Habakkuk 3:16-19 “A Song In The Night” Sept. 4, 2011
In the early 1820’s, John Keats, the English poet, went outside one evening for the specific purpose of sitting under a tree and listening to the song of a nightingale, the bird renowned for singing its song at night. Several hours later, one of his friends said that Keats returned home with scraps of paper in his hand; on them he had composed one of the most famous poems in history: “Ode To A Nightingale.” Keats was captivated with the nightingale, that bird that could sing its song in the night.
As we come to the very end of this Book of Habakkuk this morning, I believe that the prophet Habakkuk himself is much like that nightingale. Habakkuk lived in a land of darkness – and it was about to get much darker. And yet, he had a song that he could sing in the those dark days. (Remember from our study that this whole 3rd chapter of Habakkuk is literally a song). In the end, despite all of the darkness and despair that overtook his land, Habakkuk had a song to sing. And if you are a follower of Jesus Christ today, then you can be like that nightingale as well. The Book of Job speaks of “God my Maker, who gives songs in the night.” In the darkest hours of your life, you can still have a song to sing – “A Song In The Night.” Let us read the last verses of this chapter together – and as we do, watch and see how these last verses form the fitting conclusion to this whole book. It amplifies what Chapter 2:4 meant when it said that “the righteous will live by his faith” in a land of darkness. These last verses are the ultimate answer for Habakkuk: he would sing in the night. And if you are a follower of Jesus, then in your darkest hours, you can always have a song to sing as well: “A Song In The Night.”
I. The Song in the Night is a Song that is Against All Circumstances
:16 “I heard, and my inward parts trembled … because I must wait quietly for the day of distress, for the people to arise who will invade us.”
There is a FOUR-fold description here of the anxiety that Habakkuk felt about what was coming. He wrote: 1) my inward parts trembled; 2) my lips quivered; 3) decay enters my bones; 4) in my place I tremble. Every single part of his body was affected; every faculty he had was shaken by what he knew was going to happen. What was it that caused him such distress?
With great privilege comes great responsibility. In Shakespeare’s Henry V, the king, who was up pacing nervously the whole night before the battle of Agincourt, looks at one of the peasants sleeping, and said that “Not all these (kings) laid in bed majestical, Can sleep so soundly as the wretched slave, Who with a body filled and vacant mind, gets him to rest.” But the king couldn’t sleep; he knew what was coming that next morning.
In that same way, Habakkuk, as a prophet, KNEW what was coming in his land. Perhaps there were those in Israel who could sleep easy that night – Habakkuk could not. He had seen, with the foreknowledge of God, the vision of the destruction that was coming to his land, of the viciousness of the invading Babylonians, whom Chapter 1 described as “fierce and impetuous”; “more eager than wolves to devour”.
God had shown him what the land was going to look like after the Babylonians had finished with it – and he described it in :17, “though the fig tree should not blossom, and there be no fruit on the vines, though the yield of the olive should fail, and the fields produce no food, though the flock should be cut off from the fold, and there be no cattle in the stalls …”. There was going to be nothing of value left in the land; nothing of all that people sing and rejoice over. Everything was going to be devastated: there would be no fruit, no vegetables, no flocks, no herds – his home country was about to become a wasteland. Habakkuk knew exactly what was coming, and it shook him to the core. He said, “I must wait quietly for the day of distress, for the people to arise who will invade us.” There would be no earthly reason for songs to come from the land of Judah in the days that were to come.
And I have to tell you that this is very picture of what OUR nation may be about to look like. I would love to say that economic recovery is right around the corner, and that the recession is about over, and that everything is going to be great again in just a few months, but I am not going to preach, “peace, peace” where there is no peace. It is quite possible that these verses describe the “night” that we are about to enter into as a nation. You and I find ourselves today in the position of Habakkuk: that we must wait quietly for “the day of distress” that is coming upon our nation, just like it did upon Judah. There may be millions of people in America today who are ignorant about what is about to come upon our country – but you and I are not among them. Like Habakkuk, we know what is coming – we know what God’s word says — unless God grants a revival upon our country, we are facing the judgment of God. So like Habakkuk we must sit in dread and wait for what is about to unfold. The night is coming to our land. If we are going to sing, it is going to be against all circumstances, because they are not going to be good here.
But perhaps there are some of you here today who might say, “Pastor, I don’t have to WAIT for a day of darkness to come; my life is like that right NOW!” Some of you have had news of illness, of death, of divorce, of disappointment, of unjust decisions, of financial reverses, of bad news that has come on the phone or in the mail – you don’t have to wait for some day of darkness to come on our land, that day has come upon you NOW! You have no earthly reason to sing now. Everything seems to be against you now! If you are going to have any song to sing, it is going to be against all of the circumstances NOW!
But thank God, that is exactly what you can have – if you will turn to the Lord, you can have a song to sing that is against all circumstances; like the nightingale, you can have a song that you can sing in the darkness! What song could you sing in the night? These verses go on to tell us …
II. The Song In The Night Is the Song of Rejoicing in God
After Habakkuk described the darkness that was about to engulf his people, he then shared how despite all of that, he had a song he could sing in the night. Having listed all of the reasons why most people would not be happy because of the devastation of their land and the loss of all their possessions, Habakkuk makes perhaps the most important statement in this book in :18, “Yet I will exult in the Lord; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.”
That word “YET” is another one of those “little words that make a big difference”!
–It’s like when Job in his trial said, “Though He slay me, YET I will trust Him”.
–It is like when David in agony cried, “YET God is my King from of old”!
–In the same way, Habakkuk says here: “YET I will exult in the Lord”! Despite all of the circumstances he was facing; despite everything that had happened and was going to happen, he says “YET I will exult … I will rejoice.”
The key question is: HOW could he do that? How could he sing a “song in the night?” The answer is: because his joy was not in circumstances, but in the Lord. Notice that THREE TIMES in :18-19 Habakkuk says that his joy was in the Lord:
— :18 “YET I WILL EXULT IN THE LORD”
— “I will rejoice in the God of my salvation”
— :19 “The Lord GOD is my strength … HE had made my feet like hinds’ feet.”
(Not only is this emphasized by the 3-fold repetition, but the word order in Hebrew puts the emphasis on the Lord as the source of his joy. In Hebrew it is literally, “But I, IN THE LORD will exult” – the word order here emphasizes that it is IN THE LORD that he finds his song. Habakkuk lived during desperate times, but he proclaimed that in God he had a joy that was greater than the circumstances in which he lived.
Psalm 4 speaks about that same thing. In a time when that Psalm says “Many are saying, ‘Who will show us any good?’” – in other words, nothing that people considered “good” was going on in their land – David said in :7, “You have put gladness in my heart, more than when their grain and new wine abound.” In other words, David said, some people have a kind of “happiness” when things are going well for them; when their “grain and new wine abound”. But David said, I have something better than that; he said he had a gladness that was greater than circumstances; “MORE than when their grain and new wine abound” – he had a gladness that GOD had put in his heart!
This is what Habakkuk had too. He was not going to find any pleasure or joy in his circumstances. His land was about to be judged; everything good in it, including his possessions and perhaps his own life, was about to be taken away. There was no happiness to be found in Judah. It was a land of darkness. But Habakkuk was like the nightingale; he had a “song in the night” – and it was a song that came from his relationship with God.
If you are going to be able to sing a “song in the night”, you are going to have to find it just where Habakkuk did: in the Lord. You must learn to rejoice in God, more than in temporal pleasures and pleasant circumstances, which you are not always going to have in your life. The Lord must be your song in the night. How does that happen for you? Let’s look at 3 vital ways that you can sing a “song in the night” by rejoicing in the Lord:
A) Make sure you know Jesus. It is significant that the Hebrew here for “God of my salvation” in :18 is Elohe Yishi” – “Yishi” is from the same Hebrew root word as “Yeshua” – which is, of course, where we get the name, “Jesus”! Habakkuk rejoiced that God was the God of his salvation. God revealed that salvation to us in the New Testament when He sent His Son, Jesus. For you to be able to sing a “song in the night” you must know Jesus as your Savior. This means that you confess that you are a sinner, and you don’t deserve heaven, but that you believe that God sent Jesus to die on the cross and pay for your sins, so that if you ask Him, He will forgive your sins, and send His Spirit into your heart and save you, and lead you in a life of following Him. When you do that, then Jesus is your Savior. This is the first and most vital step in having a “song in the night.” You must know, like Habakkuk, that God is “the God of (your) salvation; you must know for sure that Jesus is your Savior.
B) Focus on the blessings you have in Him. Habakkuk says he will rejoice “in the Lord”. There was not much for him to rejoice in, in his earthly surroundings. But there were things he could rejoice in, in the Lord. And the same thing is true for you. If you know that you know Jesus, then you can have a “song in the night” by focusing on what you have in Him, even in the midst of the most difficult circumstances.
Samuel Rutherford, the Scottish Puritan pastor who lived in the 1600’s, wrote to one of his church members who had experienced a series of difficulties, and reminded her to focus on what she had in heaven. He wrote: “This world never looked like a friend upon you, you owe it little love … this is not a field where your happiness groweth; it is up above … and before the Lamb … what you could never get here you shall find there.” (To Lady Kenmure, p. 53)
We can do the same thing; even in our worst days, we can sing of the eternal blessings that God has given us. I often do that in my praying. There are some days when I can begin the day and pray and thank God for a good night’s sleep, or a body that feels healthy, or a nice home, or other blessings. However, on other days, I’m not feeling good, and didn’t get much sleep, and things don’t seem to be so good. But on those days I can thank God for the spiritual blessings I have. Ephesians 1:3 says that God has blessed us with “every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” And then it goes on to list: we have redemption through His blood, we have the knowledge of His will, we have His Holy Spirit in our hearts; we have an inheritance in heaven that cannot be taken away – and on and on. When your earthly circumstances are not good, you can still sing a “song in the night” when you focus on the blessings that you will have for all eternity, instead of the things you don’t have in your short stay here on earth.
C) Enjoy your relationship with Him. Habakkuk says, “I will rejoice IN THE LORD” – he was not talking merely of the blessings he had in the Lord, but about his relationship with the Lord Himself. We have talked before about how we were not just saved to “go to heaven”, but to have a relationship with God, and love Him, and worship Him. Habakkuk said that he found his joy IN THE LORD HIMSELF – and that is what we need to learn to do too. We need to learn to find pleasure in worshipping God; in singing to Him. I think we need to take this idea of SINGING a “song in the night” very literally. In your dark days – sing! And I mean, literally sing songs to the Lord when you need to draw near to Him.
Let me give you an example: I love the Chris Tomlin song, “Sing, Sing, Sing” that Bro. Kyle has led us in several times recently. I have sung that song a number of times, not only in my own quiet time, but also just all through the day, to help me when I needed to rejoice in the Lord. I have sung it; I have hummed it; I have whistled it. Now, there may have been some around me who thought, when they heard me: “Why he sure is in a good mood; he has a song on his heart!” Maybe I was – but there is perhaps a better chance that actually I was tired, and I was turning to the Lord to give me strength; there is a better chance that actually I was discouraged, and I was turning to the Lord to lift up my heart as I sang; there is a better chance that actually I was depressed, and I was singing NOT because I had a naturally cheerful heart; but because I needed help and so I turned to my God who is my song! But I am grateful that I DO have a God, and He IS my song, and He DOES give me help! And it is more than just a matter “getting a song going” to cheer me up, but it is based on the reality of who God is, and what He has done for me, and where I am going, and the real relationship I have with Him. He is my song in the night!
This is yet another reason why our worship time in church is so important. It is not only important for the worship we are doing when we are in here, but because we can learn these songs here, and then carry them with us into the week, where they can become our “songs in the night.” Learn these songs, load them onto your ipod, play them in your car and in your home. Learn to make the songs of the Lord your “songs in the night”!
That is what Habakkuk was doing here: he was actually taking one of the Psalms – the songs – in God’s word, and he was using them to rejoice in God during his difficult days. Much of what Habakkuk says here is right out of Psalm 18! In fact, he quotes Psalm 18 several times in his “song” here:
— “the Lord my God is my strength” comes from Psalm 18:1+
— when he talks about the “hinds feet in high places”, that is from Psalm 18:33
— “the God of my Salvation” comes from Psalm 18:46
So Habakkuk was using the Psalms he had learned from worship, to help him sing to the Lord during his difficult circumstances. We need to learn to do the same thing. 1) Make sure that God IS your salvation because Jesus is your Savior; 2) concentrate on the spiritual blessings you have in Him, and not just on your circumstances, and 3) practice worshipping and singing to God all day long. Sing your “song in the night”!
Years ago, Charles Spurgeon said:
“Usually in the night of a Christian’s experience GOD IS HIS ONLY SONG … It is strange, that when God gives his children mercies, they generally set their hearts more on the mercies than on the Giver of them; but when the night comes, and He sweeps all the mercies away, then at once they say, ‘Now, my God, I have nothing to sing of but Thee; I must come to Thee, and to Thee only.” (“Songs in the Night” Sermons, Vol. 2, p. 170-171)
THAT is the summary of this text right there: that is the message of this whole book in a nutshell: when the darkness comes, GOD MUST BE YOUR SONG IN THE NIGHT:
— when you’ve lost your health, then God must be your song;
— when your heart is broken, God must be your song;
— when you’ve lost a loved one, God must be your song
— when friends and loved ones desert you, God must be your song;
— when you’ve lost all your money, God must be your song
— when the stock market crashes, then God must be your song
— when your business has failed, God must be your song
— when your dream has been shattered, God must be your song
— when your plan has failed, God must be your song
— when your prayers are unanswered, God must be your song
— Yea, when you walk through the valley of the shadow of death, God must be your song
— when everything else in your life has failed, and you have no other hope and no other promise and nothing else in this world to stand upon – then GOD MUST BE YOUR SONG!
And listen: if He truly is your God then HE WILL BE YOUR SONG in that night!
I believe that this a test for many of us: when you walk into those dark hours, do you have a song in the night? If the Lord really is your God, you will.
I love the quote from the old “Anne of Green Gables” series, when Anne has messed things up again, and she dramatically tells Marilla that she is in the “depths of despair, and old Marilla says to her: “To despair is to turn your back on God.” What do you do in your darkest hour? Do you despair? Do you turn your back on God? Or do you find out, that when all else fails, that He really is your God; your “Song In The Night”?
CONCLUSION:
The book ends with these words: “For the choir director, on my stringed instruments.” Someone might say, “Well, that is kind of an odd ending to the book: ‘for the choir director, on my stringed instruments’?! What kind of conclusion is that?” Well, in light of what we have seen today, I don’t think it is an odd ending at all. Habakkuk knew from God that dark days were approaching; judgment was coming, times were about to be lean, and even tragic. But despite all of these circumstances, he said I have a God, and He will lift me up over these circumstances, and I will rejoice in Him, and He will help me, even in the most heart-rending of hours, to sing. And then he finishes by saying: “For the choir director, on my stringed instruments”. In other words, Habakkuk was saying: “It’s getting dark outside. It’s about to be night. Things are about to get bad. Now let’s go do what we’ve been talking about; let’s get out our instruments and let’s begin to sing – our ‘Song in the Night!’”
shawnethomas 