Habakkuk 3:16-19 – Yet I Will Rejoice In The LORD

Translation & Sermon by Nate Wilson for Christ The Redeemer Church of Manhattan, KS, 13 July 2025

Introduction

• Remember that in chapter 1, God told Habakkuk that He was raising up the Chaldean nation to invade Judea and bring chastisement upon the Jewish people for their wickedness, nevertheless, God promised Habakkuk in chapter 2 that “the just would live by faith.” Then, in chapter 3, Habakkuk began his prayer in response to God’s message with the words, “I have heard,” followed by the request, “in wrath remember mercy.” The verses in the middle of chapter 3 are a masterpiece of worship, memorializing God’s mighty works of salvation and judgment in history – particularly during the Exodus from Egypt and Israel’s entrance into the Promised Land. But in v.16, Habakkuk comes back to the phrase he had used at the beginning of the chapter: “I heard,” and now he talks about how the message of God’s coming punishment personally affects him.

• Please follow along in your Bibles as I read my translation of this passage:
  3:16 I have heard, and my gut trembles; at the sound, my lips quiver. Decay goes into my bones, and, in spite of myself, I tremble, while I am left waiting for the day of crisis – for the people to rise up who will invade us. Though the fig-tree doesn’t fruit, and there is no yield on the vines, the effort of the olive tree has disappointed, and the fields have not made any food, the flock has been cut from the sheep-pen, and there is no herd in the cattle-stalls, yet, as for me, it is in Yahweh that I will rejoice; I will circle-dance in the God of my salvation! Yahweh, my Master, is my resource, and He has set my feet like a deer, such that He will cause me to step upon my high places! For the concert-master, on my stringed-instruments.

• As we meditate on these last four verses in Habakkuk, I want to focus on the example that he sets for us in the way he responds to God’s word

  • by allowing it to impact him physically and emotionally,

  • by purposing to respond to God appropriately regardless of the circumstances,

  • by rejoicing in the LORD,

  • and by confidently trusting that his relationship with God will be good into the future.

v. 16 – Responding Personally To God’s Message

• Habakkuk has a physical and emotional response to God’s message of judgment:

  • “my belly/inward parts/heart/body/gut trembled,

  • my lips quivered,

  • decay/rottenness¹ entered into my bones,

  • and I trembled in spite of myself/in my place/beneath me.”

• The reason for Habakkuk’s trembling is explained in the second half of verse 16, but there are a few different ways it gets interpreted:

  • The King James Version followed the ancient Vulgate and Septuagint versions and Calvin with the idea of the faithful being able to “rest” during God’s judgment: “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].”

    • It is true that the Hebrew verb here primarily means “to rest²,”

    • and it is true, in a sense, that, as Hebrews 4:3 puts it, “...those who have become believers are entering into [God’s Sabbath] rest,”

    • but I don’t see a logical connection between “trembling” and “resting,” as it is in Habakkuk here, so I prefer to keep looking for another interpretation besides “resting.”

  • The NIV/ESV interpreted it as looking forward to revenge on Babylon: “[my legs] tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly/patiently wait for the day of trouble/calamity to come on the nation who invade us.”

    • And it is true that God told Habakkuk of the overthrow of Babylon in the future.

    • However, God rebuked Jonah for a vengeful waiting for judgment upon Ninieveh, so I have difficulty accepting that as Habakkuk’s attitude here.

  • The NASB, on the other hand, along with most of the commentaries I read³, interpreted it as waiting (with a mixture of trembling and faith in God’s word) for Babylon to invade Israel. “I tremble. Because I must wait for the day of distress, For the people to arise who will invade us.” That translation makes the most sense to me because:

    • The Masoretic Hebrew punctuation supports it: There is a disjunctive punctuation in the Masoretic Hebrew text after “the day of distress,” which disconnects the “uprising” from the “day,” instead associating the “uprising” with the “people” who “will invade/attack us.”

    • Also, the timing fits better: Israel is not yet suffering from the Chaldeans, so it doesn’t make sense for Habakkuk to be thinking of the Chaldeans’ punishment yet. At the time of Habakkuk’s writing, the next event is going to be the Chaldean invasion, so it makes sense that this impending invasion would be what Habakkuk is waiting for.

    • It also fits better with the message that God gave Habakkuk in chapter 1 verse 6, “Behold, I am raising up [מקים] the Chaldeans.” So here, I believe, Habakkuk responds, “so I will wait for the people to arise who will invade us.”⁴ God said He is going to raise up the Chaldeans, so I will wait for them to arise.

    • Furthermore, it reinforces Habakkuk’s message that the “just shall live by faith” (2:4) for Habakkuk’s final frame of mind to be faith in God’s word rather than a desire for vengeance when he proceeds to rejoice in the Lord.

    • Matthew Henry commented, “He was touched with a tender concern for the calamities of the church... His fear is that... when the Chaldean comes up to the people of Israel... the whole nation of the Jews [will be] lost and gone… [But] He that has joy in store for ‘those that sow in tears’ has rest in store for those that tremble before him... Noah, who was moved with fear, trembled within himself at the warning given him of the deluge coming, had the ark for his resting place in the day of that trouble… Good hope through grace is founded in a holy fear.”

• How about you; how do you respond to God’s word?

  • Is it just ho-hum to you? Do you yawn and think you’ve heard it all before? That does not show respect to the awesome God we’ve been reading about in Habakkuk chapter 3!

  • God’s word should shake you up, stun you, leave you speechless, or dancing for joy, like it did to Habakkuk.

  • If it doesn’t,

    • spend more time studying it,

    • pay more attention to it when you hear it read,

    • ask the Holy Spirit to help you understand it,

    • and ask God to impact your life with it.

  • Even in the New Testament, the Apostle Paul tells the Corinthians that God’s word was intended to bring Godly sorrow: “For even if I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it... I rejoice... that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted…” (2 Cor. 7:8-10, NKJV)

  • And in the book of Hebrews, we are exhorted to let the word of God impact us with a sense of fear: “So we see that it was on account of unbelief that they were not able to enter [the Promised Land]. Therefore let us fear, lest someone among y'all might come up empty, the promise of entering into His rest being left behind…” (Heb. 3:19-4:1, NAW)

  • “In short... they who had been moved and really terrified by God’s vengeance, would be in a quiet state when God executed his judgements. How so? Because they would calmly submit to the rod, and look for a happy deliverance from their evils; for their minds would be seasonably prepared for patience, and then the Lord would also console them, as it is said in Psalm 51:17, that He despises not contrite hearts.” ~J. Calvin

• The verb for “I wait” is not the usual Hebrew word for “wait.” Habakkuk uses a word that has a central meaning of “having nothing to do.” Often it describes a condition of “rest,” but I think here it describes being “left useless.”

  • Have you ever felt that way – that God has left you to watch the world “go to hell in a hand-basket” and there’s nothing you can do about it?

  • Many of the prophets expressed similar feelings to what Habakkuk expressed here after hearing a message from God:

    • Daniel 10:8 “Therefore I was left alone [נשׁארתי לבדי] when I saw this great vision, and no strength remained in me; for my vigor was turned to frailty in me, and I retained no strength.” (NKJV)

    • Ezekiel 3:14 “So the Spirit lifted me up and took me away, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit; but the hand of the LORD was strong upon me.” (NKJV)

    • Jeremiah 23:9 “My heart within me is broken Because of the prophets; All my bones shake [רחף]. I am like a drunken man, And like a man whom wine has overcome, Because of the LORD, And because of His holy words.” (NKJV, cf. 4:19)

  • The Greek translation of this verb shows up in the New Testament in Revelation 6:9-11 “When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?’ Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer [this is the same word for ‘rest/wait’ that is used in the Greek translation of Habakkuk 3:16], until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.” (NKJV)

  • God has a plan which involves allowing more wickedness to happen before He will bring judgment, so the righteous must wait and rest in the Lord in the meantime.

  • It is important, however, that when we are in the inbetween times of history, when we’re sitting on God’s back burner, as it were, seemingly unable to do anything important, that we go to the right place to rest.

    • Zoning out in front of a screen, or drinking/drugs, or sitting around with ungodly people is not the right place to go.

    • Jesus said in Matthew 11:28 “Come here to me, all who are laboring and have been burdened, and I myself will give rest to you.” (NAW)

    • Habakkuk understood that; He went to the LORD in prayer when he felt like he had been “left useless,” and we should follow his example and allow God’s word to make us tremble, and then go to the Lord for rest.

• The second example Habakkuk sets for us is in...

v. 17 – Responding Appropriately to God Regardless of Circumstances

• Habakkuk describes a desperate situation in v.17. In our modern society, it might not appear desperate because we might think of someone with an orchard, a vineyard, a field, and a barn as a wealthy landowner,

  • but, in their economy, everybody was supposed to have inherited a small farm, and everybody was supposed to live off what they could grow in their own garden.

  • Everybody had a fig tree and a grape vine,⁵ and they depended heavily on those things growing. They didn’t buy their food at grocery stores.

  • If your trees (or your field-crops) withered or your animals died (or failed to reproduce), then you had no meat that year, no oil that year, no bread, and no fruit juice or fruit-desserts that year. It was just tough.

• Now, the reality was that Habakkuk’s community was indeed heading into hard times. The Chaldean army was about to destroy all the farms. Other Biblical authors tell us what happened shortly after Habakkuk wrote his book:

  • Jeremiah 5:17 “And they [the Chaldean army] shall eat up your harvest and your bread, Which your sons and daughters should eat. They shall eat up your flocks and your herds; They shall eat up your vines and your fig trees; They shall destroy your fortified cities, In which you trust, with the sword.” (NKJV, cf. Hos. 2:12)

  • Micah 6:15 “You yourself will plant [seeds] but you will not harvest. You yourself will use the foot-press for the olive (but you will not lotion with the oil) and for grape-juice (but you will not drink the wine).” (NAW, cf. Amos 4:9)

  • Joel 1:10 & 18 “The field is wasted, The land mourns; For the grain is ruined, The new wine is dried up, The oil fails…. How the animals groan! The herds of cattle are restless, Because they have no pasture; Even the flocks of sheep suffer punishment.” (NKJV)

  • That’s the painful reality that God has told Habakkuk that he and is country are about to experience. So, does Habakkuk say, “Well, as long as I have my food and my health and my stuff, I’ll praise God, but if things go bad, I have a right to be upset at Him.” That’s not what he says!

• Habakkuk says, even in the midst of all this loss, he will “still rejoice in the LORD!”

  • Circumstances and feelings of success and prosperity and health have nothing to do with whether or not he will “live by faith” (2:4) and “rejoice in the Lord” (4:18).

  • These are choices we make with our minds under the control of the Holy Spirit. You can’t blame your lack of trust or lack of rejoicing on a war, because it is not the war’s fault, it’s all on you as to whether you chose to trust God and rejoice in Him or not. Circumstances are not what is in control.

  • Furthermore, circumstances change – we have good years and we we have bad years, sometimes we are doing well financially, sometimes we are struggling financially, sometimes we are healthy, other times we are sick. Habakkuk does not say, “I will ‘live by faith’ and ‘rejoice in the Lord’ whenever circumstances get better.”

  • If we allow ourselves to connect our circumstances to our relationship with God, we will live on a spiritual roller-coaster. (“God loves me! He loves me not. He loves me! He loves me not.”) We must take Habakkuk’s attitude: “Despite even the worst of circumstances I will rejoice in the Lord.”

  • The solid foundation of God’s word (to which Habakkuk looked in the middle of chapter 3) which may shake us up, nevertheless gives us solid footing with thousands of years of historical perspective about God and His relationship with His people.

  • In it we read of others who endured staggering hardships and maintained faith in God,

    • folks like Ruth and Naomi,

    • and like the Apostle Paul who testified in 2 Corinthians 4:7-18 “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed— always car­rying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body. For we who live are always delivered to death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our mortal flesh. So then death is work­ing in us, but life in you. And since we have the same spirit of faith, according to what is written, ‘I BELIEVED AND THEREFORE I SPOKE,’ we also believe and therefore speak, knowing that He who raised up the Lord Jesus will also raise us up with Jesus, and will present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that grace, having spread through the many, may cause thanksgiving to abound to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is work­ing for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.” (NKJV)

    • Philippians 4:11-13 “...for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound. Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (NKJV)

• Note the object of Habakkuk’s faith: Habakkuk is not merely “accentuating the positive and eliminating the negative” and choosing to be happy; NO, he will rejoice IN THE LORD.” He is not choosing human positivity, he is choosing relationship with the LORD.

• This leads us to the third way that Habakkuk sets the example for us in...

v. 18 – Responding to God With Rejoicing In Him

• Habakkuk had noted earlier at the end of chapter 1 that the pagan Chaldeans would “rejoice/do a victory-dance” because of the loot that their nets dragged in when they conquered Israel⁶, and in v. 14, he said that it was their “joy⁷ to devour the poor,” but here Habakkuk says that, as for him, He will rejoice in the LORD!

  • “There is a joy against joy; a joy of [the Chaldeans] in the possession of all which their rapacity covets… [contrasted with] a joy of [Habakkuk] amid the privation of all things.” ~E.B. Pusey, 1880 AD

• We see the same joy in the LORD welling up in David’s Psalms:

  • Psalm 28:7 “Yahweh is my strength and my shield; it is in Him that my heart has trusted, so I will be helped out, and my heart will rejoice, and through my song I will respond to Him.” (NAW)

  • Psalm 149:1-6 “Praise the LORD! Sing to the LORD a new song, And His praise in the assembly of saints. Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; Let the children of Zion be joyful in their King. Let them praise His name with the dance; Let them sing praises to Him with the timbrel and harp. For the LORD takes pleasure in His people; He will beautify the humble with salvation. Let the saints be joyful in glory; Let them sing aloud on their beds. Let the high praises of God be in their mouth…” (NKJV)

• It’s a joy that persists even through difficult times:

  • Psalm 13:2 & 5 “How long... will there be sorrow in my heart daily? How long will my enemy rise above me? ... 5 But as for me, it is in Your lovingkindness that I have trusted. My heart will rejoice in Your salvation.” (NAW)

  • Psalm 31:6-7 “...as for me, it is in Yahweh that I have trusted. I will rejoice and be happy there in Your lovingkindness, in which You regarded my low condition and you considered my soul during crises” (NAW)

• We also see this joy in the lives of N. T. believers in Jesus, despite poverty and persecution:

  • Luke 1:46-48 Mary sang: “...My soul magnifies the Lord, And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior. For He has regarded the lowly state of His maidservant…”

  • Matthew 5:10-12 Jesus said: “Blessed are those who have been hunted down for the sake of righteousness, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs…. Keep rejoicing and leaping for joy, because your reward is bountiful in heaven, for they hunted down the prophets before you in the same way.” (NAW)

  • Romans 12:12 Paul wrote: “[Serve the Lord], rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer…” (NKJV)

  • 1 Peter 4:13 Peter wrote: “...as y'all have fellowship with the sufferings of Christ, keep rejoicing, in order that also in the unveiling of His glory, y'all may rejoice while jumping for joy” (NAW, cf. 1:6-8)

• And, once again, this is not humanly-manufactured joy, this is a rejoicing in the LORD:

  • Colossians 3:3-4 “...your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is our life appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.” (NKJV)

  • 1 John 4:14-16 “...the Father has commissioned the Son as savior of the world. Whoever agrees that Jesus is the Son of God, God stays in him, and he in God. And we ourselves have known and have believed the love which God has in us. God is love, and the one who stays in love stays in God, and God [stays] in him.” (NAW)

  • Romans 5:2 & 11 “through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice [καυχώμεθα] in hope of the glory of God… And not only that, but we also rejoice [καυχώμενοι] in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation." (NKJV)

• “[D]uring the time when want or famine, or any other affliction, is to be borne, He will render us joyful with this one consolation, for, relying on his promises, we shall look for Him as the God of our salvation.” ~J. Calvin (cf. Isa. 12:2, 61:10)

• Finally, Habakkuk sets an example for us in...

v. 19 – Responding to God With Confidence In Him For The Future

• In his final verse, Habakkuk makes three powerful statements about the future of His relationship with God:

• First He says that Yahweh/GOD is “my Sovereign/Master/Lord”

  • Notice that the word for “Lord” in the NASB and ESV is lower-case. (The King James got it backwards and translated the Hebrew word for “lord” as “God” in lower-case.) Newer versions which follow the NIV translated it with the synonym “Sovereign.” The point is that Habakkuk calls Yahweh (the LORD or GOD in all caps) his authority, his Sovereign master, his Lord.

  • That means there is an ongoing relationship of accountability and responsibility.

    • From here on into the future, Yahweh is obligated to protect and provide for His subject,

    • and Habak­kuk is obligated to honor and obey Yahweh.

    • To know that this is how things stand between him and God from here on out, enables Habakkuk to be confident about the future.

• Then he says that God is “my resource/my power/my strength.”

  • Habakkuk is probably quoting from Psalm 18:32-33 “This God really equips me with resources and gives integrity to my way, making [מְשַׁוֶּה] my feet even like the deer. And he causes me to stand [‎יַעֲמִידֵנִי] upon my high places” (NAW)

  • God, who Himself (Ps. 65:7, 93:1) is “armed/girded with strength/resources,” shares with His servants that with which He Himself is equipped.

  • Knowing that God will provide the resources and strength to get through the Chaldean invasion and the Babylonian exile makes all the difference for Habakkuk.

    • God isn’t going to leave His people without the power and provisions they will need to endure the future.

    • God doesn’t go off “half-cocked” with His plans; He wisely considers every detail,

    • and He isn’t going to leave you high and dry either.

  • That’s why the Apostle Paul could pray that the church in Colossae be “strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power⁸, for all patience and longsuffering with joy” (Col. 1:11, NKJV). God has all the power, and He will give the church all we need.

• and the third statement Habakkuk makes about the future of his relationship with God is that “He has set my feet like a deer, such that He will make me step/tread/walk upon my high places.”

  • There are a few different opinions on this⁹, but I think that the “high places” refer to the good feelings of prosperous times.

    • It shows up in Deuteronomy 32:13 where the LORD made Israel “ride in the heights of the earth, That he might eat the produce of the fields; He made him draw honey from the rock, And oil from the flinty rock” (NKJV)

    • And Isaiah 58:14 uses the same phrase to say something similar: “[If you keep the Sabbath holy] Then you will indulge yourself upon Yahweh, and I will make you ride upon the high places of earth, and I will cause you to eat of the heritage of Jacob...” (NAW). God brings good times when we are in fellowship with Him.

  • “The feet of a deer” probably connotes the ability to maintain stability on uneven ground¹⁰. If you’ve ever seen a deer or mountain goat run up the face of a cliff without slipping or falling, you’ll understand what David and Habakkuk were talking about - it’s amazing!

  • “[S]till, God Who gives it, Himself guides it… He will make me to walk…” ~E. B. Pusey This benefit doesn’t come apart from a relationship with God as your Master.

Conclusion

• So, there are the four examples Habakkuk sets for us in the way he responds to God’s word:

  • allowing it to impact him physically and emotionally,

  • purposing to respond to God appropriately regardless of the circumstances,

  • rejoicing in the LORD,

  • and confidently trusting that his relationship with God will be good into the future.

• This is Habakkuk’s song¹¹, and “[T]he expression bingı̄nōthai, with my stringed playing, affirms that he himself will accompany it with his own playing” ~C.F. Keil

• “[P]rayer is heart's ease to a gracious soul. When Hannah had prayed ‘she went her way, and did eat, and her countenance was no more sad.’ This prophet, finding it so, publishes his experience of it, and puts it into the hand of the ‘chief singer’ for the use of the church, especially in the day of... captivity. And, though then the ‘harps were hung upon the willow-trees,’ yet in the hope that they would be resumed... he set his song upon Shigionoth…” ~Matthew Henry

• Someday you too will have the opportunity to share your life experience of faith in God with your children, with grandchildren, with friends. Keep in mind Habakkuk’s example and follow it.

• Psalm 94:12-15 “Blessed is the man whom You instruct, O LORD, And teach out of Your law, That You may give him rest from the days of adversity, Until the pit is dug for the wicked. For the LORD will not cast off His people, Nor will He forsake His inheritance. But judgment will return to righteousness, And all the upright in heart will follow it.” (NKJV)