The Lord God ... will make my feet like hinds' feet ... to walk upon mine high places. Habakkuk has here before his mind Psalms 18:33-19, "He maketh my feet like, hinds' feet, and setteth me upon my high places;" Deuteronomy 32:13, "He made him ride on the high places of the earth." "Hinds' (gazelles') feet" imply the swiftness with which God enables him (the prophet and his people) to escape from his enemies, and return to his native land. The "high places" are called "mine," to imply that Israel shall be restored to his own land, a land of hills which are places of safety and of eminence (cf. Genesis 19:17, "escape to the mountain;" and Matthew 24:16). Probably not only the safety, but the moral elevation of Israel above all the lands of the earth is implied (Deuteronomy 33:29, "Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord ... thou shalt tread upon their (thine enemies') high places)".
To the chief singer on my stringed instruments - binªgiynowtaay (H5058). This is the prophet's direction to the pre-centor ("chief singer") how the preceding ode (Habakkuk 3:1) is to be performed (cf. Psalms 4:1 and Psalms 6:1, titles, "To the chief musician on Neginoth"). The prophet had a certain form of stringed instrument adapted to certain numbers and measures, and suited to the subject. 'The words with which the song of the Church is here closed, mean, to the chief musician upon (Israel's, because it is the Church that speaks through the whole chapter) stringed instrument, assigned to the chief musician, that he might publicly sing it, with the accompaniment of sacred music, in the temple, which was in a manner the national music' (Hengstenberg). This formula at the end of the ode, directing the kind of instrument to be used, agrees with that in the beginning of it, which directs the kind of melody, "Upon Shigionoth." (Compare Isaiah 38:20, "The Lord was ready to save me: therefore we will sing my songs to the stringed instruments all the days of our life in the house of the Lord").
Remarks:
(1) Praise to God is often the most effective "prayer" to God (Habakkuk 3:1). When in the confidence of faith we thank God, as though we already had that which we have prayed for, we most certainly secure for ourselves and our appeals a favourable decision from the Almighty Judge with whom we have to do.
(2) God's judgments speak to the inner ear of the believer in a language which generates reverential fear. Still the feeling of the child of God is not slavish fear, but the spirit of adoption, suggesting the cry. "Revive thy work in the midst of the years" of the Church's calamity! "In wrath remember mercy!"
(3) The people of God draw comfort from the remembrance of God's marvelous interpositions in Israel's and the Church's behalf in ancient times (Habakkuk 3:3): and therefore they remind Yahweh of His past favours as a ground for expecting His again delivering them now in their season of adversity. 'O Lord, arise; help us, and deliver us, for thy name's sake! O God, we have heard with our ears, and our fathers have declared unto us the noble works that thou didst in their days and in the old time before them. O Lord, arise, help us, and deliver us, for thine honour' ('Church of England Litany').
(4) If the outward manifestations which emanate from the unseen power of God be so overwhelming to His enemies, how much more so the hidden Yahweh Himself! The terrible weapons of His armoury are infinitely various and inexhaustible, so that His people have no reason to fear the power of their adversaries, however formidable they may seem.
(5) When He appears in glory the powers of nature are shaken. One might suppose that the agitation of the earth, and the parting asunder of the waters of the Red Sea and of the Jordan, were indicative of His displeasure at these departments of the natural world. But the real cause was not displeasure at them, but God's pleasure in bringing "salvation" to His people (Habakkuk 3:8). Let the saints learn hence, amidst the war of elements and the turmoil of nations, to say, "God is our refuge and strength ... therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, through, the mountains shake with the swelling thereof" (Psalms 46:1).
(6) The ground of confidence to the people of God is the "oaths" wherewith again and again He has confirmed His "word" of promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the fathers of Israel after the flesh, and also of the spiritual Israel, the Church of all ages and places (Habakkuk 3:9). These oaths warrant all believers, as well as the literal Israel, to expect, in all their times of need, Almighty deliverance from all their enemies. For "God, willing more abundantly to show unto the heirs of promise the immutability of His counsel, confirmed it by an oath; that by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us" (Hebrews 6:17).
(7) There is no obstacle, whether mountains or waters, impeding the progress of God's people, which shall not be made to "pass by" (Habakkuk 3:10) when God gives the word of command. The deep may "utter his voice" of thunder, and "lift up his hands on high:" but he dares not "overflow" the saints when they are "passing through" the waters (Isaiah 43:2).