In September 2023, I walked through the infamous Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz-Birkenau. The sky was bright on that cool autumn day, but my heart was driven into the darkness of emotional and spiritual despair. On those hollow grounds, over one million fell to the “Great Extermination” of the Nazi regime. And although it has been more than eighty years since those grounds were soaked in the blood of Nazi victims, I felt the temporary sting of death in my soul as I walked those grounds.
I heard many stories of victims that day, and one story stood out from the rest. It was the story of a young Jewish wife and mother who lost everyone in her family to the death camp, yet she survived. She was known among the prisoners as the lady who sang songs and recited various psalms. As she worked to survive years of Nazi imprisonment and torture, it was her infectious singing that brought her joy amidst the chaos. It was reciting the Hebrew psalms of the Old Testament that propelled her forth with purpose and zeal. She was the singer in the darkness, the one who praised God in the pain.
And it is this concept, praising in the pain, that we see in Habakkuk 3. The prophet knew that the bitter and hasty nation of Babylon (1:6) was coming to act as a tool of God’s judgment on the rebellious Southern Kingdom. Chapters one through three, recount a back-and-forth conversation between God and Habakkuk. The prophet wanted to understand how long God would allow evil to prosper in the Southern Kingdom before He would act and bring forth justice (1:2-4). God responded by directing the prophet’s gaze to the dread Chaldeans who would come as His tool of justice for His people’s covenant disobedience (1:5-11). Habakkuk questions God again, unsure how a holy God could use an unholy vessel to complete His purposes (1:12-2:1). And God reminds the prophet Habakkuk that He can do what He wills in accomplishing His plans (2:3-5). As God was administering His divine chastisement on the rebellious them, He challenges Habakkuk to “live by faith” during the painful days ahead. The hinge verse upon which the book turns is Habakkuk 2:4, which says, “The righteous shall live by his faith.” God then reminds Habakkuk, through five woes, that the evil Babylonians will be judged for their wickedness (2:6-20).
This back-and-forth between Habakkuk and God changes the prophet’s perspective from his own finite thoughts to God’s infinitely wise, perfect, and good will. He began as the questioning and complaining prophet, but after spending time with God, he became the confident prophet, who was humbled to fear, trust, and praise God (3:1-16). And this humble trust in God allowed him, like our singing friend from Auschwitz, to praise through the pain.
How does this happen? How does one move from complaining to confession, from confusion to courage? What can we learn from Habakkuk’s journey, and how can his journey help us in our counseling efforts to those walking in the midst of pain?
First, those who are facing painful dark days need to accept God’s plan, humbly submitting to God’s ways and purposes. Habakkuk hears the report from God and fears the coming judgment because this judgment would result in friends being killed, family members being exiled, and his beloved city being burned to the ground. However, his fear is overwhelmed by his faith as he prays, “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” (3:2). Habakkuk’s faith triumphs over his fears, and this is seen in his pleading for God’s mercy as judgment would soon come (3:2; Exodus 34:6). Accepting the plan of God was a necessary step for praising in the pain. And he was able to accept God’s plan because he anchored his faith in God’s character and Word. Hear the Lord’s answer to Habakkuk: “For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told” (1:5b); “the righteous shall live by his faith” (2:4b); and “the LORD is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before him” (2:20). To which Habakkuk responded in faith—“I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us” (3:16b).
Next, Habakkuk anchors his heart and mind in the wonders of God and His history of saving His people (3:3-15). Habakkuk remembers God’s mighty acts—the exodus, the conquest, God’s victories for His people (3:3, 7, 8). Habakkuk not only looks back at the wonders of God’s salvation, but He looks forward with an eschatological hope. When the LORD arrives, hills sink low (3:6), the sun is outshone by God’s glory (3:4), and mountains make way (3:6). And when the LORD arrives, He then begins to act as a conquering Warrior (3:9-15) and cosmic King (3:8). As Habakkuk anchored himself in the LORD’s character and covenantal faithfulness to His people, He was able to accept the plan of God’s coming judgment.
When counseling others, or when preaching truth to your own heart, you can do the same. Make a habit of remembering God’s track record. Keep a journal of His faithfulness. Rehearse His promises. God has been good to you, He has been good to your counselees. But, in the maelstrom of suffering, we can easily forget God’s goodness. Our focus becomes on the pain rather than on God and His goodness. The good counselor, though, must make the intentional effort to remember God’s covenant faithfulness to His children.
As you anchor in God’s wonders and accept His plans, do not be caught off guard if you are still moving forward with a sense of fear. The third step in order to praise in the pain requires us to admit that we are frail and we have fears. Habakkuk doesn’t pretend to be tough. He says, “I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver… my legs tremble beneath me” (3:16). That internal trepidation was conjoined with his external situation. “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…” (3:17). All luxurious commodities and basic forms of sustenance would be systematically and completely stripped away. And this sure future reality for Habakkuk reminds him of his frailty and strikes fear in his heart.
But we should not run from embracing these manifest forms of weaknesses. No, admitting this is the honesty God invites. Faith doesn’t mean faking strength—it means confessing weakness and leaning on Him. When I counsel people, I often encourage them to honestly lament, express their fears and cares, and rehearse God’s Word until they take hold of Scripture by faith that even if all the worst cast scenarios turn out to be true, God is still good and does good (Psalm 119:68). By faith, “I will praise, even if the cancer doesn’t go away, the child dies, or the job is lost.” Admitting our human frailty and our surging fears gives us an opportunity to trust our God who knows, sees, and cares.
Finally, Habakkuk reaches his turning point: “Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will take joy in the God of my salvation” (3:18). He answers back with joyous praise. Joy here is not a momentary experience of pleasurable feelings; it’s a settled disposition of the soul. Habakkuk calls to the LORD, using the covenant name for God, remembering that the same God who promised curses for disobedience (Deuteronomy 28:15-68) also provides a way for repentance and restoration (Deuteronomy 30:1-3). The covenant relationship between God and Habakkuk is marked by a commitment to care for His people. God cares for His prophet by providing him strength and stamina (3:19). And the covenant relationship between God and Habakkuk is also marked by closeness. God’s work of salvation is not distant; it is a personal deliverance from wrath unto Himself as the only Refuge (3:18b).
When Habakkuk considered the coming judgment and suffering, he responded to God’s Word by faith, remembered His character and faithfulness, requested strength to endure, and rejoiced in the God of his salvation. The road from confusion to confession is possible by faith because God has given us what we need in the pages of Scripture to sustain and grow our faith. Like Habakkuk, who wrestled his unbelief to the ground and chose to praise God in the midst of calamity, we too can encourage one another to respond and live by faith.
As we counsel those who are in the midst of God’s sanctifying pain (James 1:2-4) or God’s sanctifying discipline (Hebrews 12:3-11), we can teach them to praise in the pain, to sing in the darkness. Habakkuk serves as a great example of how to walk counselees from places of pain to proclamations of praise.
