The Savior of Singers

Dr. Alan Dunn

Habakkuk 3:16-19

Habakkuk’s circumstances could hardly be direr. He is an eye-witness to some of history’s most barbaric violence and cruelty. Habakkuk’s existential crisis is so extreme, so deep and expansive, that I’m embarrassed even to attempt to speak of it with my pancake-souled shallow superficiality. Yet, he draws me to him. I’m amazed at how contemporary, how relevant are the words of this ancient prophet-priest. I try to appreciate his anguished struggle with what theologians call “theodicy”: the questions of how God can be righteous in the face of blatant evil and pervasive suffering. The Lord’s answers to Habakkuk’s angst-ridden questions call us to submissive faith in the One who sits enthroned in heaven’s holy temple, the One who has come, is here, and is about to come in judgment, the One who will save His people and purge this entire cosmos with the fire of His holiness.[1]

Give serious thought to where Habakkuk takes us at the end of his brief three-chapter prophecy. He aligns our perspective with the Lord’s transcendent ultimacy. He presses the ears of our hearts against the lips of God. He thrusts the arms of our prayers around the waist of our Redeemer, urging us to cling to Him for dear life, for eternal life, for resurrection life. He inscribes words of truth taken up by the Holy Spirit and repeated in our New Covenant epoch of redemptive history: the righteous will live by his faith. So it has ever been. So it is. So it will always be. The righteous will live by his faith. For Habakkuk and Habakkuk’s Lord, that faith is not a convenient sentiment. It is a conquering, overcoming, fighting, victorious faith because it is faith in the Overcomer, the resurrected, ascended, enthroned Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him. That is where Habakkuk takes us at the end of his brief three-chapter prophecy: into the holy temple of the living Lord.

His final chapter, which prophetically presents the return of our Lord as the Warrior God of salvation and judgment, is a highly stylized hymn written for corporate worship for the choir director, on my stringed instruments [Hab 3:19].

Habakkuk Encourages Us to Persevere in Corporate Worship [Continued]

The Septuagint, the Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, alters this final sentence. Habakkuk 3:19 in the Septuagint reads: The Lord God is my strength, and He has made my feet like hind’s feet, and brings me to completion on my high places that I may conquer in His song. To be brought to completion is to be brought to an end, the goal spoken of in Habakkuk 2:3. Here is the expectation of having a part in the Lord’s ultimate victory, which we celebrate in advance in our corporate worship. Although the phrase that I may conquer in His song is likely an editorial addition, it still offers some edifying instruction. The term conquer is used, significantly, by Paul in Romans 8:37, But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. Conquer is translated as overcome in Revelation, where the motif of overcoming is so prevalent.

Habakkuk’s prophecy ends. His faith has displaced his fears. What he saw about him horrified him. Yet what he heard in prophetic vision gave him hope. By faith, he has received the Word of God as the sufficient answer to his conscientious questions. He remained in covenantal fidelity to YHWH, his covenant-keeping God whom he loved. Now faith, hope, love, abide these three [1 Cor 13;13a]. With a fresh sight of the Lord’s exalted sovereignty in His holy temple, Habakkuk and his fellow-worshipers were able to pivot from wrestling by faith to worshiping by faith. Their situation had not changed. Habakkuk yet lived in the day of distress, and Jerusalem was still under invasion [Hab 3:16]. Habakkuk was still affected by the effects of the invasion. Judah’s economy was devastated [Hab 3:17], and Habakkuk was likewise profoundly personally affected [3:16]. He knew what he had heard, and he trembled and quivered and felt the pain brought on by his circumstances as decay in his bones. But we need to note where he resided: in my place [3:16], and what he resolved: I will exalt in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation [3:18].

At the end of Habakkuk, the scene before us is still one of invasion with its accompanying mayhem and horror. But a distinct sound is heard amidst the cacophony of chaos – singing! Where? In the temple. The voices of the Lord’s believing people are singing the taunt-songs celebrating the triumph of YWHW’s judicial righteousness and the hymn of His ultimate victory. In wrath, He remembers mercy. The salvation of His own is certain. The composers of the Septuagint would tell us that the believing, worshiping remnant conquer in His song, that they are victorious as they uphold the worship of God. We triumph as we worship, for the Lord dwells with us, and He is our strength, our refuge, and shield. As we, His people, wait quietly with Him, He dwells among us, and our worship is accepted in His holy temple. He is with us, protecting, providing, and guiding us on toward His appointed goal, to the glory of resurrection Sabbath rest. As we sing His song, we conquer through Him who loves us.

Really? This is what Habakkuk would have us do! “Habakkuk! Look! Violence and injustice!” Habakkuk knows about violence and injustice. He now also knows that the Lord, the Holy One, is sovereign. The Lord is already working, and we will yet see the earth filled with His glory at His appointed time. Habakkuk does not deny the temporal reality of violence and injustice; instead, he tells us to live in terms of the eternal, transcendent reality revealed by the Word of God. He urges us to stay connected to the Lord of glory by making worship life’s foremost commitment. Habakkuk tells us to be found in the temple, giving a priestly sacrifice of praise, receiving the inscripturated Word of God, praying, and singing. Keep a kingdom perspective. See the Lord enthroned in His holy temple. Be silent. Listen and hear His word. Believe. Pray. Worship in exuberant song. Even while we tremble and our lips quiver and we ache with bone-deep pain, we must wait quietly and sing. While enemies surround us and economies recede and surge, while society swirls and kingdoms rise and fall, while God’s people cry out with anguished questions of conscience and issues of substantive concern press upon us – sing? You will conquer in His song. Really? What were the Septuagint translators thinking? Sing?

It could be that they were thinking of the occasion, some 250 years before Habakkuk when the Lord saved His singing people. King Jehoshaphat was one of Judah’s good kings. He implemented reform and restored the Levites to their place and function in the temple, teaching the Word of God and conducting His worship. God blessed his reign, but war came. I invite you to read 2 Chronicles 20:1-30. The news comes of an impending invasion by the combined armies of three enemy nations. Jehoshaphat was afraid and turned his attention to the Lord, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah [v.3]. The people assembled to him at the house of the Lord, and he led them in prayer. He extolled the supremacy of YHWH and recalled the Exodus as evidence of the Lord’s faithfulness to promises made to Abraham. He asserted confidence in the Lord’s commitment to the honor of His name bound up with the temple and His promises to rescue His people. Jehoshaphat pointed to the enemy armies set to attack them. He acknowledged Judah’s impotence and ignorance and cast himself on the Lord. O our God, will You not judge them? For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on You [v.12]. Jehoshaphat prayed this prayer of desperation publically in the hearing of all Judah with their wives and children. The Spirit then moved Jahaziel, a prophet, to speak and assure the people that the Lord would fight for them, and they need not fear. In response to the word of the Lord, Jehoshaphat, and all the people bowed and worshiped the Lord.

Early the next day, they began their journey to the encampment of their enemies, as instructed. As they started their journey, Jehoshaphat stimulated their faith. Listen to me, O Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, put your trust in the LORD your God, and you will be established. Put your trust in His prophets and succeed [v.20]. The journey to the battlefield was a parade of song. Jehoshaphat placed the Levites at the head of the throng, and they began to sing of the covenant faithfulness of YHWH. We are instructed by verse 22. When they began singing and praising, the LORD set ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; so they were routed. The people sang, and the Lord fought their battle. He plunged the three armies into confusion so that they mutually destroyed each other. When Judah came to the site, all they saw were corpses lying on the ground, and no one had escaped [v24]. It took the next three days for them to gather up the booty. They returned to Jerusalem, having named that place “The Valley of Blessing.” As you may have come to expect, they came to Jerusalem with harps, lyres, and trumpets to the house of the LORD [v.28]. The Lord not only defeated their enemies on this occasion, but the dread of God was on all the kingdoms of the lands when they heard that the LORD had fought against the enemies of Israel.So the kingdom of Jehoshaphat was at peace, for his God gave him rest on all sides (2 Chr 20:29-30].

Do you believe that the Lord did this for the praying Jehoshaphat and the singing Judah? Do you believe that the Lord defends and delivers His worshiping people? Do you believe that the best place for us to be is in our place, waiting quietly, worshiping, even when we are surrounded by violence and injustice? I ask, “Do you believe?” because the righteous man will live by his faith. How? Wait quietly in submission, security, and Sabbath refreshment, offering sacrifices of spiritual worship based on the all-sufficient propitiating sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Let us march through the wilderness of this present age, overcoming and conquering as we uphold the worship the Lord, who is with us, enabling us to conquer in His song. Brethren, our worship is received by the Lord in His transcendent, holy temple. Christ is with us in the presence and ministry of His Spirit. Christ is coming for us as our triumphant Warrior God to save us and destroy all opposition. We have His Word. Read and run. Pray and persevere, for the righteous shall live and conquer by faith.

[1] Your personal reading of Habakkuk as you consider the content of this article will bring additional benefit. Habakkuk and other Scriptures are frequently referenced using italicized words.

First article: Lord! Look! Violence and Injustice!

Second article: Read and Run

Third article: The Silent Serenity of Sovereignty

Fourth article: The Righteous Shall Live By Faith

Fifth article: Wait Quietly

The following books by Dr. Alan J. Dunn are available at Trinity Book Service and Cristianismo Histórico: