Habakkuk 3:17-18

REJOICING IN GOD

(A Harvest Sermon)

‘Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.’

Habakkuk 3:17

We are rejoicing to-day in the bounty of God. We are thanking Him, as it is meet we should, because He has once more opened His hand and filled all things living with plenteousness.

But other thoughts may well fill our minds in connection with this service. What if God had not dealt thus bountifully with us? What if He had withheld His customary blessings? What if our harvest had failed? The regularity of God’s gifts often causes us to forget their gratuitousness. They come to us anew each morning so uniformly, they are renewed so unfailing each evening, they fall upon us so steadily even during the unconscious hours of slumber, they reach us day by day and year by year with such unvarying regularity, that we come in time to altogether mistake their nature. We look on them more as our lawful rights than as God’s unmerited bounty.

How different was the language of Habakkuk! He had found a higher source of exultation than even we have found, who are rejoicing in the bounty of God to-day. It is good for us to rejoice in His gifts—it is better for us to rejoice like the prophet in God Himself.

I. This is the highest form of exultation of which we are capable here on earth; the song of exultation which will fill the courts of heaven when the ransomed at last are gathered home to God.

II. This is the only permanent form of exultation.—Our earthly circumstances may fail at any moment. But the joy that is centred in God can never fail, for God Himself is changeless and enduring. On Mohammedan graves, I am told, the words are everywhere written, He remains. With this truth the bereaved are comforted. May not the Mohammedan cemetery teach a needed lesson to the Christian worshipper to-day? The joy that rests in God is alone permanent and enduring, for God Himself alone is changeless.

III. When we learn to rejoice in the Lord we have found the only satisfying form of exultation.—The permanence of that joy is one of the secrets of its power to satisfy. We never can feel thoroughly at rest in mind as long as we are conscious of risk and uncertainty. Anxiety is incompatible with perfect satisfaction. But the heart that is resting upon God is set free from anxiety: nothing can rob it of its treasure.

—Rev. G. A. Sowter.