The Righteous Shall Live by His Faith

[We regret that the recording of this sermon was unusable. Please see the transcript]

We use the last line of Habakkuk 3 – “The LORD is in his holy temple; let all the earth keep silence before him” in one of our calls to worship.

It may seem odd, at first, to start talking as soon as we have said that all the earth keeps silence before him!

After all, Habakkuk 2:20 is the last thing that God says in response to Habakkuk’s complaint! Perhaps we should respond with silence!

But Habakkuk does not respond with silence. He responds with a prayer – a Psalm – a song to be sung in the temple.

After all, the word translated “keep silence” is not even a verb. It is the interjection, “has” – which is closely related to the English word, “hush.” God will shut the nations up. They will have nothing to say – just like their gods!

But what about Habakkuk? What about God’s people? When all the earth is silent before God, then the people of God will sing for joy – because we have a God who speaks! And the Word of God loosens our lips and enlivens our tongues – so that we can sing praise to him!