The Day of Salvation

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth. O LORD, I have heard the report of you, and your work, O LORD, do I fear. In the midst of the years revive it; in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy. God came from Teman, and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah His splendor covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. His brightness was like the light; rays flashed from his hand; and there he veiled his power. Before him went pestilence, and plague followed at his heels. He stood and measured the earth; he looked and shook the nations; then the eternal mountains were scattered; the everlasting hills sank low. His were the everlasting ways. I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. Was your wrath against the rivers, O LORD? Was your anger against the rivers, or your indignation against the sea, when you rode on your horses, on your chariot of salvation? You stripped the sheath from your bow, calling for many arrows. Selah You split the earth with rivers. The mountains saw you and writhed; the raging waters swept on; the deep gave forth its voice; it lifted its hands on high. The sun and moon stood still in their place at the light of your arrows as they sped, at the flash of your glittering spear. You marched through the earth in fury; you threshed the nations in anger. You went out for the salvation of your people, for the salvation of your anointed. You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors, who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret. You trampled the sea with your horses, the surging of mighty waters. I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us. 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 my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.
Habakkuk 3:1–19
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The Day of Salvation
We fear things that we should not fear and have no regard for that which should be feared, trusted, and loved. We disregard the living God and react to the world and the situations in our life. Luther’s explanation to the first commandment says, “We should fear, love, and trust in God above all things.” Yet, we put our fear and love and trust in position and in things and in other people and the list keeps going. But your God is not one that will just sit idly by and leave you to your own destruction. He comes to save and to buy back. He comes to fight that which has deceived you and to restore. He went out to crush the head of the wicked and with his own bow he advanced against the evil one. This is the God that knows your afflictions. He has heard your cry. He comes down to deliver. The fiercest battle happens in what looks like defeat. The sun and the moon are darkened. The earth shakes. The Lord Jesus dies on the cross, but there he defeats all our enemies. There the reign of sin and death come to an end and the day of salvation begins. The reign of life, a reign that will never end, begins for you. He rises from the dead to live and reign with you. We rejoice in the Lord. He has done marvelous things. He is your strength and your song. Rejoice in the Lord.