Habakkuk’s Prayer

Habakkuk 3

            What do you do when you just don’t understand what the Lord is up to? You pray.

            Habakkuk’s prayer begins with praise, that is, the recitation of the Lord’s saving acts. Technically speaking, the only portion of Habakkuk’s prayer that is truly prayer is verse 2, where the prophet asks the Lord to repeat His intervention in terms similar to the Exodus. Most of the chapter (verses 3-15) is tied up in reciting how the Lord saved Israel in the past. While the imagery varies, it remains clear the prophet is alluding to the way the Lord delivered Israel from Egypt. (The language of plagues and the sea strengthens that connection.) Finally, Habakkuk accepts the answer to his prayer, deciding to wait patiently for the God who had so wondrously delivered Israel in the past to do the same in his day.

            I maintain that prayer and praise are two different modes of speech. They are related, but they are different. Praise forms the basis for prayer. As we recount the Lord’s mighty deeds, as we preach the Gospel to ourselves, especially that the Lord has saved us through the death and resurrection of His Son, Jesus, we are reminded why this God is a God we can count on, from whom we can ask. After all, “He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all—how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things” (Rom. 8:32)? Prayer, then, technically, is the request. Notice that Habakkuk’s confidence is not in his prayer, but in His God who has saved in the past.