Hannah – Prayer of Praise

1Sa 1:23  And Elkanah her husband said unto her, Do what seemeth thee good; tarry until thou have weaned him; only the LORD establish his word. So the woman abode, and gave her son suck until she weaned him. 

1Sa 1:24  And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, with three bullocks, and one ephah of flour, and a bottle of wine, and brought him unto the house of the LORD in Shiloh: and the child was young. 

1Sa 1:25  And they slew a bullock, and brought the child to Eli. 

1Sa 1:26  And she said, Oh my lord, as thy soul liveth, my lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here, praying unto the LORD. 

1Sa 1:27  For this child I prayed; and the LORD hath given me my petition which I asked of him: 

1Sa 1:28  Therefore also I have lent him to the LORD; as long as he liveth he shall be lent to the LORD. And he worshipped the LORD there. 

She is keeping her promise to the Lord.  Hannah took her relationship with the Lord obviously very seriously.  Her character was above making a promise to get what you want then after you get it, then back out and not keep it.

It is easy to make a promise but it can be not so easy to keep it.  I have seen a lot over the decades as a trustee and a deacon and doing pulpit supply from time to time and some counseling and teaching adult Sunday school.

I am not exaggerating.  I have seen way more promises made to God than kept.  Some start out keeping them and then when it gets old or hard they quit. I will be honest, I have had some issues myself.  If you are honest, maybe you have also.

The point I am making is it would have been easy to make excuses or back out.   Look for some loophole.  But that is not what Hannah did.  And this would not have been easy.  She is leaving her one and only child.  And worse than that Eli is the priest.

Some might have made an excuse right there.  I can almost hear it.  Well when I made the promise I did not know how bad Eli was.  Or if God expected me to keep this then He would have replaced horrible Eli by now.

None of that is what Hannah did.  The point I am trying to make is how deep her commitment was and how strong her relationship with the Lord was and how great her faith was.

It took great faith to leave that little boy.  Her precious baby, her answer to prayer.

What was her mindset.  Of course we know there would have been some tears.  Some would be normal.  She is only going to see him now once a year.  There is so much she is going to miss out on as he grows into a teen and then a man.

But the sadness did not control her.  It did not fill her heart.  It in no way overwhelmed her.  We do not have to guess about that.

What was filling her soul is recorded for us in what she prayed when she left Samuel to serve the Lord.

Sa 2:1  And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the LORD, mine horn is exalted in the LORD: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy salvation.

In the Old Testament salvation is often talking about being saved from your enemies.  She is not talking about her eternal salvation here.  She has been saved from her enemy.  The other wife can no longer cause her to grieve and fret over not having any children.

Her mouth is enlarged over.   What she now has to say is much greater and more powerful than what her enemy had said.  Almighty God worked in her life.  The Lord Himself heard her prayer and answered it.

And notice the state of her heart.  My heart rejoiceth in the Lord.  The first words of this beautiful prayer.  And again she says, because I rejoice in thy salvation.  Her heart is overflowing in thanks and rejoicing because of what God did for her.

I rejoice in thy salvation.  Thy salvation.  God did the amazing for her.  Completely changed her situation and she is rejoicing and gives all credit for it to God.  He did this for her.  He delivered her.  He loves her.  He cares.  He listens.  He moved on her behalf.

She is very thankful and she is doing something very important here.  She is taking the time to stop everything else and pray and tell God thank you.  It is important.  And she is not telling Him thank you is a small way.  I mean with just a lackluster two words.

Her heart is full.  She is praising her Lord.  She is telling Him how she feels.  Now she starts praising God for His attributes.  She is praising Him for His character, for who He is.  In this section of her prayer she is really showing that she knew a lot about God.  She knew her Bible.

1Sa 2:2  There is none holy as the LORD: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God. 

She knew about His holiness.  The Lord is holy; completely pure and sinless.  Everything she is going to mention about who God is and what He does can be found in the scriptures that they had up to this point.  They had the first five books Gen thru Deuteronomy and they had all the amazing things that God did in Joshua.   They also had Job.  The events in Ruth have happened but they might not yet be considered scripture.  They also might have had the first part of Judges.

Hannah is still early on.  No king David yet, no Daniel and the lion’s den.  No Esther, Ezra, and none of the prophets yet.  But she knew what scripture they had and she knew it well.

In verse two she mentions He is Holy.  And that there is none holy as the Lord.  She also mentions that there is only one God.  And also that He is a rock.  A source of strength and security.  He is a rock.  Rocks are strong and a good picture of stability and long lasting and strong.

You use stone as foundations.  They can be counted on to hold up.  And in all of this there is no one like our God.  She knew well that there is only one God and she knew that He is holy and pure and can be counted on.  He is a rock.

1Sa 2:3  Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth: for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. 

Here she mentions the fact that God is all knowing.  This is the God that heard the prayer she made only in her heart.  Her lips moved but she made not a sound.  He is a God of knowledge in that way.  Nothing happens in any heart that God does not know about.

He is also a God of knowledge in that He has all wisdom.  He knows everything.  It was nothing for God to know exactly how to fix her situation.  There is no problem too hard for the Lord.

She also knew about humility.  Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth.  There is no room for pride when you are walking before God.

She also understood that by Him actions are weighed.  God is the rightful judge.  Every one of us will one day stand before Him at the judgment seat and give an answer for how we lived for Him.  And actions are important to God.  Not empty promises.  Not the empty intent to do something but actually following thru and doing it.

Like Joseph, and Moses, and Moses’ mother and Caleb and Joshua and Rahab and Ruth.

1Sa 2:4  The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength. 

She had so many examples in the word of God that showed that to be true.  Pharaoh and his army is one, and now she has seen it in her own life.  She has been girded with strength.  The power of her enemy has been broken.

1Sa 2:5  They that were full have hired out themselves for bread; and they that were hungry ceased: so that the barren hath born seven; and she that hath many children is waxed feeble. 

1Sa 2:6  The LORD killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. 

1Sa 2:7  The LORD maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up. 

1Sa 2:8  He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory:

He took Joseph out of prison and made him number two in the most powerful nation on the planet at that time.  He took Jacob from being nothing and having nothing, using a rock for a pillow and lifted him up and made something of him.

And Hannah shows here that she knew something about Heaven.  She knew about the throne of glory.  She knew that believers have a place and an inheritance in eternity.

The last part of verse 8 comes from the book of Job.

1Sa 2:8  … for the pillars of the earth are the LORD’S, and he hath set the world upon them. 

She is giving God credit and praising Him for the fact that He is the creator.  Everything exists because of Him.  The air we breathe is because of Him.  The child she was given was because of Him.  It is all His.  He is worthy of everything.  He has a right.

It seems the way she looked at it was it was a privilege to give the creator her son for service.

Next she mentions God’s faithfulness and His power.

1Sa 2:9  He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail. 

He will keep the feet of His saints.  His watchful eye is upon His own.  He will keep every promise.  He never turns away.  He can never be distracted.  He cannot lie.  He cannot break a promise.  He will be there.  Yes trouble will come.  Yes there will be challenges and enemies.  But it is important to always remember that God is watching and more than that He is active and working.

And she says by strength shall no man prevail.  No man is going to win in his own strength.  This is talking about dependence upon God.  Upon His strength.  That is where victory is found.  In His almighty strength.

Hannah went thru it for years.  No doubt she tried to fix the situation.  Maybe took some herb remedies, but she could not fix that problem.  And she most likely tried to make peace with her enemy.  But she did not have the power to fix any of it.

But her God could.  And He did.  She is praying this prayer of praise out of experience.  She has seen it.  She has lived this truth.  And her heart is full.  And she is praising her God for what He has done and more than that she is praising her God for who He is.

1Sa 2:10  The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed. 

She ends with the truth that God is watching and He will judge everything and how God is active and how He is working.  She says He shall give strength unto his king.  Not might but shall.  To the kings that are his.

This is before the time of the kings.  This is before Saul.  This is actually a prophecy of what will happen in the future.  Centuries later we can look back and see this is exactly what happened.

God did not give strength to all the kings.  Only the kings that are His.  No strength for Ahab.

But David got strength and Solomon before he went off track.  And Hezekiah received strength.  There were bad kings and there were some good kings and those that were His were given strength.

And she finishes with and exalt the horn of his anointed.

Horns in the bible speak of power.  Power to do something.  For example the horn was used to call the people for assembly.  It has the power to make people move.  The horn was used to give the call to march out when they were in the wilderness.  The horn also had the power to get the army to attack.  Horns speak of power to make things happen.

His anointed is a reference to God’s future prophets.  And boy did they have power.  What Hannah prayed here came to pass in a big way.

I am talking about not only Samuel preforming miracles but Elijah and Elisha.

Elijah calls fire down from heaven, Elisha even raised someone from the dead.

1Sa 2:11  And Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. And the child did minister unto the LORD before Eli the priest. 

Think about this.  Hannah had a teachable spirit.  She learned much from scripture and acted accordingly.

God allowed a crisis in her life.  She responded correctly by taking the issue to God, by pouring her heart out to Him and then leaving the issue there.  She responded with faith.

God cared deeply about her and He answered her prayer and changed her situation.

She responds again with faith and trust and keeps her promise.  And she does it with rejoicing.  With a heart that is full of praise for her Lord.

God responds to that by putting this prayer on her heart.  And by recording her prayer in His precious word.  And at the end of her prayer God has her include two prophecies in her prayer of praise.

And they both came true in huge ways over and over and over again.

God worked in a powerful way in Hannah’s life and she responded with faith and trust and rejoicing.

After looking at all of this you have to come away with some things.

• A respect for Hannah. For her faith and trust in our Lord.  A woman who kept her promises.
• And you have to come away with a sense of how much God cared for her and loved her.

She was one of the great mother’s in the Bible.  And God blesses her over and over.  Hannah goes on to have other children that she gets to love and nurture and watch grow.  And she gets to go see Samuel every year and makes him a new coat every year and she gets to see him become one of the greatest prophets of God.

Hannah is one of the many great women of the Bible.

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