God Comes to Deliver (Ch. 3). 

        This chapter is a psalm, which, if the musical rubrics are any guide, was probably taken from some temple collection of psalms. Its addition to the preceding chapters may well be due to an editor who wished to bring together all the extant work of Habakkuk. While we do not think that the psalm has any direct connexion with the preceding prophecy, we see in that a proof rather than the reverse of Habakkuk’s author­ship.

        As Habakkuk prays for God’s intervention in the turmoil around (Turmoil, rather than wrath — so G. A. Smith II, p. 150) he has a vision of Him coming as He once did at the Red Sea, Sinai, Jordan and in the Conquest; vers. 3-15 are based on the language of Deut. 33:2; Judges 5:4f; Ps. 68:7f. While it is an account of what happened in the past, it is a present reality for the prophet. So we should read present tenses throughout from ver. 3 to ver. 15 as in the R.V. mg.

        Though the first effect of the vision on the prophet is inner distress (ver. 16), it then creates in him the confident ability to endure even worse conditions than those he is passing through (ver. 17ff).