'The Lord God is my Strength, and He will make my feet like hinds'
feet, and He will make me to walk upon mine high
places.'--HABBAKKUK iii. 19.
So ends one of the most magnificent pieces of imaginative poetry in
Scripture or anywhere else. The singer has been describing a great
delivering manifestation of the Most High God, which, though he knew it
was for the deliverance of God's people, shed awe and terror over his
soul. Then he gathers himself together to vow that in this God, thus
manifested as the God of his salvation, he 'will rejoice,' whatever
penury or privation may attach to his outward life. Lastly, he rises, in
these final words, to the apprehension of what this God, thus rejoiced
in, will become to those who so put their trust and their gladness upon
Himself.
The expressions are of a highly metaphorical and imaginative character,
but they admit of being brought down to very plain facts, and they tell
us the results in heart and mind of true faith and communion with God.
It is to be noticed that a parallel saying, almost verbatim the same as
that of my text, occurs in the 18th psalm, and that there, too, it is
the last and joyous result of a tremendous manifestation of the
delivering energy of God.
Without any attempt to do more than bring out the deep meaning of the
words, I note that the three clauses of our text present three aspects
of what our lives and ourselves may steadfastly be if we, too, will
rejoice in the God of our salvation.