Lord, how long? Did you read the newspaper this morning? There’s enough bad news of strife, crime, the economy, and political turmoil in there to make you want to go back to bed and pull the covers over your head. This is nothing new in the world.

Long ago, in the midst of trouble, and with God’s judgment poised to strike, the prophet Habakkuk asks God “Why?” (It is not a bad thing to ask “Why?”)

Why were the sinful people of Judah not punished? The answer he received was not the one he was looking for.

Why did God choose the godless Babylonians to punish Judah? The sinful, barbaric Babylonians would be sent by God to punish Judah, God’s own people. Disaster was imminent.

Habakkuk listens to God’s answers. He accepts them. Then he responds with a prayer of confession and praise.

Habakkuk 3:17-18 (ESV) 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,

yet I will rejoice in the LORD; I will take joy in the God of my salvation.

Worship and praise are both the privilege and the obligation of all believers. These do not depend on our circumstances, but rather depend on our faith in our righteous and changeless God. Our praise occurs because we believe that God is working out His eternal purposes in the world. The scope and timeline of God is beyond our comprehension, but scripture tells us that His will is perfect. Our history demonstrates that every promise of God has come to be so. Joshua 21:45 “Not one of all the LORD’s good promises to the house of Israel failed; every one was fulfilled.”

We live in a time of trouble; wars, economic instability, moral decline, and political unrest. We feel unsafe, ill at ease and anxious.

You have probably lived through your own bad times; illness, job loss, troubled family relationships, and economic hardship.

So what is our hope? Do we hope things will get better? History tells us things will not get better. As long as there is sin in the world, there will always be trouble. Calamities will happen; natural disasters, conflicts, and more. It never really gets better. The next cycle of trouble is just around the bend. How should we react?

From Life as a Vapor by John Piper (p. 114): “For those who believe that God rules purposefully and wisely over all things, our response to loss is a signal of how much idolatry is in our souls. Do we really treasure what we have lost more than God and His wisdom? If we find ourselves excessively angry or resentful or bitter, it may well show that we love God less than what we lost. This is a very precious discovery, because it enables us to repent and seek to cherish Christ as we ought, rather than being deceived into thinking all is well.”

We who belong to God know that the troubles are not the end. From Matthew Henry: “Joy in God is never out of season, indeed it is in a special manner seasonable when we meet with losses and crosses in the world, that it may then appear that our hearts are not set on these things, nor our happiness bound up in them.”

Jesus said to his disciples “In this world you will have trouble, but take heart, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33b)

So the challenge for us as we begin each day is this: What are we going to focus on, the trouble or the hope? We can’t control the trouble. Tomorrow, things could be much worse than today. Or they could be much better. Either way, our hope is in the unchanging God, who is good all the time. He is the God who has created us, redeemed us and sustains us. For this we should give our continual praise.

Hebrews 13: 15 “Through Jesus, therefore, let us continually offer to God a sacrifice of praise – the fruit of lips that confess his name.”