Let us turn again to God's word
in that portion that we were considering this morning. The prayer of Hannah or her song
recorded in 1st Samuel chapter 2. In 1st Samuel chapter 2 and we'll
read the prayer of Hannah. And Hannah prayed and said, My
heart rejoiceth in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord.
My mouth is enlarged over mine enemies, because I rejoiced in
thy salvation. There is none holy as the Lord,
for there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock like
our God. Talk no more so exceeding proudly. Let not arrogance come out of
your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge. and by him actions
are weighed. The bows of the mighty men are
broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength. They
that were full have hired out themselves of bread, and they
that were hungry ceased, so that the baron hath borne seven, and
she that hath many children is wax feeble. The Lord killeth
and maketh alive, he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth
up The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, he bringeth low and lifteth
up. 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. For the pillars of the earth
are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them. He will
keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent
in darkness. for by strength shall no man
prevail. 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. This is the prayer of thanksgiving
that Hannah was unable to present to the Lord at the time when
she brought Samuel to the tabernacle. As we see there in the context
at the end of chapter 1 at verse 24 following, it was when she
had weaned him that she took him up with her, we're told,
with three bullocks and one heifer of flour and a bottle of wine,
and brought him unto the house of the Lord in Shiloh. And the
child was young. And they slew a bullock and brought
the child to Eli. And she said, O my Lord, as thy
soul liveth, my Lord, I am the woman that stood by thee here
praying unto the Lord. For this child I prayed, and
the Lord hath given me my petition, which I asked of him. 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."
And then she prays this remarkable prayer. Lent, the margin indicates
that the basic meaning of that word is one asked. one that was obtained by her
petition as she had prayed unto the Lord concerning this particular
child, a name that she had given to him. It indicates that it
was the answer to her prayer as we see there at verse 20 in
that previous chapter. She bared her son and called
his name Samuel, saying, Because I have asked him of the Lord
the very name Samuel, I have asked of God. This was the answer to her prayers. And what prayers they were? He
remarked this morning on the manner of her praying. There
were those times when it would seem that words so utterly failed
her in all the agony and bitterness of her soul. As we see there
at verse 10 in chapter 1, she was in bitterness of soul and
prayed unto the Lord and wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and
said, O Lord of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction
of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid,
but will give unto thine handmaid a man-child, then I will give
him unto the Lord all the days of his life, and there shall
no razor come upon his head. And there was Elon, watching
her, observing how that ellipse moved, She was praying in her
heart. Her words came from her mouth.
He assumed that she was drunk, but how mistaken he was. She
says to him in verse 15, No, my Lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful
spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor
strong drink, but have poured out my soul. before the Lord. Or this was the manner of her
praying as she cried unto the Lord. We sang just now in the
Metrical Psalm. Think of those words that we
have there at verse 6 in Psalm 34. This poor man cried. This poor woman cried. and the
Lord heard her and saved her out of all her troubles. Oh, God was pleased then to hear
and to answer her and she acknowledges that. Here in verse 3 of the
prayer, the Lord is a God of knowledge, He says, and by Him
actions are weighed. Oh, does not God Himself judge
the actions of all men? the wise man tells us in the
book of Proverbs all the ways of a man are clean in his own
eyes but the Lord weigheth the spirits the Lord weigheth the
spirits and think of those words that were written there upon
the palace wall in Daniel chapter 5 that word that came to Belshazzar
thou art weighed in the balances, and found wanting." Here then
we see how Hannah acknowledges concerning this God of knowledge
by Him. By Him actions are weighed. How Peninar had so mocked her
in her barrenness. As we have it there at verse
6 in the opening chapter, her adversary provoked her sword,
it says, for to make her fret, because the Lord had shut up
her will. There she is, she can pray now
because God has been pleased to open her womb and to grant
her this child as the answer to many pleadings and many prayers. or be not deceived, God is not
mocked. Says the Apostle, what a man
soweth that shall he also reap. He that soweth of the flesh shall
of the flesh reap corruption. He that soweth of the Spirit
shall of the Spirit inherit eternal life. God's actions are weighed
the way in which he deals with people. The bowels of the mighty
men are broken, she says. They that stumble are girded
with strength. God's ways, God's dealings, God's
ways with men. But not only are we to understand
that statement at the end of verse 3 in terms of the way in
which God judges men and deals with men, is there not a truth
to be discerned in that also God's own actions, all that God
does Himself, all His actions are way. Isaiah tells us concerning his
dealings, how that in the day of his rough wind, he stays at
his east wind. He only lays upon his people
as much as they can bear. He is a kind God and a compassionate
God. The preacher in the book of Ecclesiastes
exhorts, in the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of
adversity consider God also hath set the one over against the
other. As we said this morning, there
is that that is equitable and right in all the ways, all the
dealings of God. Abraham says, shall not the judge
of all the earth do right? His actions are wise. in everything that he does. He
doesn't deal with his creature in any capricious fashion. He doesn't use his creature as
some sort of plaything. But there is a gracious purpose
in all the ways of the Lord. Or William Cooper knew it, in
the midst of all his afflictions, poor man. How he suffered terribly
with melancholia as they called it in those days. Many, many
a time. almost suicidal in his mind.
And yet he says, judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust
him for his grace. Behind a frowning providence
he hides a smiling face. This is a God that Hannah has
become so aware of in all his dealings with her and we see
it in the way in which she acknowledges him here in her prayer. Verse
7 she says, The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, He bringeth
low and lifteth up, He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,
and lifteth up the beggar from the downhill, to set them among
princes, and to make them inhabit the throne of glory, for the
pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and He hath set the world
upon them. Well as we come again to consider
something of the content of this prayer this evening. First of
all, I want us to observe how she is brought to acknowledge
here the discriminating grace of God. The discriminating grace
of God. Look at the language that we
have in verse 4. She says, The bowels of the mighty
are broken, And they that stumbled are girded with strength, they
that were full have hired out themselves for bread, and they
that were hungry cease, so that the barren hath borne seven,
and she that hath many children is waxed feeble. Now, it is apparent
that she has in mind Peninnah, her adversary, as she utters
these words. And this reference here, you
see, even at the beginning of verse 4, The bows of the mighty men are
broken. Does it not cause us to think
of the language of the psalmist? You remember the language that
we have there in the 127th Psalm concerning that man who is blessed? What does the psalmist say? Though children are an heritage
of the Lord, The fruit of the womb is his reward. As arrows
are in the hand of a mighty man, so are the children of the youth. Happy is the man that hath his
quiver full of them. They shall not be ashamed, but
they shall speak with the enemies in the gate. Here we have bows,
arrows, the quiver. Clearly here then, Hannah is
referring to Peninnah. who had so provoked her. But
now how the circumstances had changed. Why? The Lords remembered
her. We read there at the end of verse
9 in chapter 1. Now Cana knew Hannah, his wife,
and the Lords remembered her. And so she was given strength
to conceive this child. They that stumble, she says,
are girded with strength. Oh, she was given strength to
conceive, to bear this child. She was delivered of a child
then. Just as was the case with Sarah. Think of Sarah and her
barrenness also, time and again in the Old Testament we read
of these cases, these gracious women, and in the mysterious
ways, the providences of God, they find themselves without
child, and what an awful reproach it was in those days. Concerning
Sarah, we read how through faith also she received strength, to
conceive seed and was delivered of a child when she was past
age because she judged him faithful who had promised. Wasn't Isaac
the child of faith? And so too Samuel, the child
of faith. And we see it, I say, time and
again and it's quite remarkable even when we come to the New
Testament in that portion that we read at the beginning of Luke's
Gospel the birth of John the Baptist, the forerunner of Christ
is quite a miraculous birth because Zachariah and Elizabeth are well
stricken in years and yet the child is born doesn't all of
this in scripture as it were anticipate that greatest of all
births, that miracle of a birth that a virgin should be with
child and should bring forth a son and call his name Emmanuel,
which means God with us. Here we see then the ways of
God and God's dealings. As I said this morning again,
the Magnificat, that great song of Mary. can be compared with what we
have here in the Old Testament in the prayer of Hannah. There are striking similarities
between these two women and the way in which they are brought
to acknowledge God and the goodness of God to them. Here then we
see Hannah and she recognizes the remarkable discriminating
ways of God in his dealings with her and how God's answer is such
a perfect answer when God answers our prayers he doesn't always
ask according to the way in which we imagine that he ought to answer
us but his answer is such a perfect answer even when he seems to
be answering in strange ways it is significant that here in
verse 5 she says concerning the barren that was herself the barren
hath born seven and she that hath many children is waxed feeble
seven being the number of perfection doesn't mean that she was to
have seven children But the number is a symbolic number, so much
of the language in the prayer is symbolic language as we see
in that reference to the bows of the mighty men. Seven, the
number of perfection, God's answer was a perfect answer in the way
in which He dealt with Hannah and granted her that which she
requested. But we see also here not only
the discriminating ways of God, but all the sovereign ways of
God, the powerful dealings of God. All that is happening is
in accordance with His sovereign will and all His good pleasure.
The language there at verse 6, he says, The Lord killeth and
maketh alive, he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor and maketh
rich. He bringeth low and lifteth up. And so she goes on there at the
end of verse 8. The pillars of the earth are
the Lord's and He hath set the world upon them. Oh God is that
One who is sovereign. All the inhabitants of the earth
are accounted as nothing and He doeth according to His will
among the armies of heaven and the inhabitants of the earth
and none can stay His hand. or say to him, what do us now? God brought that proud man, Nebuchadnezzar,
that great Babylonian emperor who thought himself one of the
wonders of the world. In fact, the hanging gardens
of Babylon were amongst the seven wonders of the world, the work
of Nebuchadnezzar. And yet God humbles him, takes
away his reason, and he behaves like some beast of the field.
His hair grows, his nails grow and almost form claws. always so humble before God and
then brought to make that right confession to acknowledge that
God is sovereign and does according to his will both in heaven and
in earth. Isn't this our comfort? That
God is that one who works all things after the counsel of his
own will. And so Paul can tell the believers
there at Rome, that all things work together for good, to them
that love God, to them who are called according to His purpose. It's all the purpose of God,
from eternity to eternity. Whom He did foreknow, He also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son. Moreover,
whom He did predestinate them he also called and whom he called
them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified
or who can lay anything to the charge of gods he left it is
God you see he has from eternity set his love upon the people
he has foreknown them and foreknowing them he has made
choice of them and committed them into the hands of his son
and ultimately they will be with Him in glory. All these weighty
matters are under the hand of God. These striking words then
concerning God and the dealings of God. He is the one who kills,
He is the one who makes alive, He brings to the grave, He bringeth
up, He makes poor, He makes rich, He brings low, He lifts up, Isn't
that true with regards to physical life? It was a natural birth
that filled Hannah with such joy and such gladness. My heart
rejoices in the Lord, she says. The Lord had dealt with her in
his providence in such a way that she'd been able to conceive
this child and given birth to a son. whom she called Samuel. And God, you see, is sovereign
with regards to our physical lives. Life and death, all these things
come, of course, under his hand at his appointed time, to everything
there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven,
a time to be born, and a time to die, You are familiar with
the language of the preacher there in Ecclesiastes chapter
3, that well-known portion. It is God who is sovereign with
regards to our birth, our parentage, everything about us, all our
times are in God's hands with regards to the natural and also
if that be so with regards to the things of nature how much
more is that the case when it comes to to spiritual life can
we not understand these words these remarkable words in verses
six and seven in terms of God's spiritual dealings I think I
said this morning that This is not the only place where we find
such words. We find very similar words previously
in the Song of Moses. There in Deuteronomy
chapter 32 and verse 39, See now that I, even I am he, and
that 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
how true that is all the sovereignty of God's grace he kills he kills a man to all hope in
himself brings a man to the end of himself makes us feel what we are as
those who are dead in trespasses and in sins and he makes a lie. It's not just here in Hannah's
song, it's not just there in the song of Moses, but we also
have it in the book of Job. In Job 5 and verse 18, he maketh
sore and bindeth up, he woundeth, and his hands make whole. It
is God yourself who has to deal with us. And when God deals with
us in the way of grace, He will cause that we are made to feel
what our natural condition is. He shuts us up to our sins. Shuts us up to the complete and
utter impossibility of us ever believing. and to say to a man
whom God is dealing with, well, it's his duty to do this, it's
his duty to do that. The whole notion of duty fights
it. So, contrary to the word of God is contrary to the ways
of God. What does the human say there in Psalm 88? I am shut
up and I cannot come forth, cannot free himself, cannot deliver
himself. Oh, this is the gods. who had
had such dealings with Hannah all that she had was from the
Lord and she's brought to recognize it and she sees that this is
the God by whom all actions await all the ways of the Lord when
he is pleased to come and to work that conviction in the soul
of the sinner remember the the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ
himself when he speaks of the ministry of the Holy Spirit the
Comforter How does he comfort? Well, he comes to comfort those
who are first brought to such a sense of their sins. He convinces
first and foremost. When he is calm, says Christ,
he will reprove the world. Or the margin says, he will convince
the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin, because
you believe not on me, of righteousness because I go to the Father and
you see me no more, of judgment because the Prince of this world
is judged. How He comes to convince us first
of unbelief. That's what He makes us feel.
He convinces us of unbelief, the sin which doth so easily
beset us. It's bound up with our fallen
nature. That's the nature we receive from Adam and Eve. They
We're guilty of unbelief there in the Garden of Eden. They disbelieve
the truth of God and embrace the lie of the devil. And we're
partakers of their nature. And we have to feel it. This
is what Hannah is saying. The Lord killeth and maketh alive. He bringeth down to the grave
and bringeth up. but we have to deal with us in
our souls in that way that we are made to feel the awful truth
of our total depravity the impotence that is ours that we can do nothing
of ourselves, nothing for ourselves it is the power of God's dealings
then that she makes mention of God's ways so discriminating
God's sovereign in all his actions but then also we see this in
our prayer how God is pleased to deal with those who are the
poor of this world the poor of this world verse 8 he raises
up the poor out of the dust and lifteth up the beggar from the
dongle to set them among princes and to make them inherit the
throne of glory For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's,
and he hath set the world upon them. For those who are poor and needy,
our God constantly condescends to deal with such needy sinners
as these. Look at the language again of
the Psalmist. There in the 113th Psalm who is like unto the Lord our
God, who dwelleth on high, who humbleth himself to behold the
things that are in heaven and in the earth. He raiseth up the
poor out of the dust, and lifteth the needy out of the dunghill,
that he may set him with princes, even with the princes of his
people. He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be
a joyful mother of children, Praise you, the Lord. Oh, how
suitable and applicable this psalm is to what we read concerning
Hannah. She is that barren woman. And
now the psalmist is speaking the same language, you see. It
is the poor that God raises out of the dust and lifts the needy
from the donkey. God takes account of them. All
this This child that is born to Hannah, this Samuel, as we
said this morning, he was the one who must go and he must anoint
David. It was David who was to be the
king and he must anoint David. Remember the language that we
have there in chapter 16? Now that verse 10, Jesse makes
seven of his sons pass before Samuel. And Samuel said unto
Jesse, The Lord has not chosen these. And Samuel said unto Jesse,
Are there here all thy children? And he said, There remaineth
yet the youngest, and behold, he keepeth the sheep. And Samuel
said unto Jesse, Send and fetch him, for we will not sit down
till he come hither. And he sent and brought him in.
Now he was rightly, and with all of a beautiful countenance
and goodly to look to. And the Lord said, Arise, anoint
him. For this is he. Then Samuel took the horn of
oil and anointed him in the midst of his brethren. And the Spirit
of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. And Samuel
rose up and went to Ramah. Oh, this is that one, you see.
why Samuel is raised up for this very purpose. He must be the
one, the prophet of the Lord, who will go and anoint David
to be the king. And as we said this morning,
the prayer comes to its climax there in verse 10. The Lord shall
judge the ends of the earth. He shall give strength unto his
king and exalt the horn of his anointed. But we're to look beyond
David. Are we not here to discern the
Lord Jesus Christ Himself? Even here in verse 3 when we
read that the Lord is a God of knowledge and by Him actions
are weighed, where are God's actions weighed? Or when we think
of the coming of Christ, the experience of Christ, the life,
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. There God's actions are weighed,
there we see how all God's holy attributes come together. All
are so weighed, all so perfectly harmonized. We see that God is
just, and yet God is the justifier of Him, the believer. The psalmist
says, mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace
have kissed each other. Oh, we see it so wonderfully
there in the Lord Jesus Christ. God can by no means clear the
guilt. He must in His justice visit
that punishment that is the sinners deserve. But what does He do?
He so loves sinners that He visits all that just wrath upon Him
who is the sinner's substitute. who dies in the room instead
of his people. Oh, are we those, friends, who,
as we come together, feel ourselves to be so poor and so needy. Here
is that gospel that is so suited to these characters. It is God
who rises the poor out of the dust, who lifts the beggar from
the donkey. He has mercy, you see, mercy
for sinners. It is the poor who have the gospel
preached to them. When John the Baptist's disciples
come to the Lord Jesus, John is in the prison and it seems
that John now is filled with certain doubts and fears concerning
the ministry of the Lord Jesus. And how does the Lord answer?
Well, He tells them to go back to John and speak of those things
that they have seen in the ministry of Christ and amongst them. The
poor have the gospel preached to them. These are the ones that
Christ came for. Blessed are the poor in spirit
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. or to be those who are
poor. This woman Hannah was such a
poor soul, so afflicted. There she was barren, so provoked
by her adversary, made oftentimes to fret and to worry because
she was barren. And yet the Lord has regard to
her and hears her in all her pleadings, all her silent prayers,
all her groanings, all her sighs, the Lord hears her. Hearken,
my beloved brethren, hath not God, says James, chosen the poor
of this world, rich in faith, and heirs to the promise which
he hath given? Oh, it is the Lord, and Hannah
is so quick to acknowledge the Lord and all His dealing, she
felt it. The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, he bringeth
low and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of
the dust and lifteth up the beggars from the dongle to set them among
princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory. She knew
it. This was her case. And yet the
Lord was pleased. to attend to her needs and grant
to her the thing that she desired or she lived to prove it that
God's way is perfect all that we read this morning in that
opening chapter all that initially seems to be so contrary to her how her latter ends proved the
goodness and the grace of God. And so she comes here, as we
said earlier, it's very much a public prayer of thanksgiving. And the detail is recorded in
these 10 verses that we've sought to say a little about today. How Hannah prayed. and said, My heart rejoiceth
in the Lord, my horn is exalted in the Lord, my mouth is enlarged
over mine enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation. There is none
holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee, neither is
there any rock like our God. All she was established, her
feet were strengthened in the Lord her God and so when we come
to the end where she comes to that glorious
climax 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. Oh, the Lord be pleasing
to bless us with that fight that we see demonstrated in the prayer
of this blessed woman, Hannah. The Lord hold his word and do
us good.