Joy in desperate circumstances

In the middle of desperate circumstances faith cannot only persist and endure, but can actually rejoice. You may know me well enough to know I would not preach that on my own unless I found that in the Scriptures. But it is there, and you cannot avoid it. That is what he does. After all of that in Habakkuk 3:17—the fig tree does not blossom, no fruit on the vines, the produce of the olive has failed, the fields have been ravaged, the flocks have been cut off, and there is not cattle in the stalls—yet I will exult in Yahweh; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. It is a very direct contrast; it is a nevertheless. It is the same kind of situation you have in some of the Psalms, isn’t it? For instance, in Psalm 13:5 the psalmist goes through all his troubles and all that is overwhelming him, and then he says (it is translated in various ways): but as for me, I trust in your steadfast love. It is the same sort of thing here. It is an emphatic I, yet I will exult in Yahweh.

Now please notice what he is doing. This is not merely resignation; this is not merely endurance; this is not stoicism. What do I mean by that? Well, stoicism is an attitude that says, grit and bear it. That is not what he is saying. Nor is he saying, well, this too shall pass. It is not that kind of attitude. It is a positive rejoicing in his God! Notice the location of his joy: I will exult in Yahweh; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. Notice what he does. He rejoices in the One who cannot be taken away from him. The God who has said to him, I will be your God, is the one possession he still has, and he says, I will exult in Yahweh. In other words, Habakkuk was anticipating coming into what we might call a Levite situation. There was a special thing about the tribe of Levi. They were not to have any real estate. All other tribes got parcels of plots of land given to them in the land of Palestine, once it was conquered, but the Levites were not allowed to have any land. They were the ones who were to furnish the priests and the assistants to serve in the tabernacle in the worship center. And so they were allotted cities to live in, but they were to have no land at all. As it says in Joshua 13:33 is but to the tribe of Levi, Moses gave no inheritance; Yahweh, the God of Israel, is their inheritance. The tribe of Levi was to be deprived of any land or real estate, because their real inheritance was the real God himself. Yahweh is their inheritance.¹

Ralph Davis