Some time ago, I heard a group of singers (The Seattle) include the following words as one of their praise songs. It was beautiful and it sounded so wonderful, that I had to raise my hands in praise as I listened:

"I will rejoice in the Lord;
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
The Lord God is my strength,
And he will make my feet like hinds' feet,
And he will make me to walk upon high places."

I found myself going around singing that and the melody going around in my mind as a praise song for days. However, recently, I came upon that text in its original context. It put an entirely different light on the text and on the matter of praise.

It's among the last verses of Habakkuk. If you look a just these two verses (verses 18 and 19) without knowing the rest of the context, you think. Wow! This is wonderful. We should praise God for all the goodness He has done for us.

But look again at the verse that just procedes it. Here Habakkuk is concluding a vision he had of horrible distruc- tion so bad that hardly anyone will survive it, during the first destruction of Jerusalem. It was so bad that He even chided God for sending a people more sinful (in his eyes) than the Jews to attack and defeat the Jews with God's help. However, God remained steadfast and patient, and showed Habakkuk that the Jews were not as sinless as Habakkuk thought. The Jews were rotten to the core as Habakkuk came to see.

Then in verse 17, the prophet in effect begins by saying even though everything around me falls apart, even though I do not get the blessing of God that I hoped for, even though I lose every- thing, even though it all goes up in smoke and I have to suffer the loss of everything, I will rejoice IN THE LORD.

Therein lies the key to rejoicing. It's not because of blessings, although those are nice and they cause spontaneous out- bursts of praise, as in the Psalms of David, when he often broke out in praises. It's not based in God's granting us anything we want. It's certainly not even based in God's taking away every- thing, which usually elicits complaints.

Habakkuk said that even if the worst happens I will re- joice IN THE LORD. It's IN HIM, and because of Who He is that we rejoice. We look at Him and not at the material things we have or don't have and when we do, it should elicit praise and re- joicing. He's worthy to be praised says another passage (Psalm 18:3). Habakkuk further adds that he would "joy in the God of [his] salvation." There is the source of our joy, not in what we feel or don't feel. Feelings are too ephimeral and whimsical. A good night's sleep and freedom from irritation when we wake up, and we FEEL joyful. But let us have something go wrong, whether it's little or life-threatening, and we lose that joy very fast.

However, if we do what Habakkuk did WILL to rejoice in the Lord and WILL to Joy in the God of [his] salvation, then it won't depend on circumstances. It will depend on the Lord and Who He is. Then we can have the conficence that Habakkuk expressed in the last verse, that God would lighten the oppress- ive burden of worry about losing everything, or of being cursed instead of praised by our peers, of not getting the blessing we want from God. It will turn our eyes to God and not to THINGS. There is where God wants our hearts and eyes turned. And once we get that part straight, we will be in the right position for Him to bless us. And He can be sure we are mature to receive the blessing that He has ready for us. It will not be some trinket that we think we want, but it will be the kind of lasting blessing that God wants for us.

Will you rejoice in the Lord? Will you make the God of your salvation your joy? Or are you going to be a slave to circumstances and things? Your will is the key to the choice you make. You can will to do these things or you can will to let yourself be a slave to every slight change that come about in your life.