Habakkuk 3:18

3:16-19 When we see a day of trouble approach, it concerns us to prepare. A good hope through grace is founded in holy fear. The prophet looked back upon the experiences of the church in former ages, and observed what great things God had done for them, and so was not only recovered, but filled with holy joy. He resolved to delight and triumph in the Lord; for when all is gone, his God is not gone. Destroy the vines and the fig-trees, and you make all the mirth of a carnal heart to cease. But those who, when full, enjoyed God in all, when emptied and poor, can enjoy all in God. They can sit down upon the heap of the ruins of their creature-comforts, and even then praise the Lord, as the God of their salvation, the salvation of the soul, and rejoice in him as such, in their greatest distresses. Joy in the Lord is especially seasonable when we meet with losses and crosses in the world. Even when provisions are cut off, to make it appear that man lives not by bread alone, we may be supplied by the graces and comforts of God's Spirit. Then we shall be strong for spiritual warfare and work, and with enlargement of heart may run the way of his commandments, and outrun our troubles. And we shall be successful in spiritual undertakings. Thus the prophet, who began his prayer with fear and trembling, ends it with joy and triumph. And thus faith in Christ prepares for every event. The name of Jesus, when we can speak of Him as ours, is balm for every wound, a cordial for every care.

It is as ointment poured forth, shedding fragrance through the whole soul. In the hope of a heavenly crown, let us sit loose to earthly possessions and comforts, and cheerfully bear up under crosses. Yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry; and where he is, we shall be also.

18 . Yet I will rejoice in the Lord ] Comp. Psalm 5:11 ; Psalm 32:11 ; Psalm 33:1 ; Isaiah 61:10 . In spite of calamities the people will joy in God; though earthly blessings perish He remains their portion. The joy is partly a present one in the possession of God, as Psalm 73:23 , “Nevertheless I am continually with thee”; and partly one of hope in His salvation; Psalm 18:46 ; Micah 7:7 ; Isaiah 17:12 ff.

As for my part, I will, saith the prophet, rejoice; look for joy, expect matter of rejoicing in the Lord, who will preserve a remnant and redeem them, who will rebuke Babylon, and will very strangely destroy it. I will joy in the God of my salvation: the prophet renews his own faith, and confirms ours. All shall end in salvation to him and believers.

Verses 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. Verse 18. - 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 ; Psalm 13:6 ; Psalm 17:14, 15 ; Psalm 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 , "God my Saviour;" Vulgate, In Deo Jesu meo. From this gloss of St. Jerome some of the Fathers have argued for the existence in this passage of a revelation of the incarnation of Christ and the redemption wrought by him. Habakkuk 3:18

Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation. - The words are very impressive, as they stand in the Hebrew. "For," he says, "the fig tree shall not blossom, and there is no fruit in the vines, the labor of the olive hath failed;" (the prophet does not look on, only to these things, but in his mind stands in the midst of them, they are done, and he amid them, feeling their effects) "and the field hath yielded no food; the flock hath been cut off from the fold, and there is no herd in the stall; and I." He relates it as the result of all which had gone before; such and such was the state of fruit-trees, vintage, harvest, flocks and herds; such was the aspect of all nature, living or inanimate; all was barren, disappointing; all had failed and was gone; and then at last he comes to himself, and I; what is he doing, when all nature and every seeming hope is dead? thus and thus it is with them; and I will rejoice. He almost uses the expression as to the exultation of the enemy, adopting the same word only in a softer form. "Their exulting joy was" concentrated in this, "as to devour the poor secretly;" he too had "exulting joy." There is a joy against joy - a joy of theirs in the possession of all which their rapacity covets, in the possession of all things: a joy of his amid the privation of all things.

He contrasts the two joys, as David had of old; Psalm 17:13, Psalm 17:15 : "the men of the world, whose portion is in this life, whose belly Thou fillest with Thy hid treasure; they are sated of children and leave their substance to their babes: I," he adds, "I shall behold Thy Presenee in righteousness, I shall be sated, in the awakening, with Thine image." So Habakkuk, "I will not rejoice only, but shout for joy;" and not so only, but "I will bound for joy;" and this not for a time only; both words express a drawing, yearning of the soul, and this yet more and more, "I will shout for joy and would shout on; I will bound for joy and would bound on." But whence the source of this measureless unutterable joy? In the Lord, the Unchangeable God, "who is and was and is to come," I am (it is the incommunicable Name); in the God of my salvation: it is almost the Name of Jesus; for jesus is salvation, and the Name means "the Lord is Salvation;" whence the words are here rendered even by a Jew "in God the Author of my redemption," and yet more sweetly by a father. Augustine, de Civ.