Yet I Will…

“yet I will celebrate in the LORD; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.” – Habakkuk 3:18, CSB

It’s the word “yet” that should get our attention when we read Habakkuk’s words. 

God’s judgment had been pronounced and carried out. This was the judgment God had warned Judah about “time and time again” through his servants, the prophets, because of his compassion for his people and his dwelling place (2 Chronicles 36:15). The more the Lord called his people to repentance, the more they refused. “All the leaders of the priests and the people multiplied their unfaithful deeds, imitating all the detestable practices of the nations, and they defiled the LORD’s temple that he had consecrated in Jerusalem” (2 Chronicles 36:14, CSB). And what was God’s response to their constant rebellion and ridicule of his prophets?

So he brought up against them the king of the Chaldeans, who killed their fit young men with the sword in the house of their sanctuary. He had no pity on young men or young women, elderly or aged; he handed them all over to him. He took everything to Babylon—all the articles of God’s temple, large and small, the treasures of the LORD’s temple, and the treasures of the king and his officials. Then the Chaldeans burned God’s temple. They tore down Jerusalem’s wall, burned all its palaces, and destroyed all its valuable articles. – 2 Chronicles 36:17-19, CSB

And so we have to come back to “yet.” You see, it’s one thing to celebrate in the Lord and rejoice in the God of our salvation when everything is going well. Nothing is taxing about doing that. But it’s a completely different thing to do that in the midst of “yet.” Here is the context of Habakkuk’s “yet”:

Though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the flocks disappear from the pen and there are no herds in the stalls, yet I will celebrate in the LORD; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation! The LORD my Lord is my strength; he makes my feet like those of a deer and enables me to walk on mountain heights. – Habakkuk 3:17-19, CSB (emphasis added)

The Lord is worthy of worship regardless of what we go through. Regardless of the state of the world, God is still worthy of praise and adoration. God is always faithful. God is righteous, and his judgments are always perfect and true. God can be trusted with everything. And we are invited to find our strength and joy in him, whom we trust and who loves us so much, in the midst of all that is going on, whether good or bad.

When things seem to be spiraling out of control, we need to look to God. We need to be reminded of who he is and what he can do (Habakkuk 3:2-6). We need to come back to what we know about him, especially when we get frustrated with what we see going on around us (Psalm 73:1-12). And as we are reminded of all of these things, and as hard as things may get, “yet I will.”