And would you turn with me in the scriptures to Habakkuk chapter three. Again, Habakkuk is towards the end of the Old Testament. If you open up to the book of Matthew, go backwards into the Old Testament five books, and you'll come to the book of Habakkuk. This is our third of three sermons on the book of Habakkuk. So this morning we're going to be looking at all of chapter three together as we conclude our study in this minor prophet. Habakkuk 3, beginning in verse 1. A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigianoth. Lord, I have heard the report about you, and I fear. O Lord, revive your work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years, make it known. In wrath, remember mercy. God comes from Timon and the Holy One from the Mount of Paran. His splendor covers the heavens and the earth is full of His praise. His radiance is like the sunlight. He has rays flashing from His hand and there is the hiding of His power. Before Him goes pestilence and plague comes after Him. He stood and surveyed the earth. He looked and startled the nations. Yes, the perpetual mountains were shattered. The ancient hills collapsed. His ways are everlasting. I saw the tents of Kushan under distress. The tent curtains of the land of Midian were trembling. Did the Lord rage against the rivers? Or was your anger against the rivers? Or was your wrath against the sea that you rode on your horses, on your chariots of salvation? Your bow was made bare. The rods of chastisement were sworn. You cleaved the earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and quaked. The downpour of waters swept by. The deep uttered forth its voice and lifted high its hands. Sun and moon stood in their places. They went away at the light of your arrows, at the radiance of your gleaming spear. In indignation, you marched through the earth. In anger, you trampled the nations. You went forth for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You struck the head of the house of the evil to lay him open from thigh to neck. You pierced with his own spears the head of his throngs. They stormed in to scatter us. Their exultation was like those who devour the oppressed in secret. You trampled on the sea with your horses, on the surge of many waters. I heard, and my inward parts trembled. At the sound, my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, and in my place I tremble, because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, for the people to arise who will invade us. Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines. Though the yield of the olive should fail and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exult in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength and he has made my feet like hinds feet and makes me walk on high places. for the choir director on my stringed instruments. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. It has famously been said, perhaps you've heard this before, everyone has a plan until you get punched in the mouth. That quote came from Mike Tyson. Obviously it's in reference to a boxing match. Everyone goes into a boxing match with some idea of what to expect, even some sort of strategy with regard to how they're going to fight their opponent. But everything changes the moment the first punch touches your face. A similar statement might be made with regard to the Christian life. Everyone can rejoice until they get hit with suffering. It's easy to rejoice. It's easy to think we're prepared to rejoice when things aren't that difficult. When, generally speaking, life is fairly favorable toward us. But once suffering actually hits, which for some of us in this room, that's right now. For others of us in this room, perhaps that's sometime down the road. For all of us in this room, you will get hit with suffering. And when the disorientation and confusion and the sorrow of suffering set in, then we realize that rejoicing is perhaps not as easy or as straightforward as we thought. Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. We've been studying these past few weeks in the book of Habakkuk basically that trajectory of experience. Habakkuk is in the place of having just been punched in the mouth. He is perplexed, he is confused, he is overwhelmed by the reality of what's right in front of him. And then he becomes even more perplexed and even more confused when the Lord answers his questions, or at least responds to his questions. I mentioned a couple weeks ago that the theme of the book of Habakkuk could be described as trusting God in difficult times. If you want to know what Habakkuk is all about, in essence, it is about trusting God in difficult times. We are witnessing Habakkuk do that throughout this book. Chapter one begins, Lord, why are you allowing so much wickedness, so much pain and bloodshed and violence and injustice to happen in the lives of your own people? Why aren't you doing anything about the injustice that Judah is exercising? The Lord responds to Habakkuk's questions by saying, We've seen this the past couple weeks. Habakkuk, I am doing something. I am raising up a foreign, evil, pagan, wicked, greedy, powerful, violent nation to bring about complete destruction to Judah, along with the other nations. I am doing something, but it's not exactly what Habakkuk wanted to hear, and so he's got more questions now in the second half of chapter one, and he says, Lord, how can that be? How can you use a wicked nation, a nation even more wicked than Judah, to bring judgment on your own covenant people? And then last week we saw in chapter two the Lord's response to that. He doesn't answer all of Habakkuk's questions for sure. He doesn't sit down with Habakkuk and say, you asked this, here's an exact answer to your question. But instead he gives Habakkuk a big picture perspective. And he says, Habakkuk, I am going to bring judgment on the nation that will destroy Judah. One day, your destroyer will be destroyed, but that's still off in the future. And so for this period of waiting, as Judah anticipates the destruction that Babylon will bring upon them, and then as they live in the time of exile, God tells Habakkuk in chapter two, verse four, the righteous man will live by his faith. The way that we're going to live in this period between promise and fulfillment, this difficult time of destruction, is by trusting God, the Lord says. The righteous man will live by his faith. Verse four of chapter two. Well, in Habakkuk chapter three now, Habakkuk is no longer asking questions. It seems he's now settled into the Lord's response. He's content with what God has said to him. And now he writes a song. He writes a song with the purpose of Judah being able to sing this song in order to give them a template for faith. This song shows Judah how to trust the Lord in difficult times. And so as Judah anticipates the destruction of Babylon, the destruction that Babylon will bring on Judah, and then as Judah experiences that invasion and the terrors of that destruction, and then as Judah is sent into exile and they live in the land of Babylon for 70 years, this is the song that they need to sing in order to be able to trust the Lord. And the same is true for us. I hope we'll see it applies very directly to our situation as well. Habakkuk is giving us this song so that we too can sing this song and trust the Lord with triumphant faith in the context of our own suffering, whether present or the suffering yet to come in our lives. And contrary to Mike Tyson's quote, this song and this plan that Habakkuk gives us, it actually does hold up. under suffering. It doesn't change. If we sing this song now, we'll be able to sing this song in suffering. If we trust God the way that Habakkuk is describing in these verses now, we'll be able to trust him by doing the very same thing no matter how difficult things become in our lives. I've referred to this as a song in chapter three. The reason is because Habakkuk himself makes it clear that this is a song The very last verse of the chapter, verse 19. He says, for the choir director on my stringed instruments. In other words, I'm writing this hymn, this poem, in order to be sung with the accompaniment of stringed instruments. In the first verse, he says, a prayer of Habakkuk, the prophet, according to Shigianath. Most commentators agree no one really knows what Shigianoth means. One person suggested Shigianoth is the plural of Shigian. That may be, but don't know what Shigian is. But it seems to mean something like musical accompaniment, a verse that would be sung with musical accompaniment, which would go along with verse 19. And then also as you notice throughout chapter three, you'll notice in the margins, at least in the NASB, it's written in the margins in a smaller print, Selah. See it after verse three. after verse 9, after verse 13, Selah, which is only present in the Bible outside of Habakkuk in the book of Psalms. So there are 150 psalms in the book of Psalms, but apparently there are at least 151 psalms in the Bible, because Habakkuk is writing another psalm for us to sing. Now why is it important that it's a song? I think it tells us Habakkuk is not just writing for us to know what his personal experience was. This is not just Habakkuk's personal journal. He's writing this so that all of God's people throughout the ages would sing these very same words in trial, so that Judah would sing it and so that we might sing it. It's a prayer that leads us. It's a song that leads us in triumphant faith through all circumstances. So what does the song teach us to do? Well, let's begin walking through it. Let's look at verse two. First of all, it teaches us to rely on the Lord's mercy when we're afraid. To rely on the Lord's mercy when we're afraid. Look at verse two. Lord, I have heard the report about you and I fear. Oh Lord, revive your work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years, make it known. In wrath, remember mercy. So Habakkuk's being honest. Some people take verse two, Lord, I have heard the report about you and I fear to be Habakkuk's reverent fear of the Lord. I think that's possible. But in the context, it seems to be Habakkuk being fearful or afraid of the circumstances that the Lord said are going to come. Lord, I've heard the report. I've heard what you said about Judah's destruction and I'm fearful. I think that's the case because if you jump over to verse 16 of this chapter, Habakkuk continues to describe his response to the Lord's report, and he says, I heard, and my inward parts trembled. At the sound, my lips quivered. Decay enters my bones, and in my place I tremble, because I must wait quietly for the day of distress. Habakkuk is, in verse 16, he's describing a physical response of fear. It's like the picture is someone picking up a phone and getting horrible news and their legs giving out and them having to brace themselves on something because their body physically cannot handle the fear, being afraid. And so Habakkuk is saying, this report came to me and I was fearful, I was afraid. My body trembled from the inner parts of my being, my gut, to my lips, to my whole body, I trembled. He's not pretending like he's unaffected by the harm that's about to come on Judah. He's being very honest about the fact that he's afraid. I think there's something instructive in that to us, even if we pause there for a moment. Habakkuk's response assures us that a response of trembling, a response of fear at circumstances is not necessarily a demonstration of a lack of faith. We've seen throughout this book that Habakkuk is trusting the Lord. Even with all of his questions, he's trusting the Lord. And it's one thing to fear and to tremble because of a lack of the trust, of trust in the Lord. But that's not what Habakkuk's doing. He's trembling even though he does trust the Lord. Even though he trusts the Lord's wisdom, he knows that God has called him and Judah to walk a very difficult path. And in the light of what's to come, he's afraid and he trembles. I appreciate what Martin Lloyd-Jones says about this in his commentary on this. He says, to see the truth and understand the doctrines is most important. In other words, to have right thinking is very important. But despite this clear understanding, we may still tremble physically. To do so under certain terrible conditions does not necessarily mean that you have no faith, though the devil will try to persuade you so. If ever you are so tempted, Martin Lloyd-Jones says, remember Habakkuk. If you're ever tempted to think that it's wrong for you to feel a sense of dread at circumstances, remember Habakkuk. His whole body trembled. We might add to that and go even further, if ever you're tempted to think that way, remember Jesus. We're reminded of this Wednesday night in our book studies, but we know that not all sinful fear, not all trembling is sinful. I should say, we know that not all fear is sinful fear, not all trembling is sinful, because we see it in the life of Christ. In the garden of Gethsemane, as he anticipates drinking the cup of his father's wrath, we see a physical manifestation of the real grasp and dread of what is about to take place in Jesus' life. He is sweating as drops of blood. Obviously, at no point did Jesus fail to trust his Father. At no point did he question or doubt his Father's wisdom. But that didn't mean he didn't tremble at the reality of the cup that he was about to drink. So it's helpful for us to see That Christ really did become a man like us. And as a human, he really did experience the same kinds of fears and sadnesses and sorrows that we experience in this life. And by doing that, it helps us avoid the unnecessary self-condemnation, guilt of the times when we are really struggling with the reality of our circumstances. But it also assures us that Jesus knows how to sympathize with us when we feel that way. He felt it. He trembled. He knew what it was like to look at the circumstances God had set before him and to be afraid, and yet not lack any measure of trust in the goodness of his father. But it's also instructive to us to see, not only does Habakkuk express his fear, but the way he responds to his fear is also important. He prays. He takes it to the Lord in prayer. Lord, I've heard the report about you, and I fear, O Lord, revive your work in the midst of the years. In the midst of the years, make it known. In wrath, remember mercy. The word revive there, as it's translated in the NASB, could mean keep alive. It's keep alive your work. Don't let your work die out, is what Habakkuk is saying, which raises the question, what is the work that Habakkuk is praying for the Lord to keep alive? Keep your work alive. Don't let it die out. What's helpful to see, he says, keep your work alive in the midst of the years. If you have an NIV translation, I think it says something like in our own time or in our own days. But literally it's in the midst of the years. Keep your work alive in the midst of the years. And so what are the midst of the years? I think what Habakkuk is talking about is this period of time, these years that will pass, that God has already said are going to be full of trial. In the midst of these difficult years, from the time of God's promise until the time of the fulfillment of that promise, as Babylon comes and destroys Judah and takes them into exile, in these difficult years, Lord, keep your work alive. Specifically, keep your work alive in your people, through your people. And what he seems to be praying is something like, don't let the work that you've begun in your people die out, even when things get incredibly difficult. You've made promises to your people. You've promised to redeem your people. You've promised to bless the world through your people. And so no matter how painful and dark these years might be, Habakkuk is saying, don't let it all come to nothing. Keep your work alive. Make it known. And that leads him to pray at the end of verse two. In wrath, remember mercy. The word wrath there, it's not the typical word that's used for wrath, like God's indignation and the outpouring of his punishment. That's not the normal word. The word there means something like to cause to shake or to cause to tremble. So if you look back at verse 16, it's the same word that's used in that verse where we read tremble. I heard in my inward parts tremble, Again at the end of the verse, or middle of the verse, in my place I tremble, that's the same root word that's used here for wrath. And so the NET translation says, when you cause turmoil, remember to show us mercy. Habakkuk is looking forward, he knows that God is going to cause his people to tremble in their circumstances. He's gonna bring affliction and hardship. He's going to shake his people. And Habakkuk is saying, as you shake your people with affliction, don't forget to show us mercy. And so the idea then is the only way that God will keep his work alive, or I ought to say the only work that God's work will be kept alive in his people is if God keeps it alive. The only way that his work will not come to absolutely nothing in the midst of these difficult years is if God sustains it, if he keeps it alive, if he preserves it. In other words, God's work in his people is dependent upon God's work in his people. God's work depends upon his strength, not ours. And so there's immediate application then to our own lives as we think about that. You and I are not strong enough to endure the trials of life, at least not in a way that honors Christ. We can't suffer faithfully in our own strength. We can't endure in faith. We can't keep trusting God. We can't keep putting our hope in Him according to our own strength. In the midst of the years, you and I would die out, the work of God in us would die out. And so in the midst of your suffering, in the midst of my suffering, in the midst of the years, as long as God might place you in that position, we honestly confess our fears, our tremblings to him, and we humbly request that he sustain us by his mercy, that he keep us and preserve us and protect us. And when we do that, we're reminded again and again from God's word that he delights to do that very thing in the lives of his people. He delights to sustain his people by his mercy through the darkest and difficult seasons of life. Philippians 1.6, Paul writes regarding the Lord's work in their lives. He says, for I am confident of this very thing, that he who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. Hebrews 4, we're reminded, we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with us in our weakness, but one who has been tempted in all things, just as we are, yet without sin. Therefore, let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace so that we might receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Later in Hebrews, the Lord promises, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you, so that we may confidently say, the Lord is my helper. I will not be afraid. Again and again the Lord reminds us he is keeping his people even through the darkest and deepest trials of life. I love the book Pilgrim's Progress. I know a number of you do as well. One of my favorite scenes in that book is when Christian is in the interpreter's house and he takes him to the fireplace and he shows him the fireplace. And there's a wall with a fireplace in it, and there's a flame coming up. But there's also a man with a bucket who is constantly trying to extinguish the fire, dumps more and more water on it. And yet for all of the dumping of water, the fire just gets bigger and bigger and hotter and hotter. And so Christian asks the interpreter and he says, what does this mean? What's going on here? Why is the fire not going out? Why does it keep getting bigger and bigger and hotter and hotter, no matter how much water this man is dumping on it? The interpreter explains to him, the man who's dumping water is Satan. And he's trying to put out the flame of God's grace in the heart of the believer. But then the interpreter took Christian around the back of the wall. And what he couldn't see then, before, but he now sees, is that there's another man behind the fire with a bottle of oil in his hand, dumping more and more oil on the fire. And the interpreter explains to Christian, this is Christ, who continually, with the oil of his grace, maintains the work already begun in the heart. Christ was behind the wall at first where you couldn't see him. And the interpreter explains that this is in order to teach us that it's often hard for us, especially in times of temptation, to see how this work of grace is maintained in the soul. In other words, when you're in the midst of affliction and you feel like everything in you is about to give out, but somehow your faith is preserved, What the interpreter is saying, what you can't see in that very moment, is that Christ at no point has ever stopped sustaining and keeping and fanning aflame the work of his grace in your soul. He is faithful to complete what he's begun in you. And that's our assurance, Christ in his mercy will sustain, he will keep his work alive, even in the midst of the years. J Wilbur Chapman puts it, Well, in the hymn, Jesus, what a friend for sinners. Jesus, what a help in sorrow, while the billows o'er me roll. Even when my heart is breaking, he, my comfort, helps my soul. Hallelujah, what a savior. Hallelujah, what a friend. Saving, helping, keeping, loving, he is with me to the end. Habakkuk would have us sing to remind ourselves, run to the mercy of Christ, in times of dark trial and affliction. Not only run to the mercy of Christ, but then secondly, remember God's work. Look back at what God has done and take courage and confidence in what God will do. So this is verses 3 to 16 now, thinking about looking back at God's past works. And this section of chapter 3 here is a theophany, meaning it's a vision of God. Habakkuk is explaining this graphic vision of the power and magnificence and judgment and deliverance of God. And the point here, as I hope we'll see, is that looking back at God's past work on behalf of His people assures us that we can trust Him in the present and in the future. Looking back at what he's done helps us trust him with what he's doing. So let's walk our way through these verses, hopefully get an idea. Admittedly, we're not going to be able to get into all the details. You'll have plenty of questions still, I'm sure, after we've walked through them. But my goal is to give the main point and emphasis of verses 3 to 16. This is Hebrew poetry, so it can be difficult to follow. Verses 3 to 4. God comes from Timon and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His splendor covers the heavens and the earth is full of His praise. His radiance is like the sunlight. He has rays flashing from His hand and there is the hiding of His power. So the reference here is the glory of God at Mount Sinai. Both Timon and Peron are associated in Deuteronomy with the appearance of God's glory and the giving of the law to Moses on Mount Sinai. The rays flashing from his hand are the lightning bolts that went forth in the giving of the law. The splendor of God in verse 3. is the cloud, the glory cloud that covered the mountains and filled the sky. He's describing here this glorious display of God's power when he condescended to give Moses the law on Mount Sinai. But he says even this, this glorious display of power, at the end of verse four, this is just the hiding of his power. This is just the smallest glimpse of who and what God really is and what he can do. Then verse five, He describes the plagues in Egypt. Before him goes pestilence and plague comes after him. And so as we'll see, all of these are describing events of the Exodus and entrance into Canaan. Habakkuk is looking back specifically at how God powerfully brought his people out of Egypt and brought them into the land of Canaan. And here he's remembering the plagues. Really, the plagues, if you study all of them, are a display of God's dominance over the supposed gods of Egypt. He's saying, our God is infinitely more powerful than the gods of Egypt. And he proved that in bringing his people out of Egypt through the plagues. Verses six and seven, God causes the nations to fear. He stood and surveyed the earth. He looked and startled the nations. Yes, the perpetual mountains were shattered. The ancient hills collapsed. His ways are everlasting. I saw the tents of Kushan under distress. The tent curtains of the land of Midian were trembling. So he stood and surveyed the earth. Probably this is referring to God as he measured out the promised land for his people. He determined he would give this land to his people. He expelled the nations and then he brought in the Israelites. And as he did that, he caused the surrounding nations to tremble with fear. The tent curtains of the land of Midian were trembling, he says. It's similar to The account in Joshua where Rahab tells the Jewish spies, when we heard it, when we heard about all that God was doing for you, our hearts melted and no courage remained in any man any longer because of you. For the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above and on earth below. God, in bringing the Israelites into the promised land, he caused the nations to tremble with dread and fear. And then verses 8 and following begin to describe God as a mighty warrior who takes up his weapons and goes into battle. So verses 8 to 12, we'll read those together. Did the Lord rage against the rivers? Or was your anger against the rivers? Or was your wrath against the sea that you rode on your horses, on your chariots of salvation? Your bow was made bare. The rods of chastisement were sworn. You cleaved the earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and quaked. The downpour of waters swept by. The deep uttered its voice and lifted up its hands. By the way, that's probably referring to the Red Sea, if you think about it. The deep lifted up its hands. The Red Sea was divided and the two sides of water became like lifted hands so that the Israelites could pass through. The deep uttered its voice, it lifted up its hands, verse 11, sun and moon stood in their places, probably referring to the account in Joshua 10 of God stopping the sun to give his people victory. Sun and moon stood in their places, they went away at the light of your arrows, at the radiance of your gleaming spear. In indignation you marched through the earth, in anger you trampled the nations. So there's a lot there, but the idea is basically God demonstrated incredible power as he brought the Israelites into the promised land. He demonstrated his power over creation. He split the Red Sea. He split the Jordan. He turned the Nile into blood. He brought water from a rock. He has power over creation. He has power over the nations. He came like a warrior. He devastated the nations. He trampled on them in his wrath and in his fury, the sinful nations of Canaan. Habakkuk is looking back and he's saying, our God has proven his absolute power in the past. But not only has he proven his absolute power, in verse 13, he proves that it was all for the salvation of his people. Verse 13, you went forth for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You struck the head of the house of the evil to lay him open from thigh to neck. In other words, Habakkuk is saying, the Lord will move heaven and earth, and he will conquer every enemy in his determination to save his people." We've seen it happen, Habakkuk says, in the events of Exodus. Through judgment upon the nations, God delivered his people. He goes on to explain that Verses 14 to 15, you pierced with his own spears the head of his throngs. They stormed in to scatter us. Their exultation was like those who devour the oppressed in secret. You trampled on the sea with your horses on the surge of many waters. Lord, you conquered the nations in the days of our fathers. You destroyed all of our enemies with incredible displays of your power. You brought in your people. You established them in the promised land. You did all that you did in order to deliver and save your people, Habakkuk is saying. Through judgment on the nations, God brought salvation to his people. So let's pull back then and ask, why is Habakkuk explaining all of that? What place does this have in the immediate context of Habakkuk? Habakkuk's looking back at God's victory through the Exodus and the conquest of Canaan. What does that have to do with what Habakkuk is experiencing in Habakkuk 3? If you remember, God has promised that he's going to destroy Babylon. But it's going to be a while until he does it. And the destruction of Babylon, the judgment of Babylon would be in some measure deliverance for Judah. And so the idea here is that as Habakkuk waits for and anticipates the future judgment of Babylon, he can trust that God will do it because he can look back on a previous judgment by which he brought deliverance. He can look back at God's conquest of the land of Canaan and be certain that God will do the same thing again, just as he's promised when he brings judgment on the Babylonians. And so we can make a similar application to ourselves this morning. Habakkuk is saying, because of what God has done by judging the nations in order to save his people, we can trust that he'll do it again, bring deliverance to his people. And so also we can say, because God has judged his son, because God has demonstrated his power and his wrath in the punishment of Christ, we can look forward to ultimate deliverance. Really, what Habakkuk is explaining in these verses is essentially the Old Testament version of Romans 8. If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him over for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things? If through this past act of God, God did not spare his own son, but delivered him and judged him in our place, can we not trust that God will move mountains, move all of creation, move all of his providence in the direction of our good? Everything God does, either on the global scale or the level of our personal experience, he does for the ultimate deliverance, purity, and eternal blessing of his people. That's what Habakkuk is looking at as he considers God's past works and anticipates his future works. Matthew Henry explains it like this. He says, all the powers of nature are shaken, and the course of nature changed, and everything seems to be thrown into disorder, and all is for the salvation of God's people. There are people in the world who are God's people, and their salvation is that which he has in his eye in all the operations of his providence. God's providence, as we've seen, is often mysterious. It might seem like he has thrown everything into utter disorder and chaos. We've seen there'll be plenty of perplexity in the Christian life. We won't understand all that God is doing, but the lesson that Habakkuk would have us learn through this song is that what God has already done for us in Christ is our assurance that he is for us in whatever he does now and will do in the future. That confidence of the certainty that because he has delivered us, he will also bring us good no matter what comes to pass. It's the confidence that fuels our faith in the most difficult and perplexing trials of life. And so we look back to what God has done in the past. It gives us confidence to trust him in the present. And then the last thing Habakkuk would have us see in this song, beginning in verse 16, running through the end of the chapter, is that in times of trial and dark providences, we ought to remember the sufficiency of God and rejoice in the sufficiency of God. Verses 16 to 19, I heard and my inward parts trembled. At the sound my lips quiver, decay enters my bones, and in my place I tremble because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, for the people to arise who will invade us. Another way to translate that would be for distress to come upon the people who will invade us, either way. Though the fig tree should not blossom and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olives should fail and the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold and there be no cattle in the stalls, yet I will exalt in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength and he has made my feet like hinds feet and makes me walk on my high places. Opalma Robertson says that this is the most beautiful spirit of submission found anywhere in scripture. Habakkuk is describing in verse 17 utter destruction. We might read this and think that some luxuries are going to be lacking or some of the comforts in Judah might be missing, but what Habakkuk is describing in verse 17 is absolute, utter destruction. He's describing a situation in which there is no provision even for the most basic necessities of life. Even if the fruit of the vine is gone, The weed of the field is gone. The meat of the herds is gone. Even if we have nothing, if our hands are absolutely empty of all worldly comforts, he says, even if that's the case. He says, I have everything I need to rejoice. He has the comfort and the assurance of a faithful God who has covenanted his love to him. Yet I will exalt in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. In verse 19, he says, the Lord God is my strength and he has made my feet like hinds feet. He makes me walk on my high places. So I'm sure we've all seen something like this on a National Geographic film or elsewhere, a deer or an ibex walking way up on the side of a cliff, hundreds of feet above the ground, and just walking on the very smallest little cleft or little ledge as they trek along the side of this cliff. And if we were to look up at that deer or ibex, we would think it looks like at any moment he'll come tumbling down the side of the cliff. And yet it doesn't. It just walks gracefully along and doesn't fall, keeps its footing. Habakkuk is saying, that's how the Lord makes us in times of suffering. Even in the difficult places of life, he makes us walk securely in the high and dangerous places. We can walk through the darkest, most difficult trials of life with steady confidence in the faithful covenant love of God. Because it's unchanging, is what Habakkuk is saying. Pastor H.B. Charles, Jr. tells the story of another pastor named Lloyd Douglas. He's also an author. And while Lloyd Douglas was in college, he lived in a boarding house. And on the first floor of this boarding house, there was an older man who was now home-ridden and in a wheelchair. And every morning, as Lloyd Douglas would come down the steps before he left the house, he would tap on this man's door and poke his head in. And he would ask the question, well, what's the good news? What good news do you have today? And the old man would pull out his tuning fork. And he would strike the side of his wheelchair. And then, with a sense of delight, he would say, that is Middle C. It was Middle C yesterday. It'll be middle C tomorrow, it will be middle C a thousand years from now. The tenor upstairs sings flat, the piano across the hall is out of tune, but my friend, that is middle C. Habakkuk is saying in these verses, God is our middle C. No matter the shifting shadows of life, no matter the produce of the fields, the plenty in our homes, or the scarcity, God is our middle C. He rules, he directs and governs our lives, and he does it with perfect, unchanging, loving kindness and goodness. Many of us know the 16th century reformer John Calvin for his rich theological writings. Probably less well known to us is the fact that John Calvin was also a man of severe suffering. Much of his life as a reformer was spent fleeing persecution and undergoing severe criticism and betrayal. He suffered constantly from chronic illnesses. He was always in pain and in weakness throughout much of his life. He and his wife, Idelette, lost all of their children, either in miscarriage or in infancy. His enemies even looked at that, at the loss of all of his children, and publicly pronounced that it was God's curse on John Calvin. That's why he lost his children. Idelet, his wife, died at a young age after only nine years of marriage with John Calvin. He never remarried. Calvin's own body continued to deteriorate until he passed away at a young age when he was 54. And so we read Calvin's theological writings and they are rich and yet it's important to recognize they were forged in the furnace of trial and affliction. But throughout his suffering, Calvin demonstrated the kind of steadfast resolve to trust the goodness of God that Habakkuk talks about here. When he was on his deathbed, his friend Theodore Beza was there with him, and he overheard Calvin pray as he was dying. And Calvin prayed, thou, O Lord, bruisest me, but it is enough for me to know that it is thy hand. Thou, O Lord, bruisest me, but it is enough to know that it is thy hand." Habakkuk is teaching us what it looks like to trust the good hand of God when we can't see it. He is teaching us exactly what the Lord says in Habakkuk 2, verse 4, the righteous will live by his faith. Every believer will go through seasons in which providence seems to be against them. They cannot see any evidence in their immediate situation that God is good or for them. And Tobaccyk is teaching us to say, though that be the case, though everything in life seem to be against me, yet the Lord is my middle C, he is unchanging, he is faithful, and it is enough for me to know that it is thy hand. So in conclusion, as we finish up this book, if we've benefited from it and seen the pattern that it provides for us of trusting the Lord in difficult times, even though our faith is weak at times, even though we might tremble and shake at the circumstances in which God has placed us, it is possible for you, if you are in Christ, to say, yet I will exult in the Lord. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. If you are not in Christ, then no matter whether all the world seems to be for you, the one thing that matters is that God is presently against you. And you might say, my barns are full and my life is full and God has given me all that I could ever desire. And yet if you are not in Christ, God is not for you, he is against you in his wrath and his judgment. And yet he invites you and he commands you to come and experience the kind of goodness that Habakkuk is describing here. To be able to say even when all of those good things of life leave you, which they certainly will, every good thing you experience now will be gone soon. And even when all of those good things that you experience now are gone, if you can embrace Christ with faith And you'll be able to say, it is well with my soul in all of circumstances. And so we do that by resting in God's mercy, Habakkuk teaches us in this song. We look back at all that God has done for us in the past, especially in Christ, and it strengthens our hope in the present. And we remember that he is enough, and it is enough for us to know that it is God's hand which guides our lives. In just a moment, we're going to finish by singing the song, Whatever My God Ordains is Right, which I think sums up the teaching of Habakkuk very well. Whatever my God ordains is right, his holy will abideth. I will be still whatever he does and follow where he guideth. He is my God, though dark my road. He holds me that I shall not fall. And so to him, I leave it all. And so to him, I leave it all. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you that though we cannot always see things clearly, though we're often confused and perplexed by life, we thank you that you are not a God of confusion. but of faithfulness and truth. We thank you that you've made yourself known to us in your word, that you've given us every reason to trust you. You've provided us with all of the evidence that we need to trust you. And so we pray that you would strengthen our confidence in you, that we might experience the triumphant faith that Habakkuk sings about in these verses. We confess our weakness and we confess our need for your mercy. Sustain us and keep us and strengthen us, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.