1 Samuel Lesson 3
Hannah’s Psalm – 2:1-10
The book of Samuel as well as the book of Kings is a historical analysis
of the office of the king. This is
important to you as a believer for one reason, mainly you can’t understand who
Jesus is unless you understand who the Christ is, for the issue of the New
Testament is that the carpenter from
We said that the first seven chapters of Samuel are devoted to God’s
preparing of
Recall from last time that Hannah, for many years, had a problem in her
life; for many years this woman was out of fellowship every time things moved
into this area. We watched her with her hysterics in chapter 1; we watched how
she responded and in her various attitudes mentally toward Peninnah, the other
wife of Elkanah, we watched a typical female response to pressure, and we
watched how the two women got along, or didn’t get along, and we saw the give
and take between the two. And we found
how toward the end obviously God answered her prayer, she had the child that
she desired, but that when she went to pray for this child that Hannah
immediately didn’t have any other concerns, apparently, on her mind, other than
just one, and that was to get back at the other woman; that was basically it,
it was a prayer of vengeance, it was a prayer that she was despondent and I’m
going to get back.
And God gave her the answer to that prayer but in giving the answer to the
prayer, remember we said that there’s simply a play on words in chapter 1
involving the Hebrew verb to “ask,” sha’al. And this later is going to come out to be the
mans’ name. We said that this verb
occurs two times in verse 17, it occurs one time in verse 20, it occurs two
times in verse 27 and two times in verse 28.
Over and over and over and over, sha’al,
sha’al, sha’al, sha’al. And this is
the writer’s way of telling us watch out, because the machinery that this woman
started by her prayer is going to produce the change that is needed in the
nation
Hannah, at the time she made the prayer, and even at the time she had
the answer to prayer, as her child was born, she probably still had no inkling
of what she had really done. But during
the three years, and we know it was about three years because of verse 23, she
weaned her son, and if this follows the normal ancient Near Eastern procedures,
a woman nursed her child for two years or so.
And when she weaned him then she took him and she left him at the
tabernacle, 1:28, and apparently during these three years she meditated and she
prayed and she sought and it began to dawn on this woman’s mind, after three
years, that God had not just answered her personal prayer but in so answering
her personal prayer God had also answered the national prayer for deliverance.
Therefore she is going to give us a song, a song of praise, and this
praise song comes out of three years of her own prayer life, of her own
meditation, as she thought and she thought and she thought about what had
happened in her life. And she begins to
see over those three years thinking, of caring for this child, that her
experience personally with one husband, Elkanah, and remember we have two women
under him, Peninnah and Hannah, is analogous to the experience of two nations
in the land,
So when she comes to the temple, it says in 2:1 that she prayed, and she
said, and she apparently sang this particular song there at the
tabernacle. Now it’s the custom of
liberal commentators of the Bible to say such songs as we are about to study
are simply literary insertions put into the mouths of these peasant women, that
these poor women weren’t creative enough to think this up themselves, that this
was the work of some sort of a set of editors that later on wanted to write a
history of Israel and they thought this would be the good occasion to put this
song in this poor peasant woman’s mouth.
I submit to you that is a little far-fetched if you just simply look at
the facts. First she had three years to
think about it; secondly, if she was a woman of
In fact, we could give a question tonight, are all the psalms in the
Bible in the book of Psalms? Answer, no,
they’re spread out through the whole text; the book of Psalms has the most in
it because the book of Psalms is a collection of them, but the book of Psalms
isn’t all the psalms, there are lots of other psalms in the Bible. The only reason you miss it is that most of you
have King James translation and you don’t see it when you’re reading it. But if you have a modern translation you’ll
notice there are certain sections that are whole psalms by themselves. And we’re going to study some of these psalms
very briefly to give you a setting for this one. And I submit to you that the mentality of the
song of praise was drilled into the children, the boys and the girls would hear
their parents changing these songs, and I submit to you the reason why these
women, at the critical times of history would come out with these songs is not
because these were unusual women at all; I feel that the women of Israel
probably made up many psalms and we just happen to have only a few. I would submit to you that these women were
raised through childhood up to express themselves to God in terms of the psalm
structure. So therefore when there came
a great event in their life they would bear testimony to what God had done I
their life by giving forth with a psalm.
It was just peculiar to their culture, so I do not see any reason why
this has to be a literary insertion into the mouth of Hannah at all.
As we study these let’s go back to Deuteronomy 32 for the first
one. Though this isn’t absolutely the
first one in the Bible, Deuteronomy 32 is actually the true song of Moses. This is a psalm, Deuteronomy 32. You’re going to miss it in the King James
translation because it’s written like it’s prose and not poetry. But Deuteronomy 32 apparently was a psalm
that was to be memorized by all the citizens of the kingdom. It is what we call a reev psalm and this is the Hebrew word for lawsuit, and this psalm,
it’s structure is a very special structure because the structure of this psalm
will be used by every classic prophet, basically. Micah will use this psalm, Hosea will use
this psalm, Isaiah will use this psalm and they’ll write their books this way
and give their messages this way. The reev proceeding, Jehovah has a lawsuit
with the nation, and we know this from the study of ancient Near Eastern text,
that there is a literary form that was used in the ancient court system.
But at the end of Deuteronomy 32, at verse 27 we have a complete break
with the reev format. Up until this time it follows pretty much the
ancient Near Eastern lawsuit format… up until verse 27. And then suddenly in verse 27 the form is
broken open and now we have a whole new thing that begins in verse 27 and here
God has been suing Israel, He’s been accusing Israel, He’s been threatening
Israel with punishment, and now beginning at verse 27 He says but Israel,
beyond all My threats, beyond all My
punishments, there’s My hand of grace; I have elected you, Israel, to an
eternal destiny with Me and though I will be hard on you, and though I will
train you I will never give you up. And
so here we have God’s eternal security.
So at the end of this God would not abandon… so beginning in verse 27
and going through verse 43 we have an addition, and a looking forward to the
grace of God.
I’ll just merely point out some things in this and you remember some of
these details and watch for them when we come to 1 Samuel 2. Verse 26 is what leads into it, “I said, I
would scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them to cease
from among men. [27] Were it not that I feared the wrath of the enemy, lest
their adversaries should behave themselves strangely, and lest they should say,
Our hand is high, and the LORD has not done all this.” In other words what God is saying, the reason
I am not going to let Israel disappear from history is because if I let Israel
disappear from history then I have no empirical evidence that My promises work
and the enemies will say, ha, what kind of a God do you have, look, He couldn’t
finish what He started.
Now this should mean a lot to you as believers because do you know that
this is why He holds onto you and me? It
isn’t because of who and what we are or what we’ve done; it’s because God has
invested His honor with each one of us who is a believer in Jesus Christ. His honor is on the line, can He or will He
continue what He has started. He has
begun a work of salvation and will He finish.
The honor of God is at stake, and people who reject the doctrine of
eternal security are people who smear the character of God because smearing the
character of God is one of the fundamental sins of history and the theology
that would promote uncertainty in one’s salvation is a theology that cannot
honor God because it does not honor His promises.
So He says I’m not going to let you go, Israel is eternally secure,
verse 28, “For they are a nation void of counsel, neither is there any
understanding in them, [29] Oh, that they were wise, that they understood this,
that they would consider their latter end!”
This is God bereaving over the fact that they are going to suffer but
not eternally so. And then He says in
verse 39 and following, a very important passage to prepare you for 1 Samuel 2,
“See now that I, even I, am He, and there is no god with me: I kill, and I make
alive; I wound, and I heal; neither is there any that can deliver out of My
hand.” This is said to all the nations,
for we’ll see what God is looking forward to in this psalm of Moses, as He is
addressing the nations of Assyria, He is addressing the nation of Egypt, He is
addressing the nation of Persia, of Greece, of Rome, of the Gentiles in
general, and what is He saying? All you
nations, I have called you to come and to discipline My people but don’t you
ever forget you are but a paddle in My hand; you are nothing more than that. And I have called you forward to discipline
Israel and you have become proud, you think that you’ve been able to clobber
Israel because you’re more superior than Israel’s God. So now in verse 39 God says I will vindicate
the nation in the end, I will not let Israel die out in history, because My
honor is at stake and I will prove that I am the only God there is and there is
none other beside Me.
So in verses 40, For I lift up My hand to heaven, and say, I live
forever,” this is an oath in the ancient Near Eastern terminology. Verse 40 is a strong oath that confirms His
promises, in other words, what God is saying, He’s holding His hand aloft, and
apparently this was done in the culture like we would swear over the Bible when
we hold our hand up, God is picturing Himself as holding His hand up and says
as I live this will be done for you. In
other words, let Me pass out of existence if I don’t bring forth what I have promised
for you.
Verse 41, “If I whet my glittering sword, and Mine hand take hold on
judgment, I will render vengeance to My enemies, and will reward them who hate
me. [42] I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour
flesh; and that with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the
beginning of revenges upon [long-haired heads of] the enemy.” And then verse 43, the last part of this song
of Moses, this is the advice given to the nations because of what has gone
forward, nations Assyria, Egypt, all you nations that God has called to
discipline Israel, “Rejoice, O ye nations, with His people; for He will avenge
the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance to His adversaries, and
will be merciful unto His land, and to His people.” And don’t ever forget it!
So this is the warning that had been given back in Moses day. This song would have been sung, probably over
and over, probably it was set to some sort of a musical accompaniment, and
played again and again in the Jewish homes.
And so we find this song reappearing at other points in Scripture. Turn to 1 Samuel 2 for just a quick survey
and I want to show you some more before we come back for the details of chapter
2. Notice where Hannah says, verse 4-5,
“The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with
strength.” Notice verse 6, “The LORD
kills, and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and He builds up.” Where did Hannah get that phraseology
from? Obviously it’s a continuation of
the thought of the Song of Moses. Hannah
doesn’t have to make this whole song up, the whole mentality for the song has
already been taught to her. But she’s
going to add something very important and we’ll study that.
Turn to 2 Samuel 22 for the next time we have one of these peculiar
songs that arise in the middle of history that erupt with a praise to God. This is David’s song, this is also known as
Psalm 18; 22 Samuel 22 is identical to Psalm 18. 22:1, “David spoke unto the LORD the words of
this song in the day that the LORD had delivered him out of the hand of all his
enemies, and out of the hand of Saul.”
Notice verse 2, “And he said, The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and
my deliverer.” Notice the word “rock,”
we’ll encounter it in 1 Samuel 2. [3]
“The God of my rock; in Him will I trust: He is my shield, and the horn of my
salvation,” this means power and authority, “my high tower, and my refuge, my
savior; You save me from violence. [4] I will call on the LORD, who is worthy
to be praised; so shall I be saved from my enemies.” Verse 6, “The sorrows of hell compassed me
about; the snares of death came upon me. [7] IN distress I called upon the
LORD, and cried to my God, and He did hear my voice out of His temple, and my
cry did enter into His ears.” And notice
verse 8, and notice again this element will occur in 1 Samuel 2, “Then the
earth shook and trembled; the foundations of heaven moved and shook, because He
was angry. [9] There went up smoke out of His nostrils, and fire out of His
mouth devoured; coals were kindled by it. [10] He bowed the heavens also, and
came down; and darkness was under His feet. [11] He rode upon a cherub, and did
fly; and He was seen upon the wings of the wind.”
This was a tremendous Theophany; “Theophany” is a word which means
God-appearance, God physically appeared, apparently, in some great catastrophe
in David’s day. Those of you who have
read Velikovsky’s work will notice in one of his works he footnotes the fact
that there is a long tradition behind what happened here, and there’s a lot of
Jewish tradition that says that this was so literal in verse 8-9 that what had
actually happened was that large stones, we would call them meteorites, fell
from heaven during this Theophany and on those stones Solomon built the temple. And so though we don’t have this actually
said in the canonical Scriptures there’s a strong Jewish tradition that says
that the temple was built on the stones that fell onto the earth, that God
provided, threw the stones down from heaven, and the Jews built their temple on
those stones. So this Theophany is a
physical one; I don’t want you to interpret verse 7-8 as allegory; this is not
just allegory, this is not just metaphor, this is a description of what
literally happened physically in history.
Verse 12, “And He made darkness pavilions round about Him, dark waters,
and thick clouds of the skies. [13] Through the brightness before Him were
coals of fire kindled.” Then verse 14
and notice this one, very important for understanding 1 Samuel 2 “The LORD
thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered His voice. [15] And he sent
out arrows, and scattered them; lightning, discomfited them. [16] And the
channels of the sea appeared; the foundations of the world were discovered
[laid bare], at the rebuking of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of His
nostrils. [17] He sent from above, He took me; He drew me out of many waters.
[18] He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from then who hated me; for they
were too strong for me.” Notice the
mentality, God who is powerful comes smashing down in a catastrophic way to
deliver the saints out of difficulty.
Notice it is all grace.
Okay, one final song where this motif comes in; it is known in history
as Mary’s magnificat, Luke 1. This
explains the fierceness of Mary’s song, if you don’t understand the mentality
of the Old Testament you’ll never understand what Mary is saying here as she
learns that she is to be the woman that is to be blessed above all women
because from her womb will come God incarnate.
Mary is going to respond in Luke 1:46 and she is going to identify
herself with this stream of thinking that started way back with Moses, goes
through Hannah, goes through David, and now comes down to Mary. “And Mary said, My soul doth magnify the
Lord, [47] And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.” Now so far nothing unusual. But notice the strong language that Mary
employs. [48] For He has regarded the
low estate of His handmaiden; for, behold, from henceforth all generations
shall call me blessed.”
Now why does this Jewish peasant girl have the audacity to say that all
generations will “call me blessed?” It
is not that this woman is bragging on herself, it was rather she said because
God has chosen me and I stand here, I will be called blessed forever. I have a place in history, and as Protestants
we must always remember this. We knock
the Catholics with their worshiping of Mary and that is wrong, but if we are
going to be true to the thrust of the New Testament, we must say that she is to
be honored with the prophets because as the woman of all women, she answers to
Eve; Eve and Mary are two ends of one chain and Mary does play an important
part and we should not be afraid of calling her a blessed woman who has a
particular place in God’s plan.
Verse 49, “For He that is mighty has done t me great things; and holy is
His name. [50] And His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to
generation.” Notice now the language she
uses, verse 51, “He has shown strength with His arm; He has scattered the proud
in the imagination of their hearts. [52] He has put down the mighty from their
seats, and exalted them of low degree. [53] He has filled the hungry with good
things; and the rich He has sent empty away. [54] He has helped His servant,
Israel, in remembrance of His mercy; [55] As He spoke to our fathers, to
Abraham, and to his seed, forever.” Is
there any doubt in Mary’s mind that this is not just a chance happening with
her, but this is linked to the stream of history, going all the way back to the
Abrahamic Covenant. And I want you to
notice the language, the way she expresses herself in verse 51-53, you look at
those words she is using there. Again,
this was on their mind and when one of these events would happen it would burst
forth into a psalm of praise.
Having done all this, now come back to 1 Samuel 2; now we can understand
what was going through Hannah’s mind for three years as she prepared to come
and give her son to the tabernacle.
Maybe she did compose this song before she got there, she might well
have done so, but my point is there’s nothing unusual if you consider the
stream of history and the fact that many, many people in the nation had this
mentality built into them so they would respond t this situation of linking
their personal experience with the whole cosmic plan of God. This is not audacity in the bad sense, this
is godly audacity, to say that my experience is so tremendously significant
that I stand in the flow of God’s cosmic plan and what He does in my life has
repercussions for eternity. See, this is
why it makes the Christian life exciting, is that every pressure and every
trial that we meet successfully by appropriating grace we make points, so to
speak, in the angelic conflict, that have eternal repercussions. Right now God does not see fit to share with
us all of the results of our little daily victories of claiming the Word but
we’re going to see those results and we’re going to watch how they have
tremendous implications for all eternity.
And then if we have not been too faithful in following the Word I think
there will come a tinge in the heart of why didn’t I do more when I see the
tremendous implications of what I did do, why didn’t I do more when I had the
chance.
1 Samuel 2:2, what is the format of this song. There is a class of Psalms called the
descriptive praise Psalms. There are two
kinds of praise in the Psalms and these are two categories you want to look for
and watch, this will improve your own Bible study. One is called declarative praise and the
other is called descriptive praise.
Here’s the difference; declarative praise is when the person declares a
specific event of deliverance. So you
have a specific set of facts about a specific event in the person’s life; that
is declarative praise. In descriptive
praise you have the person backing off from the specific things in his life and
starting to generalize about the character of God. So descriptive praise is further removed from
experience and is saying God is like this because He does this, He does this,
He does this, He does this, He does this.
All of that is generalizing and so you can say that descriptive praise
is more God-centered in the sense that it’s pointing to character whereas
declarative praise is more experience centered in that it hasn’t left the
experience that far and turned to look at God.
Both are valid forms of praise, you can’t have one without the
other.
But these psalms have a structure and it turns out that the structure is
visible here in chapter 2. The structure
of a descriptive praise Psalm generally is first a call to praise, the person
calls people to come, come and hear what God is like. The second part of a descriptive praise Psalm
is the causes of praise, in other words, why bother. As always in the Bible you are never asked to
believe into nothing; never asked to believe into nothing! You may say that I just waste my time making
this point; those of you who have listened to what I have been saying should
catch on to this controversy that’s being waged in California where the
National Academy of Sciences has stepped into the controversy in California
about whether the State of California Department of Education will have
textbooks that mention both creation and evolution, or they will have textbooks
that mention only evolution, and the National Academy of Sciences backed by
very powerful interests insist that evolution is a matter of history and
science; creation is a religion and is a religious thing that doesn’t share the
same compartment.
And so one man operating in the hearings got up and said: evolution does
not bother my faith because my faith is faith in something that cannot be
tested, it cannot be falsified, it cannot be verified, I simply believe; my
faith in God cannot be disproved or proved, I just believe. Now this is normal for the 20th
century and those of you who have listened to me make this point over and over
should read that and say I’m not surprised, that’s exactly the way the 20th
century mentality operates. We don’t believe on facts, we just oomph, believe;
and this is beyond the comprehension of these leading educators, that we
fundamentalists still have the ancient form of faith that rests in historic
fact, so that we can be disturbed by these questions simply because if the
creation narrative is disproved then our faith goes into the ashcan, just as if
Jesus Christ’s body was found in the grave, I would stop being a Christian
immediately because my faith is built on facts, not feelings, and it’s not
built on thin air; it is built on something that is testable and verifiable and
falsifiable. If it isn’t, I do not have
true Biblical faith. This is why the
gospel say “these are written that ye might believe that Jesus Christ is the
Christ.” John offers evidences. This is why Acts 1:3 says Jesus gave many
infallible proofs after He rose from the dead.
Do you suppose Jesus believed that you just believe in nothing? No, oh no, not at all, it’s just the screwed
up 20th century mentality that has gone over to this faith in faith.
All right, here in these descriptive praise Psalms you have a cause of
praise and reasons are given, evidences, if you will, are given why you should
believe in God and praise Him. And then
finally there is a conclusion to these praise Psalms in which people are called
to anticipate what is going to happen.
It turns out this three-fold structure is visible here, verses 1-3 is
Hannah’s call to praise. Hannah
announces her praise and she warns the self-confident in these first three
verses. There’s two things she does, she
announces the fact that she is going to praise God or is praising God and she
also warns against the self-confident, the works crowd, the rejecters of grace.
And then in verses 4-8 we have the causes of praise; Hannah tells why
men should praise and why the self-confident should look out. And then finally the conclusion in verses
9-10, Hannah concludes with encouraging us to trust in Jehovah because of what
He is going to do. The conclusion is to
trust in Jehovah because of what He is going to do. Incidentally, this last section is where the
revolutionary edition is made, Hannah’s great contribution to the understanding
of Jesus Christ.
Let’s look at the first section, verses 1-3. Let’s look at it first and get the overall
view of it. “And Hannah prayed, and
said, My heart rejoices in the LORD, my horn is exalted in the LORD; my mouth
is enlarged over my enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation. [2] There is
none holy like the LORD; for there is none beside Thee, neither is there any
rock like our God. [3] Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy
some out of your mouth; for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions
are weighed.”
That language, you can find almost all the words in Deuteronomy 32;
there’s no need whatever to follow the critics who would say that this has been
put into Hannah’s mouth, because this poor dumb peasant woman couldn’t get the
vocabulary or something. Let’s look at
the vocabulary. “My heart rejoices in
Jehovah,” “my heart rejoices” is a direct contrast to her experience in chapter
1. Remember 1:11 where she vowed the vow
and she said well Lord, I’m not sure whether you’re going to take notice but if
you happen to, can You do something.
That attitude. Verse 15, what
does she say to Eli, she said “No, my lord, I am a woman of a bitter
spirit.” And she confesses, she was
angry, she was hostile, and she was not giving thanks for God in her life.
So what a change to “my heart rejoices in the LORD.” Don’t you see that over that three year
period Hannah got straightened out. She
had to have a baby to get straightened out but she got straightened out. And when she finally did get straightened out
she did something, she gave thanks.
That’s the fundamental praise form for you and for me as believers. 1 Thessalonians 5:18, “in everything give
thanks,” if you find you can’t give thanks for the Lord in the middle of your
situation you’d better do some spiritual checking because you’re about to get
in trouble if you’re not already. “My
heart rejoices in the LORD, my horn is exalted in the LORD.” The horn exalted refers to the last part of
verse 2 of chapter 1 where she was childless, and her position in the family
was secondary; she is rejoicing that her horn is her power or position or influence
in the family, that “my horn is exalted
in the LORD.” Notice, by the way,
she gives credit, “in the LORD…in the LORD,” all the way.
“…my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies,” this refers to verse 7 where
every time she’d come t the feast Peninnah would be there, Elkanah would come
by and he’d break off the portions of the meal and he would set the meal before
his first wife and before all her children and there would be Hannah, and she’d
only get one piece; it would drive her crazy, every year this would
happen. And every year she’d fall apart
because every year she’d be reminded of her situation. So this is why “my mouth is enlarged over
mine enemies,” now Peninnah doesn’t come up with all these catty remarks, she
can’t now, the evidence is the other way.
“…my mouth is enlarged over my enemies because I rejoice in Thy
salvation.” Here probably Peninnah is
meant, but I think she starts to expand her consciousness outward to take in
all the enemies of Israel.
Verse 2, “There is none so holy as the LORD,” this expression refers to
God’s loyal character. God is a
judge. We’ve been studying Psalm 26 on
Wednesday night and we deal with the word shaphat,
shaphat is the Hebrew word to judge and does not mean the American judicial
system of judging, it means to judge yes, but in addition to deliver. And so when she says “there is none holy like
the LORD” she doesn’t mean just that He’s just kind of burning pure
righteousness, which He is, but that He reaches down and he delivers, there is
a deliverance that is included in the word “holy.” “There is none holy as the LORD; for there is
none beside Thee,” remember reading that in Deuteronomy 32? “I, even I, only I am the God who delivers,”
it’s the same language.
“…neither is there any rock like our God.” Remember what David said in 2 Samuel 22 and
Moses said in Deuteronomy 32, “the rock,” they left their rock, tsur, the Hebrew word for tsur means a big rocky ledge. These were gigantic rocks, in fact these were
where the Qumran caves are, they called this in Hebrew, tsur, and there’d be caves in here and people would hide in times
of disaster and apparently this is why somebody very graciously piled lots of
stacks of the Bible in there and we discovered them in 1947 and following, the
Qumran Scrolls. But these are places
that were traditional hideouts during times of military oppression, and so this
is the idea of the tsur, there is not
“any rock like our God,” He provides the caves and the protection under
pressure.
Verse 3, “Talk no more so exceeding proudly,” here is the address toward
her enemies, and she turns around and she warns those who would try to gain
deliverance by works, probably Peninnah is included in verse 3 historically but
also it goes beyond just the horizon of a personal experience out beyond. Perhaps Hannah here is warning the leaders
that are going to come, don’t you think that you are going to get this nation
off the hook, because leaders I was a woman and I had problems and I didn’t get
off the hook except by God’s grace, and so leaders, when you treat a national
problem, remember my individual personal problem; I didn’t get rid of my
personal problem by works, I didn’t do it because I worked myself up to
it, Physically it was impossible for
Hannah to have a child. It required a
miracle of God’s grace and so she warns here, don’t think you’re going to
deliver this nation except it be by a miracle.
So it’s a warning to the works crowd.
Now she expands this and beginning in verse 4 she gives reason, “The
bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with
strength.” Do you see the contrast she’s
making; she deliberately makes this contrast because she is trying to emphasize
God’s sovereign character. The summary,
actually, of verses 1-3 would be, as it says in the last part of verse 3, “for
the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed.” She stresses
two attributes of God, God is omniscient and God is absolutely
righteousness. These are the two attributes
that Hannah stresses in her psalm. And
now beginning in verse 4 she’s going to cite evidences of why we should praise
God for these two things, His omniscience and His absolute righteousness. And beginning in verse 4 and running through
verse 8 we have the reasons; verses 4-5 are all past tense if you look at it
carefully; verses 6-8 are all present, actually verses 6 and 8 are participles,
so we have a division here, verses 4-5 are the Hebrew perfect tense which
refers to historical action, historic acts, and verses 6-8 are the participle
and here’s where we have God’s nature or His character, the nature of God
manifested. And this is shown by the
verb tenses.
So we have these two divisions, let’s look at the first one, verses 4-5,
she is relating historical experience.
Probably verses 4-5 relate to her own private experience but we would
also have to say that it relates to the nation’s experience. Remember she has lived at the end of a 400
year dark age, and she can recall, as she has been taught, what happened during
the Judges, during the book of Joshua and during those periods. And she says every time that God works this
is what happens, “The bows of the might men are broken, and they that stumbled
are girded with strength. [5] They who were full have hired themselves out for bread;
and they who were hungry ceased to hunger; so that the barren has borne seven;
and she who has many children has waxed feeble.”
Now this is not a polemic against wealth or success in live; this is
simply not saying that the success will fail, ha-ha, it’s not that spirit at
all. The idea is that God is sufficient
to cause it, if it need be caused, God is sufficient. And so she cites this and she is referring in
the past tense which means she has definite historic illustrations on her
mind.
Now verses 6-8, she turns now and she begins to talk about God’s
character, these are all participles.
“The LORD kills, and He makes alive; He brings down to the grave and He
brings up.” Do you remember reading that
in Deuteronomy 32, it’s the same thing, repeated over and over again. “The LORD kills, and He makes alive,” again
has a particular application to Hannah but it has a general far-reaching
application in history. “The LORD kills
and makes alive,” converted into her personal experience it simply means the
Lord killed her womb, remember it said the Lord shut up her womb; the Lord
caused her to be infertile, and the Hebrew word “life” is so general that it
can be used for those kind of things, a dead womb would be spoken of as death,
“The LORD kills, and He makes alive” again.
So she sees there was a concrete physical thing that happened to her
body and out of this she deduces that God is continually in this business of
killing and making alive. And “He brings
down to the grave and He brings up again.”
Again, on a small scale this refers to depression and happiness, there
were terms and idioms tied to that. But
they literally are true in life, the future resurrection, God brings down to
the grave, He makes alive again, so it has a prophetic far view.
Verse 7, “The LORD makes poor, and [the LORD] makes rich; He brings low,
and [He] lifts up. [8] He raises up the poor out of the dust, and lifts up the
beggar from the dunghill,” the “dunghill” was that ash heap where they burned
the garbage, one of the gates in Jerusalem was called a dung gate, where they
used to cart all the garbage out and burn it.
In fact, Jesus used the incinerator in the garbage dump there where they
were burning this as the picture of hell.
Do you suppose Jesus did that, meek and mild Jesus, but that’s what
Jesus spoke about. In fact, you will be
shocked if you want to statistically tabulate something, do you realize Jesus
spoke of hell more than He spoke of heaven, by a factor of two to one.
So, “The LORD makes poor, and [the LORD] makes rich; He brings low, and
[He] lifts up. [8] He raises up the poor out of the dust, and lifts up the
beggar from the dunghill,” and notice what he says, “to set them among
princes,” now this didn’t happen to Hannah, exactly; she was raised up to a
position of great authority in her life, but prophetically this happens to
believers. And where has this happened
in its total position? In the Church
Age, hasn’t it? Who were we before we
accept Christ, aren’t we the beggars in the ash heap, isn’t that the picture of
the non-Christian before he receives salvation through Christ, the beggar and
the ash heap, and what is the picture of being conformed to Christ? As it says in Revelation, “Thou art the
Redeemer, Thou art the Lamb, because You have made us kings and priests unto
our God.” And so Hannah sees this in
prophetic form. “He lifts the beggar
from the ash heap, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the
throne of glory,” then she adds something at the end here, she goes back to
what kind of a God God is, that He is the Creator, “for the pillars of the
earth are the LORD’s….”
Now some critics have jumped on that phrase and said aha, here we have
the three storied universe, the idea that in the Bible we have the universe
that the earth is kind on pillars and up here you have a solid glass canopy or
something, the sky, and they really believe that. Now obviously people cannot read literary
form without misunderstanding; this started in the Middle Ages but it’s not the
picture of the Old Testament. The word
“pillar” simply means the molten masses and I think it means nothing more than
what they observed, volcanic action and they observed that this lava always
came up from the bottom and they’re referring simply to the molten rock. That’s not wrong, by the way because this is
basically what the core of the earth is.
“…for the pillars of the earth” or the molten hardness, “of the earth
are the LORD’s, and He has set the world upon them.” The “world” is the inhabited part of the earth. So if this is true, Hannah argues, it is true
that God truly is omniscient because He is the Creator, doesn’t this argue that
God knows how to deliver; doesn’t it argue that if God made us, if God made the
world, then He’s the kind of God who can deliver this, and doesn’t this then
mean that when we don’t believe His promises we’re saying He’s not that kind of
a God.
So finally she concludes in verses 9-10 when she looks forward, and
verses 9-10 are the most important part of this particular psalm. It’s verses 9-10 that contribute to the flow
of prophecy. Verses 9-10 are the verses that add to the content of God’s
revelation. In those three years as
Hannah meditated upon what that baby was she was nursing, the more she thought
about that, the more she realized that God was going to do something
fantastic. And here we have
prophecy. Now it’s quite obvious why the
critics want to put this in the mouth of Hannah because you can’t have
prophecy, we can’t have God in the public schools, we can’t have prophecy in
the Bible so therefore this has to be excised and re-worked according to the
critics.
“He will keep the feet of His saints,” this is a picture of eternal
security and Hannah is saying because the saints, and by the way, as far as we
are concerned here’s what “saints” mean, when we believe in Jesus Christ we are
put in union with Christ; that means that we are “holy,” and therefore equal to
the word “saints” since the word “saint” is a translation of the word “holy,”
holy ones. And it doesn’t mean certain
special believers; every believer in Jesus Christ in the Bible is called a
saint. If you want to start a
conversation and raise eyebrows, someday when they’re talking about Saint
Benedict or Saint somebody else, say I’m a saint too, why don’t you recognize
me and just see what kind of a reaction you get.
So these are the saints and she is saying that God will protect or guard
“the feet of His saints.” This obviously
comes out of her own personal experience but it’s a prediction because the saints
in this context means the nation Israel.
And she is saying God will protect, God will protect this nation; this
nation is an elect nation. Remember
she’s still speaking when the dark ages are still going on, when everything is
black, when there’s no political freedom whatever. Hannah is speaking this song into darkness,
Hannah is one candle in a dark room and she is saying to the nation, look
saints, God will keep your feet, I know the Philistines are here and they are
politically the oppressors at the moment, but God will keep your feet.
“…and the wicked shall be made silence in darkness;” they will be made
silent, it’s a passive voice, “they will be made silence,” not “shall be
silent.” God will make them silent and
this is a picture of their final destiny.
“…for by strength shall no man prevail.”
That’s the warning for people who are trying to do it in their own
energy of the flesh. And in the end, in
the final analysis, way down at the end of time, at the Great White Throne
Judgment, isn’t it interesting that God condemns men not on the basis of their
sins; God condemns men in the book of Revelation on the basis of their
works. Isn’t that interesting? All the way down through history Christ has
already paid for your sins, so why does a person go to the eternal lake of
fire? Because they have tried to
substitute their good works for God’s provision. And it’s a form of rebellion against God’s
grace. And so she is saying the wicked
ones will be made silent in darkness, because by strength no man is ever going
to prevail. And this is also a warning
to the leaders in her day.
Now verse 10, we have one of the key forms of this prophecy, “The
adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces,” now this phrase occurs
again in another Psalm. Turn to Psalm 2,
the same phase. Notice how this language
gets hooked on to the office of the king.
And if we had time I’d show you that this language is hooked on to the
person of Christ in Revelation. Psalm 2,
“Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing? [2] The kings of
the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD
and against His Christ,” the word “anointed,” Mashach, [3] “Let us break their bands asunder, let us cast away
their cords. [4] But He who sits in the heavens is going to laugh, the LORD
will have them in derision. [5] He will speak to them in His wrath, and vex
them in His sore displeasure.” And then
what does it say, verse 9, here’s the king, the instructions the king has,
“Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron, Thou shalt dash them in pieces like
a potter’s vessel.” That is the role of
the King. Do you see what a powerful
surging picture we have in the Old Testament of the office of the Christ. Don’t you see this beefs up the picture of
Jesus Christ that you normally get in Christian circles, some fairy floating
around with a Kleenex box or something.
You go to the Old Testament you find the correct view of the Christ, and
we’ve no apologies about it, Christ is not a pacifist, He loves men but He is a
strong man and these are the jobs that He will perform in His office.
Turn back to finish this Song of Hannah.
“The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces;” can you imagine
this woman, singing this song… wow, what’s wrong with her; if she sang this
song in the average church today the minister would flop, we can’t have her in
here singing those songs, the National Council is going to be after us or
something. “The adversaries of the LORD
shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall He thunder upon them.” Remember what it said in Psalm 2, He will
speak to them and He will shatter them.
Now let me show you something, why this is a prophecy. Turn to 1 Samuel 7:10, “And as Samuel was
offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against
Israel,” remember this occurs after chapter 7; chapter 7 does occur after
chapter 2! “The Philistines drew near to
battle against Israel: but the LORD thundered with a great thunder on that day
upon the Philistines, and discomforted them, and they were smitten before
Israel,” some supernatural intervention into the battle.
2 Samuel 22:14, David reports the same kind of thunder, remember I asked
you to pay attention to this, “The LORD thundered from heaven, and the Most
High uttered His voice.” Don’t you see
how Hannah is looking forward and contained within this simple peasant woman’s
song is a fantastic line of prophecy that comes literally true within her
generation.
All right, the next point that she makes in verse 10, and this is the
astounding one; it is this that marks this song as one of the great advances in
Old Testament revelation. “The LORD
shall judge the ends of the earth; and He shall give strength unto His King,
and exalt the horn of His Christ.” This
is why this is so important. This is the
first time in the Old Testament that you have the word for Messiah; it doesn’t
occur in the Old Testament until here.
This woman makes the great breakthrough nationally; it is in a woman’s
mind where the office of a king suddenly gels, and she reaches that point in
the progress of revelation where she becomes the first believer in Israel to
actually see in her mind the office of the king, and she looks forward to that
office and she says the Lord is going to give strength to that king, and He’s
going to “exalt the horn,” the “horn” is the crown, this is what crowns are,
that’s why they usually had these points on them. In the ancient world they were simply horns
strapped to the head, and the horn means power, and so this means “He will
exalt the crown of His King,” and this is Psalm 2. Psalm 2 fills in this whole line of
thinking.
And we want to say one explanation for the word “king” and
“anointed.” People say is this pure
prophecy or do you suppose that Hannah had an inkling about this. Well, we want to conclude by turning to one
final passage, Deuteronomy 17:14. Back
in Moses time there had been made in the Law provision for a future king, but
that was all it was, there was no king, there was just provision if and when
such time he would come. So Deuteronomy
17:14, “When you art come unto the land which the LORD thy God gives thee, and
shalt possess it, and shalt dwell therein, and shalt say, I will set a king
over me, like all the nations that are about me, [15] Then you shall in any
wise set a king over thee whom the LORD thy God shall choose: out from among
thy brethren shall you set a king over you; you may not set a stranger over
you, who is not thy brother.” So within
the old Mosaic Law there had been a provision for this, and this woman,
meditating on her fierce trial and astounding deliverance put the two together
and said say, this is what’s going to happen to the nation and so therefore the
Holy Spirit worked in this one woman’s heart.
Think of this, the dark ages descended upon the whole culture; one
woman… one lowly believer that came off the dunghill, one woman who couldn’t
handle her problems, that fell apart year after year, finally made it to the
Lord, and He so fantastically answered her prayer that not only did she get off
the dunghill but that one woman was gifted with the insight into Messiah and
the person of Christ. The conclusion to
Hannah’s song is simply this, she would tell us today, remember how I was
delivered and don’t think any deliverance is going to come by any other means
than the same way it happened to me.
With our heads bowed….