Praise God, No Matter What
Habakkuk 3:16–19 | Habakkuk – Part 4
Pastor Roger Pettay
What do you do when you have prayed, waited, trusted God—and the circumstances still have not changed? That is where we find Habakkuk at the end of this remarkable little book. Babylon is still coming. Judgment is still coming. The future is still uncertain. Habakkuk has not received the answer he Wanted.
But something has changed: The circumstances haven’t changed. Habakkuk has changed.
In chapter 1, Habakkuk was questioning God. He looked at the violence, injustice, wickedness, and spiritual decline around him and cried out, “O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and you will not hear?” (Habakkuk 1:2 ESV).
God answered Habakkuk, but the answer created an even bigger problem. God was raising up the Babylonians to bring judgment upon Judah. Habakkuk went from asking, “God, why aren’t You doing something?” to essentially asking, “God, why are You doing THAT?”
Then, in chapter 2, Habakkuk waited for God’s answer, and God gave him the central truth of the book: “The righteous shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4 ESV). There are times when we simply have to trust God. We don’t understand His timing. We don’t understand His methods. We don’t understand what He is doing. The just shall trust.
By chapter 3, Habakkuk is no longer arguing with God; he is worshiping God. Chapter 1 begins with a complaint. Chapter 2 gives us God’s answer. Chapter 3 begins with a prayer. Habakkuk has learned something every believer needs to learn: When you don’t know what God is going to do next, remember what God has already done. Sometimes the best way to face an uncertain future is to remember God’s faithfulness in the past.
#1: TRUST GOD’S PROVIDENCE WHEN YOU CANNOT UNDERSTAND HIS PURPOSES
People have wrestled with the problem of evil and suffering for thousands of years. If God is good, why is there evil? If God is sovereign, why does He permit suffering? Why doesn’t God stop it?
There are several ways people attempt to answer those questions. Atheism concludes that the existence of evil is incompatible with the existence of a good God. But removing God creates another problem: without an ultimate moral authority, what gives us an objective standard by which we can call something truly evil?
Agnosticism remains uncertain about God’s existence and therefore uncertain about how to reconcile God and suffering. Deism acknowledges a Creator but pictures Him as distant—a God who created the universe and then stepped back from it. Spiritual idealism takes another approach, claiming that God’s children should somehow be insulated from suffering. If you have enough faith, you should enjoy health, wealth, prosperity, and protection from life’s hardships.
But Scripture offers us something very different. I call it Providential Trust: “the conviction that because God is sovereign, wise, and good, I can trust His providence even when I cannot understand His purposes.”
Providence is the historic Christian understanding that God preserves, governs, and directs His creation according to His wisdom and purposes. Put simply, Providential Trust means trusting the purposes of God when the providence of God cannot be understood. I cannot always understand what God permits, but I can trust the God who permits it. When I cannot trace God’s hand, I can trust God’s character.
That is exactly what Habakkuk learned.
#2: FAITH CAN TREMBLE AND STILL TRUST
Habakkuk does not pretend everything is okay. He writes, “I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us” (Habakkuk 3:16 ESV).
This is not a man untouched by fear. His body is trembling, his lips are quivering, and his legs are shaking. Habakkuk knows what is coming, and he is afraid. Yet he waits.
That is important because biblical faith is not the absence of fear. Faith is trusting God in the presence of fear.
If Habakkuk looked ahead, he saw his nation heading toward destruction. If he looked within, he found himself trembling. If he looked around, he saw an economy that was about to collapse. But when he looked up, he saw God.
To walk by faith means focusing our attention on the greatness, glory, and faithfulness of God rather than allowing our circumstances to have the final word. Isaiah wrote, “Whoever believes will not be in haste” (Isaiah 28:16 ESV). Faith knows how to wait.
Abraham learned the consequences of running ahead of God when he took matters into his own hands with Hagar and Ishmael. Moses learned the same lesson when he attempted to deliver Israel in his own strength. God told Israel, “In returning and rest you shall be saved; in quietness and in trust shall be your strength” (Isaiah 30:15 ESV).
There are three simple biblical commands that have helped me when I have had to wait on God:
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“Stand still” (Exodus 14:13)
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“Sit still” (Ruth 3:18 KJV), and
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“Be still, and know that I am God” (Psalm 46:10 ESV).
Sometimes the most spiritual thing we can do is stop, pray, trust, and wait rather than allowing fear to push us into a foolish decision.
#3: PRAISE GOD BEFORE THE CIRCUMSTANCES CHANGE
Habakkuk then makes one of the greatest declarations of faith in all of Scripture:
“Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.” (Habakkuk 3:17–18 ESV)
Don’t miss the seriousness of what Habakkuk is describing. The fig trees are gone. The vineyards fail. The olive crop fails. The fields produce no food. The sheep disappear. The cattle are gone. For an agricultural society, this isn’t an inconvenience. This is economic devastation!
By the time Babylon was finished with Judah, the temple would be destroyed, buildings would be ruined, treasures would be plundered, and the nation’s economy would collapse. There would be very little to sing about.
Yet the prophet sings.
The key word is “yet.” Though this happens, though that disappears, though I lose what I depended upon, though life doesn’t turn out the way I expected—yet I will rejoice in the LORD.
Habakkuk’s worship is not based on what God gives him. His worship is based on who God is.
Paul expresses the same truth: “Rejoice always, pray without ceasing, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you” (1 Thessalonians 5:16–18 ESV).
Notice that Scripture doesn’t tell us to give thanks for every circumstance. It tells us to give thanks in every circumstance. There is a tremendous difference. Christian worship doesn’t deny pain. It declares that pain does not get the final word.
Job could say, “Though he slay me, I will hope in him” (Job 13:15 ESV). Habakkuk’s legs are shaking. His heart is pounding. His nation is facing disaster. Yet he worships. That is Providential Trust.
#4: FIND YOUR STRENGTH IN GOD, NOT YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES
Habakkuk ends with this declaration: “GOD, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places” (Habakkuk 3:19 ESV).
Habakkuk doesn’t say, “God will give me strength.” He says, “God…is my strength.” That distinction matters.
Habakkuk pictures a deer moving confidently across steep, dangerous terrain. The ground is difficult, but the deer is sure-footed. The terrain hasn’t suddenly become easy. The deer has been given what it needs to navigate it.
That is often how God works in our lives. We ask God to remove the mountain, and sometimes God does. But sometimes God gives us feet for the mountain. He gives us the strength, grace, wisdom, and endurance to walk through circumstances we never would have chosen for ourselves.
Trials can become the very means God uses to draw us closer to Him. G. Campbell Morgan said, Our joy is in proportion to our trust. Our trust is in proportion to our knowledge of God.”
Praise God, No Matter What
Habakkuk begins this book confused and questioning. He ends it worshiping.
His journey teaches us to
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face our questions honestly and humbly bring them to God,
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wait for God’s Word rather than running ahead of Him,
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and ultimately to worship Him no matter what.
