Approximately fourteen years ago, I was going through what I considered to be the biggest crisis of faith in my life. Looking back, it was no big deal, but at that time, darkness and despair seemed to be the only friends I knew, and with every step I took, I just seemed to dig a deeper hole.
It was at this time that I encountered Habakkuk’s Hymn of Faith in Habakkuk 3:17-19.
Though the fig tree may not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail,
And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls –
Yet I will rejoice in the LORD,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
The LORD God is my strength;
He will make my feet like deer’s [feet,]
And He will make me walk on my high hills.
I could completely identify with Habakkuk but praising the Lord was the last thing I wanted to do. I felt hurt by Him, almost abandoned because He seemed to care only for His ‘special’ people and not for me. However, I felt a tug in my spirit, which I knew was the Holy Spirit, prompting me to praise. I simply did not want to and was not going to.
To make matters worse, the 19th verse ended with the following instructions: “To the Chief Musician. With my stringed instruments.” Singing to the Lord seemed to be the most detestable thing to me at that moment, that too singing a song of faith.
While wallowing in this quagmire of self pity and seething hatred towards God, He sent someone from the church to visit me. I figured I was going to hear a grand lecture on faith, but instead this brother poured out his miseries to me. The guy had issues!
The last thing I wanted was the burden of someone else’s problems, but I could see that he was at the end of his rope, and felt compassion for him.
Then it occurred to me that I knew the solution to his problem: Habakkuk 3:17-19. :)
As I started to read it out to him, I heard the accuser of the brethren call me a hypocrite.
I was amazed to see how revived he became when I’d finished reading. So revived was he that praises poured forth from his lips.
Since all this was happening in Timbrels, my studio, he picked up my guitar, handed it over to me, and requested me to play and to worship.
The battle within me was never fiercer than when I took the guitar from his hands; part of me wanted to smash that guitar against the wall. Surprisingly, from deep within my being, arose this cry, this song. I grabbed the guitar and started to sing.
Words that flowed out of my mouth were the same verses I was struggling with earlier from Habakkuk. When I had sung that, the contents of my heart seemed to flow out in song, in perfect metre and rhyme, but mixed with strong faith. I felt it was the Holy Spirit singing through me.
The studio was filled with an awesome presence of the Lord. We worshipped for over three hours. He went home revived. My life was forever changed, never again to be plagued by loneliness and the despair of feeling abandoned by God.
God’s solution to Habakkuk’s problem and to mine was this:
- Write down the vision. It will certainly happen.
- Sing a hymn of faith.
- Rejoice in the Lord. Take joy in the God of my salvation!
- Live by faith in the One whose righteous purposes shall be fulfilled in an unrighteous world when one day all the earth shall keep silence before Him.
Sometimes our own will and emotions can be the biggest hindrance to our experiencing God’s breakthrough in our lives. It is at these times that we bring to remembrance what God said in Habakkuk 2:4 “The just shall live by his faith.”
If you are interested in hearing a recording of the song, it is here.
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Though recorded over thirteen years ago, it still encourages many.
Blessings.