It Is Well With My Soul

Though the fig tree should not blossom,
Nor fruit be on the vines,
The produce of the olive fail,
And the fields yield no food,
The flock be cut off from the fold,
And there be no herd in the stalls,
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation.
God, the Lord, is my strength;
He makes my feet like the deer’s;
He makes me tread on the high places.
To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

Habakkuk 3:17-19

Out of all the books of the Old Testament, I find myself going back to Habakkuk often. His book is small and yet speaks of great truths and an even greater God. In recent months, I have attended far too many funerals. My close friends and I have said with effort “I hope not to see you under these circumstances again,” and yet, our wish was to go ungranted. I and my dear family (by blood and in Christ alike) have suffered loss and been buffeted by the sorrows of this life. And so, as I have done for years, I have come once again to Habakkuk’s last chapter to be refreshed in this time of grief. The book of Habakkuk unveils the conversation between God and an Israelite prophet about the coming judgement of Israel.

The first half of Habakkuk’s final chapter is a vision of the destruction of Israel by the Babylonians; the latter half is Habakkuk’s prayerful response to God. I have personally relied on the latter as a crutch of sorts during times when I am weighed down and weakened by the hurts and heartaches of life on earth. Many times I have taken this passage as a salve, covering my wounds and easing my hurts. Even over the span of years, the last three verses of Habakkuk have aided me to walk the road God has put before me. You may wonder why I keep coming back to this small and relatively unread section of the Bible. It has to do with what I found there.

First, I found a God who was in control. Habakkuk begins his prayer to God by saying “I hear and my body trembles… yet I will quietly wait…”. Throughout this book, God reveals His sovereign hand. He knew in detail the sins of Israel and was repaying the nation for them (2:4-20). He also was moving an entire army for His own purpose of judging Israel. This reminds us of Isaiah 10 where God refers to the Assyrians as merely an ax or tool that the Lord would use. God was in control, even in what looked like storms on the horizon that chilled Habakkuk’s blood. Admittedly, this is hard to swallow. But even in the worst circumstances, the Bible and the saints can testify that God is in control. The most distorted text in today’s world, Jeremiah 29:11, speaks of this. God tells the Israelites in exile who have lost their home and many of their people, that all that had happened and would happen was His plan which He had made for their good and hope and future.

Not only did I find a God who was in control, I found a God who was worth everything. We today might not grasp what Habakkuk is saying because we are not an agrarian society. Habakkuk’s prayer essentially is “If you take from us everything that allows us to live and thrive and continue, I will hope in You until the day I die, for You are my joy.” What is displayed in this absolutely wrecking passage is trust in the Lord’s work no matter how terrifying it may be. Habakkuk sees a God who is good and wise, who does what is right, and yet who is compassionate to those who have faith. While Habakkuk is still shaking in fear at what is going to happen to his home, He looks up to God with tears and says, “You are the only thing that I find joy in. I take joy from You alone. You are my strength. Do as You will, for you are wise, and I will trust You.” What we see in this ancient man’s words is an incredibly powerful belief in the sovereign goodness of God. He is a man who has put His trust in the scalpel of a surgeon knowing that even what seems like harm and at first wounds him will be for his good.

Please do not misunderstand. This is not an abusive relationship where Habakkuk trusts the God that hurts him for no good reason. The reason why Habakkuk finds joy in God even when God’s plan is difficult to swallow is because by faith and communion he knows that God is good, compassionate, and wise! Faith in God’s goodness is the root of Habakkuk’s trust in God’s plan! That is the faith we all should desire. For our eyes to be fixed upon God with such intensity that when we do feel the losses of this world, we are sustained and never stumble in trusting God’s power and plan. It should be our desire to speak as Job did, a righteous man who displayed to the world God’s glory through suffering, who directed his eye at God and said “Though you slay me, yet I will hope in you.”

At its core, Habakkuk 3:16-18 teaches us that God’s plan for our lives is not always what we would choose for ourselves. That sometimes, the path ahead will be dark and difficult. But, it teaches us ultimately that the God who puts us on this path will walk it with us. His hand is steady and his work is for our eternal and endless joy in Him. When storms come, we know the God who allows them, who has authority over them, who stills them with a word, but who will use them for His glory and for our true satisfaction.

My favorite part of this passage, the part that has always instructed me in my sorrow, is the last line of the book. It reads “to the choirmaster with stringed instruments”. Habakkuk’s song of total devotion and trust in the midst of total destruction was intended to be sung as a praise to the Lord. Not only did Habakkuk trust God, but he turned his trust into praise. I wish that our churches would sing the song of this prophet. It is a song that acknowledges hurt. It does not pretend the Christian life is unaffected by pain or sorrow. And yet, it sings a melody of trust, of sufficiency, and of the joy and strength of our Savior. Let this be the song we sing.

Father, though we have experienced hurt and though we don’t always know why things have happened to us, we know and trust with all our hearts that You are a good God whose wise plan is for our benefit. It is for our future. It is for our Hope. God, please help us to praise you in the midst of hardship and give us the strength to trust You when we feel like we are drowning. Thank You for being a God who is faithful in all circumstances forever and ever. Amen.

I have found that the song “It Is Well” to be in great harmony with the final hymn of Habakkuk. In both songs, men of great suffering, look to a sovereign God and acknowledge that even in their heartache they can trust that all is well with them. This, like I said before, is the man looking at the sharp blade of a surgeon and saying confidently: “though you may hurt me, I know you will heal me.” I’ve linked a version of the song that I have found particularly compelling below for your enjoyment and thought. Remember, dear Christian, that because God is good, all is well.