Hannah's Song of Praise and Thanksgiving (1 Samuel 2:1-10)

Hannah’s Prayer as a Song of Praise

The first part of chapter 2 contains the second prayer of Hannah, which is in the form of a praise song. The first prayer was in chapter 1 in verse 11, and it was almost in the form of a vow to the Lord.

She made a vow and said, O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your maidservant and remember me, and not forget your maidservant, but will give your maidservant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and a razor shall not come to his head.

That was her prayer. God granted her an answer to that prayer, and she was able to conceive and give birth to a son. That son she named Samuel, who will play a big part in the history of Israel. As we look at this prayer in chapter 2, the first prayer was done in a way because she was in great distress, and she wept bitterly.

When God finally did answer Hannah's prayer by giving her a son, she asked for and responded with unbroken and continuous praise. Her words are recorded here in these first 10 verses of chapter 2. This is a hymn of praise in the form of a song.

Her praise is offered to the Lord, which is also a reflection of the praise which Mary gave in Luke, upon receiving the understanding from an angel that she would bear a son who would be the Son of God.

That was in Luke chapter 1 and verses 46 through 55. The importance of Hannah's song reaches far beyond personal or sentimental value. To Hannah, this was given. She had the privilege of being able to provide almost the main theological introduction to the whole amount of history of the Israel monarchy.

Hannah gives a very theological and biblically informed praise to God, and in this great period of time in her life, Hannah's song provides us with a solid view of who God is and what he was going to do during that period of history.

The song of praise is also similar to David's song of praise in 2 Samuel chapter 22 in verses 1 through 7. David gave this song of praise when God delivered him from his enemies and also from the hand of Saul.

So as he celebrated, he brought forth a praise to God as well. Augustine said of Hannah, through this woman there speaks by the spirit of prophecy the Christian religion itself with which the humble are filled so that they rise up, which was in fact the chief theme that rang out in her hymn of praise.

For years, she had traveled to the tabernacle in Shiloh, facing the bitterness of her barrenness as well as suffering the mockery from her rival, Peninnah, who had succeeded in bearing children from Hannah's husband, Eltenah.

Hannah turned to the Lord in faith and had offered her son for lifelong service if God would give her a son. As we looked at the close of chapter 1, it said, and he worshipped the Lord there. Hannah shows us a difference it makes when you turn to God in time of need.

The last time we saw her praying, her situation was quite different. Now she begins with this in verse 1 of chapter 2. Then Hannah prayed and said, my heart exults in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord.

My mouth speaks boldly against my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation. As she begins, when she says, my heart exults in the Lord, she was a woman oppressed before, but now her heart is just exulting.

She was bursting forth in praise. She continues in this praise and she says, my horn is exalted in the Lord. The term horn used in the Old Testament often signified strength. The psalmist said this, David proclaims, my faithfulness and my loving kindness will be with him, and in my name, his horn will be exalted.

That was in Psalm 89, 24. Those who lived in that period of time had understanding of the agricultural world and the beast like oxen who held their head high with their horns high as a symbol of victory and strength.

Hannah refers to the removal of her disgrace. Now she can hold her head high. She lifts her head high because she was thankful for what God did for her. Not just the son, but her salvation itself. She goes on, she says, my mouth speaks boldly against my enemies.

In this portion of Hannah's praise, the Hebrew literally states, my mouth is opened wide. The idea seems to combine a couple of thoughts. One of devouring one's foes and the other of recognition of the defeated enemies.

Since Hannah refused to complain about Peninnah or seek God's vengeance, it's not likely that Hannah had turned bitter or hateful towards Peninnah, but she recognized something. She had recognized and seized Peninnah as a voice of unbelieving mockery, which is silenced now by God's grace.

To God, all the glory was due. A commentator by the name of William Blakely says this, looking on herself as representing the nation of Israel, Hannah seems to have felt that what happened to her on a small scale was to happen to the nation on a large scale.

For God would draw nigh to Israel as he had to her and make Israel his friend and servant and humble the proud in the wicked nations and exalt God Jehovah. The source of Hannah's joy and strength is Jehovah.

More important than the blessing of the son was that he answered her prayer and it was granted to her by God himself. He was the one that she was giving praise and glory to. Though Hannah loved her son Samuel, he was not her savior and the rejoicing that she had was in her salvation.

She closes verse one with great jubilance. She says this, because I rejoice in your salvation. Hannah understood that her salvation was God's gift to her, just as it is to those who trust him today. It is a gift from God, nothing that we have earned.

It is something that God did on our behalf for all those that place their faith and trust in Jesus Christ. We sometimes can be complacent about our salvation. Oh yeah, we go through the motions, go to church services, we gather with Christian people, we enjoy those things, but how much do we personally worship God in praise and thanksgiving?

This book encourages that in this text and I hope that somehow we can get the meaning of what God has done in us and through us for his glory. In verse two, she says, there is no one holy like the Lord.

Now we begin to see a little bit of depth of Hannah's knowledge. She understands the God that she worships. Moses said this in Exodus, who is like you among the gods, oh Lord? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, Exodus 15.

Moses' encounter with God on Mount Sinai confirms that God's holiness first and foremost means God is set apart. God is distinctly set apart by who he is. Countless times when scripture refers to God as the holy one, it's the foundational meaning that it has in mind.

God is set apart. Above all, his holiness is one of his great attributes. Holiness is the moral reflection of the glory of the one absolute God. Wicked should tremble before his holiness and not talk in their pride of things which they have accomplished or tend to perform.

The acts of God are always just. He will weigh the minds and hearts. That was a quote from Augustine as well. In Proverbs, we see this, and all the ways of a man are clean in his own sight, but the Lord weighs the motives, Proverbs 16 .2.

Every man considers himself right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the hearts, Proverbs 21 .2. He says this, if you say, see, we did not know this. Does he not consider it who weighs the hearts? And does he not know it who keeps your soul?

And will he not render to man according to his works? Hannah adds another statement here. She invokes just another attribute, his omniscience. God is all-knowing. This is, of course, a non-commutable attribute.

There's attributes of God that are for him alone, that of deity. There's other commutable attributes. She's not talking about those in this context. From his book, None Greater, and subtitled The Undomesticated Attributes of God, by Matthew Barrett, was probably one of the best books that I have ever read on the attributes of God.

I'd highly recommend it. It is extremely well done, and it's probably the most comprehensive study on the attributes of God that I have read. Barrett writes this, the relationship between power and knowledge is key.

God's thought life is not like our thought life, yet God's knowledge is directly tied to his omnipotence. More precisely, his knowledge is power, and his power is his knowledge. He is omnisciently omnipotent, and omnipotently omniscient.

Those two intertwine. So when he thinks, things happen. His knowledge is not merely contemplative, like ours. He is no spectator. He is the creator, the one who determines all things. His knowledge is not like the creature, as if he knew by observing, but his knowledge is meaning he observes what he already knows and has decreed eternally.

Augustine says this, both spiritual and corporal, that he does not know them because they are, but they are because he knows them. He was not ignorant of what he was going to create, so he created because he knew.

He did not know because he created. He goes on to say, God's omnipotent knowledge brought creation into existence out of nothing. There was nothing, and God spoke, and it came into existence. He creates.

He is the creator God. We have to remember that we're the creatures, and as much as we want to know and learn about God, which he reveals in his word, we cannot understand the comprehensive understanding of who this God is.

He's infinite. That means there's no limits to what he can do. He is unexplainable. It is the triune God who, by thinking, creates the word-fulfilling, the spirit-perfecting, and the object of his father's command, and the spirits-perfecting, what the father has spoken through the word, his son.

We cannot condition what God knows upon human creatures as we think. God knows all things, past, present, and future. Now, Matthew Barrett makes another assertion here, and I'll try to bring it all in context.

He says this, God acts and permits actions in accordance with his perfect knowledge of past, present, and future, always achieving his sovereign will for his own glory, and the highest good of his people.

What God knows now, he has always known, and he has known it perfectly. His knowledge does not develop over time. He knows everything by one eternal act. Everything is as if it were present to God, even things that have not yet occurred in our experience, because he does not grow in his knowledge, knowing something that he did not know before.

To be exact, there is no before or future with God. He knows everything, timelessly and eternally.". So we begin to see the remarkable understanding that Hannah had of her God as she brings forth these attributes.

It wasn't just her trying to give praise to God, she's given praise to God in his attributes, and she brings forth several as we go through this. Her faith was anchored in her knowledge of the God that she served.

This is very instructive for us. Oftentimes, we have urgent prayer requests and we go before the Lord, and we do so, which acknowledges our dependence upon God for all things. We do so, it's a humbling to go before God.

We have to make sure that our hearts are cleansed by acknowledgement of our sin and confession of our sin. We have to recognize that we are going before the Creator God. What a privilege that we have, and yet often abuse.

The Apostle Peter admonishes believers in 2 Peter 1, verses 14 through 16,. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior, because it is written, you shall be holy, for I am holy.

The Bows of the Mighty and the Feeble Girding on Strength

As we go to verse 4, Hannah says this,. The bows of the mighty are shattered, but the feeble gird on strength. Now this is a little bit different than it appears in this translation. The bows of the mighty are shattered.

The thought being conveyed here is not the bow itself. When we think of this, we think of the bows of the warriors coming against God's people, their bows being broken, but that's not what it's talking about.

It's actually talking about those warriors who carry the bows. They will be broken. They cannot thwart God's plan. God can break them. They can be fearful and not be able to overcome the people of God.

The reason the verb is taken in the sense of confounded or broken is God's holiness encourages those who are presently afflicted. It would be easy for one to conclude that Hannah's joy was just simply that her desire was granted.

That's not it. This would be a failure to take into account the long years of her bitter oppression and disappointment. Remember, year after year, she made the trip, the journey, to Shiloh, and she did so to worship God.

Oftentimes of severe trials or testing, believers try to understand the purpose for that. We look at those that are afflicted, and we see their pain and sorrow and affliction, and we don't understand.

We don't understand God's providence, and perhaps we won't. It may be that when one goes through this, on the other side, they may have some perspective. We do know that God works in us through these trials, not just for the individual going through it, but all those that are praying and offering up petition for those individuals.

In the book of Habakkuk, we read this from the Oracle of Habakkuk. Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, and you cannot look on wickedness with favor. Favor. That was in Habakkuk 113. One commentator makes this observation.

To the wicked, this attribute is no comfort, but only a terror. Yet to those who can appreciate it, how blessed a thing is the holiness of God. No darkness in Him. No corruption. No infirmity. God is absolutely pure.

He governs on all the principles of that absolute purity. Think of it. Because of God's holiness, think how He treats His children. Even when He has to rebuke them or chasten them, He does so in pure love and holiness.

That should be a comfort to us, to understand the God that we serve. He cares. He wants us to have the utmost for His glory. That's His desire. This shows even another attribute. God is infinite. He doesn't have any limitations.

Think about that for a second. An infinite God. We can't even comprehend, and He has no limitations. Paul, in Romans, said this, in chapter 11. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom of knowledge of God.

How unsearchable are His judgments, and how inscrutable His ways. That's in Romans 11, 33. God is infinite. God is the creator and sustainer of all things. This creator is the one that there's nothing greater.

There is no one greater. He is, without limitations, a being who has absolute perfection.

Yes, Peter, exactly.

The attributes do. Who He is brings forth that what He does. That's a good point, Peter, because many have made that statement. Well, could God lie? Could God do something out of His character?

No.

It would be impossible. So as we look at God, the very attributes that He holds, who He is, would not allow Him to do anything that would violate His holiness and all the other attributes that He has.

We continue in the understanding of Hannah's depth of the God that she served. This would explain how Hannah could bring her son, Samuel, her only son, and leave him with the high priest, Eli, and completely entrust him into God's hands.

No fear, no reservation. She made that vow to God. She did it without hesitation, because she knew that her God would be sovereign over him. God's omnipotence, but the feeble gird on strength. God is able to humble or exalt.

He is all powerful. Verse 5 says, those who are full hire themselves out for bread, but those who are hungry cease to hunger. Even the barren gives birth to seven, but she who has many children languishes.

Now, that's a perplexing statement. Hannah understood that though her enemies could mock her, her trust was not in her own strength, but in that of her Savior. God could bless His faithful servant with a son and do whatever He wanted to with that son.

If He chose to, He could use him to bring forth that which He desired to bring glory to Himself. Because He was able to bring down those who were self-sufficient, those who do not trust God and to enable them in trusting in their own ability.

Don't we run into a lot of those in North Idaho, independent individuals? There's nothing wrong with being independent unless you do so not considering who created you. Many do so in ignorance of God and boast about what they've attained.

They've dug out this home and made it with their own two hands, cut down the trees, skinned the logs, cured them, built the home themselves. No, they didn't do that themselves. Whatever talent or skills or abilities anyone has is from God.

The second portion of verse 5 relates to Hannah's personal situation. She was barren and now exalted, while her haughty opponent is cast down. The statement, gives birth to seven, really seems confusing because later on in chapter 2 of 1st Samuel, we'll see that the Lord visited Hannah and she conceived and gave birth to three sons and two daughters.

So add Samuel to that, she had six children. But the word seven is used, that's why it's caused some confusion with some. The point was being poetically expressed. Seven children are expressed as the full number of divine blessing in the Hebrew culture.

Just one book back in Ruth in chapter 4, she says this, may he also be to you as a restorer of life and a sustainer of your old age, your daughter-in-law who loves you and is better to you than seven sons has given birth to him.

So the term or the word seven, the amount seven, was used in the Old Testament culture to represent the perfect number of children. Verse 5 ends with, but she who has many children languishes. What does she mean by this?

The picture here is the mother of many children pines away because she has lost her sons and they are the one that would take care of her in her old age. The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick.

Who can understand it? This is the way that Peninnah was. She didn't give glory to God for anything. She was the enemy of God from what we can see. In verses 6 and 7, Hannah says this, the Lord kills and makes alive.

He brings down to show and raises up. The Lord makes poor and rich. He brings low and he exalts. As Jehovah God of Israel, the Holy One, he governs the world with his power. Here again, we see the mighty attributes of the infinite and absolute power of God.

Hannah expanded her thought here regarding God's salvation as it pertains to the ultimate issues of life and death. In the book of Deuteronomy, we find this truth. Before I read it, I relate this story.

There was a man who I was witnessing to, him and his wife, and he made a profession of faith. They moved, and I wasn't able to really spend time discipling him as I desired to, but he got involved in a charismatic church who practiced the signs and had all kinds of miracles, and he would send me pictures of things that he claimed were miracles.

He was on a tractor one day, and his wife took a picture, and there was a rainbow, and it ended on him. God was giving him a blessing. He had all kinds of antidotes that he would say about what God was going to do, and he said, you know, God protects his people, and he can really keep you from even dying.

So I called him on that. I said, really? That's interesting, because it says also in the word that it is appointed once for man to die, and then comes judgment. So I took him to this text, and the text I was referring to from Hannah.

It's from Deuteronomy. It says this, see now that I, I am he, and there is no God besides me. It is I who put to death and give life. I have wounded, and it is I who heal, and there was no one who can deliver from my hand.

Deuteronomy 32, 39. I gave him this text, and there was silence, and he said, I'll have to think about that. I never heard from him again, sadly. Verse 8, Hannah goes on and says this. He raises the poor from the dust.

He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with nobles and inherit a seat of honor, for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he set the world on them. Again, in Psalm 75, 7, the psalmist says this, but God is the judge.

He puts down one and exalts another. God raised up Daniel to make him a ruler over Babylon. In Daniel 2, it says this, then the king promoted Daniel and gave him many great gifts, and he made him ruler over the whole province of Babylon, and the chief prefect over all the wise men in Babylon.

Hear this young man who was faithful to God and worshiped God and served God. He was raised up in the Babylonian empire to this position. Job makes this proclamation. Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?

Tell me, if you know or if you have understanding, who set its measurements? Since you know, or who stretched the line on it, or who laid the cornerstone? This was in Job 38, when God was speaking to Job.

Since God is infinite and there is no one greater, the created cannot possibly comprehend the creator. We are unable to grasp the complete, indescribable greatness of our God. We should pursue the knowledge of God through his word and prayer, but we'll never be able to grasp the greatness of who he is.

Anselm said this, something then which nothing greater can be thought. God is not just the greatest possible of beings in the sense that he is just more perfect version of his competitors. God is the fullness of being itself.

The absolute plenitude, which means fullness or completeness, of reality upon which all else depends, end quote. Though we cannot ever grasp the complete greatness of our creator, we only have limited understanding.

And yet, we understand what God reveals in his word, how great a God that we serve. And second, Peter, I'll just read this quickly. Peter exhorts believers in this way. To those who have received a faith the same kind as ours by the righteousness of our God and savior, Jesus Christ, grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord, seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence.

For by these, he has granted to us precious and magnificent promises so that by them, you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust. Now, for this very reason, applying all diligence in your faith, supply moral excellence, and in your moral excellence, knowledge.

And in your knowledge, self-control. And in your self-control, perseverance. And in your perseverance, godliness. And in your godliness, brotherly kindness. And in your brotherly kindness, love. For if these qualities are yours and increasing, they will render you neither useless nor unfruitful in the true knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

For he who lacks these qualities is blind, short-sighted, having forgotten his purification from his former sins. So as we look at that text, that admonition from Peter, we recognize also our responsibility.

God wants us to pursue him. He wants us to know him. He wants to work in our hearts to bring glory to himself. Verse 9, Hannah continues, she says, He keeps the feet of his godly ones, but the wicked ones are silenced in darkness.

The psalmist says this,. For he will give his angels charge over you, to guard you in all your ways. Psalm 91, 11, and 12. As God's children, we are God's holy, under his holy and sovereign care. He loves us with a perfect love.

It isn't something that once we're, quote, turned to God and have become a child of God, that he somehow lacks the ability to oversee our lives and to govern the sovereign provenance that he has. He continues that with all of his children.

He is sovereign over all. It's hard for us to humanly comprehend that. The king is not saved by a mighty army. A warrior is not delivered by great strength. A horse is a false hope for victory, nor does it deliver anyone by its great strength.

That's what the psalmist wrote in Psalm 33, 16, and 17. The Lord keeps the feet of the righteous so they do not tremble or stumble, so that the righteous do not fall into adversity and perish therein.

The psalmist says this in 56, 13. For you have delivered my soul from death, indeed my feet from stumbling, so that I may walk before God in the light of the living. One commentator offers this. But the wicked who will press and persecute the righteous will perish in darkness.

God withdraws the light of his grace so that they will fall into distress and calamity, for no man can be strong through his own power so as to meet the storms of life, end quote. As we think of these great authors that have offered so much to the understanding of the attributes of God, I want to just encourage you today to study the attributes of God.

You find them throughout scripture, through the Psalms, through all of scripture. And I encourage you to do so because the more you know of the God that you serve, the more you'll be able to understand how great a God that we truly have.

Let's close in prayer. Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word and what you have provided for us to understand more of who you are and what you have done. We pray this morning as we continue to worship that you would be glorified as we bring forth song and praise to honor your name.

I pray that you would bless the word as Jim brings forth the teaching this morning. And we ask, Lord, that through all this, that we as your servants may honor you and glorify you. We ask this in Jesus' precious name, amen.