasm having led him to begin in the midst of his subject, Habakkuk 3:7-15. And at last he ends the hymn as he began it, with expressing his awe of the Divine judgments, and his firm trust in the mercy and goodness of God while under them; and that in terms of such singular beauty, elegance, and sublimity, as to form a to proper conclusion to this admirable piece of Divinely inspired composition, Habakkuk 3:16-19. It would seem from the title, and the note appended at the end, that it was set to music, and sung in the service of the temple.
INTRODUCTION TO HABAKKUK 3
The title of this chapter is a prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, composed after the manner of a psalm of David, and directed to the chief singer, Habakkuk 3:1. The occasion of it is expressed, Habakkuk 3:2 in which the prophet declares his concern for the work of the Lord, and the promotion of the kingdom and interest of Christ; and observes the various steps that were, or would be, taken for the advancement of it; for which he prays, and suggests that these would be after the manner of the Lord's dealing with the people of Israel, and settling them in the land of Canaan, Habakkuk 3:3 and there being several things awful in this account, both with respect to the judgments of God on his enemies, and the conflicts and trials of his own people, it greatly affected the mind of the prophet, Habakkuk 3:16 and yet, in the view of the worst, he expresses his strong faith in the Lord, as to better times and things, that would most assuredly come, Habakkuk 3:17.
(Habakkuk 3:1, Habakkuk 3:2) The prophet beseeches God for his people.
(Habakkuk 3:3-15) He calls to mind former deliverances.
(Habakkuk 3:16-19) His firm trust in the Divine mercy.
Prayer for Compassion in the Midst of the Judgment - Habakkuk 3
In this chapter, which is called a prayer in the heading, the prophet expresses the feelings which the divine revelation of judgment described in ch. 1 and 2 had excited in his mind, and ought to excite in the congregation of believers, so that this supplicatory psalm may be called an echo of the two answers which the prophet had received from the Lord to his complaints in Habakkuk 1:2-4 and Habakkuk 1:12-17 (vid., Habakkuk 1:5-11 and 2:2-20). Deeply agitated as he was by the revelation he had received concerning the terrible judgment, which the Lord would execute first of all upon Judah, through the wild and cruel Chaldaean nation, and then upon the Chaldaean himself, because he deified his own power, the prophet prays to the Lord that He will carry out this work of His "within years," and in the revelation of His wrath still show mercy (Habakkuk 3:2). He then proceeds in Habakkuk 3:3-15 to depict in a majestic theophany the coming of the Lord to judge the world, and bring salvation to His people and His anointed; and secondly, in Habakkuk 3:16-19, to describe the fruit of faith which this divine manifestation produces, namely, first of all fear and trembling at the day of tribulation (Habakkuk 3:16, Habakkuk 3:17), and afterwards joy and rejoicing in the God of salvation (Habakkuk 3:18 and Habakkuk 3:19). Consequently we may regard Habakkuk 3:2 as the theme of the psalm, which is distributed thus between the two parts. In the first part (Habakkuk 3:3-15) we have the prayer for the accomplishment of the work (Habakkuk 3:2) announced by God in Habakkuk 1:5, expressed in the form of a prophetico-lyric description of the coming of the Lord to judgment; and in the second part (Habakkuk 3:16-19), the prayer in wrath to remember mercy (Habakkuk 3:2), expanded still more fully in the form of a description of the feelings and state of mind excited by that prayer in the hearts of the believing church.
*More commentary available by clicking individual verses.