Choosing to Worship

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! —Philippians 4:4

The book of Habakkuk suggests that worship is more than singing songs. For the prophet, worship was the act that gave him balance. It was the antidote to the worry that threatened his earlier perspective.

Habakkuk had learned some important things since his first moments of worry in chapter 1. He learned that utter devastation was in his near future. Yet he also learned that the righteous shall live by faith.

It was in faith that he chose not to obsess on the material things he currently had nor on the scarcity he was about to experience. Instead, he took joy in the one thing he would never lose—God Himself. This led him to sing: “Though the fig tree does not bud and there is no fruit on the vines, though the olive crop fails and the fields produce no food, though the flocks disappear from the pen and there are no herds in the stalls, yet I will celebrate in the Lord; I will rejoice in the God of my salvation!” (Hab. 3:17–18).