Habakkuk
3
PSALM OR PRAYER OF HABAKKUK. (vs. 1-19)
1 “A
prayer of Habakkuk the prophet upon Shigionoth.”
The title. A prayer. There is only one
formal prayer in the
ode,
that in v. 2; but the term is used of any devotional composition; and,
indeed, the whole poem may be regarded as the development of the
precatory sentences in the proemium (see
the inscriptions in Psalm 17.; 86.;
90.; 102.; 142.; and the last
verse of Psalm 72., the subscription of Book
II.). (For other hymns in the prophetical books, see Isaiah
24, and 35.;
Ezekiel 19.; Jonah 2.; Micah 6:6,
etc.; and as parallel to this ode, compare
Deuteronomy 33:2, etc.; Judges 5:4, etc.; Psalm 68:7, etc.;
77:13-20; 114.;
Isaiah 63:11-14.) Of Habakkuk the prophet. The name and title of
the author
are
prefixed to show that this is no mere private effusion, but an outpouring of
prophecy under Divine inspiration.
Upon Shigionoth (compare title of Psalm 7.);
Septuagint, μετὰ ᾠδῆς
– meta odaes – with song - Vulgate, pro ignorantiis.
For this latter rendering Jerome had etymological
ground, but did not sufficiently
consider the use of shiggayon in Psalm 7.,
where it indicates the style of poetry,
nor,
as Keil shows, the fact that all the headings of Psalms introduced, as the
present, with al, refer either to the melody, or accompaniment, or style in which
they were to be sung. The Revised Version gives, “set to Shigionoth;” and the
expression is best explained to mean, in an impassioned or triumphal
strain, with
rapid change of emotion, a dithy rambic song — a description which admirably
suits this ode.
Prayer and Praise.
(v. 1)
This chapter records the remarkable “prayer” or “Code” of
Habakkuk. The
superscription contained in the first verse and a cursory glance at the
chapter as thus described may be found suggestive of important
teachings
respecting the sacred
exercises of prayer and praise. Note:
Ø
We do well to
solicit present blessings. “In
the midst of the years make
known” (v. 2); i.e.
he sought the Divine manifestation in mercy to be
granted to his people in his own day.
Ø
We should recount
God’s goodness in the past. The prayer
abounds in
reminiscences of God’s favor as bestowed upon His chosen in
the days
of yore.
Ø
The comprehensive
nature of prayer. This prayer of
Habakkuk contains
o
petition;
o
adoration;
o
devout
contemplation of God in His character and works;
o
review of His
providential doings; and,
o
pervading the whole, the spirit of
confiding and joyous trust.
Ø
The desirability of
employing in this exercise the devout compositions of
God’s servants in past ages, which have been preserved, in His
Word.
Ø
The
appropriateness of the language of prayer as the medium of
expressing praise to God. “The prayers of
David the son of Jesse”
(Psalm
72:20) are contained and expressed in his Psalms. “The prayer
of Habakkuk” is
also “an ode” set to music, and used at his suggestion
in the liturgical services of the temple.
Ø
The importance of
cultivating correct musical expression in the
presentation of the sacrifice of praise to God. The tones should be in
harmony with the character of the thoughts and sentiments of
the words
being sung. This is probably the meaning of the expression, “upon
Shigionoth’ (v.
1), ‘al shigyonoth meaning “in wandering
measures,” the
tones to be varied according to the character of the
thoughts and words.
The
term “Selah,”
used by him (vs. 3, 9,13), and the direction, “To
the
chief singer on my stringed instruments,” with which he closes his book,
also indicate the carefulness in execution the prophet would
have
exercised. All true worship
to God must proceed from humble and
trusting hearts, and be presented “in spirit and in truth,” and this
is
perfectly compatible with regard for all that is cultured and
artistic in
method. Our motto should be, “The
best for the Lord.”
2 “O LORD,
I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD,
revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the
midst of the years
make known; in wrath remember mercy.” 2. The proemium, in which the
prophet expresses his fear at the coming judgment, and prays God in
His wrath to
remember mercy. Thy speech; or, the report of thee; the declaration made by God
in
the preceding
chapters concerning the punishment of the Jews and the destruction
of
the Chaldeans. The Septuagint, regarding the
ambiguity of the Hebrew, gives
a
double rendering, εἰσακήκοα τὴν
ἀκοήν σου – eisakaekoa taen akoaen sou
- I heard
thy report and κατενόησα τὰ ἕργα σου – katenoaesa ta erga sou
- I considered thy
works. Pusey
considers that both meanings are intended, viz. both what
God had lately declared, and all that might be heard of
God, His greatness
and
His workings. Was
afraid. The revelation of God’s interposition
makes the prophet tremble. Revive thy work. God’s work is the twofold
judgment spoken of above; and the prophet prays God to “quicken”
and
make it live, because, though it brings temporary distress upon his
countrymen, it will also cause the destruction of their enemies, and
reestablish
the
Jews and crown them with salvation, and make the glory of
God known to all the earth. Dr. Briggs (‘Messianic Prophecy,’ p. 234)
translates, “Jahveh, I have heard the report of thee; I fear, Jahveh,
thy
work. In the midst of the years revive him (
“work” to be His acts in theophany
— His judgment, especially as in v.16,
the cause of fear to the psalmist. In the midst of the years. The
“years” are the period between the announcement of the judgment
and its
final accomplishment (ch.2:3); the prophet prays that God
would manifest His
power, not merely at the extreme limit of this epoch, but
earlier, sooner. This
overthrow of the world power forms, as it were, the central
point of history, the
beginning of a new age which shall culminate in the
Messianic kingdom.
Make known. Let all the earth
know and acknowledge thy work. The Septuagint
gives two or more versions of this passage, one of which is
remarkable. Thus they
read, “In the midst
of two animals (δύο ζώων – duo zoon) thou shalt be known;
when the years draw nigh
thou shalt be well known; when the time is come
thou
shalt be revealed.” The
rendering, “two animals,” arises from a confusion of words
but many of the
Fathers, who were conversant with the Greek Scriptures, saw herein
a reference to the incarnation of our blessed Lord, as
lying in the stable at
of Isaiah 1:3, “The
ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master’s
crib.” Others interpreted the two animals of the two thieves
between whom
Christ was crucified; or of angels and men; or Jews and
Gentiles; or the
two Testaments; or Moses and Elias. Others again accented
the word
ζώων so as to understand “two lives,” the present and the
future, in the
midst of which the Judge shall appear; or the life of
Christ before His death
and after His resurrection. There is a great truth
underlying most of these
interpretations, namely, that this magnificent
hymn is concerned with the
victories of Christ and his Church. In wrath remember mercy. When thine
anger is displayed by sending the Chaldeans
against us, remember thy
mercy, and make a speedy end of our misery, and mitigate
our enemies’
cruelty (compare ch. 1:13; and
vs. 9,13,18-19 of this chapter). The Septuagint
gives a double version, “In the troubling of my soul, in
wrath, thou wilt remember
mercy.”
The Prayer of an Alarmed Prophet. (v. 2)
Ø
Its cause. The report of Jehovah; i.e. the communication
received from
Jehovah
concerning the punishment of
of God’s voice (Genesis 3:10; Exodus 3:6), at the thought of
His
presence (Job 23:15), at the manifestation of His power
(Psalm 65:8),
at the contemplation of His judgments (Psalm 119:120). Nor
will
they who hear the fame of His doings in the past or the
announcement
of His “judgments to come,” as both of
these are unfolded in Scripture,
fail to be similarly affected. Like the Canaanites before
the advance of
Joshua
and his host, their hearts will melt in them for fear (Joshua 2:11).
What
excited terror in the breast of Habakkuk was the prospect Jehovah’s
“report” opened up before him! Though a pious man and
a prophet, he
was at the same time a philanthropist and a patriot, who
could not
contemplate without a shudder the decimation of his people
or the
desolation of his country; and neither can the Christian
anticipate without
apprehension those chastisements that are promised to
himself for
correction of his backslidings, and to the Church for her
recovery from
doctrinal aberration or spiritual declension. It may be
better to fall into
God’s
hands, because His mercies are great, than to fall into those of
man (II Samuel 24:14); but in any case it is a fearful thing to fall for
judgment into the hands of the living God (Hebrews 10:31). Again,
the fierce whirlwind of retribution, which in the end should
throw
down the eagle’s nest of Chaldean
pride and blow up the crackling
flames in which its palaces and temples were to be
destroyed, raised
within him awe-inspiring conceptions of the omnipotence of
Jehovah
which made him tremble, even though the downfall of
meant the deliverance of
of the ungodly will be to the saints a cause of rejoicing
(Revelation
18:20),
it will also inspire them with a solemn awe of the
Divine
holiness and justice, majesty and power.
Ø
Its cure. Prayer. Different
from Adam, who, having heard God’s voice,
ran from God, Habakkuk, in his alarm, betook himself to God.
Hiding
from God, the custom of sinners; hiding in God,
the comfort of saints
(Psalm
143:9). Suitable for all times (Ephesians 6:18; Philippians 4:6;
I
Thessalonians 5:17), prayer is specially appropriate for bad times
(Psalm
50:15). In addition to the promise that God will be a Refuge for
the oppressed, a Refuge in times of trouble (Psalm 9:9), and
to the fact
that good men in all ages have found him so (Psalm 48:3;
91:2;
Jeremiah 16:19), the practice of pouring one’s fears (Psalm
34:4) as
well as
complaints (Psalm 142:2) and requests (Philippians 4:6) into
the ear of God seems justified by this, that He who by His
judgment
causes, is by His wisdom and mercy best able to remove
alarms.
Ø
Its fervor. Intimated
by the repetition of the term “Jehovah,” and by the
three short sentences of which the prayer is composed. Souls
laboring
under strong emotion commonly express themselves in brief
and broken
ejaculations, rather than in long and polished periods.
Ø
Its tenor. A threefold petition.
o
For the
acceleration of Jehovah’s work. “O
Lord, revive thy work
in the midst of
the years.” The work referred to was
the
purification of
salvation of
It
was thus a picture of God’s work in all ages — the deliverance
of the individual believer and of the Church in general,
first through the afflictions and trials of life from the
moral
defilement of sin; and second, through the overthrow (by
Christ’s
cross and rule) of the enemies of both from the legal and
spiritual bondage of sin. The prophet craved that Jehovah
might
not defer the completion of
the time which had been appointed for this purpose, but that
He
might cause His work to live (not suffer it to go to sleep,
but quicken and revive it), no that it might be finished in
the
midst of the years, and
brought about long before the stipulated period had arrived.
Thus
his prayer was one the believer might offer for himself,
that God would perfect that which concerned him
(Psalm
138:8), would carry on His work of grace within him
(Philippians
1:6), making all things work together for his good
(Romans
8:28), causing tribulation to work in him patience, etc.
(Romans
5:3), and afflictions to yield him the peaceable fruits of
righteousness (Hebrews 12:11), as well as to work out for him
a
far more exceeding, even an eternal weight of glory (II
Corinthians
4:17);
and would crown that work by completely effecting his
deliverance from the curse and power of sin, from the terror
of
death, the darkness of the grave, the misery of hell. It was
also a
petition which the Church might present for herself, that
she
might be purified, extended, completed, glorified, net after
long
waiting, but soon, in the middle of the years. “Even
so, come [quickly], Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).
Ø
For the
manifestation of Jehovah’s glory. “In
the midst of the years
make it known.”
Make it known, the prophet meant, that the work of
punishing and purifying
so shall it comfort
deliverance of
so again shall
believer and the Church may also ask that God’s work in dealing
with
them should be manifest, not to themselves merely, but to
the world
at large. This would both sustain them and impress the
world. Until
affliction is seen to be God’s work, it does little good to
the soul; till
the world perceives that God is in the Church, it will not
cease to
persecute and hinder the Church.
Ø
For the
dispensation of Jehovah’s mercy. Habakkuk’s
plea was not
merit. He knew well that what he asked could not be granted
on the
score of justice.
“‘Tis from the mercy of our God
That all our hopes begin.”
1. That God’s voice should excite alarm even in the hearts
of good men is
no mean proof of
the fallen state of mankind generally.
2. It is a good sign
of grace when an alarmed soul betakes itself to God.
3. The pre-eminence which belongs to redemption over all the
other works
of God.
4. The only power that can awaken dead souls or revive
unspiritual and
decadent Churches
is God.
5. The chief hope of
man lies in the mercy of Heaven, not in the goodness
of himself.
Prayer
for Revival (v. 2)
The revival of God’s work stands intimately connected with prayer. The
Holy Spirit is the Author of all true quickening of the
Divine life in the
souls of men, and his renewing and sanctifying influences are secured in
response to earnest supplication (Ezekiel 36:37; Malachi 3:10;
Acts 1:14; 2:1). Observe:
APPREHENSION OF THE STATE OF THE
AGE, AND THE CHURCH
IN THE AGE, IN
WHICH IT IS OFFERED. The language
of the prophet
in the former part of his prophecy indicates the possession
by him of an
insight into the character and needs both of the Hebrew
nation and Church
in his day; and this acquaintance prepared his mind and
heart for pleading
so earnestly for a revival of God’s work Our own age and the
state of
religion in it claims our thoughtful regard. Reflection upon
it will show the
imperative need there is for the possession of a higher
measure of
spirituality, consecration, Christian intelligence and
courage, and will
impel the utterance of the earnest cry, “O Lord, revive thy work”
(v. 2).
CONCERN IN VIEW OF THE EVIL
CONSEQUENCES RESULTING
FROM THE
PREVAILING DEGENERACY. “O Lord,” cried
the
prophet, “I have heard thy speech, and I was afraid.”
Jehovah had spoken
unto him in vision, unfolding the terrible judgments which
should overtake
his people in consequence of their apostasy, and this vision
of coming
Divine
chastisement filled him with terror; and with the real concern of a
true patriot in view of the
disastrous issue to which, through the prevailing
iniquity, the national interests were tending, he implored
Divine
interposition and help (“O Lord, revive,” etc.). The Christian patriot in our
own land has reason for anxious solicitude as he views the
present in its
relation to the future. He knows that there is danger lest the temporal
prosperity enjoyed in
this age should result in the cherishing of
pride, in
conformity to the world, and in apathy in holy service; and
lest the
intellectual activity prevailing
should lead to the weakening of
conviction,
the cherishing of doubt, and resulting in complete indifference in relation
to
spiritual realities. All
this occasions him serious concern, which is
intensified as he beholds multitudes in whom these dire
effects have been
already wrought; and in this spirit of solicitude he is led to the throne of
grace, and to cry with impassioned earnestness, “O Lord, revive thy work.”
SECURING OF
SPIRITUAL RESULTS. “In
wrath remember mercy”
(v. 2). The seer knew by revelation that his nation, owing
to its
sinfulness, should be overtaken by judgment, and should fall
into the power
of the Chaldeans; and in his
prayer he
did not ask for the reversal of this.
Divine wrath must follow
transgression, but he prayed that in the
midst of
this God would “remember mercy,” in other words, that He
would so
interpose as to sanctify
the dark experiences looming in the future, drawing
his erring people nearer to himself, so that they might
trustfully pass
through the painful discipline in store for them, and
come out of it at length
purified as gold. And so ever
true prayer for revival seeks the spiritual
renewal of men; it
solicits the manifestation of the Divine
mercy in
delivering the plants of His own planting from the blighting effects
of sin,
and in causing them to abound in all holy excellence and
grace.
present blessing. “In the midst of the years, in the midst of
the years make
known” (v. 2); i.e.
without lingering, without postponement, forthwith,
in the seer’s own time. “How long, O Lord, how long?” “Thy kingdom
come;” “It is time for thee to work.”
Vs. 3-15 - §
3. The prophet or the congregation
depicts in a majestic
theophany the coming of God to judge the
world, and its effect
symbolically on material nature,
and properly on evil men.
3 “God
came from Teman, and the Holy One from
His glory covered the heavens, and the
earth was full of His praise.”
In this episode Habakkuk takes his imagery from the
accounts
of God’s dealings with His people in old time, in
Sinai, at the
and the psalmist; and he looks on all these mighty deeds as
anticipative of
God’s great work, the overthrow of all that opposes and the
establishment
of the
are connected with Moses’ description of the Lord’s
appearance at Sinai
(Deuteronomy 33:2; compare Judges 5:4). As He then came in glory
to make a covenant with His people, SO WILL HE APPEAR AGAIN in majesty
to deliver them from the power of evil and to execute
judgment. The verbs
throughout are best rendered in the present. The prophet
takes his stand in
time preceding the action of the verb, and hence uses the
future tense, thus
also showing that he is prophesying of a great event to come, symbolized
by these earlier manifestations. Habakkuk here and in ch. 1:11
uses the word Eloah, which
is not found in Jeremiah, Ezekiel, or the other
minor prophets; it occurs once in Isaiah, twice in
Deuteronomy, and
frequently in Job. There is no ground for the contention
that its
employment belongs to the latest stage of Hebrew. Teman; i.e.
Vulgate, ab Austro (see
notes on Amos 1:12 and Obadiah 1:9). In
Moses’ song the Lord is said to come from Sinai. Habakkuk
omits Sinai,
which was the emblem of the Law, and points to another
Lawgiver, like unto Moses, telling how He who spake the Law, God.
should come in the likeness of man. The Holy One. A name of
God
(ch. 1:12), implying that He will
not let iniquity pass unpunished,
and that He will preserve the holy seed. Mount Paran. The
mountainous
district on the northeast of the
represented as flashing on the two hilly regions separated
by the Arabah.
They both lay south of
redeemer and deliverer appearing in the south, as the Chaldean invader
comes from the north. The Septuagint adds two translations of the word
“Pharan,” viz. “shady,” “rough;”
according to its etymology it might also
mean “lovely.” Selah; Septuagint, διάψαλμα – diapsalma - This
term occurs
also in vs. 9, 13, and frequently in the Psalms, but
nowhere else, and indicates
some change in the music when the ode was sung in the
temple service.
What is the exact change is a matter of great uncertainty.
Some take it to
indicate “a pause;” others, connecting it with salah,
“to lift up,” render it
“elevation,” and suppose it means the raising of the voice,
or the
strengthening of the accompaniment, as by the blast of
trumpets. The
meaning must be left undetermined, though it must be added
that it is
always found at the end of a verse or hemistich, where
there is a pause or
break in the thought, or, as some say, some strongly
accented words occur.
His glory covered
the heavens. His majestic brightness spread over the
heavens, dimming the gleam of sun and stars; or it may mean
his boundless
majesty fills the highest heavens and encompasses its
inhabitants. His
praise. This is
usually explained to signify that the earth and all that dwell
therein, at this glorious manifestation, utter their
praise. But there is no
allusion as yet to the manner in which the appearance is
received, and in
v. 6 it produces fear and trembling; so it is best to take “praise” in the
sense of “matter of praise,” that glory “which was calculated to call forth
universal adoration/
4 “And His
brightness was as the light; He had horns coming out of His
hand: and there was the hiding of His
power.” His brightness was
as the light;
brightness appeareth like light, The sunlight is meant, as Job 31:26; 37:21; Isaiah 18:4.
He had horns coming out of His hand; i.e. rays of light on
either side. The
comparison of the first rays of light to the horns of the
gazelle is common in
Arabic poetry (compare Exodus 34:29-30). In the original
passage, Deuteronomy 33:2,
we read, “At his
right hand was a fiery Law unto them” — a reference to the two
tables of stone, perhaps
resplendent with light. The “hand”
in our text is a general
expression, and is
not to be taken with any special reference to lightning launched
by the hand
(which is not a scriptural expression), nor to works effected by God’s
agency, but simply as signifying that the light of His presence streamed
forth from both sides, i.e. EVERYWHERE! There was the hiding of His
power. There, in that ineffable light, was the hiding place of His
majesty.
He clothes Himself with light as with a garment (Psalm
104:2), and the
splendor is the mantle of that presence which eye of man
cannot behold
(Exodus 24:17; I Timothy 6:16). Farrar quotes Psalm 18:11,
“He made darkness
his secret place;” and
“Dark
with excess of light his skirts appear.”
Septuagint, ἔθετο ἀγάπησιν κραταιὰν
ἰσχύος αὐτοῦ - etheto agapaesin krataian
ischuus autou – where His power is hidden - which rendering has arisen from
taking the adverb sham as a verb (sam), and mistaking the meaning of the
following
word.
The Divine
Concealments. (v. 4)
“The hiding of His power.”
OPERATIONS OF OUR GOD WE ARE MET BY
THE DIVINE
CONCEALMENTS. He is a God “that hideth
Himself” (Isaiah 45:15);
“He doeth great things past finding out, yea, and wonders
without
number!” (Job
9:10); “He giveth no account of any of His matters”
(Job
33:13); “He maketh darkness His secret place”
(Psalm 18:11);
“How
unsearchable are His ways past finding out!” ” (Romans
11:33).
Ø
We realize this as we think of His Being and perfections. “Who by
searching canst find out God?” (Job 11:7). He is
veiled to us by the
very covering of His splendor. “Who coverest
thyself with light as
as with a garment.”
etc. (Psalm 104:2).
Ø
And we also realize
this as we think of His working. Mystery meets
us in every department of His operations. The scientist and
the
theologian alike become baffled in their researches, the
former
having to admit his partial failure as he strives to
penetrate the
mystery of the universe, and the latter being perplexed at
the
seeming inequality of God’s ways in the providential
government of the world, and feeling himself enclosed as
with
a veil when he ventures to inquire into the high themes of
revelation.
“There
is the hiding of His power.” Notice:
GREAT FACT.
Ø
There is that which is
pursued by the skeptic. He reasons — God
cannot be known; therefore all thought
on the part of man concerning
Him is needless and vain; all worship
of Him is folly; all structures
reared by His servants to His honor
mean waste; His very existence
is but a possibility. Here we have THE
OLD ATHEISM, banishing
God from His universe; the old atheism, only arrayed in a newer and
more subtle
guise!
Ø
There is, however, “a
more excellent way.” Though our God is
infinitely beyond our poor stretch of thought, yet He may be
known
by us. Beyond the comprehension of human reason He is
nevertheless
present to faith, and deigns to reveal Himself to the pure
and loving
heart. (“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
shall see God.”
Matthew
5:8) And we do
well to remember this, and to repose the
trust of our hearts in Him, and then to set ourselves to
inquire whether,
after all, the partial obscurity of the Divine nature and
operations may
not be wisely and graciously as well as necessarily
designed. And
pursuing this course, such quieting thoughts as the
following, bearing
upon the Divine concealments, will be suggested to us.
o
That our personal well
being is advanced by this partial
concealment which characterizes our God. It would not be
well for us to have complete knowledge of Him or His
purposes and plans, since then there would be no
room for the exercise of faith, patience, resignation; life
would cease to be a time of discipline; and there would be
no
scope for trial and no stimulus to earnest and thoughtful
inquiry.
o
That these Divine Concealments,
whilst they are for our good,
also contribute to the advancement of the Divine glory. “It
is
the glory of God
to conceal a thing” (Proverbs 25:2).
It is in
this way that He
makes His power felt; that He indicates His
superiority to man and His independence of him (Isaiah
40:13-14).
o
That whilst much is
thus concealed, everything
essential to man’s
salvation is clearly unfolded.
HIDDEN WAYS AND REVEALS HIMSELF AND
HIS
OPERATIONS MORE FULLY
TO THE VIEW.
Ø
It has been so in
reference to the sacred Scriptures. During the lapse of
ages God gradually drew back the veil, revealing more of His
will than
had been unfolded before.
Ø
It has been so in the
working out of the purpose of redeeming mercy.
In
the cross of Christ there was expressed the power as well as the
wisdom of God (I Corinthians 1:24); but there was the hiding
of this
Divine power. The
spectators of the scene at
weakness, and the cross was suggestive
to them of shame and reproach
and dishonor; BUT THE POWER WAS THERE,
although hidden,
which soon began to
be felt, one of the criminals crucified at the side
of the Saviour being the first to
experience it. The macerated
body of the Redeemer was taken down from the cross, and laid
in the
sepulcher hewn out of the rock; and again there was the
hiding of God’s
power, and it seemed as though death had conquered; but with
the dawn
of the first day of the week this power became revealed — the mighty
Victor
rose, despite seal and guard, the earnest and pledge of the
ULTIMATE
RESURRECTION OF ALL HIS SAINTS!
Ø
And it has been so in
human experience. In the dark days of sorrow
there has been realized “the hiding of God’s power;” but
there has
followed the revelation of His loving purpose and the making
clear
to troubled hearts that in all “His banner over them was love.”
(Song
of Solomon 2:4) (I highly recommend The Cedarmont
Kids
– His Banner over Me is Love – CY – 2015 -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=uxgw6pbW59E - And this shall
be made still more manifest hereafter, for the eternal day shall
break, and the shadows flee away forever!
5 “Before
Him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at His feet.”
After describing the splendor of the theophany,
the prophet
now turns to the purpose and effects of God’s appearing. He
comes to
avenge and judge, therefore before him went the pestilence. Before Him
stalks plague, to punish His enemies and the disobedient,
as in
Canaan (Exodus 23:27; I Samuel 5:9, 11); and among His own
people (Numbers 11:33; 14:37, etc.; Leviticus 26:25). For“pestilence”
the Septuagint reads “word.” Burning coals went forth at His
feet.
“Fiery bolts” followed His advance, “hailstones
and coals of fire” (Psalm
18:12-13); as in Psalm 97:3, “A fire goeth
before Him, and burneth up
His enemies on
every side.” But, regarding the
parallelisms of the
hemistiches, it is better to take resheph
in the sense of “fever heat,” as in
Deuteronomy 32:24; scorching fever follows in His train.
Jerome
translates the word, diabolus,
looking on the evil spirit as the agent of the
Divine vengeance. The Jews, he says, had a tradition that
Satan was called
Reseph, from the speed of
his movements. The Septuagint has, “It (the word)
shall go forth into the plains,” which Jerome interprets,
“shall make the
crooked straight and the rough ways smooth.”
An Ideal Theophany:
1. The Onward March of the Deity. (vs.
3-5)
Ø
God, or Eloah, the Strong or
Powerful One. A name for the Supreme
used for the first time by Moses (Deuteronomy 32:15) to
portray God
as the Creator of Israel, and employed by Habakkuk to
designate God
as the Lord and Governor of the whole world. Omnipotence is
an
essential attribute of Divinity (Genesis 17:1; Joshua 4:24;
I Chronicles
29:12;
Job 36:5; 42:2; Psalm 62:11); the impotence of heathen idols
was the best proof that they were no gods (Isaiah 45:20;
Jeremiah 2:28).
Ø
The Holy One. An appellation given to God at least three times in the
Psalter
(Psalm 71:2; 78:41; 89:18), twice in Jeremiah (Jeremiah
50:29;
51:5), once in Ezekiel (Ezekiel 39:7), once in Hosea (Hosea
11:9),
twice in Habakkuk (ch. 1:12; 3:3), and occurring
frequently in
Isaiah. Equally with strength is purity an indispensable
quality
in the Supreme; and this no less than that in an infinite
measure and
degree. An unholy God
could not be all-powerful, all-wise, all-just,
or all-good. Holiness
is the guarantee and guardian of the other attributes
of His nature. Least of all could an unholy God be either a Saviour or a
Judge of men.
Ø
Its extent. All-pervading, irradiating the entire universe, covering
the
heavens and spreading over the earth (Ezekiel 43:2), What is
here
declared of the material or symbolic presence of Deity is
true of His real,
though unseen, presence (Psalm 8:1; 19:1; Isaiah 6:3).
Ø
Its brightness.
Resembling the light, i.e. the sun,
to which Scripture
likens God Himself (Psalm 84:11), and Christ (Malachi 4:2;
John 9:5), who is God’s Image (II Corinthians 4:4), the Brightness
of His Father’s glory, and
the express Image of His Person
(Hebrews
1:3).
In exact accordance with the prophet’s thought, God is
represented
as covering Himself with light as with a garment (Psalm
104:2), and as
dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto (I
Timothy 6:16);
while Christ is ever set
forth as the highest expression of the
uncreated glory of the Supreme (John 1:14).
Ø
Its manifestation. Emitting rays or
shooting forth beams on all sides,
like the rising sun, an emblem suggestive of the partial and gradual,
though universal, manner in which the Divine glory unveils
itself
to intelligent spectators on earth (Job 26:14).
Ø
Its power. Emanating from His hand, like rays darting forth from the
sun’s disc, or like horns shooting out from the head of a
gazelle.
The
allusion may have been to the lightnings which
flashed forth
from the cloud upon
thought is that one principal aspect of God’s glory is the exhibition of
power which He furnishes to men in the material creation
(Isaiah 40:26, 28), in the phenomena of nature (Job 36:22,
etc.), and
in the scheme of grace (I Corinthians 1:24).
Ø
Its essence. Hidden, unsearchable, unfathomable, the above-mentioned
coruscations of His glory being not so much unveilments as concealments
of His ineffable Personality, not so much exhibitions as
hidings of His
power. That which may be known of God from the outshinings of His
glory is the fact, not the fullness, of His power and
Godhead, The
grand truth symbolized by the cloudy pillar infolding brightness, viz.
that
(Isaiah
45:15), was in the Incarnation exemplified and emphasized
(compare John 1:14 with 7:27), and is receiving confirmation
by
every advance the human mind makes in knowledge (Job 11:7-9;
26:9;
37:23; Psalm 145:3; 147:5; Isaiah 40:28; Romans 11:33).
Agnoscticism is a witness to the truth here stated.
Ø
The quarter whence He comes. Teman
and Paran, i.e. the country south
of
Sinai (see Exposition). Separated only by the Wady-el-Arabah, the two
localities were intended to indicate the Sinaitic
region as the spot whence
this sublime theophany of the
future should proceed. In so defining its
starting point, the prophet probably wished to suggest a
variety of
thoughts, as e.g. that the future glorious
manifestation of Jehovah was
rendered possible, and even probable, by what had in the
past occurred at
Sinai;
that it would proceed in the line of that earlier theophany,
and be a
carrying out of the Divine policy therein revealed a policy of mercy and
judgment, of salvation and destruction; and that in it,
as in the ancient
Apocalypse,
both the power and the holiness of God would be
SIGNALLY
DISPLAYED! True of the Divine advent
in the overthrow
of
fullness of the times, and will
be conspicuous in the final advent at the
close of human history.
Ø
The purpose for which He comes. To execute judgment
upon the
ungodly world (Jude 1:15), and so to effect the deliverance
of His
people. This was to be the object of His interposition in
the overthrow
of
end aimed at in the first coming of the Saviour,
the redemption of
His
Church by the annihilation of her foes; this will be the purpose
of HIS APPEARING at the
end of the world, to complete the
REDEMPTION
OF HIS PEOPLE by
completing the punishment
of the ungodly. (II Thessalonians 1:7-9)
Ø
The attendants by whom He is served. Pestilence in front,
and fiery
bolts in the rear, signifying that God will
be accompanied with
sufficient
instruments to effect his purpose. DEATH and
DESTRUCTION
of all sorts are
a great
army at His command.
1. The certainty of
a future manifestation of Jehovah in the Person of the
glorified Christ.
6 “He
stood, and measured the earth: He beheld, and drove asunder
the nations; and the everlasting mountains
were scattered, the
perpetual hills did bow: His ways are
everlasting.”
He stood, and
measured the earth. God takes His stand, and
surveys the earth which He
is visiting in judgment. As His glory
filled the
heavens, so now He with His presence paces the earth,
measuring it, as it
were, with His foot. He considers, too, all the doings of
the children of
men, and requites them accordingly. Vulgate, Stetit, et mensus est terram.
So the Syriac. On the other hand,
the Septuagint gives, Αστη καὶ
ἐσαλέυθη ἡ
γῆ
-
Astae kai esaleuthae hae gae - The earth stood and quaked. Thus the Chaldee,
and many modem commentators, “rocketh
the earth.” This rendering seems to
anticipate what follows, and is not so suitable as the
other, though it is quite
admissible. Drove
asunder. Dispersed and scattered. Septuagint, διετάκη ἔθνη –
dietakae ethen - nations
melted away. Others translate, “made to tremble”
(Exodus 15:15, etc.). The everlasting mountains. Mountains that
have lasted as long as creation, and are emblems of stability and
permanence
(Deuteronomy 33:15). Were scattered;
or, were shattered
(compare Micah 1:4; Nahum 1:5). His ways are everlasting. This is
best taken alone, not as connected grammatically with the
preceding
clause, and epexegetical of the
“hills and mountains,” which are called
God’s “ways,” i.e. His chief creative acts, as Job
40:19; Proverbs 8:22;
but it means that, AS
GOD ACTED OF OLD, SO HE ACTS NOW!;
“The ancient ways of acting are His” (Proverbs 31:27). The
eternal,
unchangeable purpose and operation of God are contrasted with the
disruption of “the everlasting hills.” The Greek and Latin Versions connect
the words with what precedes.Septuagint,
Ἐτάκησαν βουνοὶ
αἰώνιοι πορείας
αἰωνίας, - Etakaesan bounoi aionisis poreias – The everlasting
hills melted at
His everlasting
goings -Vulgate, Incurvati
sunt colles mundi ab itineribus
aeternitatis ejus, where the idea seems to be that the high places of the earth
are God’s paths when He visits the world.
7 “I saw
the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains
of the land
of Midian did
tremble.” As God moves in His majesty the various
nations are
struck with fear, as of old were the peoples that heard of
the Exodus (see Exodus
15:14-16). I saw. In prophetic vision (I Kings 22:17). The tents of Cushan;
Septuagint - σκηνώματα Αἰθίοτων
– skaenomata Aithioton - the tents of
the
Ethiopians; Vulgate, tentoria AEthiopiae. “Cushan” is not Chushan-Rishathaim,
the Mesopotamian
king mentioned in Judges 3., but is a lengthened form of
Here the African country is meant, lying along the west
coast of the Red
Sea. In
affliction. Panic-stricken. The prophet particularizes what he had
said above generally of the nations hostile to the people
of God. The
curtains; the tent curtains;
Vulgate, pelles. Both “tents” and
“curtains” are
used by metonymy for their inhabitants. Midian. The country on the Gulf
of Akaba, the eastern arm of the
as
God is supposed to advance from the south.
An Ideal Theophany:
2. The Wonderful Acts of the Deity. (vs. 6-7)
NATIONS.
Ø
Measuring the earth; i.e. either surveying it with His all-seeing glance
whereat there is universal consternation, or measuring it
out among the
peoples on its surface, as Joshua partitioned the
its conquest among the tribes. Both ideas are historically
true, no
Divine
interposition of any magnitude occurring among earth’s
inhabitants without bringing with it to thoughtful minds a
conviction
that the hand and eye of God are at work, and leaving after
it, as a
result, a rearrangement of the map of the globe. The
marginal reading,
“shaking the
earth,” causing it to reel, as David says it trembled on the
occasion of Jehovah’s coming down on
presents also a valuable truth that the Divine providential
government
of the world, especially when it takes to deal with long established
iniquity for the purpose of punishing and destroying the
same, is
calculated to inspire awe among earth’s inhabitants (Psalm
99:1),
as it did when it broke the pride of
to do when it overthrew the Chaldean
power, and as it will do when
it hurls the mystical
thought contained in the parallel clause.
Ø
Driving asunder the nations. “He beheld and
drove asunder [or, ‘made
to tremble’] the nations.” He so paralyzed them
with fear that He drove
them asunder, rendering combination amongst them impossible.
Not the
lesser heights of comparatively recent formation, but the primeval
altitudes, whose hoary peaks have witnessed the passing by
of millenniums,
and whose roots go down amid the granite bars of the earth
(Psalm 90:2).
These by
His encampment on their summits He causes to crumble,
resolve themselves into dust, and vanish into naught (Nahum
1:5;
Micah 1:4). The image may point to the convulsions on
and to the earthquake which announced the descent of the
Most High,
but it signifies the utter impossibility of even the
strongest forces of nature,
whether in matter or in man, resisting the advance of God,
and that because
His ways
are older than even the everlasting hills (Psalm 90:2) are the only things
on earth to which everlastingness belongs. “The everlasting
ways of the everlasting
God are mercy and truth” (St. Bernard).
ADVERSARIES OF HIS
PEOPLE. In prophetic vision Habakkuk
beheld the impression made upon the neighboring nations through which
Jehovah
passed on His march from Teman to the
African Ethiopians
on the west“in affliction;” and the Midianites towards the
east, “trembling.” A different interpretation makes Cushan the Mesopotamian
king, Chushan-Rishathaim, who oppressed
Judges
(Judges 3:8-10), and Midian the last enemy who
seduced
when on the borders
of the promised land (Numbers 25:17), and came up
against them
after they had settled in it (Judges 6:4-11). In this case the
prophet selects the judgments executed upon these — upon the
first by
Othniel, upon the second by Gideon — as typical of the
inflictions that
would fall upon Jehovah’s enemies at His future coming.
1. The sovereignty of God over men and kings.
2. The duty and wisdom of recognizing God’s hand in the
movements of
nations and in
the phenomena of nature.
3. The impossibility of defeating the ultimate realization
of God’s purposes,
whether of
judgment or of mercy.
8 “Was the
LORD displeased against the rivers? was thine anger
against the rivers? was thy wrath against
the sea, that thou didst
ride upon thine
horses and thy chariots of salvation?”
Interrupting his description of the theophany,
the prophet asks
the motive of this wrathful revelation. This is done, not
with expectation of
an answer, but giving life and vigor to the composition.
Such sudden
transitions are not uncommon (compare Judges 5:12; Psalm
78:19,
etc.). Was the
Lord displeased against the rivers? Was it against the
rivers, O Jehovah? was thy wrath kindled against the
rivers? Was God
angry with inanimate nature, when He showed His power, for
instance, in
the Nile and the
He showed His supremacy over all creation, and His will to
save His people
and to crush all opposition to the execution of His great
design (see
Psalm 106:9; 114:3, etc.). That thou didst ride upon thine horses.
The prophet speaks of the Lord as a Leader of a mighty host
which came
with chariots and horses to defend the Israelites and to
crush their foes
(compare Psalm 18:10). And thy chariots of salvation. “And,” which is
not in the Hebrew, is better omitted, the clause being an
explanation of
“thine horses.” The chariots come for the salvation, i.e. the deliverance,
of
Septuagint, καὶ ἡ ἱππασία σου σωτηρία
– kai hae ippasia sou
sotaeria –
on your chariots of salvation
- and Vulgate, et quadrigae
tuae salvatio. It comes to the same thing, whichever rendering we adopt.
An Ideal Theophany:
3. The Terrible Wrath of the Deity. (v. 8)
“a warlike hero equipped for conflict,” depicts Him as
marching forth
against His enemies, and throwing all nature (especially its
rivers and seas,
emblems of the earth’s populations) into consternation, and
inquires of Him
what had been the cause of His vehement displeasure. The
form of the
question suggests that Jehovah’s anger had not been directed
against
inanimate nature, but that the commotions visible in the
rivers and the seas
were only symbols of His
wrath against men.
Ø
The destruction of His enemies. Of these the rivers
and seas were
merely emblems (v. 14).
Ø
The salvation of His people. Jehovah’s horses and
chariots were horses
and chariots of salvation (v. 13). “The end of God’s armies,
His
visitations and judgments, is the salvation of His elect,
even while
they who are inwardly dead perish outwardly also” (Pusey).
Ø
The vindication of His own honor. His bow had been (and
was to be)
made quite bare, i.e. drawn from its scabbard in
fulfillment of the oaths
He
had given to the tribes — first to Abraham, then to Isaac, next to
Jacob,
and afterwards to David — that He would deliver them from
the hand of their enemies (Luke 1:73-75); or, accepting the
marginal
translation, because “sworn were the chastisements
[literally, ‘rods’]
of His word,” i.e. because the threatenings He had uttered against His
people’s enemies (Deuteronomy 32:40-42) were as sure as the
promises
of deliverance bestowed upon his people themselves.
1. That the wrath of God is as much a reality as the love of
God is.
2. That the destruction of God’s enemies is as sure as is
the salvation of His
friends.
3. That in both God will be glorified.
9 “Thy bow
was made quite naked, according to the oaths of the
tribes, even thy word. Selah. Thou didst
cleave the earth with rivers.”
The prophet continues his description of the Lord as “a man of
war” (Exodus
15:3). Thy bow was made quite naked.
The sheath of
the bow was laid aside to make it ready for use. In the
Assyrian
monuments the bow case forms part of the quiver, and holds
only the
lower half of the bow (Rawlinson,
‘Anc. Mon.,’ 2:55, edit. 1864). It was
fastened to the side of the chariot or carried at the back
of the archer. (For
the general sense, compare Deuteronomy 32:40-42; Psalm
45:5-7) In
the Revelation (Revelation 6:2) He that sits on the white
horse has a
bow. According to
the oaths of the tribes, even thy word; i.e. thou
doest all this to confirm the promises of deliverance and
salvation made to
the tribes of
corrupt, and cannot be explained with any certainty. The
Revised Version
gives,” The oaths to the tribes were a sure word;” in the
margin, “Sworn
were the chastisements (Hebrew, ‘rods’) of thy word.” Thus
Dr. Briggs:
“Sworn are the rods of thy word.” Orelli
translates,” Oaths, rods of the
word,” and explains the clause to mean that the Lord comes to execute the
denounced punishment, which proceeds from his mouth like
chastising
rods. The word mattoth is translated “tribes” (as in II
Chronicles 5:2) or
“rods.” Keil contends for the
latter, as instruments of chastisement,
rendering,” Rods are sworn by word” Henderson, taking the
words as a
military signal, curiously translates, “‘Sevens of spears’
was the word.”
Pusey supports the Authorized Version, which, indeed. gives a
good sense,
and is probably correct It is virtually supported by
Jerome, who has,
“Suscitans suscitabis
arcum tuum, juramenta tribubus quae locutus es,”
“Thou wilt awaken the oaths,” which,
so long as the evil prospered,
seemed to be forgotten and sleeping. The Septuagint omits
the word rendered
“oaths,” and translates mattoth,
σκῆπτρα – skaeptra - thus: Ἐντείνων ἐνέτεινας
τόξον σου ἐπὶ σκῆπτρα
λέγει Κύριος
– Enteinon eneteinas toxon sou epi
skaeptra
legei Kurios – Thou didst surely
bend thy bow
against sceptres.”
Selah. A pause
ensues before the introduction of a new series of natural phenomena, accompanying
the Lord’s epiphany (see on v.
3). The next clause would be more fitly joined with
v. 10. Thou didst cleave the earth with (or, into) rivers. This refers to some
catastrophe like that which happened at the Flood, when “the fountains of
the great deep were broken up” (Genesis 7:11; compare Psalm 77:16). Others
think that the allusion is to the miracles at the
in the wilderness, as in Psalm 74.; 78.; 105. But though
the prophet glances at
such particular circumstances, his scope is more general.
10 “The
mountains saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the
water passed by: the deep uttered his
voice, and lifted up his hands
on high.”
The mountains saw thee, and they trembled; literally, were
in pain, Septuagint, ὠδινήσουσι.
- The words point to the phenomena of
an earthquake, as Sinai shook at the presence of the Lord
(Exodus 19:18;
Psalm 114:6). So Virgil, ‘AEn.,’
6:256 —
“Sub pedibus mugire solum, et juga coepta moveri
Silvarum… Adventante des.”
For “mountains,” the Septuagint reads, “peoples” The overflowing of the
water passed by; the talent of water passed along. Cataracts of
rain fell,
as in the Deluge. “The windows on high are open, and the
foundations of
the earth do
shake” (Isaiah 24:18). Those who confine
the reference to
past events see here an intimation of the passage of the
Jordan (Joshua
3:15-16). The deep
uttered his voice. The mass of waters in the ocean
and under the earth rears mightily as it bursts forth
(Genesis 49:25;
Deuteronomy 33:13). His hands. Its waves (Psalm 98:8).
Septuagint, ὕψος φαντασίας
αὐτῆς – hupsos phantasiaqs autaes
–
the height of its
form.
11 “The
sun and moon stood still in their habitation: at the light of
thine arrows they went, and at the shining of
thy glittering spear.”
The sun and moon stood still in their habitation; or, stand
still, or withdraw into their habitation. They hide themselves in the
tabernacles whence they are said to emerge when they shine
(Psalm 19:4-6).
Overpowered with the splendor of God’s presence, the
heavenly luminaries hide
their light in this day of the Lord (compare Isaiah 13:10;
Joel 2:2, 10, 31; 3:15;
Amos 5:20; Matthew 24:29). The miracle of Joshua (Joshua
10:12-14) may have
suggested some of the language here, but the idea is quite
different. At the light of
thine arrows they went; i.e. the sun and moon fled away discomfited at
the glory of God’s weapons, His arrows gleaming with light.
The idea may
be that, in the absence of the sun and moon, the terrific
scene was
illuminated only by flashes of lightning. “Lightnings” are sometimes celled
God’s “arrows,” as in Psalm 18:14; 77:17-18; but the image
here is
rather of the arms of a warrior. Many supply the relative
in the sentence,
and render, “arrows which shoot along.” This seems to be
unnecessary,
and is not supported by the versions. There is no special
reference to the
hailstorm at Beth-horon, which
discomfited the Cananites, but enabled the
Israelites to pass on to victory (Joshua, loc. cit.).
It is the terror of the
judgment that is adumbrated, when the Lord shall come in
flames of fire
(II Thessalonians 1:8), and the heavens shall be dissolved,
and the
elements shall melt with fervent heat (II Peter 3:12).
12 “Thou
didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh
the heathen in anger.” Thou didst march through the land
in indignation;
thou treadest the earth in .fury. The
mighty Judge stalks over the earth (v. 6;
compare Judges 5:4; Psalm 68:7-8). It is a general
statement, and not to
be confined to the successes of Joshua and the destruction
of the
Canaanites. Septuagint, Ἐν ἀπειλῇ ὀλιγώσεις
γῆν – En apeilae oligoseis gaen –
with the alteration of a letter,Thou wilt bring low the land with threats. Thou
didst thresh the heathen (nations) in anger; Septuagint, ἐν θυμῷ κατάξεις –
en Thumo kataxeis – thou wilt break in pieces - ἔθνη – ethen – the heathern
Jerome here renders the verb, obstupefacies;
but elsewhere, as Isaiah 28:28;
Hosea 10:11; Amos 1:3, he uses triturare
which gives the best meaning. The
kindred figure is found in Micah 4:13; Isaiah 63:1-.
13 “Thou wentest forth for the salvation of thy people, even for
salvation with thine
anointed; thou woundedst the head out of the
house of the wicked, by discovering the
foundation unto the neck.
Selah.”
Thou wentest forth. The prophet specifies the end which
these manifestations were designed to effect. God is said
to “go forth”
when He intervenes for the aid of His people, as Judges
5:4; II Samuel 5:24;
Isaiah 42:13. For
salvation with thine anointed; In salutem cum Christo tuo (Vulgate);
τοῦ σῶσαι
τὸν χριστὸν
σου – tou sosai
ton christen sou - to
save thine anointed –
(Septuagint). If the signification of the word “with” (eth) be pressed, the
passage
is taken to mean that, as God manifested Himself in old
time for the salvation of
His people with His chosen “Christ,” Moses;
so He will hereafter reveal His
power for the destruction of the Chaldeans
with His
chosen “Christ,”
Cyrus. But this is too definite, and cannot be shown to be
intended. The
“anointed one,”
again, is not the nation of
applied to a single individual and never to the people
collectively; so here it
is the theocratic king who is meant — first, the
representative of David;
and secondly, the Messiah. God reveals Himself for the salvation of His
people in union with the work especially of His anointed
Son, Christ. This
is how the passage is taken by Eusebius (‘Dem. Evang.,’ 4:16), Αἰς σωτηρίαν
λαον σου
σὺν Ξριστῷ
σου – Ais swtaerian laon sou sun Christo sou. It
must
be confessed, however, that most modern commentaters
translate, for the
salvation of thy anointed, taking
the last expression (contrary to all usage) to
mean the Israelites, as being a kingdom and nation of
priests (Exodus 19:6). In
this case the present clause is merely a repetition of the
preceding one.
Thou woundedst the head out of the house of the wicked; thou dashest
in pieces the head. As
in the following clause the metaphor of a house is
plainly employed, “the
head” must be taken for the gable or topmost ridge.
“The house of the
wicked” is an allegorical description of
the Chaldaic
dominion and its king; and the prophet declares that God
will smite with
destruction both the ungodly monarch and the kingdom that
opposes itself.
Some commentators see here an allusion to the primeval sentence
(Genesis 3:15): others to the destruction of the Egyptians’
firstborn;
others to the incident of Jael
and Sisera (Judges 5:26). If the prophet’s
language was influenced by any of these matters, his view
and his oracle
are concerned with the mighty future. The Septuagint has,
“Thou wilt east death
upon the heads of the evil.” By discovering (literally, making naked) the
foundations unto
the neck. “By” is better
omitted. The general meaning is plain —
the metaphorical house is destroyed from summit to base,
the destruction
beginning at the gable is carried on to the very
foundations According to
this view, “the neck”
should mean the very lowest basis of the walls.
Henderson (after Capellus and
others) suggests that we should read
“rock,” a word derived from the same root. Septuagint, Ἐξήγειρας δεσμοὺς
ἕως τραχήλου – Exaegeiras desmous heos trachaelou
- Thou didst raise
chains
unto the neck. It is possible that the mention of “the head,” just above, has led
the prophet to use the term “neck” in order to express the utter destruction of
the whole body. Selah. Another solemn pause ensues.
14 “Thou
didst strike through with his staves the head of his villages:
they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me:
their rejoicing was as
to devour the poor secretly.” Thou didst strike through with his staves; thou didst
pierce with his own spears. Thou
dost turn on the Chaldeans and all thine enemies
the destruction which they intended for others. The people
meet with the
same fate as the royal house (v. 13); Vulgate, maledixisti sceptris ejus,
which seems to be a mistranslation. The head of his
villages (פרזים).
There is a difficulty in arriving at the meaning of this
last word. The Septuagint
renders it, “mighty men;” Jerome, “warriors;” Chaldee, “army;” Delitzsch
and many modern critics, “hordes” or “inhabitants of the
plain;” others
again, “rulers” or “judges.” The most probable version is
either “warriors”
or “hordes.” The head, i.e. collectively the heads
of his warlike troops.
They came out (or, who rush)
as a whirlwind to scatter me (see
the
description of the Chaldees, ch. 1:6-10). The prophet identifies
himself with his people. (For the figure of the whirlwind,
compare Isaiah
41:16; Jeremiah 13:24; Hosea 13:3.) Dr. Briggs renders,
“Thou
dost pierce with his rods the chief, when his rulers are
rushing in to scatter
me.” Their
rejoicing was as to devour the poor secretly; or, as in
ambush, to devour the helpless. They exult in acting the part of robbers
and murderers, who lurk for the defenseless and afflict the
poor (Psalm10:8-10).
As is equivalent to
“as it were.” Vulgate, Sicut ejus qui. “The
poor” are primarily
the Israelites, and then all meek worshippers of God.
15 “Thou didst
walk through the sea with thine horses, through the
heap of great waters.” The Exodus is the type of the deliverance of God’s people.
Thou didst walk
through (didst tread) the sea
with thine horses;
literally, thou treadest the
sea, thy horses, the horses being explanatory.
The prophet takes his imagery from Exodus 15:1-19. He
represents
God as a warrior in His chariot, leading the way through
the waters to the
destruction of His enemies and to the salvation of His own
people. Through
the heap of great
waters; or, upon the surge of mighty waters. The verse
may also be rendered, Thou treadest
the sea — thy horses (tread) the heap
of great waters (Psalm
77:19). Past mercies and deliverances are TYPES
AND PLEDGES OF THE FUTURE!
God Poetically Portrayed and
Practically Remembered. (vs. 3-15)
“God came from Teman, and the
Holy One from
The Bible contains many grand songs and odes. There is the
song that
Moses taught
song of Deborah and Barak (Judges 5.). There is
the song of Hannah, the
mother of Samuel (I Samuel 2:1). There is the song of David
bewailing
the
death of Saul and Jonathan (II Samuel 1:19-27), and his song of
thanksgiving after the communication of Nathan respecting the building
of
the
temple (ibid. 7:18-29). There is the
song of Hezekiah after he had
received comfort in his sickness and recovered his health (Isaiah
38:9-20).
There is the song of the blessed Virgin, Magnificat; the song of
Zacharias, Benedictus;
the song of Simeon, Nunc dimittis. But this song of
Habakkuk stands in peerless splendor amongst them all. Here
the majesty
of
God in Jewish history is poetically portrayed and practically
remembered.
Himself — the Absolute One,
whom “no
one hath seen or can see,” nor as
He appears
to philosophical or logical minds, but as He appears to a lofty
imagination divinely inspired. To the prophet’s imagination
He appears as
coming from Teman and
of His glory when He gave the Law upon
lightnings and earthquakes. Then,
indeed, His glory covered the heavens.
People at
a distance witnessed the splendor of His appearance and shouted
His praise. He seemed encircled in surpassing radiance; His
brightness was
as the light; He “had horns coming out of His hand,”
and there was the
“hiding of His power.”
hand, yet the concealment of His glory was there.” The idea,
perhaps, is
that the brightness that was seen was not His full glory,
but mere
scintillations or emanations of those infinite abysses of His unrevealed
and
unrevealable glory. What is revealed of God is as nothing compared with
the unrevealed. “Before Him went the pestilence, and burning
coals went
forth at his feet.”
Or, as Keil renders it, “Before Him goes the plague,
and
the pestilence follows His feet.” The reference is, perhaps,
to the plagues
which He brought upon the Egyptians in order to obtain the
deliverance of
His people. “He stood, and measured the earth: he
beheld, and drove
asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were
scattered, the
perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting.” “He stands, and sets the
earth reeling: he looks, and makes nations tremble, primeval
mountains
burst in pieces, the early hills sink down: His are the ways
of the olden
time” (Keil). “While,” says
deliverance of His people, He stops all of a sudden in His
progress, the
immediate effects of which are universal
consternation and terror.” “I
saw
the tents of Cushan in affliction:
and the curtains of the
tremble.” “When he
drove asunder the nations of
writer, “one might have seen the tents of Cushan in affliction, and the
curtains of the
neighboring countries taking alarm. He struck consternation
into the heart
of His enemies.” “Was the Lord displeased against the rivers?
was thine
anger against the rivers? was thy
wrath against the sea, that thou didst ride
upon thine horses and thy chariots
of salvation? The bow was made quite
naked, according to the oaths of the tribes, even thy word?
Thou didst
cleave the earth with rivers.” “‘Was it against rivers, O Jehovah, against
the rivers, that thy wrath was kindled? that
thou ridest hither upon thy
horses, thy chariots of salvation? Thy bow lays itself bare.
Thou splittest
the earth into rivers.’ The ode, taking a new turn, now
passes from the
description of the coming of God to an address to God
Himself. To the
mental eye of the prophet God presents Himself as Judge of
the world, in
the threatening attitude of a warlike hero equipped for
conflict, so that he
asks Him what is the object of His wrath. The question is
merely a poetical
turn given to a lively composition, which expects no answer,
and is simply
introduced to set forth THE GREATNESS OF THE WRATH OF GOD so
that in substance it is an affirmation. The wrath of God is
kindled over the
rivers, His fury over the sea” (Keil).
The riding upon horses is a figurative
representation of the celerity of His triumphant progress. “The
mountains
saw thee, and they trembled: the overflowing of the water
passed by: the
deep uttered his voice, and lifted up his hands on high.” “The mountains
saw thee, they were in pain: the inundation of water
overflowed; the abyss
uttered its voice, it raised its hands on high.” “The
mountains being the
most prominent objects on the surface of the globe, Habakkuk
reiterates in
a somewhat prominent form what he had expressed in the sixth
verse in
order to preserve the impression of the tremendous character
of the
transactions to illustrate which they had been figuratively
introduced”
(
of thine arrows they went, and at
the shining of thy glittering spear”
(see
Joshua 10:12-13). Some, however, suppose that the reference
here is
to the surpassing splendor of the Divine manifestation, that
the heavenly
orbs withdraw altogether from the fear and horror that
pervade all nature,
which are expressed in the mountains by trembling, and in
the waters by
roaring, and in the sun and moon by obscuration. God is here
viewed as a
warrior whose darts are so brilliant that sun and moon pale
before them.
“Thou
didst march through the land in indignation, thou didst thresh the
heathen in anger.”
The special reference here may be to His march in
leading the children of
enemies. “Thou wentest
forth for the salvation of thy people, even for
salvation with thine anointed;
thou woundedst the head out of the house of
the wicked, by discovering the foundation unto the neck.” “Having
described, in language of the most sublime and terrible
import, the
manifestations of Jehovah in reference to His enemies,
Habakkuk now
proceeds to specify in express terms the end which they were
designed to
answer, viz. the deliverance and safety of the chosen
people, and then
depicts their fatal effects in the destruction of every
hostile power”
(
villages: they came out as a whirlwind to scatter me: their
rejoicing was as
to devour the poor secretly. Thou didst walk through the sea
with thine
horses, through the heap of great waters.’ Thou goest out to the rescue of
thy people, to the rescue of thine
anointed one: thou dashest in pieces the
head from the house of the wicked one, laying bare the
foundation even to
the neck. Thou piercest with his
spears the head of his hordes which storm
hither to beat me to powder, whose rejoicing is as it were
to swallow the
poor in secret. Thou treadest upon
the seas: thy horses upon the heap of
great waters. The Lord, at
whose coming in the terrible glory of the
majesty of the Judge of the world, all nature trembles and appears to fall
into its primary chaotic state, marches over the earth, and stamps or
tramples down the nations with His feet (compare the kindred figure of the
treader of the wine press in
Isaiah 63:1, 6). Not all nations, however,
but only those who are hostile to Him; for He has come forth
to save His
people and His anointed one. The perfects in vs. 13-15 are
prophetic,
describing the future in spirit as having already occurred”
(Keil). Now, all
this sublime representation of God is poetic, highly
poetic. It is the
characteristic of poetry that it ascribes to one class of
objects attributes
that belong to another; and in this ode we find attributes
ascribed to the
Creator which belong to the creature. For example, He is
here represented
as moving from one place to another, from Teman and from Paran; as
standing, “He stood,” etc.; as conquering His
enemies by human weapons;
as riding upon horses and driving in chariots; and as fired
with indignation.
All this
is human. The Infinite One does not move from place to place,
does not stand in any one spot, knows no rage, fury is not
in Him. Whilst in
this ode the attributes of the creature are applied to the
Creator, we find
also the attributes of the living ascribed to dead and
insentient existences.
The
mountains are here represented as writhing and in pain, the deep as
uttering its voice and lifting up its hands. But whilst we
take this as a
poetic representation, we must not fail to notice some of
the grand truths
which it contains.
Ø
That God’s glory
transcends all revelations. The brightness of the
Shechinah, in which He appeared on Sinai and elsewhere to
the Jews,
however effulgent, was but a mere scintillation of the INFINITE
SPLENDOR
OF HIS BEING, the mere “hiding of His power.”
All
His glory as seen in nature, both in the material and spiritual
universe, is but as one ray to the eternal sun.
Ø
That God’s power
over the material universe is absolute. He makes
the
mountains tremble, and the seas divide, and the orbs of heaven
stand still. In the
Apocalypse the refulgent glory of the judgment
throne is represented as causing the material universe to
melt away
before it. (Revelation 20;11) And before a full manifestation of
Himself,
what are mountains, rivers, sun, and stars? Mere vapors on
the wings of the storm.
Ø
That God’s interest
in good men is profound and practical. All His
operations, as here poetically described, are on behalf of
His chosen
people. Though He is
high, he has respect to the lowly, and to that
man He ever looks who is of a contrite and humble spirit.
(Psalm 138:6)
these Divine manifestations made to the Hebrew people in
past times?
Undoubtedly
to encourage in himself and in his countrymen unbounded
confidence in God at the critical and dangerous period in
which they were
placed. The Chaldean hosts were
threatening their ruin, the political
heavens were black with thunderclouds under which his
countrymen might
well shiver and stand aghast. Under these perilous circumstances HE
TURNS TO
GOD! He calls to mind and portrays in vivid poetry what God
had been to His people in ancient times.
Ø He recalls the fact that God had delivered His people in ancient times
from
perils as great as those to which they were now exposed. From the
Egyptians, the Canaanites, the Philistines, etc.
Ø That God had
done this by stupendous manifestations of His power.
Manifestations
of His power in the sea, in the mountains, in the orbs
of heaven, etc.
Ø
That what God had done for His people He would continue to do. “His
ways are everlasting,” or, as Keil renders it, “His are ways of the
olden
times.” The idea, perhaps, is that He has an eternal plan, fixed and
settled. What He has done
for them HE WILL STILL DO! Thus the
prophet remembered the days of old, and took courage.
Vs. 16-17 - § 4. The contemplation
of the Divine judgments produces
in the people of God at first,
fear and trembling at the prospect of
chastisement
16 “When I
heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the voice:
rottenness entered into my bones, and I
trembled in myself, that I
might rest in the day of trouble: when he
cometh up unto the
people, he will invade them with his
troops.” When I heard. “When” is
better omitted. “I heard” the report of thee (v.
2). The Septuagint refers to
ch.
2:1, rendering, “I watched.” If the former part is the paean of the
congregation,
the present is
the prophet’s own utterance expressive of his
dismay at the prospect
before him. My
belly trembled. My inmost part, my inward self, trembled
with fear (compare Isaiah 16:11). My lips quivered at the voice. My lips
quivered with fear at the voice of God that sounded in me
(ch.2:1), proclaiming
these awful judgments. The word rendered “quivered” (tsalal)
is applied to the
tingling of the ears (I Samuel 3:11; II Kings 21:12), and implies
that the prophet’s
lips so trembled that he was scarcely able to utter speech.
The Septuagintrenders,
“from the voice of the
prayers of my lips.” Rottenness
entered into my bones.
This is an hyperbolical
expression, denoting that the firmest, strongest parts of his
body were relaxed and weakened with utter fear, as if his
very bones were
cankered and corrupted, and there was no marrow in them. And I
trembled in
myself. The last word (tachtai) is rendered
variously: “under
me,” according to the Greek and Latin Versions, i.e. in
my knees and feet,
so that I reeled and stumbled; or, “in my place,” on the
spot where I stand
(as Exodus 16:29). That
I might rest in the day of trouble; better, I
who shall rest in the day of tribulation. The prophet suddenly expresses his
confidence that he shall have rest in this affliction; amid
this terror and awe
he is sure that there remaineth
A REST FOR THE PEOPLE OF GOD!
This sentiment leads naturally to the beautiful expression
of hope in the
concluding paragraph (v. 17, etc.). Thus the Septuagint, Ἀναπαύσομαι ἐν
ἡμέρα θλίψεως - Anapausomai en haemera thlipseos - I will rest in the day
of affliction;” Vulgate, Ut requiescam in die tribulationis. When he cometh
up unto the people, he will invade them with his troops. This should be, When
he that invades with bands comes up against the people;
i.e. in the day when the
Chaldeans attack the Israelites (compare II Kings 24:2, where the
word
“bands” is also used). Septuagint, Τοῦ ἀναβῆναι εἰς λαὸν
παροικίας
μου -
Tou anabaenai eis laon
paroikias - To go up
against the people of my sojourning –
Vulgate, Ut ascendam ad populum aecinctum nostrum, which is thus explained:
“I will bear all things patiently, even death
itself, that I may attain to the happy
company of those blessed heroes who fought for their
country and their
God.” It is obvious to remark that this is a gloss, not on
the original text,
but
on the erroneous version.
An Ideal Theophany:
4. The Glorious Interposition of the Deity. (vs. 9-16)
presence on that great and terrible day will be attested by
a succession of
marvels.
Ø Wonders in the
earth.
o
The cleaving of the
earth with rivers (v. 9) may point to the
bursting forth of waters from the deep places of the earth,
which are again opened as at the Flood (Genesis 7:11)
through
violent convulsions, or to the overflowing of the land by
the
agitated and swollen waters, as also happened on the
occasion
of that appalling catastrophe (Genesis 7:11, 17, 19).
o
The trembling of the
mountains, which writhe as if in pain, may
contain an allusion to earthquakes and similar cataclysms.
Ø
Wonders in the sea.
The tempest of waters passed by, the deep uttered
his voice, and lifted up his hands on high” (v. 10). These
words possibly
allude to what occurred both in the Flood and in the
dividing of the Red
Sea and the
Ø
Wonders in the sky. “The sun and moon
stood still in their habitation:
at the light of thine arrows they went, at the shining of thy glittering
spear” (v. 11), as
they did in the time of Joshua, when Jehovah fought
for
Apocalypse
of the great day of the wrath of the Lamb (Revelation
6:12-16).
Ø
Marching through the land in indignation. The land referred to
is in the
foreground
less than
Ø
Threshing the nations in anger. Not the Chaldean people only, but all
the peoples who, like them, shall have become the oppressors
of God’s
heritage, all the nations
that have not known or served God, will
experience the strokes of His anger.
Ø Wounding the
head of the house of the wicked, laying bare the
foundation
even to the neck. The wicked one is first the Chaldean
king,
the head of the Chaldean power,
and lastly that wicked one whom Christ
will destroy with the brightness of His coming (II
Thessalonians 4:8). The
image is that of complete destruction.
Ø
Piercing with his own staves the head of his warriors or hordes. These
were the Chaldean troops, whom the
prophet saw coming up against
himself and
lying in wait to devour the poor secretly, but whom he also
beheld falling
upon and destroying one another, wounding themselves with
their own
swords (compare I Samuel 14:20; II Chronicles 20:23-24). So
will God’s
enemies in the end consume and devour one another.
Ø Overcoming
every obstacle that might be supposed to hinder His
purpose, viz. the execution of
wrath upon His foes, or the deliverance of
His people.
always will be) the salvation of His people and of His
anointed, i.e. of His
people
Church with its anointed Head. If God executes judgment upon the
ungodly, it is because otherwise the salvation of the
godly cannot be
secured.
LESSONS.
1. The certainty of a
day of judgment.
2. The terrifying
aspect to the wicked of THE GLORY OF GOD!
3. The infinite fierceness of the wrath of the
Almighty.
4. The ability of God to execute His purposes
both of judgment and
salvation.
5. The graciousness
towards believers of all God’s interpositions.
Horror
of God (v. 16)
“When I heard, my belly trembled; my lips quivered at the
voice: rottenness
entered into my bones, and I trembled in myself, that I might rest
in the day
of
trouble: when he cometh up unto the people, he will invade them with
his
troops.” Having finished the poetic rehearsal of the
mighty acts of
Jehovah on behalf of His people in ancient times, which he
had composed in
order to inspire the pious with unshaken confidence in Him as
their
covenant God, Habakkuk reverts to the fear which had seized him on
hearing of the judgments that were to be inflicted upon his
country by the
Chaldeans.
Our subject is horror of God;
and we offer three remarks on this
state of mind.
of God, and the moral
constitution of the soul are sufficient to
show that it
was never intended that man should ever dread his Maker or
be touched
with any servile feelings in relation to Him. Unbounded
confidence, cheerful
trust, loyal love, —
these are the normal states of mind in relation to the
Creator. How has the abnormal state arisen? The history of
the Fall shows
this, “I heard thy voice in the garden, and was
afraid.” (Genesis 3:10)
Having
sinned, a sense of guilt came to the conscience, and conscience under
the sense of
guilt invested almighty love with attributes of terror. Horror of
God springs
from A SENSE OF GUILT!
There is
nothing in Him to dread. “Fury is not in me.” (Isaiah 27:4)
He is love. His voice to
man:
Ø
In all nature is,
“Be
not afraid.” The smiling heavens, the blooming
earth, the warbling songsters of the air, in all He says to
man,
“Be not afraid.” All things show benevolence in intention, and
breathe the genius of
love.
Ø
In all true
Christianity is, “Be not afraid.” Corrupt Christianity, it is true,
makes
him horrific; but the Christianity of Christ reveals Him in love
and in love only. In
Christ He comes down in man to man, and
demonstrates His love.
(destructive) state of mind in every way. It is pernicious to
the body. The
language of the text implies this, “When I heard, my belly trembled;
my
lips quivered at the voice: rottenness entered into my
bones, and I trembled
in myself.” The prophet’s alarm drove back the
blood from the extremities
to the heart, his flesh grew cold, contracted, his
voice quivered, and his very
bones seemed to rot. Horrific
feeling is inimical to physical health.
But dread
of God is even more pernicious to SOUL!
Ø
It destroys its peace. Fear shakes every
power of the soul as the winds
shake the leaves of the forest.
Ø
It depresses its powers. All the faculties of
the soul shrink and shiver
under the influence of fear, as the herds of the mountain at
the
approaching thunderstorm.
Ø
It distorts its views. Fear of God gives men
horrid ideas of Him. It has
forged all the theologies, both in heathendom and
Christendom, that
have frightened men away from
THE GLORIOUS GOSPEL OF
THE
BLESSED GOD!
who says to all men, “It is I: be not afraid” (Matthew 14:27; John 6:20)
17 “Although
the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the
vines; the labor of the olive shall fail,
and the fields shall yield no
meat; the flock shall be cut off from the
fold, and there shall be no
herd in the stalls:” The prophet
depicts the effects of the hostile invasion, which
are such as to make the natural heart despair. Although the fig tree shall
not blossom. The devastations of
the enemy leave the country bare and
uncultivated. The Chaldeans, like
the Assyrians and Egyptians, cut down
and burnt the fruit-bearing trees of the countries which
they invaded
(compare Deuteronomy 20:19; Isaiah 9:10; 37:24; Jeremiah
6:6).
The trees most useful and abundant in
Deuteronomy 6:11; Hosea 2:12; Joel 1:7; Micah 4:4; 6:15,
etc.). The labor of
the olive shall fail; literally, shall
lie. The “labor” is the produce,
the fruit.
Though the yield shall disappoint all expectation. The use
of the verb “to lie”
in this sense is found elsewhere; e.g. Isaiah 58:11;
Hosea 9:2. So Horace,
‘Carm.,’ 3:1, 30, “Fundus mendax;” and ‘ Epist.,’ 1:7. 87, “Spem mentita seges.”
The fields; the
cornfields (Isaiah 16:8). The flock shall be cut off from the fold.
There shall be no flocks in the fold, all having perished
for lack of food.
“Omnia haec,”
says
creatorem suum.”
Vs. 18-19 - § 5. In spite of the terror produced by these judgments,
the true
Israelite is blessed with hope of salvation and joy in the Lord.
18 “Yet I
will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my
salvation.” Yet I will rejoice
in the Lord. Unshaken in confidence, the
prophet, representing the faithful Israelite, expresses his
unbounded joy at
the prospect of salvation which opens to him BEYOND THE PRESENT
AFFLICTION. The psalmist often thus shews his
exulting faith (see Psalm 5:7;
13:6; 17:14-15; [138:8 – CY – 2015] 31:19). I will joy. I will shout for joy; my
joy
shall express itself outwardly. The God of my salvation (see note on Micah 7:7).
The God who judges the nations to procure the final
salvation of His people.
Septuagint, Τῷ Θεῷ τῷ σωτῆρί μου
– To Theo to sotaeri mou - God my Saviour;
Vulgate, In Deo Jesu meo. From this gloss of
argued for the existence in this passage of a revelation of
the incarnation of
Christ and the redemption wrought by Him.
God in History. (vs. 3-18)
On reading these verses containing the ode of Habakkuk we
find that they
abound in historical allusions. The prophet recalled to mind the Divine
interpositions both in mercy and in judgment which had taken place in the
bygone days, and in the light of them contemplated the position
and
prospects of his people in his own time. This course was a very
customary
one
with the Hebrew bards. They were eminently patriotic, and delighted
to
touch upon the national experiences of sorrow and conflict, of joy and
triumph; and, indeed, to such an extent did they carry this, that
an
acquaintance with the facts of Jewish history is essential in order
that we
may
apprehend the meaning and appreciate the beauty of their poetic
strains. But whilst thus national, these sacred songs, in that
they refer to
principles which are of general application, and to experiences which
are
common to humanity, are felt by us to be universal in their
character, and
to
belong unto us as well as to the Hebrews, that in reference to them
“there is neither Jew nor Greek,” in that they are
calculated to instruct and
edify, to stimulate and strengthen us all. Viewing in this light the celebrated
“ode” of Habakkuk here recorded,
we see illustrated in it the great fact of
God’s working in human history, together with the design
and influence of
this Divine operation.
WORKING IN HUMAN
HISTORY. Looking back, the prophet
traced
this working:
Ø
In the giving of the
Law on Sinai (compare vs. 3-4, with
Deuteronomy 33:2; Judges
5:4-5; Psalm 68:8; Teman being
another name for Seir). The
manifestation of “the eternal
light” is thus
fittingly compared to the rising of the sun, heaven and
earth reflecting
His glory. The coming of God in judgment was the thought
which, in the
circumstances, was necessarily the most vividly present to
the prophet’s
mind; and his allusion here to the manifestation of God in
His infinite
purity served as an appropriate prelude to this.
Ø
In the plagues which
fell upon the Israelites in the desert, as the result of
their disobedience (compare v. 5 with Deuteronomy 32:24).
The plague
is referred to as going before God, like the ancient shield
bearer before
the warrior (I Samuel 17:7), or the courier before the man
of rank
(II
Samuel 15:1); and pestilence as coming after, as an attendant
following his master.
Ø
In the effects
produced upon the Midianites by the advance of the
hosts
of God’s chosen (compare vs. 6-7 with Exodus 15:13-15).
Ø
In the dividing of the
Red Sea and the passage of the
v.
8 with Exodus 15:8; Psalm 114:3-5). V. 8 clearly has reference to
these Divine interpositions, although the poet, rising with
his theme,
looked beyond those events and took a wider sweep, and
beheld God as
going forth, the Divine Warrior in His chariot of salvation,
to put Hs foes
to confusion and to effect deliverance for his own.
Ø
Expressions also are
used in vs. 11-15 which, though somewhat
veiled, doubtless suggested to the Hebrews, as they raised
this song of
praise, the sun standing still in
Ajalon, in the time of Joshua’s victory over the Amorites
(v. 11); the
tragedy of the slaughter of Sisera,
the representative of the head of the
Canaanitish tribes (vs. 13-14); and the complete
discomfiture of the
Canaanites (v. 12). So that the “ode” sets forth God’s hand
in the events
connected with the Jewish nation, and in this way
illustrates most
forcibly the great fact of the
Divine working in human history through
all the ages.
WORKING IN HUMAN HISTORY. This is ever wise and good (v. 13).
God rules over all, making all events contribute
to the working out of His
purposes of love and mercy in the interests of the whole
race. Earthly
rulers pursue their own ends, and are prompted by
considerations of glory
and ambition, but their working is in subjection to the
Divine control. “The
king’s heart is in the hand of the Lord” (Proverbs 21:1). Nothing can befall
us, whether individually or nationally, without the
permission of our heavenly
Father — nothing. too, which He
cannot or will not overrule to the
advancement of our highest interests.
“All
change changing
Works and brings good;
And
though frequent storms, raging,
Carry fire and flood;
And
the growing corn is beaten down,
The young fruits fall and molder,
The
vessels reel, the mariners drown
Awing the beholder;
Yet
in evil to men is good for man.
Then let our heart be bolder,
For
more and more shall appear the plan
As the world and we grow
older.”
(T.T.
Lynch.)
By a
process of Divine progression, God causes the upheavings
and
commotions of all kinds which occur in the history of the
world to result in
the good of humanity; and whilst there is occasion for us,
as we note His
hand in human history, to say to Him with reverence and awe,
“In anger
thou marchest through the earth;
in wrath thou treadest down the nations”
(Revised
Version), yet we find abundant reason for adding, in the spirit of
true adoration, “Thou
goest forth for the salvation of thy people, for the
salvation
of thine anointed” (v. 13).
THE DIVINE WORKING IN HUMAN HISTORY
EXERTS UPON
LOYAL HEARTS.
Ø
In view of God’s
terribleness in judgment which marks His working in
human history, such are filled with sacred awe. The prophet
represents
his whole being as convulsed with terror as he thought of
the
retributions God would, in righteousness, inflict (v. 16).
Ø
In view of God’s gracious
purpose, in all His interpositions to save,
restore, and bless the race, such are inspired with holy
joy. Hence,
strange paradox! whilst
oppressed in spirit they are also glad in
heart.
“They
tremble and rejoice,” and this is their rapturous song in the
night, expressive of their whole-souled
trust through all, “Although
the fig tree shall not blossom,……….yet I will rejoice in the
Lord!”
(vs. 17-19).
Songs in the Night. (vs. 17-18)
The thought underlying these intensely human words is that
of holy and
triumphant joy manifesting itself on occasions when in the ordinary
course
of
things the very opposite experience might naturally have been expected.
The writer was under the elevating influence of sincere
piety, and his
rapturous outburst sets forth the truth that true religion excites within its
recipients such thoughts, inspires within them such emotions, and
imparts
to them such confidence, as to enable them, even when all
is adverse in
their experience, to rejoice and shout aloud for joy. These songsters can
break forth in song, not only in fair weather, when the sun is
shining and
the
sky is clear and blue, and when all nature is full of exhilaration, but also
when the sun is withdrawn, and when no rift can be traced in the dark
clouds.
Ø
The language employed
is figurative, and strikingly suggests to us
circumstances of the deepest human need. The fruit of the
fig tree was
an extensive article both of food and commerce. The vine was
diligently
cultivated from the earliest times, and, with its rich
clusters of grapes and
its refreshing shade, became a very appropriate symbol of
prosperity;
whilst the olive, living from age to age, and yielding an
abundant supply
of oil, was also typical of abundance. Hence the failure of
all these
indicates the deepest affliction, the direst calamity (Psalm
105:33), and
the picture of desolation is rendered still more complete
when, in addition
to these, the bread corn is represented as ceasing, and the
flocks and herds
as being cut off (v. 17).
Ø
These adverse
circumstances befell the nation, and, as the result of the
Chaldean invasion, the direst woes had to be experienced.
Ø
The children of men
still have to pass through such dark seasons.
There
is extremity arising from
o
temporal want
occasioned by reverses in circumstances;
o
slander, charges
having no foundation in truth, being made and
resulting in mistrust and alienation;
o
mental depression, the
strong man being brought down to the
weakness of the child, the sturdy oak becoming feebler than
the
bruised reed;
o
bereavement, home
being rendered “desolate as birds’ nests, when
the fledglings have all flown.”
THEMSELVES UPON GOD, AND ON HIM AS
WORKING IN ALL
FOR THEIR
SALVATION. “In
God,” “the God of my salvation” (v.18).
The
thought which appears specially to have been present to the mind
of the prophet was that of adversity as being God’s loving
discipline to
result in the perfecting of the tried, and resulting in
their salvation: “the
God of my
salvation.” A picture called
“Cloudland,” by a German painter,
viewed at a distance appears a mass of gloom and cloud, but
on closer
inspection every cloud is an angel or an angel’s wing; and
so our sorrows,
when interpreted in the light of this gracious design of our
God, become
changed into blessings. The thought that God is with us in
our darkest
experiences, working for our salvation and to secure to us
the highest
good, that the narrow path through which He, our Captain,
causes us to
fight our way will bring us to “the prize of our high calling”
(Philippians
3:14), is
indeed inspiring, and grasping it we may well press on, raising
high our banners, and cheering the way and the conflict with
music and song.
HIS GRACIOUS DESIGN, BEING RENDERED
TRANQUIL AND
TRIUMPHANT AND
INSPIRED WITH HOLY JOY. “Yet
will I rejoice
in the Lord, I will joy,” etc. (v. 18). The joy of the wicked ceases when
the fig trees cease to blossom, and the vines to yield their
fruit (Hosea 2:11-12),
for it lies upon the surface; but the joy of the holy lies
deep in the soul, and is
a settled and abiding possession, and triumphs under the
darkest circumstances
of life. Illustrations: David (Psalm 42:7-9); Asaph (Psalm 73:2, 24-25); Paul and
Silas
(Acts 16:25). Resting in God and apprehending His loving working in our
life experiences, He will prove Himself our Strength and
Song, and will become
our Salvation.
19 “The
LORD God is my strength, and He will make my feet like
hinds’ feet, and He will make me to walk
upon mine high places.
To the chief singer
on my stringed instruments.”
The Lord God is my strength; more accurately, Jehovah,
the
Lord, is my strength, from
Psalm 18:32;
compare Psalm 27:1. He will
make my feet like
hinds’ feet (Psalm 18:33). He makes me
active and
swift-footed as the gazelle, as a lusty warrior (II Samuel
1:23; 2:18)
should be. So by the help of God I shall be superior to my
enemies. He will
make me to walk
upon mine high places. The expression is used
properly of God (Micah 1:3), and elsewhere to denote the
victorious possession and government of a country (see
Deuteronomy
32:13; 33:29). Here it signifies that believing
opposition and dwell in safety in its own land. To the chief singer
(musician) on
my stringed instruments (neginoth).
This is a musical
direction, answering to the heading in v. 1, and implies
that the ode is
committed to the conductor of the temple music, to be by
him adapted for
the public service to the accompaniment of stringed
instruments. Such
directions are elsewhere always found at the beginning, not
the end, of
psalms (see Psalm 4.; 6.; 54.; 55.; 67.; 76.). It has been
thought that the
suffix of the first person, “my stringed instruments,”
denotes that
Habakkuk had a right to take part in the temple service,
and was therefore
a Levite; but it is very doubtful whether this suffix is
not a clerical error, as
or merely paragogic (the addition
of a sound to the end of a word). Certainly
neither the Greek, Latin, nor Syriac
Versions afford it any confirmation. These
versions make the subscription part of the ode. Thus the
Septuagint -
Ἐπι τὰ ὑψηλὰ ἐπιβιβᾶ
με, τοῦ νικῆσαι
ἐν τῇ
ὠδῇ αὐτοῦ - Epi ta hupsaela
epibiba
me, tou nikaesai
en tae odae autou - He maketh me to mount upon the high places,
that I may conquer by his song; Vulgate, Super
excelsa mea deducet me
victor
(victori, Cod. Amiat.) in psalmis canentem.
Sorrowing,
yet Rejoicing. (vs. 17-19)
Ø
Extremely unusual. Even the worst are seldom reduced
to the bare
boards of absolute privation (Psalm 145:9; Matthew 5:45).
David
confesses in old age that he had “never seen the righteous
forsaken,
nor his seed begging bread” (Psalm 37:25).
Ø
Not impossible or unknown. Persons, and these by no means always the
ungodly, but sometimes the good, the excellent of the earth,
the pious, the
people who fear God and keep His commandments, who believe
in His
Word
and delight in His ways, have been known to be placed in
circumstances of utter destitution, such as Habakkuk so
touchingly
describes. Whether Habakkuk himself was in it, he expected
that he might
be, as he foresaw that many of his countrymen would be when
the terrible
Chaldean invasion came. Job had experience of such a situation
as
Habakkuk
portrayed (Job 1:13-22); Paul (II Corinthians 11:27) and
many others both before and since have known it.
Ø
Always sad. No blossom on the fig tree, no fruit upon the vine, no
harvest from the olive trees or cornfields, no flocks in
either fold or stall.
Everything gone. Every prop and stay taken — money scattered to the
winds by unsuccessful trading, household furniture arrested
and sold to
pay debt, means of earning a livelihood gone, friends
vanished just at the
moment when most required, children laid down with sickness
when
money to pay for medical relief is wanting, health
precarious through age
or infirmity. When a case like this occurs it is sad.
Ø
Yet it might be worse. It would be if a
Christian were to lose not the
creature comforts merely, but the Creator Himself, from whom
these
comforts flow. Let a man lose what he may, so long as he has God and
Jesus
Christ, the Bible and the throne of grace, with
the gift of
forgiveness and the hope of
heaven, he is not utterly undone.
Ø
Sensible. If a man loses three-fourths of his fortune, it may be
natural to
grieve over what is lost, but it cannot fail to strike one
as more sensible to
make much of and rejoice in what remains. So a good man,
when he sees
his creature comforts taken from him, will show himself a
wise man by
letting these go without too great indulgence in sorrow and cleaving to
the Creator, who is INFINITELY
MORE PRECIOUS than all
besides.
Ø
Satisfactory. What remains to the good man after the departure of
creature comforts is the best part of his estate. It is the
part he can least
want; he might do without
his fig trees, etc., but not without his God;
and the part that is most satisfying — fig trees, etc.,
might feed the body,
but only God can
support a soul; and the part that is
most permanent —
the only part that is permanent, all earthly things being
subject to decay.
Ø
Sanctifying. No man can make and keep it without becoming holier and
better because of it. He who rejoices in God will gradually
grow like God.
Ø
Profitable. It will come back to him who adopts it in blessings upon
his
head. If any man will delight in God.
God will delight in him, will rejoice
over him to do him good. (See Zephaniah 3:17)
salvation.
Ø
By imparting to him strength. “Jehovah, the
Lord, is my Strength.” The
man who used these words had made three great discoveries:
o
that man’s strength at
the best is little better than weakness —
in the domain of the body, and in that of the mind, but
chiefly
in that of the
spirit;
o
that the source of all
strength, whether physical, intellectual, or
spiritual, for the human being, is God (Zechariah 10:12;
II
Corinthians 3:5; 9:8; 10:4; Ephesians 3:20; Colossians 1:11);
and
o
that this Divine strength is
indispensable for enabling the soul to
cling to God in
the day of trouble and season of calamity
(Philippians
1:6; 2:13; I Peter 1:5).
Ø
By inspiring him with eagerness or zeal. “He maketh my feet like hinds’
feet;” (v. 19) i.e. maketh
them lithe and nimble, active and steady,
skilful to climb, and tenacious to hold on like those of the
female deer,
which quickly scents danger, and bounds along with safety
among the
crags and cliffs of its native haunts. The language is
descriptive of one
who, in the season of adversity, in the hour of trial, temptation, and
danger, is quick to discern, eager in
adopting, and steadfast in pursuing
the path of duty,
which for him, as for all, is the path of safety. Moreover,
the man who rejoices
in God will commonly
find himself advised in due
season of the approach of danger, assisted
in ascertaining the path of
duty,
and strengthened both to enter upon and adhere to it.
Ø
By exalting him to safety. “He maketh me to walk upon mine high
places.” (ibid.) The man who can
rejoice in God will sooner or later
find that God has begun to exalt him beyond common men:
o
has set him on a high
place of safety beyond the reach of
condemnation;
o
is setting him upon a
high path of moral and spiritual elevation;
and
o
will set him in the end upon a high throne of glory.
1. The vanity of creature comforts.
2. The sweetness of Divine comforts.
3. The secret of true happiness.
4. The certainty of final glory.
The Possibilities in the Life of a
Good Man (vs. 17-19)
“Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall
fruit be in the vines;
the labor
of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock
shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in
the stalls: yet I
will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my
salvation,” etc. The
desolation here so graphically and forcibly described is that which
was to
be
effected by the Chaldeans, whose army would consume
or destroy the
best and most necessary productions of the land; not only seizing upon the
cattle and devouring the fruits of the earth, but so injuring the
trees as to
render them incapable of yielding any produce. The passage
contains the
most beautiful exhibition of the power of
true religion to be found in the
Bible. The language is that of a
mind weaned from earthly enjoyments, and
habituated to find the highest fruition of its desires IN GOD! When every
earthly stream is dried up, it has an infinite supply in His all-sufficient
and
exhaustless fullness.” Our subject is — The possibilities in the life of a
good man.
GOOD MAN. It is possible for the fig tree not to blossom, etc. Man
lives
by the fruits of the earth. These may fail from one of two
reasons:
Ø
From human neglect. It is the eternal
ordinance of God, that what man
wants from the earth for his existence he must get from it
by labor —
skillful, timely, persevering labor. The earth gives to the
brute what he
wants without his labor, because the brute is not endowed
with
qualifications for agricultural work. But man must labor,
and this
arrangement is wise and beneficent. It promotes health, imparts vigor,
and develops faculties both intellectual and moral. Let man cease to
cultivate the soil, and the earth will fail to support
him either with the
right animal or vegetable productions.
Ø
From Divine visitation. The mighty Maker can,
and sometimes does,
wither the fruits of the earth, destroy the cattle of the
fields. He does this
sometimes without instrumentality, by mere volition;
sometimes with the
feeblest instrumentality — locusts, worms, etc.; sometimes
with human
instrumentality — war, etc. We say the greatest material
destitution is
possible to a good man.
Possible? It is frequent. In all ages some of the
best men have been found in the most destitute
circumstances. Even
Christ
Himself had nowhere to lay His head; and the apostles, what
had they?
MAN. “I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in
the God of my salvation.”
“Spiritual
joy,” says Caleb Morris, “is a free, full, and overflowing stream,
that takes its rise in the
very depth of the Divine essence, in the
immutability, perfection, abundance, munificence, of the
Divine nature.
While
there is a God, and that God is happy, there is no necessity that there
should be any unhappy Christians.” What is it to “joy in God”?
Ø
It is the joy of the highest contemplation. The joys of
contemplation are
amongst the most pure and elevating which intelligent
creatures can
experience. These rise in
the character according to their subjects. The
highest subject is GOD, HIS ATTRIBUTES AND HIS WORKS!
Ø
It is the joy of the most elevating friendship. The joys of friendship
are
amongst the chief joys of earth; but the joys of friendship
depend upon
the purity, depth, constancy, reciprocity of love; and friendship with
God secures all this in the highest degree. (Consider Jonathan and
David! I recommend http://rcg.org/youth/articles/0201-jadatalf.html
from
which I copied from The
the introduction of which is given below: - CY – 2015)
You have probably met and known many different people in your life. Most of them may
simply be acquaintances, while others you might consider friends. Of these, there may be
only a few that you would consider close friends. Most likely, there is one person who is
as close to you as a brother or sister. He or she could be, as the Bible says, “a friend that
sticks closer than a brother” (Prov. 18:24), someone in whom you can confide and trust,
and with whom you can share your hopes and dreams. A friend who is there not only
through the good times, but also the bad—through thick and thin—someone who will
not desert you when the going gets tough. A true friendship that stands the test of trials
and time is rare. Friends may come and go, but to have a lifelong, close, personal
friendship is truly a great blessing. The story of Jonathan and David is the story of one
such friendship. As you read about this friendship, you will find that they shared
much in common. There were also things that could have easily destroyed their bond,
but instead, they made it stronger.
Ø
It is the joy of the sublimest
admiration. Whatever the mind admires it
enjoys, and enjoys in proportion to its admiration, whether
it be a
landscape or a painting. Moral
admiration is enjoyment of the
highest kind, and this in proportion to the grandness of the
character.
Admiration of DIVINE EXCELLENCE is the sublimest joy.
“I
will joy in God.” (Like He was to Abraham, God is to me my
SHIELD AND EXCEEDING GREAT REWARD” – Genesis 15:1 –
CY – 2015) To joy in God is to:
o
bask in sunshine,
o
to luxuriate in
abundance,
o
to revel in the immensity
of moral beauty, and,
o
to dwell with God.
GREATEST MATERIAL DESTITUTION IS POSSIBLE TO A GOOD
MAN “Although” every material blessing is gone, “I will rejoice.” Good
men have always been enabled to do so. They have been happy:
o
in poverty,
o
exultant in prisons,
and
o
even triumphant in the martyr’s flames.
Having God
with them, they have had the reality without the forms, they
have had the crystal fountain rather than the shallow and
polluted streams.
Like Paul,
they have “gloried in tribulation,” (Romans 5:3) All
things have
been theirs. In material destitution they felt:
Ø
In God they had strength. “The Lord God is
my Strength.” “As thy
days, so shall thy
strength be.” (Deuteronomy
33:25)
Ø
In God they had swiftness. “He will make my
feet like hinds’ feet.”
The reference is here, perhaps, to the swiftness with which
God
would enable him to flee from the dangers which were
overtaking
his country. It is, however, a universal truth that God
gives to a
good man a holy readiness in duty. Duty to him is
not a clog or a
burden, but a delight.
Ø
In God they had elevation. “He will make me
to walk upon mine high
places.” “They that wait upon God shall renew their
strength; they
shall mount up with wings as eagles, they shall run and not
be weary,
they shall walk, and not be faint” (Isaiah
40:31) - up upon the
mountains, far too high for any enemies to scale. “God,
willing more
abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability
of His
counsel, confirmed it by an oath: that by two immutable things, in
which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a
strong
consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon
the hope set before us” (Hebrews 6:17-18).
God our Strength. (v. 19)
“The Lord God is my Strength.”
SIN. Men are drawn into sin in the hope of securing some personal
gratification; they
yearn after some unattained good, some unrealized
satisfaction, and they yield to the enticements of evil in the hope of
securing that for which they are thus craving. But the man whose hope is in
God, and
to whom He is his “exceeding joy,” has parted with these earthly
yearnings; in proportion as the higher and the eternal has
gained an
influence over him, this attachment to the lower and the
fleeting has been
rooted out. With hearts uncentered
from the true God, the Chaldeans craved
worldly dominion, and in seeking this “rejoiced to devour the poor
secretly” (v. 14),
whereas Habakkuk with God as his Portion was as
unaffected by the vanities of earth as dwellers inland are
by the noise of the
distant sea. So the good, rejoicing in God, are unallured by the baits of
temptation, and are rendered strong to war against evil.
ADVERSE SCENES OF
LIFE. Man, seeking his satisfaction
in earthly
things, must be feeble indeed when
these fail him, since, with thoughts
and
affections centered in these, as they depart they leave him without comfort
and in a state of orphanage. But he who has sought and found his
satisfaction in God has remaining with him, when things seen
and temporal
have taken their flight, the unseen and the eternal to cheer
and gladden his
soul. (II Corinthians 4:17-18) Hence he is strong, and in the light of the
Divine
teaching and the Divine love can calmly look at his sorrows until,
interpreted thus, they become to him light afflictions which are but
for a
moment, and which
work for him a far more exceeding and eternal weight
of glory.
service is ever attended with difficulties and
discouragements, and it is only
as we lift up our eyes to the everlasting hills, rejoicing
in God and
becoming strengthened by Him, that we can grapple with these
and
overcome them. It was this prophet’s strong faith and
delight in his God
that enabled him to prove himself so true a witness in the corrupt age in
which his lot was cast. It has ever been the case that the men who have
been the most effective workers for God have been the men to
whom His
living Presence has been an intense reality.
HIS PEOPLE WHEN THEIR TIME OF
SERVICE SHALL CLOSE.
Whether
this prophet lived to see the devastation of his country which he
predicted, we cannot tell, the accounts of his life being so
meager and for
the most part apocryphal. We know, however, that, from the
state of
mental doubt and distress in which he was when he commenced
his
prophecy (ch. 1:2), he fought his
way to unswerving trust in
God; for
his brief prophecy, opening with the expression of his ardent
yearning for more light in reference to the mystery of God’s
ways, closes
with notes of triumphant confidence and hope. Often,
doubtless, as his faith
became strengthened, did he feel himself in life to be so raised and elevated
through his hope and joy in God, as to be like the hind bounding joyously
to the high places: and raised above the tumults of earth,
though not in
heaven, yet in “heavenly places” he communed with
his God. (Ephesians
2:6) Even
so we should believe that, as his life terminated, he calmly departed in
peace, having seen God’s salvation. And all faithful
servants of Heaven shall
find that when heart and
flesh fail, God will be the Strength of their
hearts and
their Portion forever. Happy, then, in life and in death such as can say from
their inmost souls, “The Lord is my Strength”
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