WEBVTT 00:00:00.640 --> 00:00:03.760 Wildly waving from the back, don't forget to turn on the mic. 00:00:06.960 --> 00:00:15.259 Surely you have observed and likely experienced that it's not that hard to rejoice when things 00:00:15.259 --> 00:00:15.880 are going well. 00:00:16.859 --> 00:00:25.080 When the waters we sail upon are smooth, no towering wave or fierce tempest disturbs the 00:00:25.080 --> 00:00:27.420 tranquility of our life voyage. 00:00:27.420 --> 00:00:30.100 All is calm and pleasant. 00:00:31.060 --> 00:00:33.940 The sun shines gently upon us. 00:00:34.520 --> 00:00:37.939 The horizon is bright and beckoning before us. 00:00:38.420 --> 00:00:42.760 And behind, our silvery wake is straight. 00:00:43.859 --> 00:00:52.320 How easy, then, to weave a garland of praise to our God, drawn from the many flowers a kind 00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:56.079 providence has amply strewn along our path. 00:00:56.079 --> 00:01:03.920 Little surprise that under such conditions, songs of thanksgiving float aloft. 00:01:04.840 --> 00:01:06.159 It's quite to be expected. 00:01:07.219 --> 00:01:10.439 But listen to this. 00:01:10.439 --> 00:01:19.159 I find it one of the highest notes struck in the music of faith throughout the entire 00:01:19.159 --> 00:01:20.219 Old Testament. 00:01:20.959 --> 00:01:24.939 It's on page 739 of your pew Bibles. 00:01:24.939 --> 00:01:34.299 Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit beyond the vines, the produce of the olive fail, 00:01:34.900 --> 00:01:37.700 and the fields yield no fruit. 00:01:38.200 --> 00:01:43.500 The flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stalls. 00:01:44.780 --> 00:01:48.299 Yet I will rejoice in the Lord. 00:01:48.299 --> 00:01:53.359 I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 00:01:54.439 --> 00:01:59.159 I wonder if you feel the heaviness of those conditions. 00:02:00.399 --> 00:02:08.719 Are there more dreary, disastrous, disconsolate circumstances to be imagined in an agrarian society? 00:02:08.719 --> 00:02:16.319 Loss, famine, and death mantles all like a shroud. 00:02:17.639 --> 00:02:26.819 And yet, in the midst of the outward rubble and ruin of shattered hopes and aching loss, 00:02:28.039 --> 00:02:31.479 what was the speaker Habakkuk's inner condition? 00:02:31.479 --> 00:02:33.560 It's exultant. 00:02:34.299 --> 00:02:35.479 He's rejoicing. 00:02:36.560 --> 00:02:44.539 God had somehow imparted to him a tensile strength, an indefatigable buoyancy. 00:02:45.739 --> 00:02:47.019 Here's how he describes it. 00:02:48.319 --> 00:02:55.699 He makes my feet like the deer's and makes me to tread on my high places. 00:02:56.859 --> 00:02:57.879 What a picture. 00:02:57.879 --> 00:03:03.900 What were the high places in Hebrew imagery and imaginary? 00:03:04.799 --> 00:03:08.259 Well, for one, it was terrain that was very difficult. 00:03:09.299 --> 00:03:13.979 The dangerous, perilous, slippery, precipitous places. 00:03:14.719 --> 00:03:18.060 Places where it was very easy to stumble and fall. 00:03:18.919 --> 00:03:22.759 But also, you remember, as the Israelites dispossessed the Canaanites, 00:03:22.759 --> 00:03:27.120 the high places were the last places to be conquered. 00:03:27.879 --> 00:03:29.919 The hardest to attain. 00:03:30.979 --> 00:03:35.199 And God had strengthened Habakkuk to mount to these heights. 00:03:35.859 --> 00:03:40.539 The last place to attain in our upward climb of maturity. 00:03:41.579 --> 00:03:45.659 The places where, without maturity, we would surely stumble. 00:03:46.719 --> 00:03:51.699 Places dangerous and difficult to an adolescent faith. 00:03:51.699 --> 00:03:59.259 Yet, such places, Habakkuk was able to traverse with the feet of a deer. 00:04:00.319 --> 00:04:06.879 That is, sure-footedly, with secure step, unfaltering. 00:04:07.979 --> 00:04:15.879 But not only that, for a deer's foot, a deer's feet, also communicates, is it not, a lightness. 00:04:15.879 --> 00:04:20.939 There's a lighthearted spring to a deer's cadence. 00:04:20.939 --> 00:04:22.500 Even a skipping. 00:04:22.500 --> 00:04:32.240 So, together, these metaphors communicate a capacity to navigate the hardest, most challenging places 00:04:32.240 --> 00:04:37.300 of deep life sorrow. 00:04:37.300 --> 00:04:43.060 And a deep and lighthearted joyfulness. 00:04:43.060 --> 00:04:49.660 All that with a sure-footed faith and an unfaltering trust. 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:54.939 Even a deep and lighthearted joyfulness. 00:04:54.939 --> 00:05:05.779 That, sisters and brothers, is a good measure of what it means to have Christian maturity. 00:05:06.719 --> 00:05:14.220 The ability to hold together the most harrowing and hollowing of circumstances 00:05:14.220 --> 00:05:20.659 with an immovable and joyful trust in God. 00:05:20.660 --> 00:05:24.160 Habakkuk had gained it. 00:05:24.720 --> 00:05:30.100 Oh, and it was a beautiful, sparkling thing to be desired. 00:05:31.040 --> 00:05:32.500 How did he get there? 00:05:33.020 --> 00:05:35.360 And how may we? 00:05:36.500 --> 00:05:42.100 Now, of course, in asking how did he get there, we're acknowledging that the prophet was not there 00:05:42.100 --> 00:05:42.820 from the start. 00:05:43.560 --> 00:05:47.260 Reaching the high places requires an ascent. 00:05:47.259 --> 00:05:48.259 Reaching the high places. 00:05:48.259 --> 00:05:55.680 We're encountering him upon the peak, but a process is involved in being able truly to say, 00:05:55.779 --> 00:05:58.500 even in the midst of pain and sorrow and unanswered questions, 00:05:59.159 --> 00:06:02.639 he has made my feet like the deer's feet. 00:06:03.719 --> 00:06:06.759 And notice in our text, it is God. 00:06:06.939 --> 00:06:08.879 God has made me thus. 00:06:09.519 --> 00:06:15.339 It was not so with me before God's gracious dealings of which I hear testify. 00:06:15.339 --> 00:06:20.799 So let's go back to the beginning and see where Habakkuk starts out. 00:06:22.679 --> 00:06:28.159 Habakkuk begins his testimony in the valley of distress and perplexity. 00:06:28.859 --> 00:06:33.259 Perhaps a very brief word on Habakkuk's historical context might be helpful. 00:06:33.959 --> 00:06:39.699 After good King Josiah's revival and the blessing and hopefulness that sprang from it, 00:06:39.699 --> 00:06:48.899 then bad King Jehoiakim, his successor, reverses all of the gains and the nation sank into a deep 00:06:48.899 --> 00:06:52.779 and dismal pit of idolatry and social evil. 00:06:53.959 --> 00:07:00.219 And this grieved the prophet's heart and energized his pleas to God to intervene. 00:07:01.259 --> 00:07:05.259 In Hebrew, the book is named The Burden of Habakkuk. 00:07:05.259 --> 00:07:12.240 And this woeful declension of the people of God into national ungodliness and unrighteousness 00:07:12.240 --> 00:07:15.939 comprised much of that burden which weighed so heavily on him. 00:07:16.699 --> 00:07:22.719 And you will notice another part of that burden was his cries to God to intervene 00:07:22.719 --> 00:07:26.599 seemed to fall on deaf ears. 00:07:26.599 --> 00:07:27.599 Verse 2. 00:07:27.600 --> 00:07:36.420 God's non-intervention and seeming indifference was perplexing to the prophet, even agonizing, 00:07:37.000 --> 00:07:40.140 and a source of tortured wrestling. 00:07:41.200 --> 00:07:47.660 In this respect, his name was rather fitting, for in Hebrew, Habakkuk means embracer. 00:07:47.660 --> 00:07:56.260 Not in the sense of a nice hug, but in the sense of grappling, like a wrestler, like Jacob wrestling 00:07:56.260 --> 00:07:58.120 with the angel at Jabbok. 00:07:58.939 --> 00:08:05.740 And indeed, we might think of the question marks at the end of the opening staccato questions, 00:08:06.060 --> 00:08:11.040 like grappling hooks, clinging with ferocity to God's face. 00:08:11.260 --> 00:08:14.180 I will not let you go until you answer me. 00:08:14.180 --> 00:08:20.860 Let's briefly consider the source of the prophet's painful perplexity. 00:08:21.860 --> 00:08:29.480 It had its source in a conflict of his theology with his experience. 00:08:29.740 --> 00:08:32.720 What he believed and what he saw. 00:08:33.299 --> 00:08:38.000 A collision between his convictions and the conditions. 00:08:39.000 --> 00:08:42.659 I believe you care, God, but you seem indifferent. 00:08:42.659 --> 00:08:47.240 I know you as active, but you seem idle. 00:08:48.379 --> 00:08:53.019 And such collisions are part of a common pattern for the believer. 00:08:54.379 --> 00:09:02.779 We begin our adult life, our journey through, we kind of put together a rough and ready theology. 00:09:03.339 --> 00:09:04.919 Our orientation, if you will. 00:09:04.959 --> 00:09:08.220 The categories for processing the world that we encounter. 00:09:08.220 --> 00:09:15.800 Perhaps this framework is the fruit of a childhood of Sunday schools, a diet of good weekly sermons, 00:09:16.399 --> 00:09:19.779 maybe a favorite podcast, a devotional book. 00:09:20.600 --> 00:09:25.519 And this has, so far, served us well, or well enough. 00:09:26.379 --> 00:09:30.220 There's a settledness to our Christian life. 00:09:30.220 --> 00:09:42.840 But then there comes into our settled lives a great unsettling that strains the categories of our framework. 00:09:43.100 --> 00:09:47.000 They no longer seem adequate to cope with this new reality. 00:09:47.000 --> 00:09:53.220 As to the puzzle of life, the shape of the piece that we've just had put in our hand, 00:09:53.639 --> 00:09:58.620 it doesn't seem to fit the space in our puzzle that we've so far constructed it. 00:09:58.620 --> 00:10:08.460 The scripts of our hopes that we've so tenderly and fondly composed are returned to us, 00:10:09.060 --> 00:10:10.600 savagely edited. 00:10:11.120 --> 00:10:15.779 And we protest, no, don't strike out that phrase. 00:10:16.019 --> 00:10:18.320 I'm so fond of that phrase. 00:10:19.179 --> 00:10:23.039 Like Peter, we cry out in pain and incomprehension. 00:10:23.360 --> 00:10:25.019 May it never be, Lord. 00:10:25.019 --> 00:10:28.799 Well, this is where we find the prophet. 00:10:29.759 --> 00:10:33.720 Faced with unsettling disorientation. 00:10:34.419 --> 00:10:35.939 Why do you make me see iniquity? 00:10:36.679 --> 00:10:39.139 Why do you idly look at wrong? 00:10:39.259 --> 00:10:39.779 Verse 3. 00:10:40.779 --> 00:10:43.299 This is not what I thought you to be. 00:10:43.960 --> 00:10:46.340 These are not your ways as I know you. 00:10:47.879 --> 00:10:49.579 This is where the prophet was. 00:10:50.240 --> 00:10:51.419 I wonder if you've been there. 00:10:52.120 --> 00:10:53.259 Are you there? 00:10:53.259 --> 00:10:58.000 Have you ever said in the agony of a broken heart, 00:10:58.319 --> 00:11:00.980 Oh, no, Lord, not this. 00:11:01.879 --> 00:11:03.919 A great unsettling. 00:11:04.620 --> 00:11:06.279 It has many faces. 00:11:07.120 --> 00:11:08.759 A loss of a spouse. 00:11:10.220 --> 00:11:11.720 An empty chair. 00:11:12.720 --> 00:11:14.279 Around the family hearth. 00:11:15.639 --> 00:11:17.080 A lonely singleness. 00:11:17.080 --> 00:11:19.820 A lonely marriage. 00:11:20.700 --> 00:11:21.820 A lost job. 00:11:23.040 --> 00:11:23.960 Broken health. 00:11:26.460 --> 00:11:32.120 Maybe the unsettling is not a dramatic wrenching loss. 00:11:33.120 --> 00:11:37.420 But a slow, ceaseless erosion. 00:11:37.419 --> 00:11:38.679 The quiet accumulation. 00:11:38.679 --> 00:11:46.779 The quiet accumulation of disappointment scattered across the landscape of your life. 00:11:46.779 --> 00:11:56.799 Like the trail of cherished belongings discarded from the covered wagons as they head west over the Rockies. 00:11:56.799 --> 00:12:02.959 If you're yet a stranger to this, well, congratulations, but it won't last long. 00:12:02.960 --> 00:12:11.879 The ascent to the summit of Christian maturity is going to be one of repeated unsettling. 00:12:11.879 --> 00:12:17.139 We really can't be spared this path to reach the heights. 00:12:17.700 --> 00:12:23.080 A good and loving God will not save us from these things. 00:12:23.580 --> 00:12:28.200 But he will, as he did with Habakkuk, save us through them. 00:12:28.740 --> 00:12:29.960 To the other side. 00:12:29.960 --> 00:12:37.220 Where there will be a fuller, a deeper, and an enlarged resettling. 00:12:37.940 --> 00:12:39.940 So this is our errand for this morning. 00:12:40.400 --> 00:12:48.240 To follow the prophet on his pathway to the high places of a joyful resettledness. 00:12:48.240 --> 00:12:55.860 And I want us to attend four motions critical to this journey of ascent. 00:12:55.860 --> 00:13:01.539 Habakkuk 1 processes before God. 00:13:02.340 --> 00:13:06.860 He 2 proceeds from foundations. 00:13:07.680 --> 00:13:12.159 He 3 posts himself patiently. 00:13:13.159 --> 00:13:18.720 And he 4 he pushes from head to heart. 00:13:19.320 --> 00:13:23.200 So think of it, if you will, as four movements of a symphony. 00:13:23.200 --> 00:13:30.780 So first, Habakkuk processes before God. 00:13:32.420 --> 00:13:39.280 Oh, sisters and brothers, this is vital in the midst of our pain and perplexity. 00:13:39.940 --> 00:13:41.840 To pour it out before the Lord. 00:13:42.680 --> 00:13:45.000 And this is just what Habakkuk does. 00:13:45.340 --> 00:13:49.100 He brings his questions and his confusions to God. 00:13:49.300 --> 00:13:51.680 He doesn't bury them or let them smolder. 00:13:51.679 --> 00:13:54.779 He addresses God directly. 00:13:55.799 --> 00:14:02.279 There's even an unrehearsed, unvarnished, even raw quality to his address. 00:14:03.199 --> 00:14:07.419 His opening words burst forth from frustration and bafflement. 00:14:07.919 --> 00:14:08.899 How long? 00:14:09.079 --> 00:14:09.500 Verse 2. 00:14:09.659 --> 00:14:10.759 Why do you? 00:14:10.899 --> 00:14:11.519 Verse 3. 00:14:12.079 --> 00:14:15.099 But unmistakably, Habakkuk is pouring out his heart. 00:14:15.100 --> 00:14:19.639 And this is always the very best first aid. 00:14:20.279 --> 00:14:22.399 Just go straight to God. 00:14:23.180 --> 00:14:26.940 Go to him and empty the pockets of your heart. 00:14:27.659 --> 00:14:30.120 Even if you're not quite sure what's in those pockets. 00:14:30.320 --> 00:14:32.019 Just empty them before him. 00:14:33.080 --> 00:14:36.800 Now, perhaps this doesn't sound very godly or pious to some of us. 00:14:36.799 --> 00:14:39.919 But I bet you we're mistaken in that. 00:14:41.000 --> 00:14:50.039 Because the Bible is littered with emotive whys that tumble out of the mouths of the godly. 00:14:50.339 --> 00:14:54.579 Like Moses or Job or even Jesus from the cross. 00:14:54.580 --> 00:15:01.580 God can hold the jagged brokenness of our hearts. 00:15:02.800 --> 00:15:07.900 And even when we find ourselves in pain and anger lashing out, 00:15:08.720 --> 00:15:12.740 remember that we, his sons and his daughters, 00:15:12.740 --> 00:15:20.060 we beat at his chest from within the circle of his arms. 00:15:20.059 --> 00:15:26.859 Over the years, I'm increasingly seeing the profundity of C.S. Lewis' remark 00:15:26.859 --> 00:15:31.339 that we should bring to God what is in us. 00:15:31.939 --> 00:15:34.000 Not what ought to be. 00:15:35.539 --> 00:15:40.419 You see, it's possible to trust and to struggle at the same time. 00:15:41.319 --> 00:15:43.539 I mean, who among us has not echoed, 00:15:44.219 --> 00:15:45.199 Lord, I believe. 00:15:45.599 --> 00:15:46.879 Help my unbelief. 00:15:46.879 --> 00:15:51.840 And though we may stagger, we stagger in following. 00:15:53.740 --> 00:15:58.939 From his opening word, Habakkuk just hammers out his pain and perplexity 00:15:58.939 --> 00:16:03.320 on the anvil of his covenant God in dialogue. 00:16:03.600 --> 00:16:04.939 Ever in dialogue. 00:16:05.419 --> 00:16:07.639 And you know, when we're in dialogue with God, 00:16:07.939 --> 00:16:10.860 we are on the right path. 00:16:10.860 --> 00:16:17.180 So where are you in this matter of your pain and perplexity? 00:16:17.820 --> 00:16:23.480 Are there pockets of your heart that you need to empty before his presence? 00:16:24.580 --> 00:16:27.039 Let your prayers, like Habakkuk's, 00:16:27.279 --> 00:16:31.360 be wrung from the debris of your broken hopes, 00:16:31.800 --> 00:16:35.100 your scuttled dreams, and your tormenting tragedies. 00:16:35.100 --> 00:16:38.980 What is presently churning up your peace? 00:16:40.320 --> 00:16:42.440 As when you were a child, remember, 00:16:42.600 --> 00:16:47.180 you immediately took your bumps and your scratches right to dad or mom. 00:16:48.500 --> 00:16:52.080 Similarly, take your wounds and aches straight away 00:16:52.080 --> 00:16:55.540 and as you are to your covenant God. 00:16:56.259 --> 00:16:59.440 He'll know what you need, and he will never withhold it. 00:16:59.440 --> 00:17:04.480 Process your pain and perplexity before God. 00:17:05.620 --> 00:17:08.799 Also vital in Habakkuk's ascent, 00:17:09.740 --> 00:17:12.180 in his anguish and disorientation, 00:17:12.440 --> 00:17:16.320 he proceeds from foundations. 00:17:17.259 --> 00:17:20.440 And we've observed that Habakkuk's perplexity and disorientation 00:17:20.440 --> 00:17:24.059 came from the collision of his theology and his experience. 00:17:24.320 --> 00:17:26.259 What he believed and what he saw. 00:17:26.259 --> 00:17:30.500 Why are you allowing all this violence, iniquity, and injustice 00:17:30.500 --> 00:17:32.279 to prevail among your people? 00:17:32.420 --> 00:17:33.359 Don't you care? 00:17:33.519 --> 00:17:34.420 Don't you see? 00:17:35.400 --> 00:17:36.420 And God answers him, 00:17:36.920 --> 00:17:40.259 No, I'm not ignoring the oppression and injustice 00:17:40.259 --> 00:17:42.740 and the unlawlessness which surrounds you. 00:17:42.980 --> 00:17:44.700 I will judge Judah. 00:17:45.400 --> 00:17:47.000 In fact, verse 5, 00:17:47.660 --> 00:17:50.039 I'm doing something in your days. 00:17:50.559 --> 00:17:53.440 I'm raising up the Chaldeans, the Babylonians, 00:17:53.440 --> 00:17:55.359 as my instruments of judgment. 00:17:56.359 --> 00:18:00.439 Now, this didn't resolve matters for Habakkuk. 00:18:00.659 --> 00:18:02.679 I mean, now he was even more confused. 00:18:03.359 --> 00:18:07.559 You're using the Chaldeans to punish your people? 00:18:07.919 --> 00:18:10.679 I mean, as much as Judah is deserving of punishment, 00:18:11.159 --> 00:18:13.059 Babylon is far worse. 00:18:13.159 --> 00:18:13.839 Verse 13, 00:18:14.740 --> 00:18:18.299 Now Habakkuk has a more disturbing providence to deal with 00:18:18.299 --> 00:18:19.919 than the first troubling providence. 00:18:19.920 --> 00:18:24.960 Now, the Gordian knot of his theology and his experience 00:18:24.960 --> 00:18:26.460 is even more inextricable. 00:18:27.920 --> 00:18:30.920 He's even more confused in theological vertigo. 00:18:31.840 --> 00:18:32.480 Verse 12, 00:18:32.920 --> 00:18:39.019 Oh, Lord, you have ordained them as a judgment? 00:18:39.019 --> 00:18:43.960 You who are of purer eyes than to see evil? 00:18:46.639 --> 00:18:52.059 So, what does Habakkuk do in this really unsettled state 00:18:52.059 --> 00:18:52.759 of his framework? 00:18:53.759 --> 00:18:57.000 Something very wise. 00:18:57.000 --> 00:19:00.380 He goes back to the foundations, 00:19:00.380 --> 00:19:01.960 to first principles, 00:19:02.220 --> 00:19:04.720 and proceeds from there. 00:19:05.759 --> 00:19:08.460 When we feel the torque of incongruity 00:19:08.460 --> 00:19:11.140 between what we believe and what we see, 00:19:11.839 --> 00:19:14.180 it's helpful to lay out 00:19:14.180 --> 00:19:16.319 and to remind ourselves afresh 00:19:16.319 --> 00:19:19.660 of what things we are absolutely certain. 00:19:19.660 --> 00:19:22.320 However, strangely, 00:19:22.519 --> 00:19:24.140 some of these pieces of the puzzle 00:19:24.140 --> 00:19:25.980 seem to be falling into place. 00:19:26.900 --> 00:19:31.840 I'm absolutely sure of these corner pieces. 00:19:35.840 --> 00:19:39.940 Here, at least, I have firm ground, 00:19:40.420 --> 00:19:43.800 solid mounds amidst the sinking morass. 00:19:44.240 --> 00:19:45.779 And this is what the prophet does. 00:19:46.500 --> 00:19:48.420 He proceeds from foundations. 00:19:48.420 --> 00:19:50.279 Verse 12, 00:19:51.779 --> 00:19:54.019 Are you not from everlasting? 00:19:55.100 --> 00:19:57.940 In the midst of the vicissitudes and flux of time, 00:19:58.240 --> 00:19:59.980 it's deeply reassuring 00:19:59.980 --> 00:20:03.720 that God is not caught up in this changeable current. 00:20:03.900 --> 00:20:05.060 He's above the flux. 00:20:06.920 --> 00:20:08.480 He reaffirms God's holiness. 00:20:09.300 --> 00:20:12.320 You are of purer eyes than to see evil. 00:20:13.300 --> 00:20:15.420 He rehearses God's names. 00:20:16.120 --> 00:20:18.259 Holy One, Rock, 00:20:18.259 --> 00:20:19.279 Each name, 00:20:19.519 --> 00:20:23.420 a Gibraltar on which we may pitch our hopes and our trust. 00:20:24.940 --> 00:20:25.200 And then, 00:20:25.519 --> 00:20:27.980 to assert his rightful claim 00:20:27.980 --> 00:20:29.900 upon these names and attributes, 00:20:30.119 --> 00:20:32.259 he uses God's covenant name, 00:20:32.539 --> 00:20:32.980 Jehovah. 00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:35.119 That precious possession 00:20:35.119 --> 00:20:36.980 passed down with the promise, 00:20:37.420 --> 00:20:38.779 I shall be your God 00:20:38.779 --> 00:20:41.400 and you shall be my people. 00:20:41.400 --> 00:20:48.320 This foundation promise is echoed in the possessive adjective Habakkuk uses. 00:20:48.759 --> 00:20:50.019 My Holy One, 00:20:50.440 --> 00:20:51.620 my God. 00:20:53.200 --> 00:20:55.160 Are you beset with problems? 00:20:55.820 --> 00:20:57.360 Don't just look at the problems. 00:20:58.040 --> 00:21:01.519 Look at them through the lens of God's attributes. 00:21:01.519 --> 00:21:05.180 The name of the Lord is a strong tower. 00:21:05.559 --> 00:21:09.720 The righteous one runs into it and is safe. 00:21:10.720 --> 00:21:13.200 Do you know how to do this practically? 00:21:13.200 --> 00:21:15.819 To go back to your foundations? 00:21:16.539 --> 00:21:18.100 And only God, 00:21:18.180 --> 00:21:18.880 only in God, 00:21:18.980 --> 00:21:20.720 do we have a sure foundation. 00:21:20.920 --> 00:21:21.080 You know, 00:21:21.140 --> 00:21:21.860 as Isaiah asked, 00:21:21.940 --> 00:21:23.059 is there any other rock? 00:21:23.860 --> 00:21:24.400 No. 00:21:25.860 --> 00:21:28.900 We desperately need these foundations. 00:21:29.460 --> 00:21:32.319 For life is an earthquake zone. 00:21:32.319 --> 00:21:32.899 I mean, 00:21:32.960 --> 00:21:33.879 haven't you noticed? 00:21:34.939 --> 00:21:36.059 In 1999, 00:21:36.299 --> 00:21:37.379 the Taiwan earthquake, 00:21:37.960 --> 00:21:41.339 in that 50,000 buildings toppled. 00:21:42.559 --> 00:21:46.379 Post-earthquake analysis revealed that the buildings collapsed 00:21:46.379 --> 00:21:49.339 because the support structures of the foundations 00:21:49.339 --> 00:21:51.179 turned out to be not load-bearing. 00:21:52.419 --> 00:21:57.519 Instead of the required reinforced cement due to corruption, 00:21:57.519 --> 00:22:03.319 the cement had been substituted for empty plastic bottles 00:22:03.319 --> 00:22:05.799 and empty tin cans, 00:22:06.480 --> 00:22:09.480 resulting in a fatal flimsiness. 00:22:10.799 --> 00:22:13.019 What's your foundation made of? 00:22:13.660 --> 00:22:17.660 When the shock of earthquake comes into your life, 00:22:18.079 --> 00:22:19.519 will your foundation hold? 00:22:20.400 --> 00:22:25.339 Or does it fatally consist in the flimsiness of plastic bottles? 00:22:25.339 --> 00:22:27.879 Of course, 00:22:28.279 --> 00:22:30.000 Habakkuk proceeding from his foundations 00:22:30.000 --> 00:22:33.919 didn't mean that all of his questions were all answered 00:22:33.919 --> 00:22:36.399 and his confusion relieved. 00:22:36.659 --> 00:22:37.819 He still has questions, 00:22:38.179 --> 00:22:41.119 but notice what he does next. 00:22:42.179 --> 00:22:44.879 He puts his questions on hold. 00:22:45.740 --> 00:22:48.959 He stops pouring out his own words to God, 00:22:49.259 --> 00:22:54.619 and he sets himself to listen for God's words to him. 00:22:54.619 --> 00:22:56.559 Chapter 2, verse 1. 00:22:56.559 --> 00:22:59.779 I will take my stand at my watch post 00:22:59.779 --> 00:23:02.699 and station myself on the tower 00:23:02.699 --> 00:23:07.679 and look out to see what God says to me. 00:23:08.679 --> 00:23:12.259 This is the next movement in the Summit Bound Symphony. 00:23:12.979 --> 00:23:16.339 Habakkuk posts himself patiently. 00:23:17.699 --> 00:23:19.839 He takes his stand at his watch post. 00:23:20.159 --> 00:23:21.619 It's a powerful metaphor. 00:23:21.619 --> 00:23:26.639 Therefore, listen the way a watchman looks. 00:23:27.639 --> 00:23:29.559 Imagine a watchman atop his tower 00:23:29.559 --> 00:23:34.439 incessantly scanning the horizon for emotion of friend and foe, 00:23:34.859 --> 00:23:39.959 or perhaps gazing out intent to catch the first rays of light 00:23:39.959 --> 00:23:41.059 at the break of dawn. 00:23:41.059 --> 00:23:45.879 This is not a passive waiting. 00:23:46.500 --> 00:23:48.899 This is intensely active. 00:23:49.460 --> 00:23:50.539 I remember as a little boy, 00:23:50.839 --> 00:23:53.980 I watched the sheepdog competitions for the British Isles, 00:23:54.099 --> 00:23:57.659 and I will ever possess a picture of the posture 00:23:57.659 --> 00:24:00.279 of these champion sheepdogs. 00:24:01.279 --> 00:24:04.019 Eyes locked on their master, 00:24:04.819 --> 00:24:06.059 ears cocked, 00:24:06.059 --> 00:24:10.940 just straining to catch the first note of the voice of the master 00:24:10.940 --> 00:24:12.559 to release them on their errand. 00:24:13.259 --> 00:24:14.700 Ah, it was a thing of grandeur. 00:24:16.240 --> 00:24:19.779 And notice, Habakkuk stations himself at his post. 00:24:20.419 --> 00:24:21.919 Something you cannot leave. 00:24:22.339 --> 00:24:24.679 To do so would be a dereliction of duty. 00:24:24.680 --> 00:24:28.880 No, one stays at one's post as long as it's required. 00:24:30.400 --> 00:24:34.700 This active waiting on God requires patience 00:24:34.700 --> 00:24:37.960 for who knows how long we're going to have to wait. 00:24:38.700 --> 00:24:44.060 What we do know is that the timing of that wait is God appointed 00:24:44.060 --> 00:24:48.160 and therefore is always perfectly timed. 00:24:48.720 --> 00:24:50.279 God's timing is never tardy. 00:24:50.779 --> 00:24:53.660 We wait because the vision waits. 00:24:53.660 --> 00:24:54.340 Verse 3. 00:24:55.039 --> 00:24:58.100 The vision awaits its appointed time. 00:24:58.940 --> 00:25:02.460 Now, it's certainly hard to actively wait. 00:25:02.600 --> 00:25:04.539 I certainly find it hard, tremendously hard. 00:25:04.820 --> 00:25:06.240 Likely Habakkuk did too 00:25:06.240 --> 00:25:10.740 because God graciously reassures the waiting prophet. 00:25:11.700 --> 00:25:14.200 If it seems slow, wait for it. 00:25:14.779 --> 00:25:16.240 It will surely come. 00:25:16.500 --> 00:25:17.740 It will not delay. 00:25:18.880 --> 00:25:19.880 It's as if God is saying, 00:25:19.880 --> 00:25:22.720 hey, my word to you and your grief and perplexity 00:25:22.720 --> 00:25:24.860 only seems slow. 00:25:25.420 --> 00:25:26.420 But it really isn't. 00:25:26.980 --> 00:25:30.279 There is no unnecessary delay involved. 00:25:30.279 --> 00:25:32.639 In fact, it's hastening. 00:25:34.220 --> 00:25:37.339 Perhaps, in his wisdom, God holds our questions 00:25:37.339 --> 00:25:39.480 until we're ready for the answers. 00:25:40.299 --> 00:25:43.180 I mean, surely the wait is not needed for God 00:25:43.180 --> 00:25:44.980 to prepare the answers for us. 00:25:44.980 --> 00:25:49.339 Surely it's to prepare us for the answers. 00:25:49.339 --> 00:25:54.519 The inner wing must form in the chrysalis 00:25:54.519 --> 00:25:57.140 before the butterfly is released. 00:25:57.140 --> 00:26:03.860 I wonder how often I have found such active waiting just hard. 00:26:04.280 --> 00:26:07.020 And in my pain and frustration, I've left off. 00:26:07.980 --> 00:26:10.920 I just walked away before the appointed time. 00:26:10.920 --> 00:26:16.100 And I missed of the word that would have been spoken to me. 00:26:18.340 --> 00:26:22.820 What often takes us from our post of active waiting? 00:26:23.140 --> 00:26:25.660 Well, the text points two ways to two ways 00:26:25.660 --> 00:26:28.920 which we tend to abandon our watch post 00:26:28.920 --> 00:26:31.340 and miss of his message to us. 00:26:32.019 --> 00:26:33.860 One is pride, verse 4. 00:26:34.640 --> 00:26:35.460 I want the answer. 00:26:35.960 --> 00:26:38.960 I will judge of that answer as adequacy myself. 00:26:38.960 --> 00:26:40.180 And I want it now. 00:26:40.799 --> 00:26:43.840 And if, God, you don't act on my terms, I'm out of here. 00:26:46.920 --> 00:26:50.160 Well, I mean, it's a thick theme of Scripture 00:26:50.160 --> 00:26:53.980 that it is the humble that God delights to address. 00:26:54.900 --> 00:26:57.940 A second way we can abandon our post of actively waiting 00:26:57.940 --> 00:27:00.600 is through self-soothing. 00:27:01.640 --> 00:27:04.400 The pain of our condition is just so sorely felt. 00:27:04.700 --> 00:27:06.700 We feel like we have to deaden it somehow. 00:27:06.700 --> 00:27:09.180 And then we do, and it seems to help. 00:27:09.259 --> 00:27:11.640 At least the pain has helped a little bit. 00:27:11.980 --> 00:27:17.279 But it also deadens us to the attentiveness to God 00:27:17.279 --> 00:27:19.980 that our watchtower requires. 00:27:21.140 --> 00:27:24.559 The text mentions in verse 5 wine as the sedative. 00:27:24.799 --> 00:27:27.319 But there are other means of self-soothing. 00:27:28.640 --> 00:27:32.779 I don't know, food, shopping, binge watching, 00:27:32.779 --> 00:27:33.839 even exercise. 00:27:35.359 --> 00:27:36.819 But notice the evaluation. 00:27:37.700 --> 00:27:38.980 They are traitors. 00:27:39.859 --> 00:27:41.759 We think that they're helpful friends, 00:27:42.079 --> 00:27:45.879 but in fact they betray us and are harmful enemies. 00:27:47.279 --> 00:27:50.539 And perhaps the text indicates another soothing mechanism 00:27:50.539 --> 00:27:55.899 in the phrase, the man who is never at rest. 00:27:55.900 --> 00:27:58.700 Yeah, the Hebrew here is uncertain. 00:27:59.540 --> 00:28:03.640 But it certainly can be true that one way to distract from the pain 00:28:03.640 --> 00:28:09.780 is to just slap on the analgesic of incessant activity. 00:28:11.500 --> 00:28:14.800 And this, of course, is often the preferred choice of us church folk 00:28:14.800 --> 00:28:16.420 for busyness. 00:28:16.540 --> 00:28:18.700 It doesn't quite look as bad as besottedness. 00:28:18.700 --> 00:28:24.100 But the result is the same with respect to our watch post. 00:28:25.740 --> 00:28:31.900 So what then keeps us at our post in patient, attentive waiting? 00:28:32.759 --> 00:28:37.500 The answer is the contrasting center nestled between those two thieves 00:28:37.500 --> 00:28:38.759 of pride and self-soothing. 00:28:39.039 --> 00:28:39.700 Did you see it? 00:28:39.960 --> 00:28:42.519 The contrast is signaled with a but in verse 4. 00:28:43.200 --> 00:28:46.860 But the righteous shall live by faith. 00:28:46.859 --> 00:28:52.139 This was the word that came to him as he actively waited 00:28:52.139 --> 00:28:53.479 and listened at his post. 00:28:53.979 --> 00:28:57.159 How long he waited for that word, we don't know. 00:28:58.019 --> 00:28:59.559 Was it worth the wait? 00:29:01.319 --> 00:29:05.939 Does that word, I wonder, have a familiar ring to you? 00:29:06.299 --> 00:29:07.719 The just shall live by faith. 00:29:08.599 --> 00:29:11.899 This word given to Habakkuk as he waited 00:29:11.900 --> 00:29:18.460 would articulate a truth so fundamental in our relationship to God 00:29:18.460 --> 00:29:23.080 that it would become a gem set prominently 00:29:23.080 --> 00:29:28.019 in the New Testament books of Romans, Galatians, and Hebrews. 00:29:29.180 --> 00:29:34.019 It would have a spiritually powerful afterlife 00:29:34.019 --> 00:29:36.480 echoing down through the ages of the church, 00:29:36.780 --> 00:29:39.600 restoring, renewing, reforming God's people, 00:29:39.599 --> 00:29:41.899 wherever it was grasped and assimilated. 00:29:43.179 --> 00:29:44.980 I mean, surely a word like that, 00:29:45.039 --> 00:29:48.799 that's motivating for us to wait for the word. 00:29:50.659 --> 00:29:53.559 Now, again, this word didn't really answer 00:29:53.559 --> 00:29:55.319 all the questions Habakkuk had. 00:29:56.099 --> 00:29:59.299 But in a way, it was the answer. 00:29:59.879 --> 00:30:02.939 For it gave Habakkuk, and it gives to us, 00:30:02.940 --> 00:30:06.340 the fundamental disposition toward God, 00:30:07.120 --> 00:30:11.000 a looking to God in expectant trust. 00:30:12.120 --> 00:30:14.620 Anything other than that disposition in relation to God, 00:30:14.860 --> 00:30:16.180 the sovereign of the universe, 00:30:16.559 --> 00:30:18.059 is unsufferable pride 00:30:18.059 --> 00:30:22.320 and displays a gross distortion of soul, 00:30:23.120 --> 00:30:25.660 utterly out of touch with reality, as it says in 4. 00:30:25.660 --> 00:30:29.360 So this is the great watershed. 00:30:30.320 --> 00:30:32.600 Two fundamental dispositions toward God. 00:30:33.640 --> 00:30:35.880 Pride or faith. 00:30:37.160 --> 00:30:40.400 But how does one nurture faith? 00:30:42.460 --> 00:30:46.259 If the answer Habakkuk received from God was, 00:30:46.800 --> 00:30:47.660 trust me, 00:30:48.460 --> 00:30:53.680 how did Habakkuk achieve that unflinching tenacity of trust? 00:30:53.680 --> 00:30:56.460 How was it fashioned in him? 00:30:57.360 --> 00:30:59.580 So let's follow the prophet in this final, 00:30:59.840 --> 00:31:00.660 a relief to all, 00:31:00.860 --> 00:31:05.580 final movement in his ascending symphony. 00:31:06.200 --> 00:31:09.360 We've noticed the critical step of posturing himself 00:31:09.360 --> 00:31:11.779 on his watchtower in active waiting on God. 00:31:12.340 --> 00:31:14.740 So what is this active waiting, 00:31:15.279 --> 00:31:16.960 this active looking and listening? 00:31:17.320 --> 00:31:18.580 What form does it take? 00:31:18.779 --> 00:31:20.880 What was he actually doing? 00:31:21.519 --> 00:31:23.140 Well, chapter 3 gives us the answer. 00:31:23.140 --> 00:31:25.160 And don't miss this, 00:31:25.680 --> 00:31:26.820 for this is critical. 00:31:28.080 --> 00:31:32.259 He was rehearsing the report of God 00:31:32.259 --> 00:31:34.320 and his saving works. 00:31:34.520 --> 00:31:36.060 Verse 2 of chapter 3. 00:31:37.080 --> 00:31:40.860 I have heard the report of you and your work. 00:31:41.560 --> 00:31:42.740 What reports were these? 00:31:42.960 --> 00:31:45.820 Well, likely Moses' reports of the exodus from Egypt 00:31:45.820 --> 00:31:48.500 and the conquest of Canaan is preserved in the law. 00:31:48.500 --> 00:31:52.240 Or perhaps the psalms passed down used in temple worship, 00:31:52.559 --> 00:31:55.119 such as that wonderful narrative Psalm 136, 00:31:55.220 --> 00:31:55.819 the one with the refrain, 00:31:56.059 --> 00:31:57.539 his loving kindness is everlasting. 00:31:57.680 --> 00:31:59.039 His loving kindness is everlasting. 00:31:59.900 --> 00:32:02.339 And if you scan the first half of chapter 3, 00:32:02.440 --> 00:32:03.400 it confirms this. 00:32:04.279 --> 00:32:06.140 The subject of his musings were, 00:32:06.839 --> 00:32:08.019 verse 13 sums them up, 00:32:08.380 --> 00:32:12.480 God going forth for the salvation of his people. 00:32:12.480 --> 00:32:14.539 Verse 5. 00:32:14.940 --> 00:32:15.700 Pestilence and plague, 00:32:15.779 --> 00:32:17.740 that refers to the Egyptian escape. 00:32:18.220 --> 00:32:18.779 Verse 8. 00:32:19.099 --> 00:32:20.079 Wrath against the rivers, 00:32:20.200 --> 00:32:21.900 that's crossing the Red Sea and the Jordan. 00:32:22.400 --> 00:32:23.480 Verse 3, 7. 00:32:23.680 --> 00:32:25.220 Perrin, Cushion, Taman, Midian. 00:32:25.559 --> 00:32:27.259 Those are all wilderness wanderings. 00:32:28.099 --> 00:32:29.620 Now, Habakkuk was a prophet. 00:32:30.240 --> 00:32:32.839 I mean, this would not have been new information for him. 00:32:33.440 --> 00:32:36.220 We've noticed that he had a really solid theological foundation, 00:32:36.220 --> 00:32:41.660 but something is being added to his theological categories. 00:32:42.380 --> 00:32:44.259 As sound and precise as they were, 00:32:44.519 --> 00:32:47.279 something was being deeply stirred. 00:32:47.860 --> 00:32:50.960 For look at the effect upon him of these musings. 00:32:51.079 --> 00:32:51.500 Verse 2. 00:32:52.740 --> 00:32:54.519 I have heard the report of you, 00:32:55.519 --> 00:32:56.700 and I fear. 00:32:57.579 --> 00:32:58.039 Fear. 00:32:59.299 --> 00:33:04.779 There was an awful terror kindled in him. 00:33:04.779 --> 00:33:10.519 This was not the God contained in his tidy 00:33:10.519 --> 00:33:12.700 and tiny theological frameworks. 00:33:13.359 --> 00:33:16.639 This God exceeds the boundaries of our box. 00:33:16.920 --> 00:33:20.660 He bursts out of our headspace and ignites our heart. 00:33:21.940 --> 00:33:27.819 Here is no lion safely in a cage to perform pleasant tricks. 00:33:28.940 --> 00:33:31.740 As was once asked of another lion, 00:33:32.500 --> 00:33:33.879 is he quite safe? 00:33:34.779 --> 00:33:36.980 Safe, replied Mr. Beaver. 00:33:37.240 --> 00:33:39.139 Who said anything about safe? 00:33:39.680 --> 00:33:42.720 Of course he isn't safe, but he's good. 00:33:44.059 --> 00:33:47.460 What happened when Habakkuk listened from his ramparts? 00:33:48.379 --> 00:33:49.879 Verse 16 sums it up. 00:33:50.899 --> 00:33:53.680 I heard, and my inward parts trembled. 00:33:53.859 --> 00:33:55.539 My lips quiver at the sound. 00:33:55.879 --> 00:33:57.980 Rottenness enters into my bones. 00:33:58.399 --> 00:34:00.500 My legs tremble beneath me. 00:34:00.980 --> 00:34:02.139 What's going on here? 00:34:02.140 --> 00:34:04.820 He's encountering God. 00:34:04.820 --> 00:34:08.160 God is disclosing himself to him. 00:34:08.960 --> 00:34:13.460 God caused his splendor and power to press upon him, 00:34:13.640 --> 00:34:16.140 weigh heavily upon him, almost overwhelmingly. 00:34:16.599 --> 00:34:22.039 As he was meditating, the truth began to shine. 00:34:22.039 --> 00:34:32.320 The reality of his attributes, God pushes down from his head to his heart where they caught fire. 00:34:33.460 --> 00:34:37.360 As would happen centuries later to a Frenchman, 00:34:37.619 --> 00:34:41.179 his testimony was found at his death, sewn into his jacket pocket, 00:34:41.699 --> 00:34:42.000 read, 00:34:42.000 --> 00:34:45.460 from 1030 in the evening to half past midnight. 00:34:46.460 --> 00:34:46.860 Fire. 00:34:47.739 --> 00:34:50.559 The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob, 00:34:50.780 --> 00:34:52.599 not of the philosophers and the intellectuals. 00:34:53.280 --> 00:34:53.719 Certitude. 00:34:54.719 --> 00:34:55.159 Certitude. 00:34:56.280 --> 00:34:56.639 Feeling. 00:34:57.179 --> 00:34:57.579 Joy. 00:34:57.840 --> 00:34:58.179 Peace. 00:34:58.460 --> 00:34:59.639 The God of Jesus Christ. 00:35:00.139 --> 00:35:00.579 Joy. 00:35:01.099 --> 00:35:01.500 Joy. 00:35:01.860 --> 00:35:02.260 Joy. 00:35:02.780 --> 00:35:03.800 Tears of joy. 00:35:03.800 --> 00:35:07.280 Do you know anything of this? 00:35:08.240 --> 00:35:12.000 We can't linger over this experience of God pressing on Habakkuk, 00:35:12.240 --> 00:35:14.539 but let's grab at the hem of it as we pass. 00:35:15.660 --> 00:35:21.420 Notice, with God, even the overwhelming manifestation of his radiance is really a concealing. 00:35:21.900 --> 00:35:22.480 Verse 4. 00:35:22.740 --> 00:35:24.080 A veiling of his power. 00:35:24.620 --> 00:35:29.180 When God goes forth, even the great forces of nature reel at his power. 00:35:29.179 --> 00:35:34.940 And remember, earthquakes, storms, oceans were the greatest forces in the lives of the ancients, 00:35:35.199 --> 00:35:37.799 and in ours too, if we ever experience anything like that. 00:35:38.480 --> 00:35:44.379 But next to God's power, these superpowers convulse and cower. 00:35:45.239 --> 00:35:45.699 Verse 10. 00:35:45.799 --> 00:35:46.699 Mountains quake. 00:35:47.139 --> 00:35:48.779 Deep utters forth its voice. 00:35:48.940 --> 00:35:49.859 Lifts high its hand. 00:35:50.259 --> 00:35:52.259 Sun and moon stood in their places. 00:35:52.379 --> 00:35:52.980 Then they flee. 00:35:52.980 --> 00:36:02.219 The truly and the terribly impressive are utterly overshadowed and outclassed. 00:36:02.219 --> 00:36:03.900 The sun says, whoa, that's bright. 00:36:04.019 --> 00:36:07.059 The tornado in the typhoon, whoa, that's power. 00:36:08.920 --> 00:36:15.159 It was this encounter with God arising from his meditation that gave the prophet stability. 00:36:15.159 --> 00:36:22.960 You see, in order to reach the heights, Habakkuk needed to have the reality of God pushed down 00:36:22.960 --> 00:36:25.539 into the depths of his inner being. 00:36:26.199 --> 00:36:32.019 And that soul core kept him from collapsing when all around him collapsed. 00:36:33.139 --> 00:36:36.960 This is the very thing Psalm 1 promises to the one who meditates day and night. 00:36:37.500 --> 00:36:41.319 She's like a tree firmly rooted, not like chaff that the wind drives away. 00:36:41.899 --> 00:36:43.399 Why is the tree so stable? 00:36:43.400 --> 00:36:45.680 Oh, it's rooted by streams of water. 00:36:46.460 --> 00:36:49.700 A tree that's not rooted needs rain or it withers. 00:36:50.340 --> 00:36:56.079 But the tree rooted by streams has its source of nourishment independent of its circumstances. 00:36:56.579 --> 00:37:00.260 Its leaf does not weather, wither, even when it doesn't rain. 00:37:01.019 --> 00:37:02.700 It has green leaf and drought time. 00:37:03.980 --> 00:37:07.740 Even when the yield of the olive fails, it can exalt and rejoice. 00:37:08.160 --> 00:37:11.740 Even when the flock is cut off from the fold, yet it can have deer feet. 00:37:11.739 --> 00:37:16.699 Joy is not the absence of trouble. 00:37:17.479 --> 00:37:19.559 It's the presence of God. 00:37:20.719 --> 00:37:22.959 That's where Habakkuk's joy came from. 00:37:23.579 --> 00:37:26.879 Verse 18, I will rejoice in the Lord. 00:37:27.519 --> 00:37:30.339 I will take joy in the God of my salvation. 00:37:31.299 --> 00:37:34.419 And meditation got him into God. 00:37:34.420 --> 00:37:43.180 Meditation gets you into contact with the water that is there when all the other waters dry up. 00:37:44.300 --> 00:37:50.579 Meditation gets you into a light when all the other lights go out. 00:37:51.400 --> 00:37:56.340 Meditation gives you strength when all the other might melts like wax. 00:37:56.340 --> 00:38:00.120 So why is this so critical for our faith? 00:38:00.780 --> 00:38:04.200 Because it's not as if we can just determine to trust God. 00:38:04.740 --> 00:38:07.160 Trust grows out of a certain soil. 00:38:08.220 --> 00:38:14.019 Trust grows as we contemplate and internalize the trustworthiness of God. 00:38:14.660 --> 00:38:17.079 As we contemplate His credentials. 00:38:17.079 --> 00:38:21.480 And they ignite in our minds and burn their way down into our hearts. 00:38:23.099 --> 00:38:26.259 Oh, friends, do you know how to do this? 00:38:27.179 --> 00:38:29.039 Can you do a Habakkuk? 00:38:29.619 --> 00:38:32.819 When you find yourself sitting amongst your ruins, 00:38:33.239 --> 00:38:36.579 can you rehearse God's gracious dealings in your life? 00:38:37.119 --> 00:38:42.840 Can you weave an ever-lengthening narrative like Psalm 136, punctuate of the clause? 00:38:43.219 --> 00:38:46.460 His everlasting, His loving kindness is everlasting. 00:38:46.460 --> 00:38:51.240 Are you building Ebeneezers, those stones of remembrance along the way? 00:38:51.740 --> 00:38:57.599 A promise, a presence, a person, a book, an experience, a mercy that God has brought into your life? 00:38:57.679 --> 00:38:58.740 Do you mark them? 00:39:00.199 --> 00:39:07.420 Don't let moss cover over those paths of God's providential kindness and sovereign grace. 00:39:07.800 --> 00:39:13.659 Keep those paths well-worn in your ever-fresh memory and use. 00:39:13.659 --> 00:39:17.859 Like Mary, make your heart a treasure chest. 00:39:19.139 --> 00:39:25.920 Fill your memorial Ark of Covenant with your cups of manna, those tokens of God's provision. 00:39:26.279 --> 00:39:29.679 Or your budding rod, those tokens of God's guidance. 00:39:29.679 --> 00:39:38.719 I'm told that in the Midwest, snowstorms are so blight and blinding that they call them whiteouts. 00:39:39.539 --> 00:39:47.480 In an anticipation, farmers, when a whiteout is about to come, they string a rope, they run a rope, stout rope, from their house to the barn. 00:39:48.500 --> 00:39:54.119 Gripping that rope, they're able to make their way through the blinding storm. 00:39:54.119 --> 00:39:56.799 If they let go of the rope, they're lost. 00:39:57.539 --> 00:39:58.940 And they're done for, too. 00:40:00.199 --> 00:40:09.859 Friends, meditation is the way we tightly grip the rope of God's attributes and His promises in the storms of life. 00:40:10.460 --> 00:40:12.500 A rope we dare not let go of. 00:40:12.500 --> 00:40:21.280 And let me ask you, if Habakkuk could exult as an Old Testament saint in the God of His salvation, 00:40:21.739 --> 00:40:24.179 looking at the Exodus escape and the Canaan conquest, 00:40:24.940 --> 00:40:31.559 do we not now have even greater display of God going forth for His people? 00:40:32.820 --> 00:40:35.039 Has not God updated His CV? 00:40:35.039 --> 00:40:40.960 I mean, what meaning for a New Testament believer does verse 13 take on? 00:40:40.960 --> 00:40:46.240 Have we not even greater material with which to braid our rope of hope? 00:40:47.139 --> 00:40:50.039 More themes for our shigianoneth, that's what that word is. 00:40:50.099 --> 00:40:52.000 It's creative poises of praise. 00:40:53.340 --> 00:40:56.519 Oh, friends, if this be the meat for our meditations, 00:40:57.559 --> 00:41:01.460 if our roots go down into these streams, our leaf will never wither, 00:41:02.300 --> 00:41:04.139 no matter what drought surrounds us. 00:41:04.980 --> 00:41:08.920 We shall find ourselves on the high places with deer's feet. 00:41:08.920 --> 00:41:12.340 For we will know that our life is hid with Christ in God, 00:41:12.480 --> 00:41:16.159 and that is a joy that no one can take or touch. 00:41:16.940 --> 00:41:19.099 This, friends, is Christian maturity. 00:41:19.619 --> 00:41:23.860 And what's more, it's genuine joy and a joy indestructible. 00:41:24.980 --> 00:41:28.680 William Cooper penned, a man who struggled with serious depression, 00:41:28.679 --> 00:41:31.519 though vine nor fig tree neither, 00:41:32.259 --> 00:41:34.000 their wonted fruit shall bear. 00:41:34.980 --> 00:41:36.599 Though all the fields should wither, 00:41:37.299 --> 00:41:39.059 nor flocks nor herds be there, 00:41:39.739 --> 00:41:42.239 yet God the same abiding, 00:41:43.039 --> 00:41:44.779 His praise shall tune my voice, 00:41:45.579 --> 00:41:47.079 for while in Him confiding, 00:41:47.859 --> 00:41:49.599 I cannot but rejoice. 00:41:49.599 --> 00:41:52.480 Brothers and sisters, 00:41:52.480 --> 00:41:54.659 what are your those this morning? 00:41:55.559 --> 00:41:57.299 Though I am still not married, 00:41:58.039 --> 00:42:00.099 though the doctor said it was cancer, 00:42:01.059 --> 00:42:03.159 though I don't know how I will live without her, 00:42:04.480 --> 00:42:06.299 though I don't know how I'll pay this bill, 00:42:07.339 --> 00:42:08.900 though I didn't get into grad school, 00:42:10.159 --> 00:42:11.380 though I lost my job, 00:42:11.799 --> 00:42:13.559 take those those to the Lord. 00:42:13.559 --> 00:42:17.159 Tread the ascending path of Habakkuk 00:42:17.159 --> 00:42:19.860 to the high places of rejoicing in God 00:42:19.860 --> 00:42:23.519 and discover that whatever the circumstances, 00:42:24.519 --> 00:42:28.299 yours is yet a sure-footed, light-hearted joy, 00:42:28.980 --> 00:42:30.860 for God is enough. 00:42:32.079 --> 00:42:33.019 Can it really be? 00:42:34.079 --> 00:42:34.699 Yes. 00:42:35.599 --> 00:42:38.000 In 1851, missionary Alan Gardner, 00:42:38.519 --> 00:42:41.199 seeking to reach the remote Patagonian Indians, 00:42:41.199 --> 00:42:43.480 was stranded with his small band 00:42:43.480 --> 00:42:45.760 with little food, no shelter, 00:42:46.179 --> 00:42:48.260 beyond the hope of any rescue. 00:42:48.880 --> 00:42:52.059 And they all slowly starved to death, 00:42:52.420 --> 00:42:53.260 Gardner the last. 00:42:54.420 --> 00:42:56.219 When the rescue party finally arrived, 00:42:56.579 --> 00:42:58.880 Gardner's journal was found near his body. 00:42:59.699 --> 00:43:03.300 The last entry that he weakly scrawled 00:43:03.300 --> 00:43:06.420 was a line copied from Psalm 34. 00:43:08.940 --> 00:43:12.679 Oh, fear the Lord, all you His saints, 00:43:12.679 --> 00:43:17.019 for those who fear Him have no lack. 00:43:17.919 --> 00:43:20.480 The young lions suffer want and hunger, 00:43:21.419 --> 00:43:27.079 but those who seek the Lord lack no good thing. 00:43:27.879 --> 00:43:28.759 Let's pray. 00:43:28.759 --> 00:43:28.859 Amen. 00:43:28.860 --> 00:43:38.380 Holy Spirit, we ask you to graciously and effectually 00:43:38.380 --> 00:43:42.519 take these truths and these wonders 00:43:42.519 --> 00:43:45.559 and seal these things upon our heart. 00:43:47.179 --> 00:43:49.380 May we try you and test you in this, 00:43:49.739 --> 00:43:51.619 that those who fear you have no lack. 00:43:53.460 --> 00:43:56.420 May we be living, vivid testimonies 00:43:56.420 --> 00:44:00.940 of the truth that they who seek you 00:44:00.940 --> 00:44:03.259 shall lack no good thing. 00:44:03.260 --> 00:44:07.900 for your great renown and our great joy. 00:44:08.900 --> 00:44:09.200 Amen.