You Can Worship When you Wonder What God is Doing

In the third chapter of Habakkuk, the prophet prays. He recounts who God is and the evidence of His sovereignty over world affairs in the past. 

In verse one, he sets the tone of this moment, citing a musical prayer.

Habakkuk 3:1 (ESV) A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.

Scholars debate the meaning of the term "Shigionoth," but it seems to refer to stumbling. Evidently, it was a style of music that conveyed a disarray in the mind of the worshipper. I like that struggle with what we see AND our worship can still go together. 

Habakkuk 3:2 (ESV) O LORD, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O LORD, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.

If there's one thing to keep your faith alive ,it is the report of God's work in the ages of history. The Bible is our source for such inspiration. We remember that God is always firmly in control, even when the world seems out of control. 

Habakkuk 3:3–5 (ESV) God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. 4 His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his power. 5 Before him went pestilence, and plague followed at his heels.

Habakkuk seems to hint at the plagues upon Egypt, which set his people free and sent them out with great spoils of war.

Later in the prayer, Habakkuk acknowledges God's control over the natural order. He is the God who caused the sun to stand still for Joshua. He is the God who divides seas and rivers. 

Habakkuk 3:10–11 (ESV) The mountains saw you and writhed; the raging waters swept on; the deep gave forth its voice; it lifted its hands on high. 11 The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped, at the flash of your glittering spear.

In scripture, mountains and cosmic bodies can also represent kings and those in authority. God in His power removes kings, disables nations, and rules history according to His will. 

And yet Habakkuk knows that God has already spoken. His power and glory will be revealed in the judgment yet to come upon his own nation. So the prophet resigns in his creaturely status before the Lord of all the Earth.

Habakkuk 3:16 (ESV) I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.

What do you do when you know the Lord's swift actions will cause great devastation over the very nation you call home? You have only one salient choice: you continue to trust the Lord, whom you acknowledge is over those who seem to be over you.

Habakkuk 3:17–19 (ESV) 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, 18 yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 19 GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

In spite of the trouble to come, Habakkuk takes joy that the sovereign One will recompense the faithful in the land. As Christians, we look at this passage and remind ourselves that though the world's system seems to be winning, in the end God's power is unending and will accomplish His good intentions for all of His people. In that, we can rejoice, rooting our lives in worship of the God of our salvation who rules and reigns over all that we see.