And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart exulteth in Jehovah, my horn is lifted up in Jehovah; my mouth is opened wide over mine enemies; for I rejoice in thy salvation.
Years earlier Hannah prayed at Shiloh in tears, her lips moving with no sound. God gave her the son she asked for. Now she has handed Samuel back to God, and her song is all about the LORD.
The prayer behind this song was silent. The answer was public, and so is the praise.
When she poured out her request in sorrow, "only her lips moved, and her voice was not heard." She prayed "in secret" to Him who "hears in secret," and He had rewarded her "openly." But this prayer becomes a song of joyful praise. She really does have glorious things to tell about Him who is awesome in His praises. Her song begins by celebrating the glorious perfections of the LORD.
Notice who is missing from the verse: Samuel.
"My heart exults in the LORD," she sings. Her joy was not so much in the gift (Samuel) as in God the Giver. Hers 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... she rises above the level of nature to the LORD Himself. She speaks only of Him, not once mentioning the child whose birth gave occasion to it all.
She sang at the moment of loss, not of gain.
She had barely held him in her arms before she had to part with him and set him apart for God. Her life was to be more lonely than ever... Yet Hannah is full of a joy which overflows in a song of triumph. This is because God had revealed Himself to her in grace. He had revealed Himself again to His faithful servant. She had received everything from Him, kept back nothing for herself, and returned everything to Him. Having given up her son, she understands better all that God is in Himself.
The horn is an image drawn from Israel's worship, and it points away from the singer.
"My horn is exalted in the LORD," is her second word. Older translations of 1 Chronicles 25:5 say that the sons of Heman were appointed "to lift up the horn." They were... the temple-court musicians. Their task was to lift up the horn, to sound out the praises of the God of Israel. So Hannah declares her horn exalted in the LORD. She does not blow the trumpet to her own praise, as the Pharisees of a later, more favoured day did. She lifts it to celebrate the infinite perfections of Him who alone is worthy.
God hands this strength to the least likely person.
Along with joy, Hannah found strength: "my horn is exalted in the LORD." This power "is made perfect in weakness" (2 Cor. 12:9). She has turned her back on all that is high, on everything of renown in Israel. So God shares this strength with a weak woman, humiliated and despised.
Older translations read "my mouth is enlarged over my enemies." The enemies she has in mind are far larger than Peninnah, her rival at home.
It is Israel's and God's enemies she has in view, not Peninnah. Speaking for all Israel, she looks on in faith to the time when the enemies of her people... would be brought under, as under the rule of David... This rescue of Israel from her enemies was still many days away. But faith sees it as done already, and Hannah rejoices in it beforehand.
The times were dark and judgment was near, yet the song climbs.
You say, how can we sing, with things in such a state and judgment close at hand? It was the same when Hannah sang that song of Shiloh. She was like a lark. You might say to the lark, How can you sing? Do you not see the fog on the ground? This is how I sing, the lark would say — higher and higher, far above the fog, in the blue sky above. So sang Hannah, higher and higher still. As the sun fills the sky of the lark, so the Lord Himself was before her soul.
Her words reach far past her own family.
This is a wonderful outpouring of faith. Its language goes far beyond the circumstances of the moment. The gift of a son to Hannah, we might suppose, hardly called for this. But God always has Christ before His mind. Through Samuel's mother, a humble instrument, His Spirit spoke of Christ as the final resource of Israel and of the earth.
- In the LORD. Twice in one line Hannah puts her joy and her strength in the same place — not in the child, not in herself, but in God the Giver.
- Secret to song. The prayer no one could hear became praise anyone can read. God answered openly what she asked in silence.
- Surrender first. She sings after handing Samuel over. Having kept nothing back, she understands better what God is in Himself.
- Strength in weakness. The lifted horn is a trumpet of praise. God puts that trumpet in the hands of a humiliated woman, not the great of Israel.
- Wider than her rival. Her mouth answers God's enemies, and her song runs past David to Christ — faith singing above the fog.
There is none holy as Jehovah, for there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock like our God.
Hannah has just received the son she asked God for, and her thanksgiving turns at once from the gift to the Giver. In one line she names three things about Him: He is holy, He is alone, He is a rock.
Her song stops speaking of herself almost at once. One writer counts how far it goes:
Having spoken of her joy and triumph, her song proper now begins. She makes no more mention of herself; it is all the Lord, in His character and wonderful ways. She speaks His name nine times in her song of ten verses. She seems wholly lost in Him... When believers praise and thank God, they may be too taken up with their own concerns — their needs 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 taken up with the varied and majestic attributes of God.
Of all she could have named first, she names His holiness. The same commentator notes how little we welcome it:
His holiness is first: "There is none holy like the LORD," she says. 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 middle clause shuts everything else out. One commentator warns how fast we lose sight of it:
How soon we may slip away from this; how soon we get occupied with men! Such was the Person of the Holy One to her, that He exceeded all others. What an exclusion, and what a song!
Hannah does not say there are no other rocks. She says none is like this one:
Then she said, "there is no rock like our God." Look at Deuteronomy 32 and see how often that chapter calls God a Rock. Then think of the other rocks — the rocks of the nations, their idols, their support. Think of the huge contrast between God and them... "Our God" she said. This indicated some sense of relationship in her soul. She thought of God's stability, God's permanence. Nobody could overthrow God. Nothing could overthrow God. He is able in His power to bring into effect what He desires.
Commentators differ on which quality each clause carries. One reads the verse as a short list of God's perfections:
Recognizing that all blessing depends on God, she rightly begins by celebrating His glories. God is holy — "There is none holy like the LORD." God is omnipotent — "there is none besides you." God is eternal — "there is no rock like our God."
Another takes the rock as a picture of something else again:
None is holy as He; no, none can be put beside Him: the rock is a faint image of His faithfulness, who is not simply her — but "our" — God.
One writer holds salvation and holiness together:
Verse 2 celebrates the Lord's holiness. The believer cannot separate these two things. Anyone who has found God as Saviour understands that He is "holy... for there is none besides Him." But we must be holy to belong to Him. This is why He has sanctified us for Himself. From now on, all our conduct should show this.
This shapes how we come to Him:
We cannot go into God's presence and pray for His interests while we hold thoughts of revenge or anger against our fellow believers. We must clear all these things out of our minds and consciences... That subdues us when we go into the presence of God, when we remember that He is holy. There cannot be any levity in His presence, there cannot be anything that speaks of man and his glory in His presence.
- Holy — Hannah names holiness first, the one attribute people are most likely to overlook, and the one in which God has no rival.
- Alone — "none besides you" shuts out everyone and everything else, and hearts slip away from that fast.
- Rock — other nations had rocks, their idols; none matches His stability, and He is not just a rock but our God.
- Ours — because He is holy and He is ours, He has sanctified us for Himself, and all our conduct should show it.
- Absorbed — she stops speaking of herself; she names God nine times in ten verses, and that is worship at its highest.
Do not multiply your words of pride, let not vain-glory come out of your mouth; For Jehovah is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.
Hannah has just called God holy and the one rock. Now she turns from praise to warning: proud talk must stop, because God knows hearts and weighs what people do.
The warning is not abstract. Hannah had lived for years under the scorn of a rival wife. Peninnah had children while Hannah had none, and she used a public act of worship to press the point.
This was the case with Peninnah. With proud contempt and scorn for Hannah's tenderness of conscience, she took this public chance to provoke her. She did it all the more boldly because she could point to her many children as proof of the Lord's blessing, while Hannah's barrenness must be a sure sign of His displeasure. This intensified not only her grief but her isolation. In the middle of a crowd of outward worshippers, and in the presence of Eli, she was alone — but alone with God.
The word "knowledge" here is not information about events. It is an accurate reading of people — and it reaches deeper than what they do.
Being all-knowing, He is unerring in His estimate of men. He does not simply take note of what people do. He weighs their thoughts in the balances of the sanctuary.
reader: He reads the heart and weighs motives, rather than outward acts. "Do not judge by appearances," says our Lord, the appointed Judge of all (John 7:24). And in 1 Corinthians 4:5 His servant Paul reminds us with force of "that day," the day when the thoughts of many hearts come to light. Then He will make motives plain. He will weigh purposes as well as actions.
This is why the second half of the verse answers the boasting in the first half.
What are men in the face of such glory as this? He sharply reproves their great pride and arrogance, for the LORD is a God of knowledge also. He is all-knowing as well as all-powerful. He sees and weighs every activity in the scale of pure righteousness. He understands every motive.
Peninnah's children and the priests' high position looked like proof of God's favour. Hannah's line about weighing takes them off the scales.
The foundation of everything is the known and enjoyed salvation of the Lord. Because of this her heart rejoices in Him — and, like the heavenly hosts, in His holiness. Without His salvation, what use is the natural prosperity of Peninnah, or even the high position of the priests? Not these outward things, but actions will be weighed, for the Lord is a God of knowledge.
The verse also touches how we pray. Right words can come from a heart that does not match them.
There are many passages in the word of God that tell us God is a heart-knowing God. We might come before Him with very correct expressions, but it may not be true of our hearts. God knows the heart, and by Him actions are weighed. The story the Lord told in Luke 18 speaks of two men who went up to the temple to pray. One said, "God, I thank you that I am not like other men." He went on to say he was a very good man. By our standards he was a very good man — though a proud and arrogant one. But the other could not lift his face to heaven. He beat his chest and declared what he truly was in the presence of God. God heard him and answered his prayer, because He is a heart-knowing God.
If God weighs actions, the measuring applies to work done in His name as much as to a rival's boasting.
It should also remind us of the truth the godly woman Hannah stated in her prayer, recorded in 1 Samuel 2: "the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed." We seek to serve the Lord. When He weighs our actions, how will they appear — weighty, or of little worth?
The song says far more than one answered prayer would explain, and commentators point beyond Hannah's own circumstances to account for it.
A wonderful outpouring of faith. Its language goes far beyond the circumstances of the moment. We might suppose the gift of a son to Hannah hardly called for this. But God always has Christ before His mind. Through Samuel's mother, His humble instrument, His Spirit spoke of Him as the ultimate resource of Israel and of the earth.
- Weighed, not counted. God does not just watch what we do. He weighs thoughts, motives and purposes in the balances of the sanctuary.
- Weighed, not guessed. Because He is a God of knowledge, His estimate of a person is never wrong — He is all-knowing as well as all-powerful.
- Weighed, not admired. Outward advantages — children, position, prosperity — are not what goes on the scales.
- Weighed, not worded. Correct expressions in prayer can be untrue of the heart; the man who told God what he really was went home heard.
- Weighed, including ours. The same scales test our service. Will our work prove weighty, or of little worth?
The bow of the mighty is broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength.
Hannah sings after years without children ended in the birth of Samuel. Her song turns that private mercy into a public rule: human strength breaks, and God arms the weak.
The verse moves in two directions at once. One writer draws out what the new strength is for.
The bows of the mighty are broken: their weapons of war are no more; those who stumbled from sheer weakness are, on the other hand, given a strength that girds or braces them up for activity.
Why single out the bow? One writer gathers the places where Scripture shows it failing.
Man may have a bow, but in his hands it fails when he uses it. "The sons of Ephraim, armed bowmen, turned back on the day of battle" (Ps. 78:9), and as for the Lord's enemies, "the bow of the mighty is broken" (1 Sam. 2:4; Ps. 46:9; Jer. 49:35; Hosea 1:5; Hosea 2:18).
These sudden turns look like the ordinary ups and downs of life. Hannah traces them to a person, not to chance — and that cuts against the world's confidence in sheer numbers and force.
Hannah expands on God's sovereignty. Then she lists the sudden changes, the good fortune and the reverses of life. The mighty who seemed unbeatable suffer defeat. Those who stumble in weakness, as if about to fall, rise all at once to strength and victory... Men of the world are self-sufficient. They say with Napoleon that "God is on the side of the heaviest battalions." But no. When it suits His purpose, "the lame take the prey" (Isa. 33:23).
Hannah is not speaking from theory; she had lived it. Yet one writer warns against treating the song as only personal experience.
No doubt this flowed out of her own experience. She knew what it was to be made strong out of weakness. She knew in her own soul what the intervention of divine power was; but the Spirit of God never stops at experience... Anyone who does not know what experience is can hardly be thought to have a real knowledge of God. But the one who stops short of God's object is in danger of being either clouded or self-satisfied.
One writer turns the verse into a warning about self-sufficiency.
In the spiritual realm, felt weakness is power, as the Apostle lets us know in 2 Corinthians 12. As Hannah also said, "the feeble bind on strength" (1 Sam. 2:4). Is it not a strange lesson to have to learn that our self-sufficiency is our undoing? God can use those who are "not anything," that is, nothing (1 Cor. 3:7). God alone counts, whether now or in ages past. When weakness calls Him in, all is well.
Another writer names the people God chooses.
Then she celebrates the sovereign grace of God that picks up, for blessing, the weak, the needy, and the unfruitful. Those who are "feeble," and "hungry," and "barren." God passes by the wise, the mighty, and the noble. He takes up the low and the despised of the world, so that no one can boast in His presence.
The broken bow is not the end point. One writer reads Hannah's whole song as a map of God's ways with Israel, running on to the King.
In the beautiful song of 1 Samuel 2 Hannah recognises this great principle of sovereign grace and of the power of God. He brings down the proud and those who trust in the flesh, and He lifts up the weak and powerless... Israel was poor and fallen, a feeble remnant waiting for Jehovah. They needed to learn that everything hung upon God and God alone. He did not look for power in man. He shows His power in His own dealings by destroying all His enemies, and at last He will "give strength to His king and exalt the horn of His anointed."
- Broken. The bow stands for human force; in man's own hand it fails, and God is the one who snaps it.
- Braced. God does not just prop up the weak. He gives them strength and braces them for action.
- Sovereign. Reversals are not luck or merit. God defeats the unbeatable and lets the lame take the prey.
- Chosen. God passes by the wise and mighty and takes up the weak, the hungry and the barren, so that no one can boast in His presence.
- Crowned. The line runs past Hannah to its end: God refuses strength to man and gives it to His King.
They that were full have hired themselves out for bread; and the hungry are [so] no more Even the barren beareth seven, and she that hath many children is waxed feeble.
Hannah's song widens from her own answered prayer into a pattern: the well-fed work for bread, the hungry eat their fill, the childless woman receives seven children. Who stands behind these reversals, and how far do her words reach beyond one home?
The song lists changes that people explain by luck or hard work. One writer traces them back to God instead.
In the circumstances of people's lives we also see the sovereignty of God: "Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger." This is not always because they are careless or wasteful. Nor do others, once hungry, stop lacking just because they work harder or spend more carefully. These are often only secondary causes. Behind them all is the purpose of the supreme Ruler of the universe, and not one small sparrow falls dead to the ground without Him. It is not "luck," or "fortune," good or bad.
The people named in this verse have nothing to offer: no food, no children. That is exactly the point, and it explains why God bypasses those who do have something.
Then she celebrates the sovereign grace of God that picks up the weak, the needy, and the unfruitful and blesses them — those who have "stumbled," and are "hungry," and "barren." God passes by the wise, the mighty, and the noble. He takes up the lowly and the despised of the world, so that no human being can boast in His presence (4, 5).
The number in Hannah's song does not match her own family. One writer takes that gap as deliberate.
"The barren has borne." Hannah has her own circumstances before her; but the language even here goes out beyond her experience. She did not literally bear seven. But we see how far the Spirit of God can dwell on the one child whose birth awakens all the rest to faith. The "seven" clearly means divine completeness, which we never can have on this side of Christ.
Another writer counts Hannah's own children and points the number forward to Israel's future.
This grace goes so far as to give seven children to the barren woman — the perfect number, which Hannah never reached (v. 21), for she had only six children. The promised blessings will not reach their fullness until the glory that is in store for the restored remnant of Israel.
The pairs in this verse are not random swaps. They run in one direction: down first, then up.
The bows of the mighty will be broken, the full become empty, the fruitful grow weak. Grace, on the other hand, raises the fallen and strengthens them, the hungry are satisfied, the barren made joyful with children. So the way of the Lord is to humble those He will exalt, to bring low those He will lift up. Where man's purpose and pride wither, faith can grow.
Hannah's words describe a principle far larger than her family, and commentators read that principle as running forward through Israel's whole story.
In the beautiful song of 1 Samuel 2 Hannah recognises this great principle of sovereign grace, and of the power of God; that He brings down the proud and those who trust in the flesh, and exalts the weak and helpless... This was what Israel, poor and fallen, and a feeble remnant waiting for Jehovah, needed to learn; that everything hung upon God and God alone, who did not seek for power in man, but shows it in His own dealings.
If God turns situations around, no one has to settle for things as they are.
God reverses situations... instead of being persecuted she was in a place of peace, of blessing; instead of being barren she had a son whom she could give to the Lord... There is no need to accept a situation as it stands, whether personally, or in our homes, or in our meetings. We can do something — we can pray to God to change things.
- Reversal, not chance. The full working for bread and the hungry fed are not accidents of effort or luck. Behind the secondary causes stands the purpose of the Ruler of the universe.
- Reversal downward first. God's way is to humble those He will exalt and bring low those He will lift up — pride withers so that faith can grow.
- Reversal as gift. He passes by the wise, the mighty and the noble. He picks up the weak, the hungry and the barren, so no one can boast before Him.
- Reversal beyond measure. "Seven" is more than Hannah's own six children. The number stands for divine completeness, and its fullness is still ahead.
- Reversal you can ask for. What Hannah sang, she first prayed. Nothing has to stay as it is for the person who takes it to God.
Jehovah killeth, and maketh alive; he bringeth down to Sheol, and bringeth up.
These words come from Hannah's song of thanks, and they reach far past her own case. She credits God with both ends of human life — death and life. Older translations read "the grave" where the ESV says "Sheol," the place of the dead. It raises the question every sufferer asks: who is in control when life goes down as well as up?
The verse puts the start and the end of a life in the same hand. God's claim on us does not stop at the grave.
God's sovereignty reaches to life and death themselves. Our coming into the world is completely under His control. Once born, our life is in His hand, and death also answers to His will. This is the sobering statement of the prophet Daniel before the godless king Belshazzar: "the God in whose hand is your breath." He is "the sovereign Lord of life and death." He kills; death is His black-winged messenger. He is the One who returns "man to dust" and says, "Return, O children of man!" (Ps. 90:3). On "the last day" His voice will reach all who sleep in the grave. He "makes alive," and "brings up" from the grave. Resurrection is the sovereign act of His power.
The two actions are not a matched pair. Anyone can do the first. Only God does the second, as the raising of Lazarus showed.
Death and decay disappeared, and Lazarus, still wrapped in grave-clothes, came out. This great sign, the sixth that John records, showed the glory of God, since the giving of life is His glorious prerogative. Brutish man can kill all too easily: only God can "kill and make alive" (see 1 Sam. 2:6; 2 Kings 5:7).
Paul met the same test when he stood on trial before Festus.
To Festus it was all the fantasy of a disturbed mind, for the gods he worshipped held no power beyond the grave. Weak man can kill and bring someone down to the grave. That is an easy thing. Only of the living God can anyone say, "The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up" (1 Sam. 2:6).
Hannah is not reciting theory. She sings from what God had already done in her own life.
For it is the Lord Himself who is able to kill, and able to make alive. He knows how to bring one down even to the grave. He is just as able to bring up. Hannah had learned something of this resurrection power of God in her own body. She recognizes that only God's work accomplishes anything. Some He makes poor, others He makes rich. He will often bring one down so that He can lift him up later.
If God does both, the way down has a purpose. In the verse, killing comes before making alive.
Moreover, God has His own way of dealing with us to make us conscious of our need. He rolls in death upon the soul to make alive. He brings us near to the grave that we may learn our utter weakness. He strips us of everything we trust in, making us poor to make us rich. He brings us low in our thoughts of self, to lift us up (6, 7).
Hannah's song also looks forward. It pictures Israel's restoration, and the story of each believer at the same time.
Hannah's beautiful song is the soul's thankful acknowledgement of how God acts toward Israel. She sings of the LORD who kills and brings to life, who makes poor and makes rich, who raises the poor from the dust and seats the needy with princes. God will work all this out most fully in Israel in the latter day. He works it out now in everyone whom grace raises from his ruined condition in nature to blessedness and peace in Jesus.
- Down. God brings low first. He rolls in death upon the soul. He strips away what we trust and brings us near the grave, so we learn our own weakness.
- Up. The same hand that brings down raises up. Resurrection is the sovereign act of His power. The way back belongs to Him alone.
- Only God. Any man can kill; that is easy. Making alive is God's glorious prerogative. No idol and no human power can copy it.
- Proved. Hannah sang this because she had lived it. She knew God's resurrection power in her own body first.
- Everyone. What God did for her, He will do fully for Israel in a coming day. He does it now for everyone whom grace lifts out of ruin into peace in Jesus.
Jehovah maketh poor, and maketh rich, he bringeth low, also he lifteth up
Hannah's song rises out of a private sorrow: years without a child. Yet its words sweep far past her own story to the way God governs everything. This line puts wealth and poverty, humbling and honour, in one pair of hands. Why does God empty a life before He fills it?
The two opposites in this verse are not accidents of circumstance. The same truth cuts two ways, depending on where you stand.
Riches and poverty are alike at His disposal: "The LORD makes poor and makes rich; he brings low and he exalts." He gives the one or the other as suits His purpose. Knowing this should keep the rich humble, and make the poor content. Dear fellow believer, let us "be content with what you have," as Scripture urges us. For our God has revealed Himself to us in grace, and He has said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Heb. 13:5).
What Hannah says of people holds for nations too. The same hand moves the rise and fall of powers, and even the thinking of the public.
He rules or overrules the hearts of all men, and the whole realm of human thought and action. He rules public opinion in all its forms, at all times, with all the characters great and small who figure in it. So He orders the rise and fall of nations, the course of their histories and the extent of their territories... "The king's heart is a stream of water in the hand of the LORD; he turns it wherever he will" (Prov. 21:1). "For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up, but it is God who executes judgment, putting down one and lifting up another" (Ps. 75:6-7).
Read with the previous verse, these pairs are not random swings of fortune. Each downward move has a purpose.
God has His own way of dealing with us to make us conscious of our need. He brings death in upon the soul to make it alive. He brings us near the grave so that we may learn our utter weakness. He strips us of everything we trust in, making us poor to make us rich. He brings us low in our thoughts of self, to lift us up.
Being brought low is not a delay before the lifting up. It is the condition of it.
This is God's way of acting. He never honours us while we are thinking that we are something. Deep humbling has often come before great blessing — sometimes humbling even in the eyes of others. We were brought low, and the Lord lifted us up.
Hannah's next line names the two ends of the scale: the dust at one end, a throne at the other. Commentators hear the gospel in it.
How well verse 8 fits the gospel of the grace of God! That grace reaches down to the poorest of the poor. It raises him out of the dust of his broken, sinful state. It lifts the beggar from the rubbish heap of a corrupted life, to set him among princes, in dignity above the level of the world. And greater still, it makes him inherit the throne of glory. This reminds us of the words of the Lord Jesus in Revelation 3:21: "The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne."
One woman's experience gave rise to the song, but it never stopped there. Commentators see it worked out in Israel's future and in each believer now.
Hannah's beautiful song is the soul's thankful acknowledgement of how God has acted towards Israel... All this will be seen in full in Israel in the latter day. It is seen now in everyone whom grace has raised from his ruined condition in nature to blessedness and peace in Jesus.
Some go further. They hold that the song's closing words reach past Samuel to Christ Himself: "nothing but Christ can meet what is here in the mind of the Spirit of God" (William Kelly).
- Sovereign. Riches and poverty are both His to give, handed out as suits His purpose. That truth humbles the rich and steadies the poor.
- Stripped. He makes poor in order to make rich; He empties our trust in ourselves before He fills us.
- Lowered. The order never reverses — He does not honour us while we still think we are something.
- Lifted. From dust and rubbish heap to a place among princes, a lifting that ends in the throne of glory.
- Wide. The same hand rules nations and public opinion, so no one need climb by human favour. The song runs on past Hannah, past Samuel, to Christ Himself.
He raiseth up the poor out of the dust; from the dung-hill he lifteth up the needy, To set [him] among nobles; and he maketh them inherit a throne of glory; For the pillars of the earth are Jehovah's, and he hath set the world upon them.
Hannah had been childless and mocked. Her song describes a God who lifts people off the ground and seats them among princes. The verse raises the obvious question: on what basis does God do this, and who qualifies?
(Note: these writers quote an older translation. Where the ESV has "needy," "ash heap" and "a seat of honor," it reads "beggar," "dunghill" and "throne of glory.")
The song is not a private thank-you note. One writer reads it as a statement of how God always acts, as a lesson for a fallen nation, and as a prophecy that runs on to the kingdom of Christ.
In the beautiful song of 1 Samuel 2, Hannah recognises this great principle of sovereign grace and of the power of God. He brings down the proud and those who trust in the flesh, and He lifts up the weak and powerless. "For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and on them He has set the world." Israel was poor and fallen, a feeble remnant waiting for the LORD. This is what they needed to learn: everything hung upon God and God alone. He did not look for power in man. He shows His power in the way He acts, destroying all His enemies, and He will at last give strength to His king and lift up the power of His anointed. The song is a prophecy of God's ways with Israel. It reaches from the moment Hannah spoke it to the setting up of the thousand-year kingdom in the Person of the Lord Jesus.
The second half of the verse looks like a change of subject. It is not. The same power that holds up the world is the power that holds up the person it has lifted.
Hannah next ascribes to God almighty power: "For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, and on them He has set the world." This is a poetic figure of speech, though none the less forceful for that. Who but the One whose "strength is infinite" could hold this globe up and keep it moving in its circuit, as if it weighed no more than "the small dust of the balance"? Job 26:7 puts it beautifully: "He hangs the earth on nothing." In His wisdom, grace, and power, He is able to keep us without falling: "He will keep the feet of His saints."
God does more here than relieve poverty. Three things move at once — what the person lacks, what the person is, and where the person sits.
Having shown us our nothingness He unfolds to us His fulness — the purpose of His heart. Not only does He meet our need but He changes our condition — the beggar becomes a prince. Further, He gives us a new position suited to the new condition. From "the dust" and "the dunghill" we pass to "the throne of glory." In all these blessed ways He acts as sovereign.
The verse names two kinds of people, and only two. That limit matters.
Notice only this: God gives this honour to the poor and the beggar, and to them alone. The conditions are binding. Grace has no voice for any but the poor and the beggar. She seeks for those who know themselves to be spiritually destitute. She has nothing for the proud.
So "the dust" is a place a person can choose to enter.
And yet none shall reach the throne but those whom grace finds in the dust. To go into the dust is repentance. Repentance is both the requirement for blessing and the step up to it. Happy the soul that is in the dust!
Two men, far apart in Scripture, show both halves of the verse.
Scripture illustrates this all the way from Joseph to Lazarus. God raised the first from slavery to rule over Egypt. The second was a beggar on earth, and he was taken to "Abraham's bosom" in paradise.
The last clause reaches far past anything Hannah could have seen in her own day.
How consistent verse 8 is with the gospel of the grace of God! Grace reaches down to the poorest of the poor. It raises him out of the dust of his broken, sinful state. It lifts the beggar from the dunghill of a corrupted life and sets him among princes, in dignity above the level of the world. Greater still, it makes him inherit the throne of glory. This reminds us of the words of the Lord Jesus in Revelation 3:21: "The one who conquers, I will grant him to sit with me on my throne, as I also conquered and sat down with my Father on his throne."
- Dust first. Grace speaks only to the poor and the beggar. Going down into the dust is repentance, and everything else stands on that step.
- Lifted, not climbing. God brings down the proud and raises the weak, because He looks for no power in man but shows His own.
- Condition changed. He does more than relieve need. The beggar becomes a prince, and God gives him a place that matches his new condition.
- Held there. The One who owns the pillars of the earth and hangs the globe on nothing also keeps the feet of His saints. Those He lifts cannot fall back.
- Throne at the end. From dust, to a seat with princes, to an inherited throne of glory — the song runs on to the kingdom of the Lord Jesus, who promises His throne to the one who conquers.
He keepeth the feet of his saints, but the wicked are silenced in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail.
Hannah's song rises out of a dark time, when Israel had fallen and even the faithful were poor and weak. Verse 9 sets two futures side by side: God guards the feet of His own, while the wicked end in darkness — and human strength decides neither.
Hannah's song is prophecy, and prophecy has its own occasion. It comes when God's people have broken down. It points past the ruin to the Deliverer God will raise up.
Prophecy is God's special intervention, and it applied to His people when they had failed. So when Shiloh was overthrown and the ark taken, God raised up Samuel… The prophets showed the people their sins, and they kept pointing to the Messiah, the great Deliverer. So it is in Hannah's song (1 Sam. 2:9-10). There Jehovah's sovereign rule over the world and the lifting up of the Messiah are fully shown.
The sentence has a subject, and it is not the saint. Where the ESV says "his faithful ones," older translations read "his saints." For anyone afraid of falling away, everything turns on a single pronoun.
There is one anxious question some of my readers might like to ask Hannah. Is it this: "Could my feet slip so far, could I fail so badly, that I am lost after all? Instead of the throne of glory, with my Lord and like Him, could I sink at last to the lowest hell?" What does the inspired Hannah say? Listen: "He will keep the feet of His saints." Not "I," but "He," "will keep the feet of His saints."
This keeping has a goal. Believers cannot hold their ground on their own, so God's power carries them to what He has promised.
The people of God have a glorious inheritance ahead of them, and God's power keeps them for it. "He will keep the feet of His saints." In their own power they cannot stand against "the wicked" and "the adversaries of the Lord," for "by strength shall no man prevail." In the Lord's safe keeping they need not fear, for He will silence the wicked and break His adversaries in pieces (1 Peter 1:3-5).
Feet get dirty on a journey. So the keeping is a daily work, and the Lord does it with His Word.
Every day the Lord Himself applies the Word to heart and conscience. He keeps the feet of His saints. He cleanses them with the washing of water by the Word, from the dirt they pick up as they pass through this polluted scene.
A promise of keeping can be misread as permission to drift. The eye that guards also watches.
Child of God, weak, failing, and needing much mercy, rejoice in what our Saviour has said: "They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand" (John 10:28). And may the certainty of this make you not more careless in your walk, but more careful not to grieve such love. For if He keeps the feet of His saints, His eye is upon them. He sees every misstep they make, and notices when they wander into forbidden paths.
The second half of the verse answers the complaint that evil goes unanswered. Delay is not indifference.
The judgment of the sinner is sure, though God bears long with him in his rebellion and unbelief. "Where is the God of justice?" men ask today, as they unbelievingly asked long ago (Mal. 2:17). We answer, He is bearing long with man's refusal to repent. But His Word declares He "will by no means clear the guilty"… Small man would block the carrying out of His judgments. Yet though people join hands to resist God's purposes… "by strength shall no man prevail."
Commentators differ on how far this clause reaches. One warns against using it as a picture of souls already in torment:
It is a mistake to apply Ps. 31:17, 1 Sam. 2:9, Ps. 63:11, Matt. 22:13, to souls in torment.
If no one wins by strength, who does God give strength to? Hannah's answer is a Person.
The great principle in Hannah's song is the sovereign grace and power of God. He brings down the proud man who trusts in himself, and He lifts up the weak and powerless… Israel was miserable and fallen, and the faithful remnant was poor and weak. They needed to learn that everything depended on Him alone. He alone could keep the feet of His saints, silence the wicked, and bring all man's strength to nothing. He alone could break all His adversaries and, last of all, give strength to His King and raise up the horn of His Anointed… He does not give strength to His people, but to His Anointed.
- Setting — Hannah sings into failure: Shiloh overthrown, the ark taken. Prophecy still points past the wreck to the coming Deliverer.
- Keeper — the promise turns on one word: not I will keep my feet, but He will.
- Method — He keeps them day by day, applying His Word to heart and conscience to wash off the dirt of the road.
- Effect — this safety makes a believer more careful, not more casual; the eye that guards also sees every misstep.
- Verdict — human strength decides nothing; God gives His strength to His Anointed King, and the wicked end in silence.
They that strive with Jehovah shall be broken to pieces; in the heavens will he thunder upon them. Jehovah will judge the ends of the earth; and he will give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.
Hannah's song ends far beyond her own story. She had prayed for a child, and God gave her one. Yet her closing words reach to the ends of the earth, to a King and an Anointed One. Israel had no king when she sang. So who is this King, and when does He receive His strength?
The timing of that closing line is what makes it remarkable.
Verse 10 could only be said through divine inspiration. At that time there was no king in Israel. There was no suggestion of a king. Yet here was Hannah speaking about a king, speaking about the Lord's anointed. It was fulfilled in part in David, the son of Jesse. It will be fulfilled fully in Jesus, the Son of God — God's king, God's anointed — when every adversary will be overthrown and destroyed.
Notice who says it first.
It is remarkable that both the expressions "The Lord of hosts" and "the Anointed" (Christ's title), often found further on in Scripture, are used first by Hannah, the once barren and sorrowful woman. Such are God's ways. He uses the things that are weak, and the things that are despised, to proclaim His praise, that no flesh may glory in His presence.
Both key words in the closing line carry a settled meaning across Scripture.
The horn speaks of exaltation and power. Zacharias, anticipating the birth of Christ, speaks of Him as "a horn of salvation" (Luke 1:69; see also Ps. 18:2; Ps. 75:10; Ps. 148:14). The anointed is the title of one appointed to rule. Christ, in His day, was anointed by the Holy Spirit, and the oil is a picture of the Spirit. In the day of His exaltation He will see the righteous judgment upon all His enemies.
Hannah's song opened with her own horn lifted up.
Verse 10 predicts, as we have seen, the coming of Messiah, the true King. God will exalt the horn of His Anointed. Direct association with Him is the power granted to Hannah in verse 1: "My horn is exalted in the LORD."
Hannah's son was never destined for a throne. The words are also too large for any ordinary king.
It is clear to the spiritual mind that the Spirit of God is going a long way beyond the child of Hannah here. Samuel was to be among priests; he was not destined for the throne. But had he been, there is a strength and height of purpose here which goes far beyond an ordinary king. In fact nothing but Christ can meet what is here in the mind of the Spirit of God… "The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; against them He will thunder in heaven." This looks onward to a greater day, even to the day of the LORD Himself.
The verse does not say God will strengthen Israel.
Israel, miserable and fallen, and a faithful remnant that was poor and weak, needed to learn that everything depended on Him alone. He alone could keep the feet of His saints, silence the wicked, bring all man's strength to nothing, break all His adversaries and, last of all, give strength to His King and raise up the horn of His Anointed… He does not give strength to His people, but to His Anointed. He raises up the King on whom everything depends, the pivot of all things, the only means of sustaining a relationship between Himself and His people.
The verse moves through events in a set order.
In verse 10 the next thing is the time of tribulation, when the adversaries of the LORD are broken to pieces. Then the judgment of the living: "The LORD will judge the ends of the earth." After this, the reign of Christ on earth.
So which king is meant?
This is the grand finale of Hannah's song… This is not Saul, nor even David, but He whom David in Spirit called "LORD." This "King" to whom the LORD gives "strength" is He who "was crucified in weakness." Now, all power on earth and in heaven is in His hand. In the coming day of His kingdom and power, the horn of His royalty will be exalted above the kings of the earth.
- Weakness speaks first. A barren, despised woman is the first in Scripture to name "the Anointed." God chooses weak vessels so no one can boast.
- Weakness is where the King begins. The King who receives this strength was crucified in weakness. His exaltation follows His lowliness.
- Strength is given, not held. God does not strengthen the people. He strengthens His Anointed, and everything for the people depends on Him.
- Strength reaches the ends of the earth. Adversaries broken, thunder from heaven, judgment of the whole earth, then the reign — the verse moves in that order.
- Strength was promised before there was a throne. Israel had no king when Hannah sang, so only Christ can fill the words. Commentators differ over how much David fulfils them.