THE BOOK OF HABAKKUK
LESSON 3: CHAPTER 3
PART II: HABAKKUK'S PSALM (3:1-19)
Yahweh
judges the nations. Judge me, Yahweh, as my uprightness and my integrity
deserve. Put an end to the malice of the wicked, make the upright stand firm,
you who discern hearts and minds, God the upright.
Psalm 7:8-9
HABAKKUK'S PRAYER OF PRAISE (3:1-15)
Habakkuk 3:1-2 ~ Title and Preface
1 A prayer of the prophet (tone as for dirges). 2 Yahweh, I have heard of your renown;
your work, Yahweh, inspires me with dread. Make it live again in our time, make
it known in our time; in wrath remember mercy.
There are two musical instructions in the final poem: one at the beginning (3:1) and another at the end of the psalm (3:19), and three marked "pauses." There is an editorial verse (verse 1) and a short preface (verse 2). The direction in the inscription may, as in other psalms, indicate that the prayer belongs to a collection of liturgical psalms. In a prayer of praise, Habakkuk offers a psalm celebrating God's final triumph. The musical instructions that begin and end the book suggest its use liturgically and indicate that Habakkuk was a member of the liturgical service, perhaps a Levite, and a leading member of the Liturgical Choir.
Habakkuk 3:3-7 ~ Prayer and Theophany: Yahweh Approaches
3 Eloah comes from Teman, (Selah = Pause) and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His Majesty covers the heavens, and his glory fills the earth. 4 His brightness is like the day, rays flash from his hands, that is where his power lies hidden. 5 Pestilence goes before him, and Plague follows close behind. 6 When he stands up, he makes the earth tremble, with his glance, he makes the nations quake. And the eternal mountains are dislodged, the everlasting hills sink down, his pathway from of old. 7 I saw the tents of Cushan in trouble, the tent-curtains of Midian shuddering.
Like many psalms, Habakkuk's prayer combines supplication with a hymn, extolling Yahweh's omnipotence. The Hebrew word Selah, meaning "Pause" (verses 3, 9, and 13; cf. Psalm 3), and the final note for verse 19 (for the choirmaster; on stringed instruments) show that these instructions were probably used in the Jerusalem Temple liturgy, and may identify Habakkuk as a Levitical minister in the Temple choir.
2 Yahweh, I have heard of your renown; your work, Yahweh, inspires me with dread.
Make it live again in our time, make it known in our time; in wrath remember mercy.
Habakkuk refers to Yahweh's great acts in Creation, during Israel's Exodus experience,
and the conquest of the Promised Land (cf. Deuteronomy 11:7; Judges 2:7;
Ps 44:1-8; 77:11-12; 95:9).
He pleads with Yahweh to make those great acts of mercy for Israel happen again
"in our time" and to remember to act with compassion and mercy in delivering
His just wrath.
3 Eloah comes from Teman, (Selah = Pause) and the Holy One from Mount Paran. His
Majesty covers the heavens, and his glory fills the earth.
Eloah and El are ancient designations for "God" (or god) singular, along with Elohim,
"God" plural, suggesting the Trinitarian nature of Yahweh before Jesus revealed
it. Eloah appears about fifty times in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament,
with about forty of those in the Book of Job (see Strong's Hebrew Dictionary #
433).
5 Pestilence goes before him, and Plague follows close behind.
Verse 5 recalls God's work in the Egyptian plagues in Exodus 7:14-13:16 and His victory
over Israel's enemies in 15:14-18.
Temna refers to a northern district of Edom, and Paran, a mountain in Edom. Midian is northwest of Arabia (the home of Moses's wife, Zipporah), while Cush probably refers to Upper Nubia. Notice the "pause" instruction in the middle of the verse, suggesting a pause in singing before beginning to describe the theophany of Yahweh's glorious and victorious coming in battle in verses 4-15 to save His people (cf. Exodus 19:16 describing the theophany on Mount Sinai). "Tents" in verse 7 identify the Midianites and Cushites as nomadic peoples. The Israelite Judges Othniel and Gideon conquered those peoples (Judges 3:9-11; 7:1-25).
Habakkuk 3:8-15 ~ Yahweh's Glorious Battle
8 Yahweh, are you enraged with the rivers, are you angry with the sea, that you
should mount your chargers, your rescuing chariots? 9 You uncover your bow and
give the string its fill of arrows. (Selah = Pause). 10 You trench the soil
with torrents: the mountains see you and tremble, great floods sweep by, the
abyss roars aloud, lifting high its waves. 11 Sun and moon stay inside their
dwellings, they flee at the light of your arrows, at the flash of your lightning-spear.
12 In rage, you stride across the land; in anger, you trample nations. 13 You marched
to save your people, to save your anointed one; you wounded the head of the
house of the wicked, laid bare the foundation to the rock. (Selah = Pause). 14 With
your shafts, you pierced the leader of his warriors who stormed out with shouts
of joy to scatter us, as if they meant to devour some poor wretch in their
lair. 15 With your horses, you trample through the sea, through the surging
abyss!
These verses continue with the theme of Yahweh, the warrior king, defending His people in battle. This poem, dated by many scholars to the early monarchy, depicts Yahweh as a Divine Warrior going into battle to protect His covenant people (verse 12). Yahweh drives His (chariot) horses to victory against the cosmic foes, Sea and River. The verb for "driving" is rkb and is used here for driving a chariot and its horses (or a cloud by analogy). Like the king in Psalm 45, God also shoots his bow from His chariot (3:11). The same images and identical phrases also appear in Psalm 77:18 (verse 19 in the Hebrew text), where Yahweh, mounted on His celestial chariot, fires His arrows (verse 17/18 in the Hebrew), and treads upon the sea.
The sun and moon standing still in verse 11 recalls God's miracle aiding Joshua and the Israelites in their battle against the Amorites (Joshua 10:10-15). The trampling of the sea in verse 15 recalls the parting of the Red Sea so the Israelites could escape the advancing Egyptians (Exodus 14:15-31). Yahweh did all these things to save His people and make them masters of the Promised Land. However, none of these historical references are as great a testimony as the manifestation of God, the mighty warrior king, who shapes human history and is the sovereign Lord of the cosmos.
When St. Bede commented on this psalm was in awe at the greatness of God that would later be seen in the incarnation of His son, perhaps a reference to the ultimate "anointed one" in verse 13 (Expositio in canticum Abacuc prophetae), and St. Augustine quoted this passage to describe man's sense of the awesomeness of the cosmos and the work of God: "If we try to comprehend everything that is, to contemplate it in one panoramic glance, what the prophet foretold will befall us too: thy work, O Lord, do I fear" (Enarrationes in Psalmos, 118, 27, 1).
HABAKKUK RENEWS HIS FAITH IN GOD (3:16-19)
Habakkuk 3:16-19 ~ Conclusion: Human Fear and Faith in God
16 When I heard, I trembled to the core; my lips quivered at the sound; my bones
became disjointed, and my legs gave way beneath me. Calmly I await the day of
anguish which is dawning on the people now attacking us. 17 For the fig tree is
not to blossom, nor will the vines bear fruit, the olive crop will disappoint,
and the fields will yield no food; the sheep will vanish from the fold; no
cattle in the stalls. 18 But I shall rejoice in Yahweh, I shall exult in God my
Savior. 19 Yahweh my Lord is my strength; he will make my feet as light as a
doe's, and set my steps on the heights. For the choirmaster, on stringed instruments.
Verse 16 mentions Habakkuk's fearfulness in waiting for God's judgment to fall upon his people, delivered by the Babylonians as God's instrument of divine judgment. In verse 17, he laments what is coming for his people and their land: God's blessing of fruitfulness in the land for a faithful covenant people will disappear.
Then, in verses 18-19, Habakkuk's lament changes to praise for Yahweh's power and the salvation He will bring to a repentant and restored Israel. Like Job, whose loyalty to Yahweh remained unshaken despite trials, Habakkuk, despite his human fear, remained faithful and trusting in God's works to redeem His covenant people. The Virgin Mary will recall Habakkuk 3:18 in Luke 1:47, in her great prayer of thanksgiving, the Magnificat, saying, My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior."
The true believer never gives up on God. He joyfully continues to the "high places" (verse 19), trusting in God's divine plan for his life and the lives of the redeemed. St. Josemaria Escriva wrote: "This certainty which the faith gives enables us to look at everything in a new light. And everything, while remaining exactly the same, becomes different because it is an expression of God's love. Our life is turned into a continuous prayer, we find ourselves with good humor and a peace which never ends, and everything we do is an act of thanksgiving running through all our day" (Christ Is Passing By, 144).
Commenting on this passage, Saint Jerome also wrote: "Every man, and all the testimony of the prophets, affirms that God, who fills all things with his glory, is all-powerful: His glory covered the heavens ... We know that God exists; we know too what is not God; but we cannot know who God is, nor how he is God. But because God is kind and merciful, he has revealed something of himself to us through his many deeds and gifts" (St Jerome, Commentarii in Isaiam, 6, 1-7).
Every true believer clings to the knowledge of the goodness of God and His promise of forgiveness and restoration. He assured us: If, however, from there (the point of lost fellowship) you start searching once more for Yahweh, your God, and if you search for him honestly and sincerely, you will find him. You will suffer everything I have said will befall you, but in the final days, you will return to Yahweh your God and listen to his voice. For Yahweh your God is a merciful God and will not desert or destroy you or forget the covenant which he made on oath with your ancestors (Deuteronomy 4:29-31). Those promises remain for the Old Covenant people of God and continue with His New Covenant adopted sons and daughters, who claim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
Question for discussion or reflection:
Have you ever felt discouraged and doubted God when facing suffering and tragedy in
your life or when learning about the loss of the lives of the innocent? Have
you asked why a merciful and loving God would allow such injustice and evil to occur?
Habakkuk asked those questions, but ultimately, he put his faith and trust in
God even though he didn't understand. St. James wrote: Never, when you are
being put to the test, say, "God is tempting me; God cannot be tempted by evil,
and he does not put anybody to the test. Everyone is put to the test by being
attracted and seduced by that person's own wrong desire (James 1:13-14).
Since God wants us to do what is right, He gives us the freedom to decide between right and wrong behavior and to love and obey Him or to be rebellious and choose to sin CCC 1731-38). That is why Pope Francis has suggested that our English translation of the Lord's Prayer is in error. Instead of saying, "And lead me not into temptation," we should say, "And do not allow me to enter into temptation," or "And let me not yield to temptation," because it is against the nature of our righteous God to tempt someone to sin (see CCC 2846).
But when some members of the human family choose to commit unspeakably evil acts, like the massacre of innocent Jewish men, women, and children during the German holocaust of WW II, God accepted the sacrifice of those innocent lives, took that evil, and turned it into a good. He raised up righteous warriors to defeat the Germans. He used that tragedy to fulfill His promise made by His prophets to bring the covenant people of Israel, scattered among the Gentile nations, back to the Promised Land (Isaiah 66:18; Jeremiah 29:14; 32:37; Ezekiel 20:34, 41; 36:24; etc.). In 1947, the United Nations recreated two nations: the state of Jordan for the Arab Muslims and the much smaller nation of Israel, which had ceased to exist after the Assyrian conquest in 722 BC. Jews from across the earth returned to their sacred ancient homeland to form the renewed state of Israel, and they have been fighting to survive ever since. Israel is the only Jewish nation in the world and the only democracy in the Middle East, while there are 50 Muslim-dominated nations.
So, trust God, the Supreme and Righteous Judge, to ultimately settle accounts against the wicked and to uphold the cause of the righteous. Remember, there is life beyond this earthly existence: eternal bliss in God's heavenly kingdom in the company of saints and angels or eternal judgment visited upon the wicked in the Hell of the damned. The choice of your final destination is entirely yours.
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