Habakkuk’s Refrain

Ch. 3. 1 A Prayer of Habakkuk the Prophet.
On the Funky Beat.

2 Lord, I revere the report about you;
indeed I fear your deeds, Lord.
Revive them in our time,
in our days make them thrive,
in wrath let grace arrive.
3 God came down from Teman,
the Holy One from Mount Paran.

Selah.

His glory adorns the heavens
and his praise inlays the earth.
4 His radiance was like sunlight,
rays sprayed from his hand,
where his expansive energy stands a mystery.
5 Plague raged before him,
pestilence lagged afterward.
He stood and cracked the earth,
he understood its semblance
and the neighbourhoods went trembling.
6 The ancient mountain ranges disintegrated,
the perpetual hills’ sedimentation saw segmentation,
they separated incinerated.
But his mediations see continuation!
7 Certainly, I saw the tents of Cushan in distress,
the tent curtains of Midian hurting in duress.
8 Were you shivering in anger against the rivers Lord?
Did the aftermath of your wrath beam against the streams?
Did you seethe against the seas
when you rode your valiant battalion of stallions
with your chariot and carried it to victory?
9 Your bow was made bare and you declared
you wanted your scary arrows there.

Selah.

You cleave firmament with rivers,
10 mountains once permanent grieved and quivered,
Torrents of fountain currents poured out,
with a roar and shout the depths leapt about,
and waves raised to an abhorrent apex stout.
11 Sun and moon soon froze in the skies,
at the sight of the glow as your light arrow flies,
as the beams of your gleaming spear appears.
12 In indignation you made a demonstration
throughout the world’s foundations,
and in fury you did bury the nations.
13 You hurried to allocate salvation to your relations,
to dedicate liberation to Messiah Revelation!
You made bleed him would lead the people of evil,
you proceeded to see him disrobed
head to toe.

Selah.

14 You pierced him with his own fierce spears,
when his peers appeared to scatter us in fear,
with laughter they leered
as though they would slaughter us after.
15 You trampled the sea with your steeds,
seething the ample steeped deeps.
16 I heard and my heart hammered,
my lips stammered at His quips.
Decay laces my bones,
I stay in one place and groan.
Still I will wait patient
for the day of displacement,
for the nation of invasion.

17 Though the fig tree doesn’t bloom,
and I find no big grapes on the vine to groom,
though the olive crop stops, gives only gloom,
and the food yields of the fields are doomed,
though there are no sheep to keep in the pen,
and no cattle to rattle and settle in,

18 Even then - I will raise my voice to the Lord.
I will praise and rejoice in God my Saviour.
19 The Sovereign Lord is my Vigour,
he makes my feet steady and aright;
like a creature with mighty antlers,
he readies me to tread on the heights. [x2]

For the director of the choir.
On the stringed things I acquired.