Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction - The Nature of Prayer

Have you ever stopped to think of prayer and what prayer is?

Prayer is simple.

It is communication.

There is a sense in which if you can communicate with your spouse, or with a friend or a sibling, then prayer is something you can do, because it is communication with God.

There is a simplicity to it where God invites us to come and talk with Him.

While prayer is simple, there is also a seriousness to prayer.

Prayer is simple enough for a child to talk with God with his or her own limited vocabulary, to pour their little hearts out to God.

But prayer is also complex enough to cause the most educated man to struggle with the right words to say as he seeks to approach a holy and righteous God.

This is where we find Habakkuk.

In Chapter 1, we find Habakkuk coming before God and letting loose his feelings and his complaints to God about the desperate situation he finds himself in.

But here in Chapter 3, Habakkuk’s posture and tone changes before God.

As we look at his prayer, we see that it is more than him just letting loose his words and emotions.

Here he is carefully writing down his prayer in a thoughtful and calculated way.

We as Baptists tend to reel against the idea of planning out and writing out prayers.

There is prayer that is spontaneous and communication takes place in the moment.

But there are also forms of communication that takes careful thought and planning.

Writing a letter to your love while you are apart, does not make that communication less meaningful because it is not spontaneous.

Often, it can make it much more meaningful because of the careful thought it takes to craft the words and thoughts in just the right way.

Habakkuk has written down this prayer of faith in the form of a song or poem for the people of God to sing together.

There is great thought and faith and meaning pouring forth through this prayer that you and I can learn from as we seek to relate to God ourselves.

Read Habakkuk 3:1-16

Habakkuk 3:1–16 (ESV)

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth.

O Lord, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O Lord, do I fear.

In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.

God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran.

Selah

His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise.

His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his power.

Before him went pestilence, and plague followed at his heels.

He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low.

His were the everlasting ways.

I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble.

Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord? Was your anger against the rivers, or your indignation against the sea, when you rode on your horses, on your chariot of salvation?

You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows.

Selah

You split the earth with rivers.

The mountains saw you and writhed; the raging waters swept on; the deep gave forth its voice; it lifted its hands on high.

The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped, at the flash of your glittering spear.

You marched through the earth in fury; you threshed the nations in anger.

You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed.

You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck.

Selah

You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret.

You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters.

I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me.

Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.

I. Praying in Humility (v. 2, 16)

First, we note humility in Habakkuk’s prayer of faith here in chapter three.

If we compare this prayer with the two prayers in chapter one, we can note a significant difference in how Habakkuk approaches God here.

In Habakkuk 1, he asks, “how long shall I cry for help and you will not hear?”

Why won’t you do anything God?

Why are you silent?

In his second prayer, he asks, “why do you idly look at traitors and remain silent when the wicked swallows up the man more righteous than he?”

Now, these aren’t bad prayers to pray when we are struggling with what is going around us.

God invites us into His presence and He wants us to present our requests to Him and to be honest with Him about our feelings and thoughts.

Habakkuk, however, has come a long way since the Lord’s second answer to his complaints.

Now he says, “I have heard of you and your work and in you do I fear.”

Or stand in awe and reverence of who You are and what You have done.

And then even in Habakkuk 3:16

Habakkuk 3:16 (ESV)

I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me.

Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.

What has happened?

Habakkuk was able to shift his eyes from himself and his situation to God.

Often times, what we perceive as silence or inaction from God is simply the fact that we have kept our eyes focused on the wrong direction.

We are looking at ourselves or on other people instead of directing them to God and looking at what He is doing.

Habakkuk has learned to humble himself and realize life isn’t ultimately about himself or about his people in Judah.

Humility is not thinking less of yourself.

Humility is thinking of yourself less and thinking of others more.

Biblical humility is thinking of yourself less and keeping your focus on God.

Habakkuk has come to this point of realization in his life.

He is now focused on God and sees that He is working and active in the world and he is even accepting of what God has chosen to do.

II.

Praising God’s Glory (v. 2, 3-15)

Habakkuk’s humility leads to him acknowledging God’s glory.

What is glory?

Glory is the display of someone’s worth and magnificence.

Literally, in Hebrew, glory means weight.

Habakkuk, as he focuses on who God is and what He is doing sees the weight and the worthiness of God and he begins to worship the Lord in this prayer of faith.

In fact, the term worship, comes from the idea of worth-ship.

We worship whatever we believe has the greatest worth, value, or weightiness in life.

When we get our eyes off of ourselves and place it on God, we begin to see His weightiness and His Worthiness for our Worship.

Again, Habakkuk writes, I have heard of you and your work do I fear.

I stand in awe and amazement of who You are and what You have done.

And then in verses 3-15 he recounts God’s display of power and salvation for His people.

He does his recounting of God’s glory and of His faithfulness, not in the most obvious ways, but in some of the most poetic ways possible.

In verse 3, he speaks of God coming from Teman and from Mount Paran.

These are references to the area of Sinai and recounting how God met with His people there at Mt. Sinai.

And His splendor covered the heavens and the earth was full of his praise.

His brightness was like the light and rays flashed from his hand.

Habakkuk is referring to the Shekinah glory of God, both in how God led His people through the wilderness in the cloud by day and the fire by night and also how God’s presence covered the mountain as Moses went up to meet with him.

God’s presence was so powerful and overwhelming that the people begged for Moses to meet with God on their behalf because they knew that being in the presence of this powerful God would mean their destruction.

We see Habakkuk recount God’s display of His glory as he brought the plagues upon Egypt and His power over all the earth.

In verse 8 he recounts God dividing the Red Sea in the rescue of His people and in verse 11, Habakkuk remember’s God salvation for His people when the sun stood still for the day as God gave victory to Joshua and the people over their enemies.

This is a song and prayer of praise and worship as Habakkuk remembers that God has been very active in the life of His people, faithfully bringing salvation to them.

So God has never been silent or inactive.

He has always worked for the good of His people.

Habakkuk is praising God for His glory and faithfulness.