"And Hannah prayed" (1
Sam. 2:1). In chapter 1 Hannah prayed for a son. God graciously answered her
prayer and gave her Samuel. She now pours out her soul in worship before the
LORD, not as a suppliant now, but fully satisfied, her desire fully met.

Her song begins with the
celebration of the glorious perfections of Jehovah. "My heart rejoices in
the LORD," she sings. Her joy was not so much in the gift
(Samuel) as in God the Giver. Her’s was not a merely natural joy, but
the joy of the Lord, a joy of the Spirit. How often we are more occupied with
the thing given than with Him who graciously gave it. Not so with Hannah here;
much as she might and did rejoice over the child of her vows and prayers, she
rises above the level of nature to Jehovah Himself.

Having made brief mention of her
own joy, she makes no more mention of herself; it is all Jehovah in His
character and wondrous ways. She speaks His name nine times in her song of ten
verses. She seems wholly lost in Him, and scarcely alludes to herself or circumstances,
or that particular mercy (the gift of Samuel) that had prompted her anthem of
praise. In their praises and thanksgivings to God, believers may be too much
occupied with what concerns themselves—their necessities and circumstances.
This is not the highest form of worship; it is not what occupies Hannah here;
she rises above her own blessings; she is absorbed in the varied and majestic
attributes of the Divine Being. She alludes to His holiness, His omniscience,
His sovereignty, His omnipotence, His faithfulness, and
His justice.

His holiness is first:
"There is none holy as the LORD." Holiness has first place in this
cluster of glories. It is, we may say, one of the essential attributes
of Deity; and without it, who could adore or even reverence Him? Yet it is the
very trait of His nature to which men are most averse, and which they are most
likely to overlook. He has therefore reminded us over and over again in His
Word that He is holy. In this attribute of His being He is incomparable. The
seraphim veil themselves as they cry one to another, "Holy, holy, holy is
the Lord of hosts" (Isa. 6:3). "There is none beside Thee; neither is
there any rock like our God," she sings. "Who is like unto Thee, O
LORD, among the gods? who is like Thee, glorious in holiness?" sang Moses
at the Red Sea (Exod. 15:11). "Give thanks at the remembrance of His
holiness" (Psa. 30:4), said the "sweet psalmist of Israel." This
very unpopular doctrine of the perfect holiness of God is the very truth that
the Spirit of Christ in David calls upon His saints to give thanks for. Thirty
times in the Old Testament is Jehovah called "the Holy One of
Israel."

Hannah next alludes to God’s omniscience:
"Talk no more exceeding proudly; let not arrogance come out of your mouth:
for the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed." Being
omniscient He is unerring in His estimate of men; and not merely does He take
knowledge of their doings, but weighs their thoughts in the
balances of the sanctuary. He reads the heart and weighs motives rather
than outward acts. "Judge not according to appearance," says our
Lord, the appointed Judge of all (John 7:24). And in 1 Cor. 4:5, the apostle
Paul forcibly reminds us that He will in "that day," the day of the
revelation of the thoughts of many hearts, make manifest motives—He will weigh
purposes as well as actions. O reader, let this solemnize our hearts and
make us less careful of what men may think or judge, and cause us to be anxious
only to please but One. There is no more beautiful description anywhere of
God’s omniscience (and His omnipresence, too) than that given by David in the
139th psalm. It is little wonder that he, a man like ourselves, should in
deepest humility say, "Such knowledge is too wonderful for me" (Psa.
139:6).

Hannah dilates on God’s sovereignty,
and then she enumerates the sudden changes, the felicities and vicissitudes of
life:the seemingly invincible mighty ones suffer defeat, and those who stumble
in weakness as if about to fall rise suddenly to strength and victory.
"The bows of the mighty men are broken, and those who stumbled are girded
with strength." The men of the world, in their self-sufficiency, say with
Napoleon that "God is on the side of the heaviest battalions"; but
no; when it is agreeable to His purpose, "the lame take the
prey" (Isa. 33:23).

In men’s circumstances of life
also the sovereignty of God is seen:"Those who were full have hired
themselves out for bread; and those who were hungry ceased [to be so]."
This is not always because the former are improvident or wasteful, and the
latter have superior industry or frugality. These are often but secondary
causes, and behind all is the purpose of the supreme Ruler of the universe,
without whom not one insignificant sparrow falls dead to the ground. It is not
"luck" or "fortune," good or ill, nor are these mutations
in the circumstances of men to be ascribed solely to themselves, their wisdom
or their folly, or chance or opportunity. "I went out full and the Lord
has brought me home again empty," said the sorrowful Naomi (Ruth 1:21).
She acknowledged the sovereignty of God in her altered circumstances, and
Scripture abounds with illustrations of this bed-rock truth. God is sovereign,
controlling the ups and downs of life.

This is further enlarged upon in
what immediately follows:"So that the barren has borne seven; and she who
has many children is waxed feeble." Once flourishing and influential
families become diminished, even to extinction sometimes, while others increase
to a multitude. It is He, the Lord, who "makes the barren woman to keep
house, and to be a joyful mother of children" (Psa. 113:9). This will be
demonstrated in Israel in the coming day of her promised increase (Isa.
54:1-6). "Lo, children are a heritage of the LORD, and the fruit of the
womb is His reward" (Psa. 127:3). Would that this word were pondered more
in this age of increasingly small families.

This thought is closely connected
with the question of life and death:"The LORD kills, and makes alive; He
brings down to the grave, and brings up." Not only is our coming into the
world completely under God’s control, but when born, our life is in His hand;
death, too, is amenable to His will. This is the sobering declaration of the
prophet Daniel before the impious king Belshazzar:"The God in whose hand
your breath is" (Dan. 5:23). He is the sovereign Lord of life and death.
It is He who "turns man to destruction, and says, Return, you
children of men" (Psa. 90:3), and who in "the last day" will
cause His voice to be heard by all who sleep in the grave. He "makes
alive" and "brings up" from the grave. Resurrection is the
sovereign act of His power.

Riches, too, and poverty, are
alike at His disposal:"The Lord makes poor, and makes rich; He brings
low, and lifts up." He gives the one or the other as suits His purpose.
The knowledge of this should keep the rich humble, and make the poor content.
Beloved fellow-believer, let us, as Scripture admonishes us, "be content
with such things as we have," for our God, who has revealed Himself to us
in grace, has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Heb.
13:5).

"He raises up the poor out of
the dust, and lifts up the beggar from the dunghill," again says Hannah,
"to set them among princes and to make them inherit the throne of
glory." We have illustrations of this in Scripture all the way from Joseph
to Lazarus. The former was raised up from the condition of a slave to rule over
Egypt; the latter, a beggar on earth, was taken to "Abraham’s bosom"
in paradise.

Hannah next ascribes to God almighty
power or omnipotence:"For the pillars of the earth are the
LORD’s, and He has set the world upon them." This is a poetic figure of
speech, though none the less forceful for that. Who but He whose strength is
infinite could suspend and sustain this globe in its circuits as if it had no
more weight than "the small dust of the balance" (Isa. 40:15; see
also Job 26:7)?

Concerning God’s faithfulness,
in His wisdom, grace, and power He is able to keep us without falling:"He
will keep the feet of His saints," Hannah says confidently. O child of
God, weak, failing, and needing much mercy, rejoice in this that our Saviour
has said:"They shall never perish, neither shall any one pluck them out
of my hand" (John 10:28). And may the certainty of this make you, not more
careless in your walk, but the more careful not to grieve such love; for
if He keep the feet of His saints, His eye is upon them to see every misstep
they make, and observes when they wander into forbidden paths.

His justice is the next
attribute noticed:"The wicked shall be silent in darkness, for by
strength shall no man prevail." The judgment of the sinner is sure, though
God bear long with him in his rebellion and unbelief. "Where is the God of
judgment?" men ask today, as they unbelievingly asked of old (Mal. 2:17).
We answer, He is bearing long with man’s impenitence, but His Word declares He
"will by no means clear the guilty!" (Exod. 34:7). His righteousness
is one of His many glories; even the gospel of His grace declares it
(Rom. 1:16,17). "It is," as another has aptly expressed it, "the
rectitude of His nature, His infinite agreement with Himself, and the equity of
His government and judgment in the administration of both." Puny man would
thwart the execution of His judgments; but though they join hands to resist the
purposes of God, though they bind themselves with an oath, as it were, to keep
the earth for themselves in their pride at the exclusion of God’s Christ, its
rightful Heir, "by strength shall no man prevail." "Though hand
join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished" (Prov. 11:21). "The
adversaries of the LORD shall be broken in pieces; out of heaven shall He
thunder upon them."

Here is the grand finale of
Hannah’s oratorio:"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 not Saul, nor even David, but He whom David in Spirit called
"Lord." This "King" to whom Jehovah gives
"strength" is He who "was crucified through weakness" (2
Cor. 13:4). Now, all power on earth and in heaven is in His hand, and in the
coming day of His kingdom and power, the horn of His royalty will be exalted
above the kings of the earth, as it is written in Psalm 2.

So the song closes with that one
only Name that strikes an answering chord in every loyal heart, both Jewish and
Christian:"His Anointed." It is Hannah’s, as it is God’s last
word to man. "What think ye of Christ?" (Matt. 22:42). This is the
test. Reader, what is He to you?

(From Life and Times of Samuel
the Prophet, published by Believers Bookshelf, Sunbury, Pennsylvania.)