The prophet Habakkuk witnessed the evil and injustice of his nation, Judah, and he beseeched God to do something about it. But then he struggled with God’s answer—evil Babylon will discipline Judah—so he asked and waited for further clarification. After receiving God’s reassurance that the Babylonians too would reap what they sowed, Habakkuk once again turned to God in prayer:

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A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet. On shigionoth. (Hab 3:1)

This unusual detail in the verse tells us that Habakkuk’s prayer was also a prophetic song for all the people (also Ps 7:1). Shigionoth was used in “a musical or liturgical setting, indicating that the prayer was intended to be sung or chanted with a particular style or rhythm.”¹

Habakkuk’s Petition: Remember mercy

LORD, I have heard of your fame;
I stand in awe of your deeds, LORD.
Repeat them in our day, in our time make them known;
in wrath remember mercy. (Hab 3:2)

After hearing God’s words recorded in chapters one and two, Habakkuk could only stand in godly fear and reverence.

Yes, Lord, we wait for you in the path of your judgments. Our desire is for your name and renown. (Isa 26:8 CSB)

Habakkuk longed for his current generation to know God’s mighty power and he pleaded with God to act according to his loving character and not give his people what they deserved. As I realize that my generation is passing on, I want my children and grandchildren to know of God’s saving power. As Habakkuk did, I ask him to keep showing his goodness and mercy to each generation.

For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath. (Deut 4:31)

We will not hide them from their descendants; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done. (Ps 78:4)

But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. (Eph 2:4–5)

What has God done that has evoked awe in you? How can you tell those stories to the next generation?

Habakkuk’s Praise: Recounting God’s past deeds

Verses 3–15 are a theophany—a visible manifestation of God. In his prayer song, Habakkuk alluded to God’s actions in the past, drawing imagery and phrases from the songs of Moses (Exod 15), Deborah (Judg 5), and David (Ps 18), to help the people trust God even while waiting for an invasion from Babylon.²

God came from Teman,
the Holy One from Mount Paran.
Selah. (3:3)

Teman was a large town in Edom which sat opposite of Mt. Paran (Deut. 33:2–4). These were poetic names for Mt. Sinai where God first showed his glory to Moses and the Israelites.

The addition of the word selah instructed the singers to rest or take a pause. In other words, stop and take in that marvelous truth that God, the Holy One, came to you and me. I’m so grateful that God still comes to us in our time of need.

His glory covered the heavens and his praise filled the earth.
His splendor was like the sunrise;
rays flashed from his hand, where his power was hidden. (3:3–4)

Habakkuk remembered the scene at Mt. Sinai when God established his covenant with Israel. God displayed his power and glory with “thunder and lightning, with a thick cloud over the mountain, and a very loud trumpet blast” (Exod 19; Ps 68:7–8).

Plague went before him;
pestilence followed his steps. (3:5)

Next, he recalled how the Lord sent the ten plagues into the land of Egypt to convince Pharaoh to set the Israelite slaves free (Exod 7–12).

He stood, and shook the earth;
he looked, and made the nations tremble.
The ancient mountains crumbled
and the age-old hills collapsed—
but he marches on forever. (3:6)
I saw the tents of Cushan in distress,
the dwellings of Midian in anguish. (3:7)

Here Habakkuk recounted how God moved on Israel’s behalf whenever they faced an enemy, particularly when entering Canaan. When God stood, shook, and looked, nations trembled, mountains crumbled, and hills collapsed (Exod 15:14–16; Josh 2:8–13; Josh 6; Judg 6).

Were you angry with the rivers, LORD?
Was your wrath against the streams?
Did you rage against the sea when you rode your horses and your chariots to victory?
You uncovered your bow, you called for many arrows.
 Selah. (8:8–9)

With these rhetorical questions, Habakkuk wanted his people to know that while nature is affected by God’s judgment, it is not the cause. Once again, Habakkuk paused to absorb the truth that God comes in judgment.

You split the earth with rivers;
the mountains saw you and writhed.
Torrents of water swept by;
the deep roared and lifted its waves on high. (3:9-10)

Now Habakkuk remembered how God parted the water at the Red Sea (Exod 14:21-22) and the Jordan River (Josh 3:15–17) so the Israelites could escape Pharaoh’s army and enter Canaan. Perhaps he also referred to God splitting of the rock to give the people water in the desert (Exod 17:6).

Sun and moon stood still in the heavens
at the glint of your flying arrows,
at the lightning of your flashing spear. 
In wrath you strode through the earth
and in anger you threshed the nations.
(3:11–12)

He also recalled the time when God caused the sun and the moon to stand still and hurled large hailstones so the Israelites could defeat an attack from five nations (Josh 10:5–14).

You came out to deliver your people,
to save your anointed one.
You crushed the leader of the land of wickedness,
you stripped him from head to foot. 
Selah (3:13)

With his own spear you pierced his head
when his warriors stormed out to scatter us,
gloating as though about to devour the wretched who were in hiding.
You trampled the sea with your horses,
churning the great waters. (3:14-15)

Lastly, Habakkuk reminded the singers that God will deliver them from Babylon as he had already done through the Exodus, wilderness, and into the promised land. But Habakkuk’s words also looked ahead to the coming of Jesus, the anointed Messiah. His coming was not only the ultimate act of mercy (not giving us what we deserve) but also of grace (giving us what we don’t deserve).

How does recalling God’s deliverance of Israel build your own faith?

Our Prayer: Remember God’s Deeds

Dr. Thomas Constable sums up this passage: “Habakkuk moved from petition to praise in his prayer. He recalled God’s great power and mercy in bringing the Israelites from Egypt, through the wilderness, and into the Promised Land. Since God had done this, Habakkuk was confident that He could and would deliver the Israelites from the Babylonians and make them safe in their land.”³

In his prayer, Habakkuk followed the example of the psalmist (Ps 77–78) by remembering the deeds of the Lord—recounting his greatness as a means of boosting his faith so that he could trust God for the impending invasion of the Babylonians and on into the future when he would send his anointed one, the Messiah.

Jean Wilund in her study of Habakkuk says, “When we, like Habakkuk, feed our minds with the glorious reports of God in Scripture, God will grow in us a reverent fear of Him and His works and transform our anxious fears into faith.”⁴

Along with God’s mighty deeds in scripture, we also need to remember and recount the ways we’ve seen God work on our behalf. Earlier this year I published a book of my memories of God’s goodness to me when I served him overseas. The exercise of recalling what he had done and how he had helped me boosted my faith to trust him for the unknowns of the future.

What has God done for you in the past that might boost your trust for the future?

PRAYER

Lord, I praise you, I stand in awe of what you’ve done for me. Continue to do your great works on behalf of your children worldwide. Thank you for coming as the Savior, Jesus, to rescue us. Keep coming for your people.

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1. https://biblehub.com/topical/s/shigionoth.htm ↩︎
2. Habakkuk was written in the year 605 BC but the fall of Jerusalem to Babylon occurred in 586 BC. ↩︎
3. https://soniclight.com/tcon/notes/html/habakkuk/habakkuk.htm#a-the-introduction-to-the-hymn-31 ↩︎
4. Jean Wilund, Embracing Joy, pg 203–204. ↩︎