1. "If, in response to a workplace feud, Schultz compromised years worth of intelligence operations, what did he in fact do? You could say he took a relatively minor personal problem and multiplied it exponentially into a vast and global problem. He took his own problem and made another problem for himself, for his colleagues, for his nation."

2. "Our hopelessness and helplessness are not obstacles to God's work. Our inability, our nothingness, our emptiness—those are all props that God so often picks up and uses to showcase his grace and power in his next act."

3. "If God is the one who closed her womb, why would Hannah bother praying? Because the same God who closed it can open it. And because God is not only sovereign but also good, that God sovereignly ordains the causes of sorrow in your life should not make you run from him in unbelief but run to him in prayer."

4. "When your soul has pressure built up in it from pain or grief or anxiety, don't keep it bottled up. If you do, you run the risk of an elementary school science experiment gone wrong, that you'll simply explode. What you should do instead is pop the lid off in prayer."

5. "Hannah's prayer changed her before it changed her circumstances. As we'll see in time, Hannah's prayer is going to change much more. But first it changes her."

6. "In prayer, you look up and you see what you wouldn't have otherwise. In prayer, you look up to God. You look up to his throne. You look up to his grace, to his love, to his sovereign care and provision and protection for you. And you see it anew. You wouldn't see it in the same way if you didn't pray it."

7. "Praying through affliction changes you before it changes your circumstances, and it changes you regardless of whether it changes your circumstances."

8. "We should receive all of God's gifts with hands that remain open. God doesn't require us to give every gift back to him in such a direct act of renunciation like Hannah does. But God does require us to use all the gifts he's given us to glorify him and bless others."

9. "Because God sees all, God evaluates all, and it is his verdict on you that will matter finally."

10. "Jesus was tempted and tried, he was tested, he was abandoned, he was deserted, he was forsaken, and then he endured the wrath of God for us on the cross. He paid the price to redeem all of us from being God's enemies. He suffered the punishment we all deserve for making ourselves God's adversaries."

Observation Questions

1. According to 1 Samuel 1:2-5, what was the family situation of Elkanah, and how did he treat his two wives differently?

2. In 1 Samuel 1:6-7, how did Peninnah treat Hannah, and what effect did this have on Hannah emotionally and physically?

3. What specific request did Hannah make to God in her prayer, and what vow did she attach to that request according to 1 Samuel 1:11?

4. In 1 Samuel 1:12-16, how did Eli initially misinterpret Hannah's behavior, and how did Hannah describe what she was actually doing?

5. According to 1 Samuel 1:19-20, how does the text describe God's response to Hannah's prayer, and what did Hannah name her son and why?

6. In Hannah's song of praise (1 Samuel 2:6-8), what contrasting actions does she attribute to the Lord regarding life, death, poverty, and exaltation?

Interpretation Questions

1. The text states twice that "the Lord had closed her womb" (1 Samuel 1:5-6). Why is it significant that the narrator attributes Hannah's barrenness directly to God rather than to natural causes, and what does this reveal about God's sovereignty?

2. How does Hannah's personal situation of barrenness and suffering serve as a picture of Israel's larger condition during the time of the judges, and why might the author have chosen to open this grand narrative with one woman's grief?

3. What does Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 1:9-18 reveal about the proper way to respond to affliction, particularly in the contrast between keeping sorrow "bottled up" versus "pouring out your soul" to God?

4. Hannah's song in 1 Samuel 2:1-10 seems disproportionately grand for the birth of one child—she speaks of enemies defeated, the mighty broken, and a coming king. How does this indicate that Hannah is speaking prophetically about something larger than her personal deliverance?

5. The final verse of Hannah's song (1 Samuel 2:10) mentions that God "will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed." Since Israel had no king at this time, what is the significance of this reference, and how does it point forward in redemptive history?

Application Questions

1. Hannah experienced deep grief that affected her ability to eat and left her weeping regularly. When you face prolonged sorrow or disappointment, what do you typically do to "relieve the pressure"—and how might you more intentionally bring that burden to God in prayer this week?

2. The sermon emphasized using the Psalms as templates for pouring out your soul. Which specific problems or anxieties in your life right now could you name before God and turn into petitions, perhaps using a psalm like Psalm 13 or Psalm 62 as a guide?

3. Hannah's prayer changed her heart before it changed her circumstances—she "went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad" (1 Samuel 1:18). How have you experienced prayer changing your perspective or emotional state even when your situation remained the same? What would it look like to trust God for that kind of change this week?

4. Hannah received Samuel as a precious gift from God and then gave him back to the Lord's service. What gifts has God given you (time, abilities, relationships, resources) that you may be holding too tightly? What would it look like to hold those gifts with "open hands" and use them to glorify God and bless others?

5. Hannah's song celebrates a God who "raises up the poor from the dust" and "lifts the needy from the ash heap" (1 Samuel 2:8). How should this truth about God's character shape the way you view your own weaknesses and limitations, and how might it change how you treat or encourage others who feel insignificant or overlooked?

Additional Bible Reading

1. Judges 2:10-23 — This passage describes the spiritual and moral condition of Israel during the time of the judges, providing essential background for understanding why Hannah's story represents Israel's larger need for deliverance.

2. Luke 1:46-55 — Mary's Magnificat directly echoes and fulfills Hannah's song, demonstrating how God's saving work through Christ is the ultimate answer to the themes of humbling the proud and exalting the humble.

3. Psalm 113:1-9 — This psalm celebrates the same theme as Hannah's song—God lifting the poor and needy and giving the barren woman a home—showing how these truths became central to Israel's worship.

4. Exodus 2:23-25 — This passage uses the same language of God "remembering" His people that appears in Hannah's story, connecting her deliverance to the pattern of God's saving work in the Exodus.

5. 2 Samuel 22:1-51 — David's song of praise at the end of 2 Samuel serves as a bookend to Hannah's song, sharing the same themes and showing how God fulfilled His purposes through His anointed king.

Sermon Main Topics

I. Introduction: Problems and What We Do With Them

II. Problems: Hannah's Affliction Represents Israel's Condition (1 Samuel 1:1-8)

III. Petition: The Prayer of the Afflicted Turns Problems Into Petitions (1 Samuel 1:9-18)

IV. Pledge: Hannah Fulfills Her Vow by Giving Samuel to the Lord (1 Samuel 1:19-28)

V. Praise: Hannah's Song Celebrates God's Character and Saving Work (1 Samuel 2:1-10)

VI. Conclusion: Your Biggest Problem Is No Problem for God

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Detailed Sermon Outline

We've all got problems.

Some of us have bigger problems than others. On Tuesday in New York, the second trial of former CIA software engineer Josh Shulte began. Shulte is accused of espionage charges, specifically of leaking more than a terabyte of highly sensitive data to the website Wikileaks. According to Assistant U.S. Attorney David Denton, the leak that Shulte Shultz is charged with perpetrating brought critical intelligence gathering around the world to a crashing halt. That's because this data revealed how the CIA hacked smartphones in overseas spying operations.

Shultz certainly had the opportunity to leak such data since he previously worked for the CIA developing cutting-edge hacking techniques. But what about motive? Shultz had had a bitter, extended feud with a co-worker and his managers, which resulted in him being removed from the team he was previously involved with. Shultz maintains his innocence. But imagine for a moment that he is guilty.

If, in response to a workplace feud, Scholtz compromised years worth of intelligence operations. What did he in fact do? You could say he took a relatively minor personal problem and multiplied it exponentially into a vast and global problem. He took his own problem and made another problem for himself, for his colleagues, for his nation.

If he did indeed commit this crime, he has endangered the lives of agents and assets around the world. Having a problem is one thing.

What you do with that problem is another thing. What problems do you have?

What do you do with your problems?

And what do your problems do to you? This morning we begin a new series through the book of 1 Samuel, beginning with the section that runs from chapter 1 verse 1 to chapter 2 verse 10. It starts on page 225 of the Pew Bibles. The books we call 1 and 2 Samuel are actually one literary work, really one book in two halves. And in the next several sermons that I'll be doing, we're going to study just the first half, just 1 Samuel.

At a high level, you could outline 1 Samuel through its focus on three main characters in their careers. So first, you have the judge and prophet Samuel in chapters 1 through 7. Then you have Israel's first king, Saul, in chapters 8 to 15. And then you have Saul's more godly, faith-filled successor, David. Who's the focus of chapters 16 through 31 and then on through 2 Samuel.

Speaking of problems, as 1 Samuel opens, God's people have problems. This is a historical narrative that begins at the time of the judges. In those days, Israel was a mess. They were a mess religiously, morally, and politically. Idolatry and injustice were widespread and in terms of their political and physical situation, they were harassed and oppressed by the Philistines who were their stronger neighbor to the north.

Judges 13:1 tells us that the Philistines oppressed Israel for 40 years and 1 Samuel begins in the midst of that period. As the curtain rises on 1 Samuel, we're going to meet one family and learn all about their problems, problems that in some way represent those of the whole people. We're going to see not just how these individuals responded to their problems but far more importantly, how God did. Having a problem is one thing; what you do with your problem is another. What God does about it is something else altogether.

To give you the big idea up front, here's my thesis for the sermon based on this whole passage, 1:1-2:10. God acts in power at the prompting of the prayer of the afflicted. I'll say that again, God acts in power at the prompting of the prayer of the afflicted. In other words, praying through affliction is not only the right response to your problems. It's also the means that God himself ordains to prompt his powerful delivering work for his people.

As we study the whole passage, we'll see four elements of the prayer of the afflicted. Four elements of the prayer of the afflicted. First, problems. We learn of a woman named Hannah's problems and, by implication, Israel's problems in verses 1 to 8 of chapter 1. Look with me first at verses 1 and 2.

1 Samuel chapter 1 verses 1 and 2. There was a certain man of Ramathaim-zophim of the hill country of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah, the son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an EphraThite. He had two wives. The name of the one was Hannah, and the name of the other, Peninnah. And Peninnah had children, but Hannah had no children.

From this opening, you might think that Elkanah is going to be the main character in this chapter, but he's not. That'll be his wife, Hannah. But what immediately jumps out at us is that Hannah's not his only wife. Does reporting equal endorsement? For those of you who are journalists, I hope not.

Does the fact that the text does not explicitly condemn polygamy mean that the text supports polygamy? Not at all. Instead, this narrative, like so many others in the Bible, shows us the fruit of this deviation from God's creational norm. And its fruit is bitter, especially for Hannah, who, unlike her rival, is childless. The stage setting continues in verses three to eight.

Now this man used to go up year by year from his city to worship and to sacrifice to the Lord of hosts at Shiloh, where the two sons of Eli, Aholiab and Phinehas were priests of the Lord. On the day when Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah, his wife, and to all her sons and daughters. But to Hannah, he gave a double portion, because he loved her, though the Lord had closed her womb. And her rival used to provoke her grievously, to irritate her, because the Lord had closed her womb. So it went on year by year.

As often as she went up to the house of the Lord, she used to provoke her. Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. And Elkanah her husband said to her, Hannah, why do you weep? And why do you not eat? And why is your heart sad?

Am I not more to you than ten sons? Let's walk through these verses by considering the characters they introduce in order. So first we have Elkanah. We learned that each year he would travel from his home in the hill country of Ephraim to Shiloh, where at that time, the tabernacle of the Lord and the ark of the covenant were located. You'll notice the text later describes the sanctuary in Shiloh as a temple.

But then you think, wait a minute, the temple wasn't built yet. The text probably calls it a temple because it had been there long enough that there was some type of semi-permanent structure kind of set up there. Elkanah could have been going to Shiloh for one of the yearly feasts, like Tabernacles in the fall, or it simply could have been a voluntary pilgrimage. Either way, the basic portrait of Elkanah is that he knows and fears the Lord. And verse 5 shows us that he had a tender love for Hannah.

He recognized her loss and lack. He tried to be generous and caring. We also see that in his gentle series of questions in verse 8. Sometimes people see that last question in verse 8 as a typically male, insensitive, boneheaded attempt to comfort his grieving why do you need children when you have me?

But I think that's a misreading of Elkanah. I think we're meant to see this as a genuine, sincere effort at comfort and encouragement. Next we have Eli and his sons. Eli, we learn, is the priest, which means he's the closest thing Israel has at this time to an overall leader. And Eli has two sons, Hophni and Phinehas.

This chapter doesn't tell us directly, but later in chapter In chapter two, in the next portion we'll cover, we will learn that Eli's sons are viciously corrupt and Eli is passive and spineless. All we know about Peninnah is that she has children and that she provokes Hannah grievously. She mocks her, she taunts her, she purposely upsets her. She rubs her good fortune in Hannah's face. Which brings us back to Hannah.

Where did all this leave her? The summary's in verse 7: Therefore Hannah wept and would not eat. So on top of the injury of childlessness were Peninnah's heaping insults, and Hannah was so sick with grief that she couldn't eat. Have you ever been there? Can you resonate with how low Hannah was?

How empty she felt. There's one more named character in these opening verses that we shouldn't neglect. He's mentioned five times in this section alone. Who? The Lord.

What has he done so far in the narrative? Only one thing. And verses 5 and 6 tell us twice, the Lord had closed her womb. Now, the text simply reports this fact. It doesn't say that Hannah had done something wrong and this was a punishment.

It doesn't say God was out to get Hannah or teach her a lesson. It just tells us who was the ultimate cause of her barrenness. God is the one who gives life and who withholds life and who takes life. It's not the narrator but God who is the ultimate author of this story. And we can't yet see what he's doing.

All we know at this point is what he's not done. He hasn't given Hannah any children and understandably, she's upset about it. That would be not just for personal reasons, understandably desiring children but in ancient Israel, a son would be how the family inheritance was passed on, how the family name was perpetuated, a son is the whole future, basically, of the whole family. So she's feeling a sort of loss and lack in her kind of calling in the midst of her family. It's far more than even just a personal desire.

So this is a grand historical biblical narrative. It's going to be a sweeping story about the making and unmaking of kings. So why does it open by zooming in on one barren woman? I think there are at least two reasons for that. First, in some ways, the micro story embodies the macro story.

Here's what I mean. Hannah's suffering and the division and chaos in Elkanah's family picture in miniature what's going on at large in Israel. Sure, Israel's dwelling in the Promised Land, but they're just a loose collection of tribes with only a tenuous hold on their territory. And they're being continually harassed by the Philistines. If God has kept his promises to give his people his land, well then why is there division.

Why is there barrenness? All is not well with Israel because, as we'll learn, all is not well in Israel's hearts and all is certainly not well in the character of their leaders. Hannah's barrenness is in no way her fault. But by contrast, this story is going to lay blame at the feet of the leaders for why the people as a whole are not experiencing God's covenant blessings. So this microcosm of Israel's larger story highlights human inability.

Humanly speaking, this story begins with nothing. No child and no power to get one. But that's just where God's work so often starts. Our hopelessness and helplessness are not obstacles to God's work. Our inability, our nothingness, our emptiness, those are all props that God so often picks up and uses to showcase his grace and power in his next act.

But there's a second reason why this grand narrative opens by focusing on one weeping woman. Why is that? Because that's the kind of God God is.

He numbers the hairs on our heads. More than that, as David confesses in Psalm 56:8, you have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your book? In this opening chapter of 1 Samuel, God puts Hannah's tears in his bottle. And he writes them in his book.

Do you think that God doesn't love you? Do you think that God is afflicting you to punish you?

As we'll see, that's not Hannah's God, the God who bottles his people's tears. And writes them in his book. If that's the kind of God who created you and who redeemed you, then what should you do with your problems? Point two, petition. Petition.

The prayer of the afflicted turns problems into petitions. We see Hannah do this in verses 9 to 18. Look first at verses 9 through 11.

After they had eaten and drunk in Shiloh, Hannah rose. Now Eli the priest was sitting on the seat beside the doorpost of the temple of the Lord. She was deeply distressed and prayed to the Lord and wept bitterly. And she vowed a vow and said, 'O Lord of hosts, if you will indeed look on the affliction of your servant and remember me and not forget your servant, but will give to your servant a son, then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life, and no razor shall touch his head.

Everything we just saw in verses 1 to 8 is background information. There's no fresh action yet until verse 9. How does the action begin? Hannah rose. What did she rise to do?

Praying. So, the rock that's going to set the whole avalanche of this story in motion is one deeply distressed woman getting up and going to the temple to pour out her heart to the Lord. Now, Eli is sitting there within earshot of Hannah's prayer but she doesn't say anything to him, only to the Lord. Out of her distress and bitterness, she asks God for what she dearly desires: a child, specifically a son. Notice how intense and raw Hannah's prayer is.

But even in her rawness, Hannah remembers who God is and who she is. She names God, Lord of hosts, meaning he's the one who has created and who rules over every power in heaven and on earth. So if God is the one who closed her womb, why would Hannah bother praying?

Because, the same God who closed it can open it. And because God is not only sovereign but also good, that God sovereignly ordains the causes of sorrow in your life should not make you run from him in unbelief but run to him in prayer.

Hannah also humbles herself by calling herself God's servant. Not only that, she offers back to God what she's asking for. Asking for before she even gets it. She says, Then I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life and no razor shall touch his head. Now that last phrase is a reference to the vow that Nazarites took, which we learn about in Numbers chapter 6.

Nazarites were specially devoted to the Lord, dedicated to the Lord. They were separated from all sources of uncleanness. They were given over to God's service. Typically, the Nazarite vow was temporary. It would come to an end at some defined time.

But Hannah promises that this vow will last for her son's whole life. There are only three permanent Nazirites in the whole Bible: Samson, Samuel, and John the Baptist. As we're going to see, Samuel will prepare the way for David and turn the hearts of the people back to the Lord in preparation In doing so, he is a preview and a forerunner of John the Baptist who prepared the way for the incarnate Lord himself and turned the hearts of the people back to the covenant Lord. We're going to hear more about that in our evening devotional tonight on Luke 1:16. So after asking for a son and dedicating her son to the Lord in advance, Hannah continues, praying.

Verses 12 to 18, as she continued praying before the Lord, Eli observed her mouth. Hannah was speaking in her heart. Only her lips moved and her voice was not heard. Therefore, Eli took her to be a drunken woman. And Eli said to her, how long will you go on being drunk?

Put your wine away from you. But Hannah answered, no, my Lord. I am a woman troubled in spirit. I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but I have been pouring out my soul before the Lord. Do not regard your servant as a worthless woman, for all along I have been speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation.

Then Eli answered, Go in peace, and the God of Israel grant your petition that you have made to him. And she said, Let your servant find favor in your eyes. Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad.

The priest Eli is not showing a whole lot of spiritual discernment here. He doesn't recognize gutsy godliness when he sees it. Hannah, the humble petitioner, is far more in touch with God than Eli the religious professional. Position doesn't guarantee godliness. And so because of his spiritual blindness, Eli rebukes Hannah when he should be blessing her.

Have you ever rebuked someone and then later learned that you had the facts wrong? Eli thinks Hannah is drunk but she hasn't been pouring drinks; instead, she's pouring out her soul. What does that metaphor mean, pouring out your soul? She's taking what's bottled up inside and relieving the pressure by spilling it out to the Lord. God can take it, God can handle it.

When your soul has pressure built up in it from pain or grief or anxiety, don't keep it bottled up. If you do, you run the risk of an elementary school science experiment gone wrong, that you'll simply explode. What you should do instead is pop the lid off in prayer. Relieve spiritual pressure by pouring out your soul to God. The psalmists repeatedly exhort us to do this.

For instance, Psalm 62 verse 8, Trust in him at all times, O people, pour out your heart before him. God is a refuge for us. So often when your life is just stuffed with problems and it's causing all sorts of pain and tension and turmoil inside, it is easy to overlook the obvious and immediate and sure to help at least partial solution to what's ailing you, which is prayer. And specifically, pouring out your soul, unburdening yourself to God, asking him yes, to change, to intervene in what's ailing you, hurting you, but also simply making your heart visible to the Lord, speaking it out to him. Not that he doesn't know what's going on, but that you don't.

And that by saying it to him, you will experience his grace in that moment. How, how can you do this? How can you pour out your soul? I've got three specific encouragements for you.

First, use use Psalms as a template. Use them as a pattern for your own prayers. Some especially good models for pouring out your soul in prayer would include Psalms 42 and 43 together, Psalm 57 and Psalm 62. Work through those Psalms verse by verse in prayer. Read a verse, pray based on it a little bit, when you run out of stuff to pray, read the next verse and do it again.

You can fill in the specifics of your situation and layer them over how the psalmists are talking to God about their trials. Second, name your problems and turn them into petitions. That's exactly what Hannah does. Bring your burdens to God and ask Him to turn them into blessings. Name what is weighing your heart down and ask God to turn your weight of grief into a weight of glory.

If one of your problems is actually how you're feeling toward God, then don't let that keep you away from him. Tell that to him. God can handle your anger at him. There's plenty of it in inspired Scripture. For instance, Psalm 13:1.

If you didn't have a verse like this in the Bible, you would not dare to pray like this, but here we go under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. How long, O Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

What problems do you need to turn into petitions? That would be a good question to discuss at lunch today or with a friend later in the week. So first, use Psalms as a template. Second, name your problems and turn them into petitions. Third, Pivot to praise and thanks.

Pivot to praise and thanks. As we'll see in the rest of our passage, Hannah's whole experience maps very neatly onto the typical structure of a Psalm of lament, like Psalm 5 or Psalm 13. We learn about her problems, she pours them out to the Lord and turns them into petitions, and eventually she praises God. For who he is and what he's done. When you pour out your soul to God, the more you remember who it is you're talking to, the more you will be drawn irresistibly to praise him and thank him.

If you're not a believer in Jesus, we're very glad you're here. I'd be delighted to talk to you afterward, answer any questions you have, hear about your experience of the service. I'll be at that door afterward. But for now, I've got a question for you. We've seen in this passage that when Hannah's soul was just full of sadness, bitterness, anxiety, when she had all kinds of bottled up sorrow, she relieved that pressure in prayer.

So here's my question, when your soul is bitter, how do you relieve the pressure? When you're overwhelmed with sorrow, with grief, with anxiety, that's dangerous territory. You are perched up on a narrow path above a steep slope. It's out of that experience of overwhelming sorrow and grief that a lot of people start a lot of destructive habits and addictions. How do you relieve the pressure?

So Hannah relieved the pressure. By pouring out her soul in prayer. Eli overheard, Eli mistook her for a drunk, and Hannah humbly corrected him. Then, when Eli finally got the picture, he blessed her and reassured her that God would answer her prayer. That brings us to verse 18.

Look at that verse again with me.

Then the woman went her way and ate, and her face was no longer sad. Hannah's prayer changed her before it changed her circumstances. As we'll see in time, Hannah's prayer is going to change much more. But first it changes her. This past Tuesday when our pastoral staff was in Anaheim, California for the Southern Baptist Convention, I was standing outside the Hilton by the convention center before our 9:00 a.m. Marks at Nine event began.

I called up Kristen to catch up and then I saw two two mid-sized birds of prey fly right over my head. So I kind of turned around, saw where they went, had to look way up all the way to the top of the tower and I saw these two birds up there. One was perched on top of the H in Hilton and the other was like right up on the corner of the whole tower. Can anybody tell me what those birds were?

Nobody? Peregrine Falcons, who was that, Jessica? Well done. Yeah, Peregrine Falcons love to perch on towers because it's like a cliff top, that's how they hunt. Anyways, I'm on the phone with Kristen, hey, wow, cool, Peregrine Falcons.

Some of our staff start walking by and I kind of pointed out, you know, to Jamie, to Joseph, they were maybe not as interested in the birds as I was. So I kind of stay on the phone, I'm looking up at the birds, I kind of walk farther away so I don't have to crane my neck as much. And of course, everybody else who just walked by into the hotel, nobody saw him. Nobody looked up. Because no one looked up, no one saw the peregrines.

In prayer, you look up and you see what you wouldn't have otherwise. In prayer, you look up to God. You look up to his throne. You look up to his grace, to his love, to his sovereign care and provision and protection for you. And you see it anew.

You wouldn't see it in the same way if you didn't pray it.

And what you see changes you before it changes anything else. Praying through affliction changes you before it changes your circumstances, and it changes you regardless of whether it changes your circumstances. Point three, pledge, pledge. In her petition, Hannah promises that if God gives her a son, she'll give him back to God. So we see this in verses 19 to 28.

Not only does God fulfill Hannah's petition, but Hannah fulfills her pledge. And Hannah's pledge is not the only one in the passage. Look first at verses 19 and 20.

They rose early in the morning and worshiped before the Lord. Then they went back to their house at Ramah. And Elkanah knew Hannah his wife, and the Lord remembered her. And in due time Hannah conceived and bore a son, and she called his name Samuel, For she said, I have asked for him from the Lord. In verse 19, the Lord remembered her.

Where have we heard that language before? It's in the Exodus. Exodus chapter 2 verse 24, and God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. When God remembers his people, it does not mean that he had previously forgotten us. Instead, it means his promised future is breaking into the present.

It means that what's past is now prologue to the decisive saving work of God. So God answers Hannah's request, he gives her a son, Hannah calls his name Samuel, which is a word play on the Hebrew word for asked. Next we learn what Hannah does with her new son in verses 21 through 28. The man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow. But Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, 'As soon as the child is weaned, I will bring him, so that he may appear in the presence of the Lord and dwell there forever.' Elkanah, her husband, said to her, 'Do what seems best to you, wait until you have weaned him.

Only may the Lord establish his word.' so the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him. And when she had weaned him, she took him up with her, along with a three-year-old bull, an ephah of flour, and a skin of wine. And she brought him to the house of the Lord at Shiloh. And the child was young. Then they slaughtered the bull, and they brought the child to Eli.

And she said, 'O my Lord, as you live, my Lord, I am the woman who was standing here in your presence, praying to the Lord. For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him. Therefore, I have lent him to the Lord. As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord, and he worshiped the Lord there.

When Hannah eventually brings Samuel to God's sanctuary, she will be giving him up for good. So she's not in a hurry. To get there. But eventually, the child grows up a few years and he's weaned. She and Elkanah bring him to the sanctuary in Shiloh along with generous provisions for an offering to the Lord.

And when they get to the sanctuary, they not only offer a bull on the altar but their son to the living service of the Lord. Hannah confirms with Eli that this is the child God granted her in response to her prayer and then she gives us another witty wordplay that's hard to bring over into English. In Hebrew, the same word means ask and and lend. That makes sense since those are two sides of the same coin. You ask someone for something, they lend it to you.

Kind of like Aloha can be hello and goodbye in Hawaii. Anyways, the Lord lent her the child in response to her asking, and now she's lending him to the Lord. Except the loan is permanent. God fulfilled her petition, now she fulfills her pledge. God gave her this precious gift, Now she gives him back to God.

We should receive all of God's gifts with hands that remain open.

God doesn't require us to give every gift back to him in such a direct act of renunciation like Hannah does. But God does require us to use all the gifts he's given us to glorify him and bless others. As we saw two weeks ago in the end of Philippians, God gives to us in order that we would become the means of generously circulating his goodness to others. But Hannah isn't the only one making a pledge in these verses. Hannah's pledge to God is also, at the same time, God's pledge to his whole people.

We only see that as the whole story unfolds, but if we fast forward a little bit, we can see that Hannah's act of devoting her son to the Lord is also the turning of the tide. When the tide comes up, there comes a point when it gets to the highest point it's going to get to and then it turns, but you don't see its effects right away. The tide has turned before you see it clear out or before you see it flood in. So here we have a tide turning but we don't yet see the scouring effects that are going to take place when this tide sweeps away a whole lot of unfaithfulness. And that scouring is going to start with Eli's own family.

When God intervenes to transform your most painful problems, when God graciously fulfills your petitions, what should you do? Point four, praise. Praise. That's what Hannah offers to God in her poetic prayer It's really a hymn in chapter 2 verses 1 to 10.

In offering this song of praise to God, Hannah is completing the cycle that God's saving work aims at. It starts with our need, our helplessness, our hopelessness. We cry out to God for deliverance. He intervenes as only He can. And in response, we offer him the praise that only he deserves.

We hear this cycle in Psalm 50:14-15: Offer to God a sacrifice of thanksgiving and perform your vows to the Most High and call upon me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you shall glorify me. It's just what Hannah does. Look at verses 1 to 10. And Hannah prayed and said, 'My heart exalts in the Lord, my horn is exalted in the Lord, my mouth derides my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation.

There is none holy like the Lord, for there is none besides you. There is no rock like our God. Talk no more so very proudly, Let not arrogance come from your mouth, for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger.

The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. The Lord kills and brings to life; He brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and He exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust; He lifts the needy from the ash heap, to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them He has set the world.

He will guard the feet of His faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness. For not by might shall a man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Against them He will thunder in heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth.

He will give strength to His king and exalt the horn of His anointed.

Hannah's prayer weaves together two main themes: who God is and what He has done and will do to save His people. We'll walk through the poem just using those two categories. So first, who God is. Look at verse 2, There is none holy like the Lord, for there is none besides you. There is no rock like our God.

Here, Hannah praises God from being radically different from us in his complete devotion to what is good and right. And because God is perfect in himself, he is a perfect refuge for all who call upon him. God is morally unique and he is uniquely able to save. Those go hand in hand. A God who is not holy could never save.

Anyone. And then in the second half of verse 3, why should the arrogant shut their mouths? Hannah says, For the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. This kind of knowledge that Hannah is ascribing to the Lord is perfect, all-encompassing, effortless, instantaneous. Because God sees all, God evaluates all, and it is his verdict on you that will matter finally.

Look down at verse 8, the second half of the verse. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them he has set the world. This is a metaphor for God's possession, God's ownership of all things. He is the one who has sovereignly, by himself, established this whole universe. And he maintains and sustains every single part of it.

So who is this God? He's the holy creator, he's the sovereign judge, he's this world's maker and upholder and ruler. He's the only one who can save. As Titus led us in prayer a little while ago, if God is for you, who can be against you? And there is no appeal from his verdict.

Or escape from his judgment. When God pronounces that verdict, there is no second trial. So given who God is, what does he do? That's really most of these 10 verses. And you could summarize it in one sentence: He humbles the proud and exalts the humble.

That's the main theme of most of Hannah's hymn, starting in verse 1: My heart exalts in the Lord; my horn is exalted in the Lord; my mouth derides my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation. So Hannah rejoices in God because God has brought about this temporal deliverance in her life. But as great a gift as a child is, Hannah's language here sounds strangely out of proportion with what God has done for her. She doesn't sound so much like a new mother as a victorious army. That's what this imagery of my horn being exalted, right?

A horn is an instrument of strength and fighting in an animal and she's saying hers has been exalted, she's defeated her enemies. Well, yeah, God has blessed her over against Pnina but this sounds kind of bigger than that. What's going on here? It seems Hannah is speaking prophetically. She sees what God has done for her as a down payment on something much bigger that God is going to do for his whole people.

What's he going to do? Well, the rest of her song gives us hints and those hints crystallize into a clear vision of the future in verse 10 which will come to Not only that, but these hints are all a preview of the plot of all of 1 and 2 Samuel. And they match all the key themes from David's prayer that comes at the end of 2 Samuel in 2 Samuel chapter 22. So these two poems are bookends. They're interpretive keys to everything that's going on in 1 and 2 Samuel.

That's one simple interpretive tool you can use when you're plowing through Old Testament narrative. Whenever it breaks into poetry, pay attention. Because you're getting a sort of key to the whole thing. So here we have a poem opening up the story, we'll have a poem closing out the story at the end of 2 Samuel. Just to walk through what God does according to these verses.

Verse 3, Hannah says, Talk no more so very proudly, let not arrogance come out of your mouth. Why? Because God has so many ways of humbling the arrogant. God will silence the arrogant boasts of Goliath shortly. Verse 4 says that God shatters human strength and strengthens the weak.

Again, Goliath's going to learn all that the hard way in a few chapters' time. Verse 5 says that those who are full have hired themselves out for bread, and that's exactly what God promises Eli's descendants will have to do. Look ahead to chapter 2 verse 36. This is a judgment on the whole house of Eli. All of his descendants being cursed for his and his children's unfaithfulness.

Verse 36, and everyone who is left in your house shall come to implore him for a piece of silver or a loaf of bread, and shall say, 'Please put me in one of the priest's places that I may eat a morsel of bread.' As we'll see, Eli's family has fattened themselves and riched themselves at the expense of God's people. So God is going to flip their fate on their head and say, you,'re going to go have to hire yourself out for a bite of bread. Verse 6, the Lord kills and brings to life. He brings down to Sheol and raises up. So here's the foundation, here's the key of God's power.

Life and death are in his hands. He alone is sovereign over life itself, and he both shortens the span of those who think they have everything and have it all together. And he brings back to life those who are as good as dead. Verse 7 says, just incidentally here, this is one important witness to the Old Testament's teaching about the resurrection of the dead. I do think this gets played out metaphorically in some ways in the story that's to follow but it says, the Lord kills and brings to life.

It's not just talking about giving life, it's talking about making alive after death. Verse seven, verse seven says, the Lord makes poor and makes rich, he brings low and he exalts. And then in verse eight, he raises up the poor, he lifts up the needy, he causes them to sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. The rest of 1 and 2 Samuel is gonna show us how God exalts Saul to be king, and then he humbles him for his disobedience. Then in his place he raises up the humble shepherd, David, to shepherd his whole people.

Verse 9, he will guard the feet of his faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness. In 1 Samuel 25, we're gonna see another wonderful example of gutsy godliness by a woman of faith, Abigail, who arrests David from foolishly, hot-headedly murdering Nabal. So God, through Abigail, guards the feet of faithful David to hinder him from a really wicked design. And in that same incident, God cuts off Nabal in darkness. Hannah's psalm of praise comes to a climax in verse 10: the adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; against them he will thunder in heaven.

The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed. So here's a promise that expands the scope of 1 Samuel's focus from one intra-family dispute to the judgment of every human being on the planet. This is saying that ultimately what counts for your life, for your happiness, for your unending fulfillment or unending torment is whether, as verse nine puts it, you're an adversary of the Lord. Excuse me, verse 10. The wicked in verse nine, adversaries in verse 10.

What matters is where you find yourself, which category you belong to in those two verses. How will God do this? How will he judge all? How will he right all wrongs and repay all wrongs? Verse 10 tells us how.

The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed. So the poem starts with Hannah's horn being exalted and closes with the anointed's horn being exalted. What is anointed? The Hebrew word for anointed is mashiach, which gives us our English word Messiah. At the time Hannah prayed, Israel doesn't have any anointed king, but they will.

In chapter 16, the prophet Samuel is going to anoint David king to replace Saul. And later in 2 Samuel chapter 7, God promises David that one of his sons will reign forever. If you want to listen to a glorious meditation on that, you can find Ligon Duncan's sermon from the most recent Together for the Gospel conference for much more on that. The climax of 1 and 2 Samuel is the rule of God's chosen anointed king. And the climax of God's saving purposes in all time is the rule of his unending, saving, world renewing rule of his chosen king, who is also not only the son of David, but his eternal son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

As these verses show us, you could summarize the whole plot of 1 and 2 Samuel in the phrase, crossing fades. Picture a big X, those who start high and low, those who start low and high. That's not only the plot of 1 and 2 Samuel, that's the plot of this universe. God is the one who gives and takes life. God is the one who has founded the world, sustains the world, and will judge the whole world.

He is the true and ultimate king and we're all his subjects. But we have all become the agents of our own downfall by making ourselves into his enemies, his adversaries. We've all claimed for ourselves the kind of ultimate determination of our own moral choices, thank you very much, that really only belongs to God. And that's at the root issue, that's the root cause of whether we are on his side or not. These verses have been crystal clear that those who persist in staying opposed to God will be judged.

Judged without appeal, judged without hope of release, judged permanently, forever. But God is also gracious and merciful. God is a God who saves. And so he sent his eternal son into the world, our Lord Jesus Christ, to be incarnate for us and to be humiliated for us, to start low and end high. Jesus was tempted and tried, he was tested, he was abandoned, he was deserted, he was forsaken, and then he endured the wrath of God for us on the cross.

He paid the price to redeem all of us from being God's enemies. He suffered the punishment we all deserve for making ourselves God's adversaries. And he rose again on the third day to triumph over death, the ultimate crossing fate. Now he sits in power and glory at God's right hand and he commands all people everywhere to repent, to bow the knee to him, to trust in him. If you haven't trusted in Jesus as your savior, turn from sin and believe in him, rely on him, rest on him alone to deliver you from your biggest problem, which is sin and all its consequences.

As Gio read to us a little while ago, Jesus' mother, Mary, sings in Luke chapter 1, My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. She's paraphrasing Hannah. Her song is basically a fulfillment updating of Hannah's prayer. Why does Mary praise God? He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.

Mary's song song at the promise of her son is the fulfillment of Hannah's song at the birth of hers. So we've seen problems, petition, pledge, and praise. That's the pattern we should all walk through in trials. It's a pattern we see laid out for us in so many Psalms. We don't know how God will choose to answer our prayers.

We don't know how God will address those worldly sorrows that can be so weighty, those lacks and longings. But we do know that ultimately, he will cast down the mighty from their thrones. And if you humble yourself to rely on him, no matter what you go without now, you will be eternally exalted.

So what's your biggest problem? It's sin with all of its devastating consequences. But your biggest problem is no problem for God. His grace can easily overcome all of it. Having a problem is one thing.

What you do with that problem is another. And what God does with it is a whole other thing. So what should you do? Pray through your affliction. Rest completely on the God who alone gives life, takes life, and raises the dead.

Let's pray.

Heavenly Father, we praise you because you are a God who saves.

We praise you because you lift up those who are bowed down. We praise you because you humble the arrogant. So we pray that we would not be arrogant before you, but cast ourselves upon your mercy your kindness and your generous provision.

He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? We pray in Jesus' name, Amen.