Scripture readings:

Habakkuk 3

A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth. 

O Lord, I have heard the report of you, 
and your work, O Lord, do I fear. 
In the midst of the years revive it; 
in the midst of the years make it known; 
in wrath remember mercy. 
God came from Teman, 
and the Holy One from Mount Paran. Selah 

His splendor covered the heavens, 
and the earth was full of his praise. 
His brightness was like the light; 
rays flashed from his hand; 
and there he veiled his power. 
Before him went pestilence, 
and plague followed at his heels. 
He stood and measured the earth; 
he looked and shook the nations; 
then the eternal mountains were scattered; 
the everlasting hills sank low. 
His were the everlasting ways. 
I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction; 
the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble. 
Was your wrath against the rivers, O Lord? 
Was your anger against the rivers, 
or your indignation against the sea, 
when you rode on your horses, 
on your chariot of salvation? 
You stripped the sheath from your bow, 
calling for many arrows. Selah 
You split the earth with rivers. 
The mountains saw you and writhed; 
the raging waters swept on; 
the deep gave forth its voice; 
it lifted its hands on high. 
The sun and moon stood still in their place 
at the light of your arrows as they sped, 
at the flash of your glittering spear. 
You marched through the earth in fury; 
you threshed the nations in anger. 
You went out for the salvation of your people, 
for the salvation of your anointed. 
You crushed the head of the house of the wicked, 
laying him bare from thigh to neck. Selah 
You pierced with his own arrows the heads of his warriors, 
who came like a whirlwind to scatter me, 
rejoicing as if to devour the poor in secret. 
You trampled the sea with your horses, 
the surging of mighty waters. 

I hear, and my body trembles; 
my lips quiver at the sound; 
rottenness enters into my bones; 
my legs tremble beneath me. 
Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble 
to come upon people who invade us. 

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. 
God, the Lord, is my strength; 
he makes my feet like the deer’s; 
he makes me tread on my high places. 

To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.

Isaiah 45:1–7

Thus says the Lord to his anointed, to Cyrus, 
whose right hand I have grasped, 
to subdue nations before him 
and to loose the belts of kings, 
to open doors before him 
that gates may not be closed: 
“I will go before you 
and level the exalted places, 
I will break in pieces the doors of bronze 
and cut through the bars of iron, 
I will give you the treasures of darkness 
and the hoards in secret places, 
that you may know that it is I, the Lord, 
the God of Israel, who call you by your name. 
For the sake of my servant Jacob, 
and Israel my chosen, 
I call you by your name, 
I name you, though you do not know me. 
I am the Lord, and there is no other, 
besides me there is no God; 
I equip you, though you do not know me, 
that people may know, from the rising of the sun 
and from the west, that there is none besides me; 
I am the Lord, and there is no other. 
I form light and create darkness; 
I make well-being and create calamity; 
I am the Lord, who does all these things.

 The Holy Bible: English Standard Version, (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016).