O Lord, I have heard of your renown,
and I stand in awe, O Lord, of your work.
In our own time revive it;
in our own time make it known;
in wrath may you remember mercy.
God came from Teman,
the Holy One from Mount Paran.
His glory covered the heavens,
and the earth was full of his praise.
The brightness was like the sun;
rays came forth from his hand,
where his power lay hidden.
Before him went pestilence,
and plague followed close behind.
He stopped and shook the earth;
he looked and made the nations tremble.
The eternal mountains were shattered;
along his ancient pathways
the everlasting hills sank low.
Comments: Habakkuk is visioning a time when God’s presence will once again be clear. Teman and Mt. Paran are in the Sinai and in the region of where God gave the law to the Hebrew people. A millennium later, Habakkuk is calling for God to make the Divine presence visible again. There are times I would like to be able to call down God’s vengeance. But that is not prophecy. Habakkuk is trying to remind his people of God’s power.
I must admit I don’t read Habakkuk all that often. It is good to be reminded of his vision of how God could be present to the people of God once again. I prefer the quiet still small voice of Ezekiel myself rather that this Cecil B. DeMill version. But when I saw the work of Katrina in MS, I too stood in awe of the power of God. I don’t believe that Katrina was sent by God, but if nature could do such destruction, how much greater could God’s power be? The earth does shake and humanity is humbled.
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