The prophet herein declares two things which are of supreme importance in the highest life of man.
I. He declares the possibility of having joy independently of all external things. Here is a man who has a secret a man who rises amid the pomp of nature, the productiveness of summer, and says: "Though every light be put out, and every root be withered, I have a joy that cannot be impaired." Men of that kind stimulate us; they excite inquiry they turn our hearts into a new direction of thought, expectation, and purpose.
II. The prophet declares that all his concern is about salvation. Not about secular prosperity. There is a law which says the greater includes the less. Habakkuk has followed the meaning of that law, and made an application of it to his own life and experience. "I will joy in the God of my salvation." Not in the God of providence only. Salvation includes providence. He who is careful about his soul gathers up his whole life, and is master of the whole situation of his being, prospects, and destiny.
Parker, City Temple,1871, p. 273.
References: Zechariah 3:17; Zechariah 3:18. Clergyman's Magazine,vol. xiii., p. 85.Zechariah 3:17-19. J. P. Gledstone, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxiv., p. 51.Zechariah 3:19. A. Raleigh, Old Testament Outlines,p. 277. 3 Pulpit Analyst,vol. i., pp. 33, 144.