1 Samuel 2:1 - Meaning and Application

We have here Hannah’s thanksgiving, given not only by the spirit of prayer, but also by the spirit of prophecy. We saw her request for the mercy she wanted earlier (1 Samuel 1:11), and now we see her response of praise. In both cases, her mouth spoke from a heart deeply moved, first by her own need, then by God’s goodness.

Notice several things here. First, when she received mercy from God, she openly gave him thanks. She was not like the nine lepers who forgot to return and praise him (Luke 17:17). Praise is our duty, like rent or tribute. If we do not give it, we are acting unjustly.

Second, the mercy she received came in answer to prayer, so she felt especially bound to thank God for it. What we gain by prayer we may enjoy with comfort, and we must carry it with praise. Third, her thanksgiving is also called a prayer, because thanksgiving is a necessary part of prayer. In every approach to God, we must show thankful respect to him as our giver of good things. Even thanksgiving for blessings already received can be accepted as a request for more mercy.

Fourth, from this one gift she received, Hannah rises to speak of God’s greatness and of his rule over the world for the good of his church. Whatever stirs our praise should lift us in the same way. Fifth, her earlier prayer was silent, since her voice was not heard. But in this thanksgiving she speaks aloud, so all may hear. She had poured out her request with groans that could not be put into words, but now her lips are opened to show God’s praise.

Sixth, this thanksgiving is preserved on record to encourage women, and all the weaker and more overlooked among God’s people, to come to the throne of grace. God will hear their prayers and receive their praise. Mary’s song in Luke has much in common with Hannah’s song (Luke 1:46).

We see three things in this thanksgiving. First, Hannah rejoices in God himself, in his great character, and in the great things he has done for her (1 Samuel 2:1-3). She says very great things about God, but says little about the gift itself. She does not dwell on Samuel as a charming child, as proud parents often do. Instead, she looks past the gift and praises the Giver. Many people fasten on the gift and forget the Giver. Every stream should lead us back to the fountain, and every blessing should make us admire the perfect greatness of God. There may be many Samuels, but there is only one Lord. There is none besides him.

Hannah praises four of God’s glorious qualities. First is his pure holiness. This is the attribute most praised in heaven by those who always see his face (Isaiah 6:3; Revelation 4:8). When Israel triumphed over Egypt, God was praised as glorious in holiness (Exodus 15:11). So here Hannah says, “There is none holy like the Lord.” This means the rightness of his nature, his perfect harmony with himself, and the fairness of his rule and judgments in all he does. We should give thanks when we remember this.

Second is his almighty power: “There is no rock like our God.” A rock here means strength. Hannah had found him to be a mighty support when she trusted in him, and she speaks from her own experience. She seems to echo Moses’ words (Deuteronomy 32:31).

Third is his wisdom: “The Lord is a God of knowledge.” He sees clearly and perfectly into every person’s character and every case’s true merit. He also gives knowledge and understanding to those who ask him.

Fourth is his justice: “By him actions are weighed.” His own works are weighed in his eternal plans, and human actions are weighed in his judgment. He will give to every person according to what he has done, and he is never mistaken about what anyone is or does.

Second, Hannah takes comfort in these truths. What we give God credit for, we may also take comfort from. She does this in holy joy: “My heart rejoices in the Lord.” She rejoices not mainly in her son, but in her God. He is the joy of our joy (Psalm 43:4), and our joy must not stop at anything less than him. She says, “I rejoice in your salvation,” meaning not only this personal mercy, but the salvation of your people Israel, especially those deliverances this child may help bring, and above all the salvation through Christ, which these earlier rescues only pointed toward.

She also rejoices in holy triumph: “My horn is lifted up.” This means more than that her reputation is restored by having a son, though it certainly is that. It also means her praise has been lifted to a higher note. The horn was used as an image of strength and sometimes as a musical instrument in God’s worship (1 Chronicles 25:5). So she is saying that God has raised her up and that her triumph belongs to him. “My mouth is enlarged” means, “Now I have something to answer those who mocked me.” A man with a full quiver and a full house of children is not ashamed to speak boldly against his enemies at the gate (Psalm 127:5).

Third, she uses this song to silence those who set themselves against God. “Do not keep speaking so proudly,” she says (1 Samuel 2:3). Peninnah, Elkanah’s other wife, and her children should no longer taunt her for trusting God and praying to him. At last Hannah has found that her confidence was not wasted. This also reaches farther, to the proud enemies of God and Israel, who speak against heaven (Psalm 73:9). Let this put them to shame and silence, because the God who has judged for his people against one enemy will judge for them against all their enemies.

Second, Hannah notices the wisdom and sovereign rule of God’s providence as it orders human affairs. Life can turn quickly. Prosperity and trouble often lie very near each other. God has set one over against the other (Ecclesiastes 7:14), and often placed them close together, so that we learn to rejoice as if we did not rejoice fully, and to weep as if we did not weep fully.

The strong can quickly be weakened, and the weak can quickly be strengthened, when God chooses to act (1 Samuel 2:4). If he speaks the word, the bows of mighty men are broken. They are disarmed and made unable to do what they have done before, or what they planned to do.

Those who seemed sure of victory have often been beaten in battle. They looked strong in every way, but the Lord brought them low. See (Psalm 46:9) and (Psalm 37:15, 17). Likewise, individual people are quickly weakened by sickness and age. Many strong men have found that the strength they trusted in could fail them when they needed it most.

On the other hand, when the Lord speaks, those who were weak and unsteady are made strong in body and mind. They are able to carry out great things. People who were weakened by sickness regain their strength again (Job 33:25). Those who were crushed by sorrow recover their comfort, and God strengthens weak hands and feeble knees (Isaiah 35:3). Victory can suddenly turn to the side that seemed lost, and even the lame can take the spoil (Isaiah 33:23).

Rich people can also be made poor very quickly, and poor people can be raised up in a surprising way. God sometimes ruins a person’s wealth and blocks every effort they make, until those who once had full barns and full houses are forced into hard need (Job 22:18; Psalm 17:14). Riches can fly away (Proverbs 23:5), and leave a person miserable if they trusted in them. When someone has been wealthy and free, poverty feels even heavier.

But sometimes God orders things so that those who were hungry no longer need to work just to survive. By God’s blessing on their work, they may come to have enough to live in peace. This is not just luck, and it is not only because people are wise or foolish. Riches are not always for the wise, nor favor for the skilled (Ecclesiastes 9:11). It is the Lord who makes some poor and others rich (1 Samuel 2:7). He gives some people the power to gain wealth, and he can also take away their power to keep it.

If we are poor, God made us poor, and that gives us a good reason to be content. If we are rich, God made us rich, and that gives us a good reason to be thankful and to serve him gladly. This may even happen to the same person. God may make someone poor for a time, then later make that person rich again, as he did with Job. He gave, he took away, and then he gave again. So the rich should not grow proud or careless, because God can make them poor quickly. The poor should not sink into despair, because God can enrich them in due time.

Empty households are also filled up, and large households are sometimes cut down. This fits the occasion of Hannah’s praise. The barren woman has borne seven, meaning Hannah herself, because even though she had only one son at first, that son was devoted to God as a Nazarite and served in God’s special work. In that sense, he was as good to her as seven sons. Or these may be the words of her faith. Now that she had one child, she hoped for more, and she was not disappointed, since she later had five more (1 Samuel 2:21). So if we count Samuel as two, as we fairly may, she had the number she had hoped for. The woman with many children, on the other hand, grows weak and stops bearing children. Peninnah is now humbled and silenced. The Jewish tradition says that when Hannah bore one child, Peninnah buried two. There are many examples of small families growing large and famous families dying out (Job 22:23; Psalm 107:38).

The Lord is the sovereign ruler over life and death (1 Samuel 2:6). The Lord kills and makes alive. This means, first, that God has full authority over the lives and deaths of all people. He stands over births and burials. When anyone dies, it is God who directs the arrow of death. The Lord kills. Death is his messenger, and it strikes when and where he appoints. None are brought to the dust except by his hand, for the keys of death and the grave are in his hand (Revelation 1:18). When anyone is born, it is God who gives life. No one fully understands the way of the spirit, but we do know that it comes from the Father of spirits. When anyone recovers from sickness or escapes a danger of death, it is God who brings them up, for the way out of death belongs to him.

This also means that God makes a difference between one person and another. He kills some and lets others live, even when both were in the same danger, such as war or plague, perhaps lying in the same bed, with one taken and the other left. “Yes, Father, because it pleased you to do it.” Some who seemed most likely to live are brought down to the grave, while others who seemed just as likely to die are brought up. Life and death do not follow human guesses. God’s dealings with one person may be killing and crushing, while at the same time his dealings with another are restoring and giving life.

It also means that God changes one and the same person in these ways. He kills and brings down to the grave, that is, he brings a person to death’s door and then raises that person up again, even when life had been given up for lost and the sentence of death had been received (2 Corinthians 1:8, 9). He turns toward destruction and then says, “Return” (Psalm 110:3). Nothing is too hard for God, not even to give life to the dead and breath to dry bones.

Advancement and humiliation both come from him. He brings some low and lifts up others (1 Samuel 2:7). He humbles the proud and gives grace and honor to the lowly. He lays in the dust those who try to place themselves above God and trample on everyone around them (Job 40:12, 13), but he lifts up those who humble themselves before him and gives them his saving help (James 4:10). This may also be understood of the same people. Those whom he has brought low, after they have been humbled enough, he lifts up again.

This thought is expanded in 1 Samuel 2:8. He raises the poor from the dust, from a low and humble condition, even from the dung heap, a base and slave-like place, hated and despised, and sets them among princes. See (Psalm 113:7, 8). Promotion does not come by chance. It comes from God’s wise plan, which often chooses people whom others would never expect and would think unworthy. Joseph, Daniel, Moses, and David were all raised in surprising ways, from prison to palace, from tending sheep to ruling as king. Even if the princes around them are tempted to look down on them, God can secure the honor he gives and make them inherit a throne of glory.

Do not let those whom God has raised up be mocked for the lowly place they came from. The lower their beginning was, the more clearly God’s favor appears in their rise, as long as it comes by right and honorable means.

A reason is now given for all these turns in life, and it should make us accept them, however surprising they may be: “The pillars of the earth are the Lord’s.” If this is taken literally, it points to God’s almighty power, which no one can control. He made the earth, keeps the whole creation in place, and still holds it up by his power. What can he not do in the affairs of families and kingdoms, far beyond what we can imagine, since he hangs the earth on nothing? (Job 26:7)

If this is taken as a figure of speech, it points to God’s clear right to rule, which no one can challenge. The princes and great rulers of the earth, the ones who seem to hold nations together, are like pillars of the earth (Psalms 75:3). The affairs of the world seem to turn on them, but they belong to the Lord (Psalms 47:9). They receive their power from him, so he may raise up whoever he pleases, and no one may ask, “What are you doing?”

Her song then gives a prophecy of the protection and raising up of all God’s faithful people, and the destruction of all his enemies and theirs. After she had spoken with joy about what God had done and was doing, she ends with joyful hope about what he would yet do (1 Samuel 2:9, 1 Samuel 2:10). As Bishop Patrick notes, godly feelings in those days often rose into prophecy, and God used that to preserve true religion among a people drawn toward idolatry.

This prophecy may point first to Israel’s government under Samuel, and under David, whom Samuel was later used to anoint. God’s holy people would be protected and rescued, and the Philistines, their enemies, would be defeated and brought low, especially by thunder (1 Samuel 7:10). Their borders would spread, King David would be strengthened and greatly honored, and Israel, which had barely held together in the time of the judges, would soon become strong and respected, giving law to its neighbors. What a great change that was, and the birth of Samuel was like the first light of that day.

But it likely looks farther ahead, to the kingdom of Christ, and to the rule of grace that she is now speaking about, after speaking so fully of God’s rule in providence. Here we meet the name Messiah, that is, the Anointed One, for the first time. Older Jewish and Christian teachers understood this as pointing beyond David to the Son of David. Great things are said here about the kingdom of the Mediator, that is, the one who stands between God and people to bring them together, both before and after his coming in the flesh. The way his kingdom is ruled is much the same whether we think of the eternal Word or the Word made flesh.

About that kingdom we are told, first, that all its loyal subjects will be carefully and powerfully protected: “He will keep the feet of his saints” (1 Samuel 2:9). There are people in the world who are God’s saints, his chosen and set-apart ones, and he will keep even their feet. That means he will guard all that belongs to them, down to the least part of them. If he keeps their feet, he will surely keep their heads and hearts too. Or it may mean that he will secure the ground they stand on and make their steps firm. He will place grace as a guard over their desires and actions, so their feet will not wander off the path or trip in it. When their feet are about to slip (Psalms 73:2), his mercy holds them up (Psalms 94:18) and keeps them from falling (Jude 1:24). As we keep God’s ways, he will keep our feet. See (Psalms 37:23, Psalms 37:24).

Second, no power set against this kingdom will be able to destroy it. “By strength shall no man prevail.” God’s strength is on the side of the church, and while that is true, human strength cannot defeat it. The church may seem weak, with few and feeble friends, but victory does not depend on human strength (Psalms 33:16). God does not need it for himself (Psalms 147:10), and he is not afraid of it against him.

Third, all the enemies of this kingdom will surely be brought down: “The wicked shall be silent in darkness” (1 Samuel 2:9). They will be struck blind and mute, unable to find their way or speak for themselves. Lost sinners are sentenced to complete darkness, and there they will be speechless forever (Matthew 22:12, Matthew 22:13). The wicked are called the Lord’s enemies, and it is foretold that they will be broken to pieces (Matthew 22:10). Every plan they make against his kingdom among people will fail, and they themselves will be destroyed. How could those who take up arms against Almighty God succeed? See (Luke 19:27). God has many ways to bring this about, and if need be, he will thunder against them from heaven, striking fear into them and bringing them to ruin. Who can stand before God’s thunderbolts?

Fourth, the victories of this kingdom will reach far into distant places: “The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth.” David’s victories and rule reached widely, but the Messiah is promised the farthest parts of the earth as his possession (Psalms 2:8), either to be brought under his golden scepter or broken by his iron rod. God is Judge of all, and he will judge for his people against his and their enemies (Psalms 110:5, Psalms 110:6).

Fifth, the power and honor of Messiah the Prince will keep growing: “He shall give strength unto his king.” God will strengthen him for the great work he came to do (Psalms 89:21, and see Luke 22:43), and strengthen him to go through the hard path of his humiliation. Then, in his exaltation, God will lift up his head (Psalms 110:7), lift up the horn, meaning the power and honor, of his anointed one, and make him higher than the kings of the earth (Psalms 89:27). This is the crown of her joy, and above all else it is the reason for her praise. Her horn is lifted up (1 Samuel 2:1) because she sees beforehand that the horn of the Messiah will be lifted up. This secures the hope. The subjects of Christ’s kingdom will be safe, and its enemies will be ruined, for the anointed Lord Christ is armed with strength and is able to save and destroy completely.