CRITICAL AND EXPOSITORY NOTES—
1 Samuel 2:1. “And Hannah prayed.” “Hymns are wont to be comprehended under the name of prayers” (Psalms 71:20). “It was the most ancient way of preserving the memory of things to posterity, poets being more ancient than historians or orators.” (Patrick.) “Mine Horn.” “There is no reason for supposing here a reference to the custom among Oriental women (Druses and others) of wearing silver horns on the head to which the veil is attached, and which, by their position, indicate the woman’s position as maiden, wife, or mother. There is no trace of such a custom among the ancient Hebrews. The word translated horn is used of the horns of beasts, of horns for blowing and drinking, or for any horn-shaped vessel, and of a mountain peak. It is the symbol derived from horned beasts, which carry the head high in vigorous courage and consciousness of power.” (Lange’s Commentary.) “Mine horn is exalted” does not mean, I am proud, but “my power is great in the Lord.” (Keil.) “This figure appears first here, and connects this song with that of David, in 2 Samuel 22:3, and is adopted in the Gospel, and applied to Christ in the song of Zacharias” (Luke 1:69). (Wordsworth.) “The mouth is ‘enlarged,’ or ‘opened’ wide, to proclaim the salvation before which the enemies would be dumb.” (Keil.)
1 Samuel 2:2. “Rock.” This figure is another connecting link which joins this song with that of Moses (Deuteronomy 32:4) with David, and all with Christ.” (Wordsworth.) (See on this subject in Comments.) “The symbolical designation of the covenant-God by Rock, which occurs frequently, was suggested naturally by the configuration of the ground in Palestine, where masses of rock, surrounded by steep precipices, offered an image of solid and sure protection.” (Lange’s Commentary.)
1 Samuel 2:3. “By Him actions are weighed.” Keil translates, “To Him deeds are weighed,” that is to say, the acts of God are weighed, i.e., are equal or just. Many expositors agree with him, and about an equal number understand it to signify that God weighs, or rightly estimates the actions of men.
1 Samuel 2:4. “The bows of the mighty,” etc. “Bows were a principal part of warriors’ weapons and their girdles a principal part of their military habit” (Patrick).
1 Samuel 2:5. “They that were full,” etc. “See an instance in 1 Samuel 2:36” (Biblical Commentary). “Ceased” either to be hungry or to work for bread. “The barren hath borne seven,” i.e. many. “Seven children are mentioned as the full number of the Divine blessing in children” (Ruth 4:15).—(Keil.) “Here prophecy concerning the Church mingles with her hymn of praise.”—(Patrick.) (On this subject see Comments on the Song.)
1 Samuel 2:6. “The Lord killeth,” etc. Killing denotes (with a departure from the ordinary sense) bringing into the extremest misfortune and suffering, which oppresses the soul like the gloom of death, or brings it near to death—making alive is extricating from deadly sorrow and introducing into safety and joy.—See Deuteronomy 32:39; Psalms 30:3, etc. (Lange’s Commentary).
1 Samuel 2:8. “The beggar from the dunghill.” “This alludes to a form of wretchedness known in the East, and indicating the lowest degree of poverty and humiliation. The dunghill—a pile of horse, cow, or camel offal, heaped up to dry in the sun and serve as fuel—was and is piled up in the huts of the poor; and sometimes, from necessity, is the haunt of wandering mendicants, who, finding it in some outhouse outside the city, lodge there for want of better accommodation: so that the change that had been made in the social position of Hannah appeared to her grateful heart as auspicious and as great as the elevation of a poor despised beggar to the highest and most dignified rank (Fausset.) “The pillars of the earth.” “There is no need to find a geographical theory in a poetical statement. And even if it expresses the author’s geographical views, it is not the thought of the passage, but only the framework of the thought; the real thought here is solely religious, and has nothing to do with physical science” (Translator of Lange’s Commentary). Wordsworth calls it “a figurative expression derived from a palace or temple.” Some understand by the pillars, the rulers of the earth.
1 Samuel 2:9. “Keep the feet,” etc. Either from error and sin (Fausset) or from misfortune (Lange’s Commentary). “Darkness.” Symbolic of misfortune.
1 Samuel 2:10. “Thunder.” “Thunder is a premonitory sign of the approach of the Lord to judgment” (Keil). “Literally fulfilled in this history” (Wordsworth). “The ends of the earth.” “The object of God’s judicial interposition is not only the members of the chosen people, but the whole world” (Lange’s Commentary). “His anointed” or “Messiah.” The first time the word is used in Holy Scripture.
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— 1 Samuel 2:1-10
HANNAH’S SONG
I. The end of a granted desire should be the beginning of praise. The desire of the husbandman ends when the last shock of corn is safely housed in the barn. Then comes the harvest song indicating that desire has been completed by fulfilment. The ploughing and sowing, the bearing of the precious seed, the toil, the hope, the fear, the patience are all things of the past, and the end of all these should be a beginning of something new—of a song of thanksgiving. So it will be in the kingdom of God at the end of the present dispensation. The groaning and travailing of the whole creation—the sin, the sorrow, the tears, and struggles of the present will one day be ended—the earnest expectation of the creature—the desire of the best of the human race in all worlds—the prayer of ages—will end in complete fulfilment: and the end of all the desire and longing of the present will be the beginning of praise. A “new song” will be sung to celebrate the incoming of the new era—the birth of the new heavens and the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness (2 Peter 3:13). The beginning of a perpetual thanksgiving will celebrate the end of the present state of things and the incoming of the new. And so it should always be in the life of the individual It was so with Hannah. She had not experienced the consummation of her desire without experiencing deep sorrow—without long and patient waiting upon God. But the desire, the tears, the hope were behind her. The child had been born, the son had been given. The vow had been paid and the gift of the Lord had been given back to Him. The tide of joy and gratitude had been rising higher and higher in her heart from the hour in which she left her home until she stood in the very same spot where she had stood before—“a woman sorrowful and grieved in spirit.” And now she was a joyful mother, and gladness flooded her soul and burst forth into a mighty song of exultation and thanksgiving.
II. The experience of one indvidual is often symbolic and prophetic of the experience of many. The light that shone upon Paul on his way to Damascus pained and blinded him at first. And the bodily pain and blindness were symbolic of the pain and darkness of his soul from the light which shined into his soul. But out of the darkness and sorrow came light and joy, such as he had never known before. Of the experience of how many was this experience of Paul symbolic and prophetic! How many through his pain and joy were brought to pass through a like experience! To how many was the soul transition of this man an earnest of the same transition from darkness to light! Hannah’s experience was symbolic and prophetic of what was to be the experience of many of her nation. Those who were godly among them had been long grieved at heart because of the persecution of their enemies—because it seemed, indeed, as if God had forgotten to be gracious to His own people. Many a time, doubtless, had they asked Gideon’s question—“If the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us? and where be all His miracles which our fathers told us of?” (Judges 6:13). But a new era was now to begin. Hannah’s joy coming after her long sorrow was anticipatory of a time when the garment of praise should take the place of the spirit of heaviness with all true patriots and servants of God in the land of Israel.
III. The language of the human soul in one age is often fitted to express its feelings in all ages. A common life expresses its existence in the same general outward form from age to age. The life of the rose or of the lily finds expression in the same general outward form to-day as it did when God first called it into existence. There are modifications and individual distinctions, but the general outline is the same. So with the life of the human soul. Although time modifies the form in which it gives expression to its thoughts, although each individual has an experience which in some respects differs from that of any other creature, yet the language spoken ages ago finds an echo in the hearts of men and women in each generation, and expresses their feelings as well as it expresses the feelings of the person who first uttered them. How perfectly does the language of some of the Psalms, for instance, fit the experience of many men and women in this nineteenth century. What a close resemblance there is between this song of the happy mother of Israel’s prophet, and that of the mother of that prophet, priest, and king, who was not the Saviour of Israel merely, but the Saviour of the world. There are slight modifications, but the great backbone of thought running through the one is the same as that in the other. And the same words, with slight changes of expression, might be used by any soul who had emerged from a long night of sorrow and darkness into a new and brighter epoch in its history, and as a matter of fact it has been so used by the Church of God in all ages, and will be until time shall be no longer. These thoughts are suggested by the song as a whole. We will now notice its main subjects.
I. That there is one God in contradistinction to many. “There is none beside Thee.” The human soul and the world around us speak alike of the oneness of God. The heavens that declare His glory, and the firmament that showeth His handy work speak of One Supreme Ruler who controls all the forces by which the hosts of heaven move in their appointed paths. The vast machine has many complications, but the unity of its movements and operations bear the stamp of one ruling mind. The human soul cries out for One God—for one distinct and over-ruling power above all the principalities and powers of the universe. The Bible declares unmistakably that there is such a Being. There is one “everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the heavens and the earth, who hath meted out heaven with the span, and comprehended the dust of the earth in a measure, and weighed the mountains in scales and the hills in a balance,” and none “instructed Him, or taught Him knowledge, or showed to Him the way of understanding” (Isaiah 60). He alone is the “King eternal, immortal, invisible” (1 Timothy 1:17), who “doeth according to His will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth” (Daniel 4:35). The human soul may well rejoice in the knowledge that its destinies and the destinies of all the creatures of the universe are in the hands of a distinct identity like itself, yet so much greater and more powerful as to be able to control all the apparently conflicting forces which are at work into a complete and perfect harmony for the good of His creatures. The Israel of Jehovah in all ages have reason to rejoice in the knowledge that “the Lord our God is one Lord” (Deuteronomy 6:4).
II. That this one God is pure in His character. “There is none holy as the Lord.” If a human creature who holds in his hands the earthly destinies of other creatures (who are inferior to him in power) is lawless and wicked, of what misery may he be the cause! When an earthly judge, although skilful and learned, is known to be morally bad, we feel that his want of purity is not only injurious to himself, but may affect the destinies of those upon whom he is called to pass sentence. So with any ruler or judge of men in any capacity: purity of character, perfect integrity (so far as a human creature can be pure and upright), is felt to be indispensable to the well-being of those whom they govern or whom they judge. If this be so in the case of a human and finite being, how much more so is it in the case of the Almighty and Infinite God? If such a thing as a moral flaw in His character could be conceived, how terrible would be the issue! He who is to judge the world must be perfectly righteous. There must be nothing in His feelings and disposition that would tend to influence Him to do anything but the strictest justice. Seeing that the destinies of untold millions are in His hands, He must be absolutely without spot in His moral character. “Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?” (Genesis 18:25) But in order to do right at all times He must be absolutely incorruptible and un-defiled. And this He is declared to be, this He has shown Himself to be. He has shown it in His hatred to sin. A man’s moral purity, his holiness, may be estimated by the abhorrence in which he holds all moral impurity—anything which can defile his own soul and the souls of others. That God hates sin may be seen in the searching and binding character of His law. Human lawgivers make laws which deal with man’s outward life—which have to do with him as a citizen rather than as a man. If he abstains from certain outward actions, the law allows him to live unmolested. But God’s law is so holy that it penetrates into the spirit, legislates concerning thoughts and feelings, passes sentence upon hidden motives as well as upon visible actions. The “exceeding broadness” (Psalms 119:96) of the law reveals the Lawgiver’s hatred to sin, and His consequent moral purity. And God’s hatred to sin, and, therefore, His holiness is seen in in the extent of the sacrifice He has made to put away sin. A human ruler’s abhorrence of any evil law or custom may be estimated by the efforts he makes to abolish it; by the self-sacrifice he is willing to undergo to rid his country of the curse. In nothing is the absolute holiness of God seen so plainly as in the fact that He “gave His only-begotten Son” to “put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself” (Hebrews 9:26). Those who sing the song of the Lamb slain glorify the name of the Lord for His holiness (Revelation 15:3-4). And the contemplation of His work of redemption gives His saints on earth the most assuring proof of that holiness “at the remembrance” of which they join the first singer of this song in “giving thanks” (Psalms 30:4).
III. That immutability is a necessary consequence of God’s absolute purity. “Neither is there any rock like our God.” The unchangeableness of any human being depends upon his goodness and upon the length of time he has been good. He will be unchangeable in his feelings and actions in proportion to his moral purity, and the longer he has lived a holy life the more fixed and rock-like will be his character. If a man has pursued a line of righteous conduct for half-a-century—if in all that time he has been a man of unblemished integrity—everyone will feel that he is less likely to change now than he was fifty years ago. Every year that has passed over his head—every step that he has taken in the path of uprightness—has added something to the immutability of his character. God has ever been perfectly holy—holiness is His most important attribute—the one which forms the most weighty theme of the adoration of those of His creatures who are nearest to Him in moral character (Isaiah 6:3). And because He is so holy He must be unchangeable in His character. His everlasting holiness is a guarantee that He will always be the same in thought, and word, and deed; while He remains the Holy One of Eternity, He must continue to be the unchangeable God (Malachi 3:6). And that God is thus unchangeable may well furnish men with a theme of song. It is an instinct of humanity to reach out after something less changeable than themselves—to endeavour to lay hold of some object to which, as to a rock, they may anchor for rest and security. All the efforts of men to secure for themselves permanent positions in the world—to ensure to themselves and to their families a source of livelihood which will not fail them—are indications of their desire for a rock of some kind upon which they may rest. That upon which they place their dependence may be a very unworthy object of trust for an immortal spirit, yet men will make a rock of any object rather than have none. But those who, like Hannah, know the holy and unchangeable God, make Him, and Him only, the object of their entire trust—the Rock of their souls. They know from joyful experience that in all their need He has been, and ever will be, “a strength to the poor, a strength to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shadow from the heat, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against the wall” (Isaiah 25:4).
IV. God is likewise to be rejoiced in as a God of knowledge. “The Lord is a God of knowledge,” etc.
1. He knows Himself. This is more than any human creature can assert concerning his own identity. The anatomist who can describe every bone and vein and nerve in the human body is looked upon as a man of knowledge, but when he has done this there are many mysteries connected even with the body that are utterly beyond his grasp—he stands before them in absolute ignorance. The student of man’s mind is considered to be a man of knowledge if he can say something instructive concerning the world of thought and feeling within man—if he can analyse the operations of the mind and classify the mental faculties and throw some light upon the relations of body and soul. Yet when he has said all, how little has he said which can unfold to us the mystery of our own existence—how little does the wisest man know concerning himself. But God has a perfect knowledge of His own nature, He never returns from any reflection upon Himself with any mist of ignorance resting upon Him—He comprehends the whole length and breadth and depth and height of His own Infinite Being.
2. He has a perfect knowledge of His own actions. “By Him actions are weighed”—not only the acts of men but His own. Man cannot pretend to any perfect judgment of his own actions. He knows not the real value of his own deeds—he does not know whither they will tend—he can only come to an approximate estimate of his own motives. But God can perfectly weigh His acts—He knows exactly what will be their effect—He has a perfect knowledge of the motives which prompt them.
3. Having this perfect knowledge of Himself and of all that He does, the Divine Being must know man in all the mystery of his complicated being, and must be able perfectly to estimate the worth of every human action. The greater includes the less. He who made man must comprehend the nature of his existence; He knows what constitutes life; He comprehends how mind acts upon matter, and sees the subtle link which unites soul and body. And in the matter of human actions, He “is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and all things are naked and opened in the eyes of Him with whom we have to do” (Hebrews 4:12-13). The motives that prompt human deeds, the influence that those deeds will have upon future ages, the nature of the human will which is behind every human deed are all to Him as an open book.
4. The proper condition of heart in the presence of such a God is humility. “Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth.” Limited knowledge on any subject should make men humble in the presence of those who are better informed. It ill becomes such to assume to dictate to and instruct those who are far more competent to speak upon the matter. How much more should man’s limited knowledge of himself and of his Creator—of his own actions, and of the actions of the All-Wise and All-knowing God—cause him, like Job, to “lay his hand upon his mouth” (Job 40:4). Unable as he is rightly to weigh even his own actions, how can he dare to constitute himself a judge in what seems to him dark in the mysteries of the Divine dealings. The only condition of heart proper to finite creatures is that of Him “who is of a contrite spirit,” and who “trembles” at the Divine Word (Isaiah 66:2). Our own ignorance and our conviction of God’s infinite knowledge should lead us to put unreserved faith in His declarations, and yield uncompromising obedience to His commands. We make the knowledge of a fellow-man a ground of confidence, and we show our confidence by obeying their word. Our narrow outlook around us and beyond us makes safety to be found only in listening to the words of “the God of Knowledge,” in striving to conform our lives to His revealed will, and leaving the result with confident trust in His hands.
V. This holy immutable God of Knowledge is the author of those inversions of the ordinary course of nature which often occur in a manner totally unforeseen and unexpected. “The bows of the mighty are broken.… The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich.… He raiseth up the poor out of the dust,” etc. The natural law of the world is that the strong will hold on their way against what is weak, and that they, being in power, shall remain in possession. It is a foregone conclusion that the warrior who has the greatest force at his command will win the victory. Men expect the race will be won by the swift, and the battle by the strong. But God has other forces which He can bring into the field, and if He is not “on the side of the great battalions” He will bring about such unlooked for combinations that those who have fallen in the struggle will stand upright, “being girded with power,” and those who have been mighty will be overthrown, and the lame will take the prey. When the forces of Egypt overtook the Israelites at Pi-hahiroth, the natural conclusion of a looker-on would have been that nothing could prevent the slaves so lately made free from being overmastered and retaken into bondage. But God, being on the side of the weak, brought auxiliaries into the combat such as Pharaoh had never dreamt of having to fight against. The water of the Red Sea was turned into an opposing force on behalf of the oppressed, and the army of Egypt was over thrown by a power against which their horsemen and chariots and their mighty men were utterly powerless. Between Egypt and Israel there was no comparison as to natural strength, but the Lord of nations brought supernatural reinforcements to the aid of the naturally weak, and thus “the bows of the mighty were broken, and they that stumbled were girded with strength.” The woman who first uttered these words had long been walking through life with a heavy burden of sorrow weighing her to the earth: gladness and exultation seemed to be the portion of her persecutor, but none seemed destined for her. But the Lord who “bringeth low and lifteth up,” brought laws into operation which entirely changed the colour of her existence, and from being an object of scorn she became most unexpectedly raised to a position of more than ordinary honour.
1. These unseen and unknown laws are generally brought into operation in order to punish the strong for their oppression of the weak. God alone is responsible for these inequalities in national or individual life; and because He is so, He will take account of those who, being endowed with greater physical or mental advantages, use them to lord it over those who have not been so favoured. Hannah’s sorrow arose from a cause entirely beyond her own control, and those who oppressed her because of it were guilty of a great sin against God Himself. In the exaltation of her despised rival, Peninnah receives a just punishment for her wickedness; from the birth of Samuel her influence in the family must have declined, and none of her children are even mentioned in the sacred history, while that of Hannah’s son was honoured throughout his nation during his life, and is held in honour now that two thousand years have passed away. And so it is with the rise of one nation on the stage of history and the decline and fall of another. “Therefore hear now this, thou afflicted and drunken, but not with wine: Thus saith thy Lord, the Lord, and thy God that pleadeth the cause of His people, Behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, even the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again: But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; which have said to thy soul, Bow down, that we may go over” (Isaiah 51:21-23). Such is the method of the Divine government—there is a purpose in this subversion of natural order, and that purpose is retribution to the strong oppressor who has trampled on the rights of the weak.
2. God has a just right and reason so to intervene. “For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s, and He hath set the world upon them.” He is the proprietor of the earth—the land upon which the oppressor dwells is His by the most indisputable right—that of creation. The human proprietor claims a right over that which he has purchased—he can eject tenants from his property who do not meet his just demands. How much more is it the prerogative of Him who called the earth into being to eject from their dominion over it those who disregard His just demands, and abuse the power and the position which He has entrusted to them? God had a right to call Abraham from Ur of the Chaldees, and to give to his descendants the land of the Canaanite. He had a right to sweep the inhabitants of the cities of the plain from off the face of His earth when they so grossly defiled their fair inheritance. He had a right to call Moses and David from following the sheep, and set them in high places, to fulfil His eternal purposes. He had a right to take Nebuchadnezzar from his throne, and make his dwelling with the beasts of the field, until he knew “that the Most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever He will,” and until he acknowledged that all “His ways are judgment, and those who walk in pride He is able to abase” (Daniel 4:25-37). “The earth is the Lord’s,” and “they that dwell therein” (Psalms 24:1), and He, by right of proprietorship, puts in an absolute claim to dispose of that which belongs to Him as He sees best.
VI. God also bestows and takes away human life. “He bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up.”
1. He alone can give life. There are many things in which man can imitate God. He can imitate God’s benevolence by bestowing upon his fellow creatures gifts which will sustain and embellish their existence. He can be, to some extent, an imitator of God’s character (Ephesians 5:1). But he can in no way imitate Him as the Giver of life. In that the Creator stands absolutely alone in the universe—this is His sole prerogative. Human life is continued in the world by the instrumentality of man, but human parents are but instruments. In this respect there can be no likeness between man and God. God is the only Being who has “life in Himself” (John 5:26). His is the only independent life, the highest archangel—he who is permitted to draw the nearest to the inaccessible light wherein dwells the Divine Majesty—is as much dependent for existence upon the only source of life as the tiniest insect that crawls beneath our feet. He was not until God called him into existence, and that existence is sustained only by Him who gave it at the first. Of One alone can it be said that He “hath immortality” (1 Timothy 6:16), because all others receive it as a gift from Him.
2. He only has the power and the right to take life. He who gave has a right to take, and He only does take it. For whatever may be the second cause coming between, it is by Divine appointment that men die. Coming to the grave is not a debt of nature, but a Divine appointment. Nature is inexorable in exacting her debts—she works always by laws which she cannot set aside. She is strong enough to kill, but not strong enough to make an exception to the rule—she cannot go out of her destined course to serve the highest purpose—to favour the most holy character. But there have been exceptions to the universal law of death—exceptions which have been made by Him who is the Lord of Nature, and who can set aside her claims—can leave her debt unpaid when He sees fit. Nature did not make the law, because she has no power to make exceptions to the rule. It is God alone who “bringeth to the grave.” Death is not a chance which happens unto us. The arrow that entered between the joints of Ahab’s armour came from a bow “drawn at a venture,” but the arrow winged its way by Divine appointment. And so it is with all death’s arrows, not one but hits the mark to which God has destined it. But it must be remembered that the appointment of death was not part of God’s original plan in relation to men. Although it is now “appointed unto men once to die” (Hebrews 9:27), it was not so from the beginning. God’s purpose concerning man at the first was to give life, and not to take it away; to bestow upon His creature an undying existence, a perfect and unending life of body as well as of soul. It is man’s disobedience alone which has brought about the Divine appointment of death. “Going to the grave” is not the outcome of God’s original purpose concerning man, but an appointed penalty for man’s transgression. Death being thus a Divine appointment, dying should be regarded as a duty to be cheerfully discharged. Men face death bravely and cheerfully when they feel that their country or their earthly ruler has appointed them to it. The good man should learn from such examples to die as a duty of Divine appointment. A Christian ought to die cheerfully, seeing he dies by the command of the Lord of life. This thought ought to reconcile him to the inevitable, and help him to meet the last enemy without dismay. In proportion as a fellow-creature is good, we trust him with our life—with interests that are dearer to us than life. In proportion as he is wise as well as good—especially if he is powerful in addition to his wisdom and his goodness—our confidence in him is increased, our feeling of security in his hands is strengthened. The claim of the Eternal and Infinite God to kill and to make alive rests not only upon His power, but upon His character. He is not only the Author of life, but He is the King who cannot wrong any of his subjects, the Judge of all the earth who must, from the necessity of his nature, do right at all times to all His creatures. If God kills, it is not only because He takes what is His own, but because He is doing what is the best thing to be done, and in the best manner.
3. The resurrection from the dead depends upon the Giver of life. He not only “bringeth down to the grave,” but He “bringeth up.” (a) This we might have regarded as probable if we had no revelation upon the subject. We might have concluded that He who at first “breathed into man the breath of life,” and thus made him a “living soul,” could at His pleasure reanimate the dust and bring life again out of death. If God could give life where there was no life, is it not highly probable that He can give it again where it has once existed? (b) That He has done so is a matter of history. We have it upon reliable authority that He has restored dead men to life—that He has reanimated the lifeless clay, (c) That He must do this for all mankind is certain. Those who make promises ought to perform them if they are able to do so. If a man promises to redeem a pledged garment of his poorer brother, and is able to fulfil his promise, ought he not to do it, knowing as he does that his needy brother is expecting anxiously the promised raiment to cover his scantily clothed body? The raiment of God’s children is held in pledge by death—He holds the garment until the time of the “redemption of the body” (Romans 8:23). God has promised to redeem that raiment, and He holds Himself bound to fulfil His promise, and we hold him bound also. Christ has given His word to bring from the grave both the just and the unjust—“The hour is coming when all that are in the graves shall hear His voice, and shall come forth; they that have done good unto the resurrection of life, and they that have done evil unto the resurrection of damnation” (John 5:28-29). The vision of the seer has pictured for us that great redemption day—that day of “bringing up from the grave” of the human race (Revelation 20:12-13).
VII. In all the acts of His providence, in all the unlooked-for changes which He brings to pass, God has a special oversight of His own children. “He shall keep the feet of His saints.”
1. The character of the persons whose feet are kept—“Saints.” Sainthood implies a soul transition. A man that is known to have been born poor and is found in after life to be living in wealth is known to have experienced a great transition in his outward circumstances. By what means or at what time in his life this change took place may not be revealed, but that it has taken place is a certainty. So with a saint. Such a man is in a condition to which he was not born. Sainthood is “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). Therefore every human saint has been the subject of a soul-change. He may have been suddenly raised from a state of spiritual poverty to wealth, or he may have acquired his riches by degrees—increasing little by little in his knowledge of God and in confidence in His character.
2. The change has taken place by the consent of his will. Change of will brings about a change of position. If a child who hated his lessons can be made willing to learn, his position in relation to knowledge is at once changed. A sinner passes into a saint by becoming willing to learn of the Holy One how to become holy. Willingness is the bridge by which the sinner passes from a state of opposition to God into a state of reconciliation to Him, and being thus reconciled to God is to be brought into that fellowship with Him which constitutes sainthood. The entire process of the transition is described by the Apostle in 1 John 1:5-9. Fellowship with God based upon a knowledge of His character makes a man a saint, but before this knowledge can be attained there must be a willingness to learn.
3. The saint needs a keeper for his feet. The child who has but just learned to walk needs a steady and strong hand to guide his steps. The person who “keeps his feet” must possess a wisdom and strength superior to that of the child’s. God is a guide and an upholder of the steps of His saints. He alone is “able to keep them from falling” (Jude 1:24). They cannot see the dangers in the distance coming to meet them, or even those which are now about their path. Hence their need of an eye that can discern them, and a hand that can deliver from them, a “God of knowledge,” who is perfectly acquainted with every danger to which they can be exposed, and a God of such absolute power as to be able to deliver them. And His word of promise to each one is, “Fear thou not, for I am with thee. Be not dismayed, for I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness (Isaiah 41:10). Their weakness and their ignorance are both elements of danger, and both are fully met by their All wise and Omnipotent Keeper. The other part of the verse implies that they are surrounded by enemies, both seen and unseen, who do not fail to watch for their halting, and lose no opportunity they can lay hold of to trip them up; but “the wicked shall be silent in darkness, and by strength shall no man prevail” against the saints of God. They may, and often do, prevail against a saint’s earthly possessions, and even against his life. Jezebel by strength did “prevail” against Naboth’s vineyard, against his life. For the time she was paramount against a good man. Herodias did likewise prevail against the liberty and life of John the Baptist, and her strength was strong enough to silence the voice that had been lifted up against her crimes. And in many like cases the wicked have prevailed against the earthly prosperity and life of the saints of God by His permissive providence. But notwithstanding this permissive clause in the Divine code—notwithstanding the licence that God thus gives to the enemies of His saints—there is no relaxing of His hold, either of the saint or the sinner. The feet of the saint are still upheld, and when they pass through the waters and the fire of temptation and persecution they “shall not be burned, neither shall the flame kindle upon them (Isaiah 43:2), their character and all their real interests shall come through the trial without loss or injury.
4. The keeping of the saints’ feet arise from God’s special inheritance in them. They are “His saints.” The mother watches her child’s feet because the child is her own. She may have a general interest in all children, but the feet of her own child are the objects of her most watchful love. If she is a godly mother, she not only keeps the feet of her child’s body, but she cares unceasingly for the feet of the moral nature. She lays herself out to guide and to guard the spiritual as well as the natural life. All who are saints are God’s purchased possession, and His special relation to them, and theirs to Him, makes sure an unceasing care on His part for all their real interests.
VIII. The inference to be drawn from a contemplation of God’s character and government is, that contention against Him is vain.
1. He can overcome His adversaries by His physical omnipotence. “Out of heaven He shall thunder upon them.” God’s manifestations of power in the material world are sometimes of such a nature as to make men feel their utter powerlessness in His hands. When the seaman finds that all his efforts to guide his vessel are as useless as the dashing of the sea-spray against the rock, he becomes conscious of a power which is far beyond that of human skill and science. When the lightnings flash through the heavens and the thunder shakes the earth, we feel most deeply how passive we are in the hands of the Almighty Being, who can thus hold back and roll up the clouds of heaven. At such times we not only know how useless it is to contend with God, but we are made to feel it; we are conscious that to contend with One who has such powerful physical forces at His beck is as vain as it is wicked. The voice of God’s thunder made even the heart of the hardened Pharaoh to quake and to acknowledge himself defeated (Exodus 9:27-28), and all God’s mighty manifestations in the natural world should lead His creatures to humble themselves before Him. 2 He can confound them by His superior wisdom and goodness. “The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth.” The opponent in military warfare who can use the movements of his adversary to work his defeat and can carry the battle into his very camp and overthrow him on his own ground, is not one whom an enemy cares to meet. Neither is the opponent in argument to be despised who can turn a man’s own reasonings against him and confound him by his own words. God has done this with His adversaries over and over again. He has made the plans of the wicked instrumental in carrying out His own purposes and in working out their own destruction. Men ought by this time to have learned how useless it is to contend with One who “taketh the wise in their own craftiness:” so that “the counsel of the froward is carried headlong” (Job 5:13). The imperfect knowledge of a human judge may enable men successfully to contend against him. The fact that he is ignorant of many things that he ought to know may defeat the ends of justice, and lead him to an erroneous decision. But God is a perfect judge—His decisions are always perfectly just and equitable, because he lacks neither the perfect knowledge nor the perfect righteousness, out of which must come a perfect ruler. When the final judgment comes—when the Son of man shall “sit upon the throne of His glory, and before Him shall be gathered all nations” (Matthew 25:31-32), all men will feel that it is utterly useless to seek to evade His searching scrutiny—that His holiness and His omniscience make certain the overthrow of all that is opposed to Him. “The Lord cometh with ten thousand of his saints, to execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him” (Jude 1:14; Jude 1:15).
IX. The end of confounding the wicked and the end of all God’s dealings with men is the establishment of a kingdom of righteousness. “He shall give strength unto His King, and exalt the horn of His Anointed.” In nature all change tends to the development of perfection. The blade and the green ear are but stepping-stones to the fully ripened grain. The bud unfolds into the perfect flower, the flower is followed by the fruit. So is it in God’s kingdom. All the overturnings and changes, all the judgments upon the ungodly, are but stepping-stones to the establishment of the kingdom of righteousness. All the kings who have ever sat upon the thrones of the world have been preparing the way for the rule of “His King,” who is one day to rule all the nations. Looking away into the future under the influence of the Spirit of God, Hannah foretells the advent of a king who should reign in righteousness, and anticipates the Psalmist King of Israel when he sang of Him who should “judge the poor of the people” and “save the children of the needy, and break in pieces the oppressor;” who shall “have dominion also from sea and to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth;” whose “name shall endure for ever, and be continued as long as the sun;” and whom “all nations shall call blessed.” (Psalms 76) To the undisputed reign of this King all the present dealings of God with men and nations are tending.
OUTLINES AND SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS
1 Samuel 2:1. The repetition of “in the Lord” emphasises the fact that the joyous frame of mind and lofty consciousness of power has its root in the Lord, and pre-supposes the most intimate communion with the living God. The mouth “opened wide over mine enemies” intimates that the joy and courage that filled her soul had found utterance.—Lange’s Commentary.
Hannah’s song of praise compared with her former prayer.
1. She was then in “bitterness of soul” (1 Samuel 1:10); now her “heart rejoiceth.”
2. Then she was “humiliated” (1 Samuel 1:5; 1 Samuel 1:8; 1 Samuel 1:11); now she is “exalted.”
3. Then her adversary “provoked her” (1 Samuel 1:6); now her “mouth is opened wide over her enemies.”
4. Then she “poured out her soul before the Lord” (1 Samuel 1:15); now she “rejoices in His salvation.” Often we remember to pray, and then forget to praise.—Translator of Lange’s Commentary.
There is not one petition in all this holy hymn, but thanksgiving is a principal part of prayer; it is also an artificial begging.—Trapp.
How has Hannah’s glory been exalted? “In the Lord,” saith she. The elevation is no more dangerous, for it has a solid foundation, a root that cannot be shaken. The glory that comes from men is accompanied by the feebleness of those who give it, so that it is easily overthrown, but it is not so with the glory which comes from God. It is the glory of which the prophet speaks (Isaiah 40:6-8). Hannah is a remarkable example of this truth. Kings, generals, great men, are forgotten, notwithstanding all their efforts to make their names immortal, notwithstanding the magnificent tombs that they build, the statues that they erect, the monuments they leave as tokens of their success, their very names are forgotten. But Hannah is celebrated to-day throughout all the world, her glory is celebrated wherever the sun sheds its light.… For, when God glorifies anyone, death comes in vain, time passes on in vain, the glory of the mortal survives, and its flowers are kept unfading: nothing can throw a shadow upon that brightness.—Chrysostom.
1 Samuel 2:2. God manifests Himself as holy in the government of the kingdom of His grace by His guidance of the righteous to salvation.—Keil.
Two characteristics of the life of God’s children in their relation to the living God:
1. The humble reverence before Him, in view of His holiness.
2. The heartiest confidence in Him, in view of His unchangeable faithfulness.—Lange’s Commentary.
Holiness is a chief and super-eminent perfection of God, that wherein the Divine excellence doth chiefly consist. Therefore it is the most frequent epithet given to His name in Scripture. We never read mighty name or wise name, but frequently holy name. The holiness of God is His glory and beauty. Therefore He is said to be “glorious in holiness.” He is mighty in power, and rich in grace, and glorious in holiness.—Wisheart.
1 Samuel 2:3. The manner of God’s weighing actions.
1. With perfect knowledge.
2. With absolute rectitude (1 Samuel 2:2).
3. With immutable justice (1 Samuel 2:2).—Lange’s Commentary.
The weighed or righteous acts of God (see Keil’s rendering in Critical Notes) are described in 1 Samuel 2:4-8 in great and general traits, as displayed in the government of His kingdom, through the marvellous changes which occur in the circumstances connected with the lives of the righteous and the wicked.—Keil.
I. The perfection of God’s knowledge.
1. It is present and actual; His eye is always open, and everything is in the view of it. The knowledge of the creature is more power than act; it is not much that we are capable of knowing, but there is very little that we actually know, and’ tis but one thing that we can fix our thoughts upon at once. But the knowledge of God is an actual and steady comprehension of things, all objects are at once in the view of the Divine understanding.
2. It is intimate and thorough. Our knowledge glides upon the superficies of things; we do not know things in their realities, but as they appear and are represented to us in all their masks and disguises: but God knows things throughout, all that can be known of them.
3. It is clear and distinct. We are often deceived with the near likeness and resemblance of things, and mistake one thing for another; our knowledge is but a twilight, we see things many times together and in a heap, and do but know them in gross. But those things which are of the least consideration, and have the greatest likeness to one another, the very hairs of your head, are severally and distinctly known to God.
4. It is certain and infallible. Everything almost imposes upon our understandings, and tinctures our minds; our temper and complexion, our education and prejudice, our interest and advantage, our humours and distempers, these all misrepresent things and betray us into error: but the Divine understanding is a clear, fixed, constant, and undisturbed light, a pure mirror that receives no stain from affection, or interest, or any such thing.
5. It is easy and without difficulty. We must dig deep for knowledge and take a great deal of pains to know a little; we strive to comprehend some things, but they are so vast that we cannot; other things are at such a distance, that our understanding is too weak to discern them; others so little, so small and nice, that our understanding cannot lay hold of them; but God’s understanding being infinite, it is a vast comprehension of all things without difficulty or pain.
II. God’s knowledge of the heart teaches—
1. The folly of hypocrisy. If we deal with men this is not a very wise way, for there is danger of discovery even from them, therefore the best way for a man to seem to be anything is really to be what he would appear; but having to deal with God, to whom all our disguises are apparent, ʼtis a madness to hide our iniquity in our bosoms.
2. Charge yourselves with inward purity and holiness, because of the pure eyes which behold the most secret motions of your souls. Fear and shame from men lay a great restraint upon our outward actions, but what a strange freedom do we take within our own breasts! This is an argument of the secret atheism that lies at the bottom of our hearts.
3. This is a matter of encouragement to us in many cases—“When my heart is overwhelmed within me, then Thou knowest my path” (Psalms 143:3)—in cases of difficulty which depend upon the hearts of other men, which, though we do not know, yet God knows them. But especially is this a matter of comfort to us when we suffer by the calumnies and reproaches of men, when the world chargeth us with crimes, then to be able to appeal to the Searcher of hearts.
4. This renders all deep and profound policies of the wicked a vain thing. God sees those cobwebs which they are spinning, and can blow them away at a breath.
5. If God only knows the hearts of men, then what art thou, O man, that judgest another’s heart? Will thou assume to thyself the prerogative of God?—Tillotson.
1 Samuel 2:4-5. Every power which will be something in itself is destroyed by the Lord; every weakness, which despairs of itself, is transformed into power.—Von Gerlach.
1 Samuel 2:4-8. The unity amid change of the opposite ways which the pious and the ungodly must go.
1. One starting point, the Lord’s inscrutable will, which determines them.
2. One hand, the Almighty hand of the Lord which leads them.
3. One goal at which they end, humble submission under that hand. The wonderful guidance of the children of men in quite opposite ways.
1. The opposite direction in which they go, (a) from the height to the depth, (b) from the depth to the height.
2. The opposite design which the Lord has therein with men, (a) to lead them from the heights of pride and haughty self-complacency to humble submission under His unlimited power, (b) to exalt them from the depths of humble self-renunciation to a blessed life in the enjoyment of His free grace.
3. The opposite end, according as men cause the divine design to be fulfilled or defeated in them: (a) everlasting destruction without God, (b) everlasting salvation and life in, and with God.—Lange’s Commentary.
1 Samuel 2:3-10. The contrasts which the change in the relations of human life presents to us in the light of Divine truth.
1. God’s holiness and man’s sin.
2. God’s almightiness and man’s powerlessness.
3. God’s gracious design and man’s destruction.—Lange’s Commentary.
1 Samuel 2:5. The view held by some, that in Hannah’s barrenness and subsequent fruitfulness there is a mystical or typical meaning, deserves consideration. Hannah is said to be the type of the Christian Church, at first barren and reviled, afterwards fruitful and rejoicing. As to such typical character we must be guided, not by outward resemblances, but by fixed principles of Biblical interpretation. These facts may guide us to a decision—
1. God’s relation to His people is set forth under the figure of marriage (Isaiah 54; Jeremiah 3; Hosea 1-3.)
2. Isaiah (Isaiah 54:1) describes God’s spiritual people as barren, yet with the promise of many children.
3. Paul (Galatians 4:27) quotes this passage of Isaiah, refers it to the Church of Christ as distinguished from the Jewish dispensation, and declares that this antithesis is given in Sarah and Hagar.… What he declares is that Sarah is the mother of the child of promise, while Hagar’s child is the product of natural fruitfulness.… Throughout his argument it is the spiritual element of promise and faith on which Sarah’s typical position is based. Only, therefore, where we can show such spiritual element are we justified in supposing a typical character. There must be involved the truth that the origination and maintenance of God’s people depend on His promise, and not on human strength. This is not necessarily involved in the history of every barren woman who becomes fruitful.… Hannah seems to be simply a pious mother, whose prayer for a son, contrary to human probabilities, is granted.—Translator of Lange’s Commentary.
1 Samuel 2:6. He layeth men for dead, and then reviveth them, as 2 Corinthians 1:9-10. That great apostle was “in death’s often;” and those ancient confessors cry out, “for Thy sake are we killed all the day long” (Romans 8:36).—Trapp.
Hannah asserts that supreme sovereignty of God, of which the boasting, arrogant spirit, whether found in Peninnah’s pride of fecundity, or in Sennacherib’s pride of conquest, or in Nebuchadnezzar’s pride of empire, or in Antichrist’s pride of rebellion, is a blasphemous denial.—Biblical Commentary.
The word sheol signifieth—
(1) The grave, the place of dead bodies;
(2) by a metaphor, a state of adversity in this world;
(3) the forlorn estate of those who are deprived of God’s favour and inward comfort, whether for a time and when they are utterly cast off.—Willet.
The Lord bringeth down to the grave by the terror which He awakens in the soul of justly merited punishment, and He bringeth up by humble faith that He grants in His infinite mercy and in the merits of the blood of His Son.—De Sacy.
1 Samuel 2:8. These words contain the reason of all that precedes in the five foregoing verses: for the very earth being founded, upheld, and supported by the Lord, no wonder that all the inhabiters of it are in His power, to dispose of them as He thinks good.—Patrick.
The plans of the Most High are very different from men’s expectations. In order to execute them He rejects the great. While He allowed kings upon the throne to ignore His greatest miracle, He drew from the dust twelve disciples, and made them the masters of the nations, the judges of the world, the instruments of the greatest event which has ever taken place, the pillars of His Church, and partakers of His eternal empire. And He takes from the obscurity of a peasant’s home a poor, unknown girl, and makes her the mother of the Highest.—Duguet.
1 Samuel 2:9. This is a lower love and courtesy than to keep their hands (John 13:5-6). He keepeth them from utter prolapsion, from devoratory evils, as Tertullian saith, so as that either they fall not at all—stumble they may, but they get ground by their stumbling—or if they fall, they shall arise; for the Lord putteth under His hand (Psalms 37:24). There is still a supporting grace, below which they cannot possibly fall.… Augustine, striving against his headstrong corruptions in his own strength, heard a voice saying, “Thou would’st stand by thyself, and therefore fallest.”—Trapp.
As Jehovah, the God of Israel, the Holy One governs the world with His almighty power, the righteous have nothing to fear. But the wicked will perish in darkness—i.e., in adversity, when God withdraws the light of His grace, so that they fall into distress and calamity. For no man can be strong through his own power so as to meet the storms of life.—Keil.
God keeps the feet of His people.
1. By the prevention of sinful and evil occasions, so in that He does not so easily suffer them to come within the compass of ruin and spiritual destruction.
2. By fortifying and strengthening the heart and mind against closing with them, so that though occasions be administered, yet they shall have no power or efficacy upon them. He does this both by the grace of fear and by the grace of faith. God, by stirring up in His servants a holy tenderness and jealousy over themselves, does by this means very much scare them, who, by fearing lest they should sin, do come to avoid sinning itself. And faith is another supporter likewise. It lays hold upon all the promises of assistance and strengthening which God has made to His servants, such as this now here in the text, therefore it is said, “We are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation” (1 Peter 1:5). By the power of God as the principal. And by faith as the instrumental. We may likewise take the words in reference to temporal things.
1. God will bless His saints in their ways, not only for the preserving of their souls from sin, but the preserving of their bodies from destruction. He that will keep the feet certainly will not be wanting to the breast and head. He names the feet, that from them we might rise higher to all the rest.
2. He will bless them in regard to their works. There is a blessing upon a righteous hand whatsoever it be that he undertakes. As a blessing of protection upon his person, so a blessing of success upon his labour and constant employment.… As there is a difference between the wicked and the godly, in regard of their disposition, so is there likewise in regard of their condition.
1. It is a state of darkness. (a). In the ignorance of their minds, (b). In the inordinancy of their affections—malice shades the mind, and so any other unruly passion. (c). In the practice of all other sins whatsoever, forasmuch as they seek the dark for the commission of them. (d). In that spiritual blindness to which they are delivered and given up. This is the darkness of the way, there is also the darkness of the end—the darkness of death, which is common to all, and the darkness of judgment.
2. It is a state of silence. (a). Grief, horror, and perplexity shall seize upon them. Silence is an attendant upon grief and astonishment in their extremities. (b). It is a note of conviction, they shall have nothing to say for themselves. (c). It is a note of abode and continuance. It does denote the immovableness and irrecoverableness of their miserable condition.—Horton.
The title, saints, is of all names the most honourable. It literally signifies the holy ones. It associates the servant of God with his Maker, “whose name is holy,” with his Redeemer, “the Holy One of Israel,” and with “the Holy Ghost,” not to mention those holy ones who veil their faces before His throne.—Jowett.
1 Samuel 2:10. Here Hannah casts a prophetic glance at the consummation of the kingdom of God. As certainly as the Lord God keeps the righteous at all times, and casts down the wicked, so certainly will He judge the whole world, to hurl down all His foes and perfect His kingdom which He has founded in Israel. And as every kingdom culminates in its throne, or in the full might and government of a king, so the kingdom of God can only attain its full perfection in the king whom the Lord will give to His people and endow with His might. The Anointed of the Lord, of whom Hannah prophesies in the spirit, is not one single king of Israel, either David or Christ, but an ideal king, though not a mere personification of the throne about to be established, but the actual king whom Israel received in David and his race, which culminated in the Messiah. The exaltation of the horn of the Anointed of Jehovah commenced with the victorious and splendid expansion of the power of David, was repeated with every victory over the enemies of God and His kingdom gained by the successive kings of David’s house, goes on in the advancing spread of the kingdom of Christ, and will eventually attain to its eternal consummation in the judgment of the last day, through which all the enemies of Christ will be made His footstool.—Keil.
Hannah’s devout acknowledgment that God only is the Rock, and that it is the sole prerogative of God to raise up princes and to give them strength, stands in striking contrast to the people of Israel, who impatiently asked for a king to judge them like the nations, and to go out before them, and to fight their battles (1 Samuel 8:5-20), instead of waiting patiently God’s time, and instead of rejoicing in their privilege in not being like the nations, but in being the special people of God, and instead of relying upon His Almighty arm to save them from their enemies. She is the first who addresses God as the “Lord of Hosts” (see 1 Samuel 1:11), a title which emphatically declares the sovereignty of the Unseen Ruler of the world; and in this also, by her faith in Him, she stands in contrast with the faithless impatience of the people of Israel who asked Samuel to make them a visible head. The king of whom Hannah prophesies is “His king,” a king by whom the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth, not the king craved by the people on mere worldly considerations, but the King to be appointed by God, in His own time, and a figure of Christ of whom Jehovah speaks by David (Psalms 2:6; Psalms 72:1) to whom all judgment is given, and who will put all enemies under His feet (John 5:22-27; 1 Corinthians 15:25-28).—Wordsworth.
The judgment of God’s primitive justice.
1. Whom it threatens—the ungodly, “adversaries.”
2. How God makes it approach with warning signs, “out of heaven shall He thunder.”
3. How it discharges itself against all the world that is opposed to God. “The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth.”
4. How it promotes the perfecting of His kingdom. “He shall give strength unto His king.”—Lange’s Commentary.
1 Samuel 2:1-10. The Magnificat of Hannah is an evangelical song, chanted by the spirit of prophecy under the Levitical Law. It is a prelude and overture to the Gospel. It is a connection of sweet and sacred melody between the Magnificat of Miriam after the passage of the Red Sea—symbolising the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ,—and the Magnificat of Mary after the annunciation of His birth. Let this song of Hannah be read in the Septuagint, and then the Magnificat in St. Luke’s original, and the connection of the two will be more clearly recognised.… The true characteristic of sacred poetry is that it is not egotistical. It merges the individual in the nation and in the Church universal. It looks forward from the special occasion that prompts the utterance of thanksgiving, and extends and expands itself, with a loving power and holy energy, into a large and sympathetic outburst of praise to God for His love to all mankind in Christ.… The Magnificat of Hannah is conceived in this spirit. It is not only a song of thanksgiving, it is also a prophecy. It is an utterance of the Holy Ghost moving within her, and making her maternal joy on the birth of Samuel to overflow in outpourings of thankfulness to God for those greater blessings in Christ, of which that birth was an earnest and a pledge. In this respect it may be compared to the Song of Moses (Deuteronomy 32) and the Song of David (2 Samuel 22)—Wordsworth.
The history leaves us no room to doubt that the immediate occasion of this song was the birth of Samuel; yet, if viewed in reference to this occasion alone, how comparatively trifling is the theme! How strained and magniloquent the expressions! Hannah speaks of her “mouth being enlarged over her enemies,” of “the bows of the mighty men being broken,” of “the barren bearing seven,” of “the full hiring themselves for bread,” and other things of a like nature,—all how far exceeding, and we might even say caricaturing the occasion, if it has respect merely to the fact of a woman, hitherto reputed barren, becoming at length the joyful mother of a child. Were the song an example of the inflated style not uncommon in Eastern poetry, we might not be greatly startled at such grotesque exaggerations; but being a portion of that Word which is all given by inspiration of God, and is as silver tried in a furnace, we must banish from our mind any idea of extravagance and conceit. Indeed, from the whole strain and character of the song, it is evident that, though occasioned by the birth of Samuel, it was so far from having exclusive reference to that event, that the things concerning it formed one only of a numerous and important class pervading the providence of God, and closely connected with His highest purposes. In a spiritual respect it was a time of mournful barrenness and desolation in Israel: “the word of the Lord was precious, there was no open vision,” and iniquity was so rampant as even to be lifting up its insolent front, and practising its foul abominations in the very precincts of the sanctuary. How natural, then, for Hannah, when she had got that child of desire and hope, which she had devoted from his birth as a Nazarite to the Lord’s service, and feeling her soul moved by a prophetic impulse to regard herself as specially raised up to be “a sign and a wonder” in Israel, and to do so particularly in respect to that principle in the Divine government which had so strikingly developed itself in her experience, but which was destined to receive its grandest manifestation in the work and kingdom which were to be more peculiarly the Lord’s. Hence, instead of looking exclusively at her individual case, and marking the operation of the Lord’s hand in what simply concerned her personal history, she wings her flight aloft, and takes a comprehensive survey of the general scheme of God; noting especially, as she proceeds, the workings of that pure and gracious sovereignty which delights to exalt a humble piety, while it pours contempt on the proud and rebellious. And as every exercise of this principle is but part of a grand series which culminates in the dispensation of Christ, her song runs out at the close into the sublime and glowing delineation of the final results to be achieved by it in connection with His righteous administration. This song, then, plainly consists of two parts, in the one of which only—the concluding portion—it is properly prophetical. The preceding stanzas are taken up with unfolding from past and current events, the grand spiritual idea; the closing ones carry it forward in beautiful and striking application to the affairs of Messiah’s kingdom.—Fairbairn.