This is a most blessed prayer, and if I mistake not, it takes into its bosom all the great leading points of redemption. The Prophet by this figure of speech, of seemingly as king, the Lord concerning the glorious and eternal excellency of his nature and character is most blessedly confirming it. He doth indeed thereby more strongly assert it, and grounds the subject of his prayer upon it. It is as if he had said, Thou art, O Lord, O Jehovah Alohim! God in covenant, and that from everlasting! Redemption is not a work of yesterday. Christ the Holy One, hath been set up from everlasting; yea, the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world! Psalms 89:19; Revelation 13:8. And what endears it yet more, the Prophet calls him his Holy One. And so may, and so ought every true believer in Christ to do; for so Jehovah himself commanded. Jeremiah 23:6. Hence by the way, if a child of God be demanded in this sinful and adulterous generation, wherefore do you call Christ Jehovah; and wherefore do you call him your HOLY ONE, your righteousness? The answer is direct: So Jehovah the Father hath enjoined. This is the name whereby he shall be called. Jehovah. And not only so - but Our Righteousness. And yet more than all this. He who directed the Church so to call Christ, and so to esteem him, hath made Him what he is to all his redeemed; for so the Apostle Paul was commissioned to tell the Church: who of God (saith the Apostle) is made unto us. Mark that! while you and I behold Christ as our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. Jesus is made all these to his people by God the Father himself! Hallelu-JAH! 1 Corinthians 1:30. Well then, the Prophet having looked up to a God in covenant, now pleads in this sweet prayer for the salvation of his people. Surely we shall not die. Though Babylon correct, yet Babylon shall not finally prevail. The enemies of the Church must perish, but the Church shall outlive all. Reader! look at this prayer, as it is evidently offered up in the faith of the rich redemption by Christ; and it is all over gospel, from beginning to end. All that the Prophet pleads is founded in the Lord's free covenant, and consequently by faith he is pleading for all blessings, in the name of the Lord Jesus!
Habakkuk 1:12-17
12 Art thou not from everlasting, O LORD my God, mine Holy One? we shall not die. O LORD, thou hast ordained them for judgment; and, O mighty God, thou hast established them for correction.
13 Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity:e wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?
14 And makest men as the fishes of the sea, as the creeping things, that have no ruler over them?
15 They take up all of them with the angle, they catch them in their net, and gather them in their drag:f therefore they rejoice and are glad.
16 Therefore they sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their drag; because by them their portion is fat, and their meat plenteous.g
17 Shall they therefore empty their net, and not spare continually to slay the nations?