[0:00] Hannah's Prayer. Then Hannah prayed and said, My heart rejoices in the Lord.! In the Lord my horn is lifted high.
[0:11] ! Or let your mouth speak such arrogance.
[0:33] For the Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed. Those of the warrior are broken, but those who stumble are armed with strength.
[0:46] Those who were full hire themselves out for food, but those who were hungry are hungry no more. She who was barren has born seven children, and she who had many sons pines away.
[1:03] The Lord brings death and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and raises up. The Lord sends poverty and wealth. He humbles and he exalts.
[1:16] He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ashes. He seats them with princes and makes them inherit a throne of honor.
[1:27] For the foundations of the earth are the Lord's. On them he has set the world. He will guard the feet of his faithful servants, but the wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness.
[1:41] It is not by strength that one prevails. Those who oppose the Lord will be broken. The Most High will thunder from heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth.
[1:53] He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed. The Lord will judge the Lord's. The Lord will judge the Lord's. And the Lord will judge the Lord's. Well, if you're local to Cork, you will maybe have seen in front of the art gallery, the Crawford, that there's a guy there on the footpath, on the pavement, on the sidewalk, sometimes painting little canvases.
[2:17] And they're quite small scale. So the canvases are quite small, even though the things that he's painting are quite big, like buildings and trees and landscapes and things like that.
[2:30] And so in one sense, when you look at this small little painting that he has created, of course, it's not the same as the big picture that he's been looking at.
[2:41] But in another sense, when you look at this little painting that he has created, you are seeing the big picture. Maybe not all the details, maybe not in exactly the same way, but you see the big picture in the small painting that he has created.
[2:57] And as we look at Hannah's prayer this morning, it is a beautiful picture. It is a rich picture. It is a deep picture. And yet, in some ways, it's a small picture because it is personal to Hannah.
[3:12] In some ways, it is unique to Hannah. The details of Hannah's life are not the details of our lives. Hannah's story is not our story. And yet, part of the beauty of Hannah's prayer is that as you look at this little picture, this small picture, you get to see the big picture of how God relates to his people.
[3:33] And so, that's the joy of this section of God's Word. Looking at this small picture, we get to see the big picture and we get to see our place in the big picture.
[3:47] We get to see our place in the big picture because even though much has changed in the thousands of years since Hannah prayed this prayer, God hasn't changed.
[3:58] His character is the same. His dealings with his people is the same. And so, as we look at this little picture of Hannah's prayer, we see the big picture and find our place in it.
[4:12] Now, it's been a couple of weeks since we've been in 1 Samuel, so we just want to ask, first of all, where do we find Hannah? Where do we find Hannah at prayer?
[4:22] And you could answer that by saying, well, she's in the house of the Lord in Shiloh. We see that back in verse 24 of chapter 1, that geographically or physically, she's at the house of the Lord in this place called Shiloh.
[4:38] But the more important question is, where is Hannah spiritually or emotionally or mentally? And where we find Hannah is at prayer in a place of rejoicing.
[4:54] She's in a place of rejoicing. In verse 1, Hannah prayed and said, my heart rejoices in the Lord. In the Lord, my horn is lifted high, my mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance.
[5:10] She is rejoicing. She's in a place of rejoicing in her heart. Now, her heart was not just the place that her emotions are rooted. Her heart is the control center of her life.
[5:22] It's the control center of our lives, that our emotions, our will, our desire are all rooted in our hearts. For Hannah, you might remember from chapter 1 that she had been pouring out her soul, pouring out her heart in grief before the Lord.
[5:39] But now she's rejoicing in her heart. This is where we find her, in a place of rejoicing in her heart. And she's also rejoicing in her newfound strength.
[5:51] As it says in verse 2, in the Lord, my horn is lifted high. Or as the footnote points out, this image of a horn is like a ram's horn that the ram goes into battle with.
[6:03] And so it's an image of strength and status. If you've seen those nature documentaries where the two mountain goats are battling each other, it's the ones with the bigger horns that's going to win, that has the higher status.
[6:16] And so for Hannah, she's rejoicing in her newfound strength, her newfound status as a result of God hearing her grief. So she has wind in her sails.
[6:29] She has this new lease of life, as it were. Not only is she rejoicing in her newfound strength, she's also rejoicing in her words, in her mouth.
[6:40] In verse 1, my mouth boasts over my enemies. And you remember that Hannah had been silent in prayer back in chapter 1. Her mouth had been moving, but there was no words coming out, even though she had been praying fervently in her heart.
[6:56] But now she is speaking. She is boasting over her enemies. She is no longer provoked by her enemies, but she is boasting over them.
[7:07] We'll come back to that. But we find Hannah in a very different place now that she's in this chapter 2 as opposed to Hannah of chapter 1.
[7:17] It's like she's a new person. It's like she's a new woman. It's like she has this new strength, this new winter in her sails, this new joy, this new delight, and this new boast.
[7:29] As you look at Hannah here, you may think, well, what's different to Penina, the lady back in chapter 1 who had been provoking Hannah, who had been irritating Hannah?
[7:42] Is Hannah not just doing the same thing that Penina was doing, boasting over her? Ha, look at me! Look at what God has done in my life! Penina had been rejoicing that she had children and Hannah didn't.
[7:54] Is Hannah just doing the same thing as Penina was doing? Well, no, because Penina was boasting in herself. She was rejoicing in herself.
[8:06] She was thinking that she was strong. Whereas Hannah is rejoicing in the Lord. In verse 1, it says clearly, my heart rejoices in the Lord.
[8:18] In the next line, it says, in the Lord, my horn is lifted high. In the last line of the verse, I delight in your deliverance. And so her rejoicing is in the Lord.
[8:31] It's not, how great am I? Look at what I've done. Look at how strong I am. It's, look at what he has done. I will boast about what he has done.
[8:42] It is in the Lord because Hannah knows that nobody compares with God. There is nobody who compares with God. Verse 2, there is no one holy like the Lord.
[8:55] There is no one besides you. There is no rock like our God. He is holy. He is unequaled. He is a rock, a place of refuge and security and safety.
[9:10] And so Hannah is boasting and rejoicing and delighting, not in herself, but in the Lord and about the great things that he has done.
[9:23] It's striking that this is what she is doing, that this is where we find her, not just because of where she has been at a low ebb in her life and in deep sorrow back in chapter 1, but it's also striking because not everybody behaved like this at this time.
[9:43] If you glance down in verse 12 in chapter 2, it says, Eli's sons, that is the priest's sons, were scoundrels. They had no regard for the Lord.
[9:56] So Hannah rejoicing in the Lord and delighting in his salvation like this is unusual at this time, even though it is beautiful and wonderful to see it.
[10:08] It is not a given that she or anybody else would do this. And so this is where we find Hannah rejoicing in the Lord.
[10:20] And you realize that she is doing this with her eyes set on God, not to provoke Penina. Penina, when she was boasting, it was in order to provoke Hannah, to irritate Hannah.
[10:36] But Hannah wants Penina to come to know God for herself in verse 3. Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance.
[10:49] For the Lord is a God who knows and by him deeds are weighed. So even as she boasts in the Lord and is humble before God, she wants Penina too to be humble before the Lord, to stop boasting in herself, to stop speaking proudly of herself.
[11:07] So Hannah, as she rejoices in the Lord, longs for others to come to know God too because she realizes that it isn't about Hannah, it is about God.
[11:20] And so of course, as she does this, there is a personal aspect to what has been going on between Hannah and Penina. So Hannah is rejoicing in that.
[11:31] But Hannah's concern ultimately is for justice and fairness, for those who are heartbroken to be heartbroken no longer, for those who are being bullied or provoked to no longer be bullied or provoked.
[11:45] That is her concern objectively, apart from even what's going on with her and Penina. As she does this, she reminds me a little bit of David in one of the Psalms.
[11:59] David, this great king in the Old Testament, what does he say? He says, Lord, if I have done this or if there is guilt on my hands, if I have repaid my ally with evil or without cause have robbed my foe, then let my enemy pursue me and overtake me.
[12:18] For those who rejoice in the Lord, they rejoice when justice is done. When fairness is done, even if it means that they need to confess sin, to repent of sin, that is their great joy, that is their great delight.
[12:33] And for Hannah, that is what she is rejoicing in, that justice is being done. And so we find Hannah in a very different place as she rejoices in the Lord.
[12:46] Some time ago, I was chatting to somebody who lives in Cork and they had been on the receiving end of injustice, not dissimilar to what was going on with Penina, where they were being verbally provoked, where there was verbal abuse going on, where threats were being made to them right outside their own home.
[13:07] It was an awful situation, a frightening situation. It was so wrong. They were looking for somewhere new to rent, understandably, and they found somewhere new to rent and to live.
[13:20] And as they were delivered from that situation, delivered from that provocation, they rejoiced. But they didn't rejoice in themselves. They didn't rejoice in their own strength.
[13:31] They didn't rejoice in how great they were at searching on daft to find accommodation. They rejoiced in the Lord and they recognized that it was His strength and His deliverance that got them out of that circumstance.
[13:46] And they rejoiced in Him. And, you know, as we look at Hannah and we find herself, or we find her in this place of rejoicing, we can find ourselves there as well.
[14:00] We can find ourselves with Hannah. How do we do that? Well, we recognize that if we have any joy, if we have any strength, if we have been delivered from any circumstance in life, that it is in the Lord that this has happened.
[14:17] It is because of Him that this has happened, not because of who we are or what we have done. We too can find ourselves with Hannah rejoicing in the Lord and that's what we were made for.
[14:31] When we were looking at Hannah in chapter 1 and she was grieving and despairing and in great sorrow, there's this sense that this isn't the way it was meant to be.
[14:43] But when we look at Hannah in verse 1 of this chapter, we realize this is what she was made for. This is what we were made for to turn all of God's blessings into praise and delight and rejoicing in Him.
[15:01] And so that is where we find Hannah this morning and that is where we can find ourselves as well. So we want to ask a second question though. what has happened in Hannah's life that has brought this about?
[15:14] This great transformation from being in a place of sorrow and at a low ebb to being in this place of joy. What has happened in her life? Well, as she prays, she recognizes that a great reversal has happened.
[15:30] The tables have been turned. So she says in verse 4, the bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumbled are armed with strength. So the bows have been broken and the stumbling are now strong.
[15:45] When I was little, we used to have a plastic bow and arrows and they would last about a day before the plastic bow snapped and no longer could you fire the arrow with the little sucker at the end.
[16:00] And the minute the bow snapped, that was end of battle, end of war, game over. No matter how much sellotape you put around the bow, it never had the same strength or integrity or tension like in those old westerns when the sharpshooter is out of bullets and it's game over, battle over.
[16:24] And Hannah recognizes there's this great reversal. The one who had the strong bow, the bow has been broken and those who stumbled are now strong.
[16:36] Or she paints it in these terms in verse 5, those who were full hired themselves out for food, but those who were hungry are hungry no more. There's this evocative image from Hannah that those who are full sitting back after a wonderful meal satisfied, provided for.
[16:57] Now they need to hire themselves out as servants to put bread on the table. While those who were hungry are now full and satisfied, those who hungered, their hunger has been satisfied.
[17:14] There's been this great reversal. Or there's another reversal in verse 5. She who was barren has borne seven children, but she who has had many sons, pines away.
[17:27] And here Hannah is getting closer to what her experience has been as she grieved and prayed and poured her heart out before God. Now she has had a child.
[17:39] She has had a son. And it's interesting as she reflects on that, she says she who was barren has had seven children. But of course she hasn't had seven.
[17:50] She's had one child. But when she says she who is barren has borne seven children, the symbolism of the number is important. Seven meaning wholeness or fullness or completeness.
[18:05] That God has answered her prayer in this way. And that Penina for all her children pines away.
[18:16] And maybe it was because Penina is sad. Maybe it is that Penina is sad that Hannah has been blessed in this way that she pines away.
[18:29] Penina, who had been strong and full and fruitful, used that to boast, used that to provoke and to bully Hannah.
[18:42] Penina's identity seemed so bound up not just in her having children, but in Hannah not having children, that now that the tables have been turned, Penina is distraught.
[18:54] She pines away. But for Hannah, her identity continues to be in the Lord. As she prays to God and reflects on this great reversal that has happened, the tables have been turned.
[19:10] turned. It's interesting that Hannah recognizes the tables have been turned, but the question is, have they just been turned by chance?
[19:21] Is this just the way things have happened? Is that just the way their lives unfolded? Well, Hannah says, no, the tables have been turned, but it is God who has turned the tables.
[19:35] Verse 6, she brings that to the fore when she says, the Lord brings death and makes alive. He brings down to the grave and raises up.
[19:46] The Lord sends poverty and wealth. He humbles and he exalts. Hannah has a big view of who God is.
[20:00] He is the one who has turned the tables. And he is the one who is carefully in control of every aspect of her life and the lives of his people and the lives of all people.
[20:14] The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Now, that is a humbling thing to hear. It is a humbling thing because it means that if God is God, then I am not God.
[20:33] That if God is God, I am not God. that if I feel strong and exalted, it is because he has done it. If I feel humble and low, it is because in God's providence, that is where he has me.
[20:51] And it's crucial that we recognize both. Sometimes we think he does one but not the other. but when we recognize that it is the Lord who humbles and the Lord who exalts, where does that leave us?
[21:10] That leaves us with the Lord. If we recognize that he is the one who humbles and he is the one who exalts, ultimately it leads us to him.
[21:23] Because as Paul says, the apostle, whether I am in plenty or in want, I find strength. I can handle every circumstance in Christ who strengthens me.
[21:38] Whether I am humbled or whether I am exalted. Whether I am going through poverty or through wealth. Whether I am facing death or I am feeling full of life.
[21:52] It is a humbling thing, but it is a true thing that it is the Lord who humbles and the Lord who exalts. Of course, the alternative, a life without God or a life where the tables are turned randomly and at chance, gives no guarantees.
[22:13] No guarantees for us as individuals, no guarantees for us as a society, as a culture, as a country, as a world. Without God, there is no guarantees that the things that give stability and prosperity and balance and ballast will continue.
[22:30] They may or they may not. But with God, he humbles, he exalts. And when we recognize that, it means we come to God through thick and thin.
[22:44] God is the one. God is the one who has turned the tables. God is the one who has brought about this great reversal in her life.
[22:57] And this is why she is rejoicing and praising him. When she was going through hard times, she came to the Lord. And now that he has brought her through those times, she comes to the Lord and rejoices again.
[23:09] And it gives us pause for thought. It gives us an opportunity to reflect as we think perhaps on the last year of our life, as we think on the last five years of our lives, at times when we were brought low, whether that was emotionally or financially, or times when we have been exalted, lifted high.
[23:31] As we reflect on how our life has unfolded, do we say that was just the way things were? Or do we say it is the Lord who humbles and the Lord who exalts?
[23:43] It is the Lord who has done this. You know, if you are the warrior whose bow has been broken, that is a humbling thing.
[23:56] But if that humility or humbling brings you to recognize that God is God, that is a good thing. for Penina, she has an opportunity now to not go on talking so proudly or so arrogantly, but to praise the Lord for he humbles and he exalts.
[24:21] If this morning you are the warrior whose bow has been broken, recognize in that a severe mercy of God, that it is an opportunity for you to come to him in your humbleness.
[24:35] It is not pleasant, it is not enjoyable, but if it means that you come to know him as God, that is a good thing. If we reflect on the last number of years in our lives and we think, look at how I've been lifted up and exalted, maybe at work, maybe financially, maybe in my relationships, what happens when we recognize that it is God who has done this?
[25:03] we are humbled before him. It is not my strength, it is not my doing, it is all him. It is in the Lord that I have been delivered and lifted up.
[25:18] And so Hannah, this little picture that she paints in her prayers is profound, that she has a grasp on this reality that God has brought about this great reversal, that he humbles and he exalts, us, and it is an invitation for us to join her in that, in recognizing this truth that we might rejoice in him all the more.
[25:43] Let's ask just a third question, just finally to draw our thoughts to a close. What will happen? So Hannah has been thinking about what has happened, now she starts thinking about what will happen.
[25:56] In verse nine, he will, the wicked will. Verse ten, the Lord will, the most high will, the Lord will, he will. So this is future, this is thinking about what's going to happen now.
[26:11] And Hannah amazingly, as she prays, she prays in this prophetic way about what is going to happen in the future. Because as she reflects on the past, there has been this great reversal where she has known times of lowness, and grief and sorrow and things have been reversed.
[26:33] But will it just go on like that forever where sometimes we are humbled, sometimes we are exalted, sometimes we go through poverty, sometimes we go through wealth? Well, Hannah says that what will happen in one sense, what has happened will happen.
[26:52] So in one sense, what has happened will happen. in verse nine, it says that God will guard the feet of his faithful servants. And that's what he's been doing, isn't it, with Hannah.
[27:06] He has been guarding her feet. He has been guarding her through distress and despair. And because this is how God has dealt with Hannah in the past, she can say, he will guard the feet of his faithful servants.
[27:27] She is sure that he will do this again and will continue to do this. Whereas with Penina, Hannah says the wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness.
[27:42] The question is, is this talking about Penina? Is this talking about Penina? Well, that's a question for Penina.
[27:53] Penina to answer. Is she going to go on speaking proudly and arrogantly and opposing God? Because as she has been humbled, so she will be cast off if she continues in that mindset.
[28:14] So there's this move from past to future that what has happened will happen, but there's also a move from the fluid to the fixed. So as Hannah reflects in her life, there's ups and downs, there's change, there's flux.
[28:29] Penina is strong, Hannah is low, Penina is low, Hannah is strong. But there is a finality about what is going to happen in the future, where all that flux is done away with.
[28:43] There's a finality about what Hannah says. Because in verse 9, the wicked being silenced in the place of darkness, that is far more final than just being brought low.
[28:57] What this means for those who continue to oppose God is a final, eternal, being separated from him, being cut off from him.
[29:09] What it means for Hannah, who has put her trust in the Lord, is because the wicked have been silenced, there will be no more bullying for Hannah. There will be nobody provoking her, sinning against her, wronging her.
[29:27] And so there's a finality to what happens to those who continue to oppose God. And there's a finality to what happens to those who are faithful, who put their trust in him.
[29:43] That the joy that Hannah feels in verse 1, will be an eternal joy. That this will be her fixed experience for all eternity.
[29:57] She had to go back in verse 11 with Elkanah to Ramah. She had to go back off the mountaintop experience of rejoicing in the Lord to normal day-to-day life, making clothes for Samuel and all these mundane, routine things.
[30:16] But the joy that she had tasted in verse 1 is going to be an eternal fixed joy. No longer will it ebb and flow. No longer will there be highs and lows.
[30:30] But it will be eternally joyful for Hannah and for all who trust in God. And so there's a move from past to future. What has happened will happen.
[30:41] There's a move from fluid to fixed. There's a move from the local to the global. In verse 10, the most high will thunder from heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth. And Hannah recognized that just as God has been just and fair in her situation with Penina, so he will be just and fair to the ends of the earth.
[31:01] That justice will be done. That where there is provoking and bullying, there will be peace and blessing. That God is not just the God of the valleys or the God of the mountains as people would have thought back then, but that he is the God of all the earth.
[31:16] That Hannah realizes that the little picture that God has been painting in her life is going to be the big picture where justice is done in all the earth. And that will be a good thing.
[31:28] And that will be something to praise God for. Where all injustice is done away with. And not only is there a move from the local to the global, there's a move from the individual to the king.
[31:41] In verse 10, she says that God will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed. There isn't a king yet.
[31:54] Who's Hannah talking about? God will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed. You know, in the Old Testament, kings were anointed with oil as a sign that they were chosen by God to be king.
[32:07] But there is no king yet. But Hannah is looking into the future. Based on God's character, she realizes that just as God has acted with her, he will act with his promised king.
[32:21] She uses the exact same language in verse 10 to speak about the king as she does to speak about herself. Back in verse 1, that God will exalt the horn of his anointed, which is the same phrase she uses in verse 1, in the Lord my horn is exalted, or lifted high.
[32:39] She recognizes that there will one day be a king that God has chosen and put on the throne, that this king will not be a king where might is right.
[32:51] This will be a king whose strength is in the Lord. Lord. And as you read through Samuel, you realize that there are kings kind of like this.
[33:03] You read of David who goes out to fight Goliath, and David doesn't go with military might. He takes off the armor. He puts down the sword. How does David fight Goliath?
[33:15] He says this, I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts. David's trust was in the Lord when he fought Goliath.
[33:27] This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand. David had the same heart as Hannah, a heart of humility, a heart that recognized that he wasn't God, a heart that delighted in the Lord delivering him, but it was also an imperfect heart, a sinful heart.
[33:49] And we can see a little bit further, can't we, than David. We can see forward to a king who had no armor, no sword, no shield, who described himself as meek and lowly of heart.
[34:07] A king who came to do battle not just with physical earthly enemies. He came to do battle with sin and death and Satan. salvation.
[34:19] The king that we have seen, King Jesus, has come to save us, to deliver us, not just from being bullied and provoked as Hannah was, but from all the injustice we experience, from all the cruelty we experience, from all the sins that have been committed against us.
[34:39] and he is a king who has come to deliver us from our own sin and all the injustice that we have done and all the things that haunt us at night and keep us awake as we reflect on how we could have said this or done this or thought this.
[35:04] And he has come to do it through the cross. And you think, where is the strength in that? Where is the power in that?
[35:16] But as Paul says, to those who are called, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. That is why we preach Christ crucified.
[35:30] This one who is meek and lowly of heart was exalted, was lifted up. Look at my son. Look at my son in faith, trust in him, and you will be saved.
[35:43] Humble yourself before him and you will be delivered. But of course, he wasn't just lifted up to the cross.
[35:55] He was lifted up to the right hand of the father. He who is meek and lowly has now been exalted to the right hand of the father. father. And as we reflect on Hannah's little painting, her little prayer, she has a profound grasp of the way God works.
[36:13] It teaches us how to pray as we think about how we can rejoice in the Lord, how we can reflect on what he has done, what he will do. But it teaches us much about God.
[36:26] It teaches us that he is moving us towards this great future. he is moving us towards a great future where all the ups and downs that we experience in this life will be done away with.
[36:40] That we will be seated not just with princes, as verse 8 says, but seated with the Lord. Where now we feel weak at times, we feel strong at times, we will feel eternally strong.
[36:59] Where now we feel emotionally low and vulnerable at times, and sometimes we feel high and joyful, we will have an eternity of rejoicing in the Lord.
[37:14] We have a great inheritance in Christ. In verse 8 it says that God makes them inherit a throne of honor. In Christ we have inherited every blessing.
[37:26] It is all through him, it is all to his glory, glory, it is his delight to do this. Hannah recognized it, we see it more clearly. And so we want to rejoice in him and praise him for all that he has done and all he will do.
[37:42] And so let's pray and ask God to help us as we journey into the week ahead. Father, we learn from Hannah here, we learn from her prayer how to pray, and Lord, we learn of your character, your faithfulness, Lord, how you are carefully in control of all things.
[38:05] And Lord, that humbles us, but Lord, it is a good place to be humbled before our great and mighty King. Father, we bow before you, recognizing who you are and all that you've done for us in Christ, and we praise you that as we look to the future, we have a sure and certain hope in Christ, that those who are humble will be exalted, those who are lowly will be lifted high, those who are dead will be made alive, those who have been brought down to the grave will be raised up, those who are needy will be lifted and seated with our Savior.
[38:46] And so we look to you, Lord, and pray you'd lead us in the days ahead. Amen. And so you're alguém alguém alguém alguém alguém