Habakkuk 3:18

"Yet I will rejoice in Jehovah, I will joy in the God of my salvation."

See the comment on this spirit of joyful resignation under the preceding verse (Habakkuk 3:17). Habakkuk's love of God and loyalty to his Creator did not depend upon God's answering his prayer in the manner Habakkuk had hoped.

The words of this response have inspired the men of all generations; and Christians, throughout history, have treasured them in moments when all earthly prospects failed, and the soul was left no alternative except that of passing through the shadow of death.

There is no more moving comment on the prime words of this prophecy, that, "The just shall live by faith," than that which is contained in these verses. The affirmation is exquisitely and nobly worded.[36]

Habakkuk's unwavering faith in God is not blind. He exercised it in the full knowledge of the horrors that were to come upon his native land and the people whom he loved.

"I will rejoice ... I will joy ..." The secret of such a response is in the object of his love, trust, and affection; it is God Himself. "The salvation" (Habakkuk 3:13) has here become "my salvation," in prosperity and in adversity, in joy and in sorrow, in victory and in defeat.