January 10, 2010 - Habakkuk 3:17-19

"Though the fig tree does not blossom,
and no fruit is on the vines;
though the produce of the olive fails,
and the fields yeild no food,
though the flock is cut off from the fold,
and there is no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the Lord.
I will exult in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength,
He makes my feet like the feet of a deer,
and makes me tread upon the heights."

Habakkuk, one of the minor prophets (minor because the books are short, not because their message is inferior), calls upon the Lord to ask why the Lord seeems silent when there is so much wickedness in the world. It's a question still being asked today.

Where IS God when tragedy strikes? Why does God allow suffering? Why does God let bad people get away with stuff while good people can't seem to catch a break?
God's answer is a very typical "God" answer: "I'm God; you're not. I'll deal with things in My time, not yours." Not much comfort, I'm afraid, if you're about to be devoured by a lion, or if you're living under the bridge, or your child is dying and you can't do anything about it.

Habakkuk,even though he asks the same questions then that we ask now, accepts God's answer. (Well, we haven't much choice about that...I mean, God IS God, and we're not.) But he takes acceptance one step further. Look, he says, even when life is falling apart around me and my herds are gone and the fields are not producing, You are still God, and therefore worthy of my worship and my praise. Habakkuk has his priorities straight.

In this modern world, though, we want answers. We want to know what's going to happen and why and when will this all end and how come You let this happen in the first place, huh???? Whoa.... We forget Who we are talking to. Habakkuk, Job, they questioned too, but in the end they remembered just Who it was they were talking to, and were humbled. No matter what, says Habakkuk, no matter what calamity befall me and no matter that the world is going to hell in a handbasket, still I will praise the Lord.

Sometimes I wonder if we only praise the Lord when good things come our way. Or we only praise the Lord because we think He'll bless us if we do. Or maybe we praise the Lord because somehow, we hope to get something out of it. Or maybe we're praising the Lord because everybody in church around us is praising the Lord.

How about praising the Lord simply because the Lord is the Lord? I think that is what Habakkuk is saying. You are God, therefore I will praise you. The ultimate "equal" sign.

I like to think of verses like this as "me too" verses. I will praise the Lord, my God, simply because He is God. No matter what the circumstances of my life, God is God, and I may not know this side of Glory why things happen in my life, but I have faith that whatever happens, God is in control, and even when my life is spinning out of my control, God's got it covered. Praise the Lord!