"Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior." — Habakkuk 3:18

I’m the kind of person who rereads books.

Good books, yes. But the same books, filled with the same stories and the same words. I know…it sounds terribly boring to most people. But for me, an old book is like an old friend; I find such joy in the familiar. However, the reverse is also true: there’s always some new treasure to find, some funny turn of phrase or small detail I never noticed when I first read the book—speeding through to see what would happen. It’s in the slowing down, that I truly come to appreciate my favorite books. 

This is true for God’s Word too.

I love memorizing it, because I get to slow down and consider the beauty and the depth in each verse. I’m forced to really chew on each word, discovering insights and finding meaning I never knew before. Inevitably, I ask more questions, and I always get more answers. This is what happened with our memory verse this month. I progressed through each word in turn, finding fresh encouragement for my soul. 

The word I most wanted to chew on was “yet.” 

“Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will be joyful in God my Savior" (Habakkuk 3:18). “Yet?” This one small word implies that there must be reasons for not rejoicing. “Yet” means “even though” or “in spite of.” Yet implies that there are real reasons that I shouldn’t be rejoicing, but I will rejoice nonetheless. “Yet” defies hard circumstances and proclaims a different way. Who doesn’t need a faithful “yet” to speak into our hard situations? I do. Habakkuk did too.

God’s people in Habakkuk’s day were facing imminent judgement for centuries of rebellion. (Listen to this week’s teaching episode for all of the gritty details.) By the time we get to our verse, we find Habakkuk in a horrifying moment, cowering as he waits for judgement—his heart pounding, his lips quivering, his legs trembling, while death itself creeps into his bones. More than that, he foresees suffering and starvation as crops and livestock fail and die. He is afraid, and rightly so! 

Into all of this he says, “Yet I will rejoice in the LORD.”

All his faith is wrapped up in that one little word, “yet.” He overthrows the obvious and proclaims faith, saying, “In spite of everything…I will rejoice.” Rejoice?! Who rejoices in such circumstances? Endures, maybe. Perseveres, maybe. But rejoices? How?! If we keep following each word in the verse we see that Habakkuk isn’t actually rejoicing in his circumstances at all. Rather, he’s rejoicing in the Lord. And notice what he calls God: “God my Savior." Savior. Yes. This is the anchor. This is the foundation of his faith. He can proclaim preposterous joy, because of who God is. God is his Savior. He knows God will save him out of it all. 

This is our “yet.” This is our “joy.” This is our safe and saving “Savior.” 

In our hardship, in our grief, in our desperation, even in our darkest days…we can have joy. More than that, our joy is safe in the one who saves. God himself is the only safe place for our joy. And we can look like the most defiantly absurd people, because we can have joy even in the worst of times—transcendent joy in our Savior. All of our “yets” will find their yeses and amens in him. Maybe not today or even in this lifetime. Still we know our salvation is sure because our Savior is sovereign. And this is the source of all our joy.