A Weary World Rejoices: Return to Love
Pastor Brandon Berg
“I am old, Gandalf. I don't look it, but I am beginning to feel it in my heart of hearts. Well-preserved indeed! Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean: like butter that has been scraped over too much bread. That can't be right. I need a change, or something.”
J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of The Rings, Bilbo to Gandalf
Habbakuk - “To Embrace and to Wrestle”
Chapter 1: Wondering (vs. 2-7; CEB)
LORD, how long will I call for help and you not listen?
I cry out to you, “Violence!”
but you don’t deliver us.
Why do you show me injustice and look at anguish
so that devastation and violence are before me?
There is strife, and conflict abounds.
The Instruction is ineffective.
Justice does not endure
because the wicked surround the righteous.
Justice becomes warped.
Look among the nations and watch!
Be astonished and stare
because something is happening in your days
that you wouldn’t believe even if told.
I am about to rouse the Chaldeans,
that bitter and impetuous nation,
which travels throughout the earth to possess dwelling places it does not own.
The Chaldean is dreadful and fearful.
He makes his own justice and dignity.
Chapter 2: Waiting (Watching) (vs. 1 & 4; CEB)
I will take my post;
I will position myself on the fortress.
I will keep watch to see what the Lord says to me
and how he will respond to my complaint.
Some people’s desires are truly audacious;
they don’t do the right thing.
But the righteous person will live honestly. (or...“the just shall live by faith”)
Chapter 3: Worshipping (1 & 16-19; CEB)
The prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth:
Shigionoth: To sing with strong emotion, with impassioned exuberance, wild, passionate singing, high-spirited praise, and vigorous enthusiasm. It is praise punctuated with exclamation marks.
I hear and my insides tremble.
My lips quiver at the sound.
Rottenness enters my bones.
I tremble while I stand,
while I wait for the day of distress to come against the people who attack us.
Though the fig tree doesn’t bloom,
and there’s no produce on the vine;
though the olive crop withers,
and the fields don’t provide food;
though the sheep are cut off from the pen,
and there are no cattle in the stalls;
I will rejoice in the LORD.
I will rejoice in the God of my deliverance.
The LORD God is my strength.
He will set my feet like the deer.
He will let me walk upon the heights.
Discussion Questions:
1. How well do you deal with unresolved pain in your life?
2. Have you ever called out to God and not received the response you wanted?
3. What questions might you have for God today?
4. What would it look like for you to simply Wait and Watch for God to show up? How does even the thought of this hit you?
5. What role does worship play in our pain moments? Or does it?
