Hannah's Prayer

[00:00:01] Our heavenly Father, we thank you that you are a great light shining in the darkness of this world. And we're thankful that the darkness has not overcome it and will never be able to overcome it. We thank you, Lord, that from the rising of the sun to its setting, the name of the Lord is to be praised. You are high above all nations, and your glory is above the heavens. Shine on us, O Lord, help us to see you and to trust you with everything that we need in our lives, here and now, in this age and for the life to come. We ask, Lord, that you would strengthen our hearts through your word. And we pray this in Jesus name. Amen. [00:00:52] Well, if you're able to remain standing, please do remain standing. And let's turn to first Samuel, chapter two. [00:01:17] First Samuel, 2111. [00:01:27] Here at the beginning it says, and Hannah prayed. This is a prayer that she offers. [00:01:32] Perhaps you might say, I thought this was a song, and you'd have good reason for thinking of it. Because we find her exalting. We find her rejoicing, doing a lot of singing like things. [00:01:48] Let's hear God's word recorded for us here. Hannah's prayer. First Samuel, chapter two, verses one through eleven. [00:01:58] And Hannah prayed and said, my heart exults in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies. Because I rejoice in your salvation. [00:02:12] There is none holy like the Lord, for there is none besides you. There is no rock like our God. [00:02:20] 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. [00:02:32] The bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength. [00:02:39] Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread. But those who were hungry have ceased to hunger. [00:02:46] The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. [00:02:52] 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 pillows of the earth are the Lord's, and on them he has set the world. [00:03:21] 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. [00:03:30] 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. [00:03:47] Then Elkanah went home to Ramah, and the boy was ministering to the lord in the presence of Eli. The priest may be seated. [00:04:19] Whenever I drive in the white mountains of Arizona, I notice, and I'm sure you have, too, these large stands of trees, huge forests that grow, grow, grow, and then simply stop. [00:04:36] They come to a halt, and there's this very clear line, the trees growing over hills and valleys. And then they stop. There's this clear line of trees, and then no more trees, just grass. [00:04:52] What's happening is that they're facing an insurmountable obstacle. Volcanic rock beneath the surface, which makes growth impossible. It works until it doesn't, and you can see it with your eyes where the growth just stopped. The trees just stop. [00:05:11] Well, of course, it's not just trees that have their limits. [00:05:15] We humans do as well. [00:05:18] We may feel like we're doing great, but eventually there is going to be an obstacle that's just too much for us. [00:05:26] An obstacle that shows, sometimes very clearly and sometimes to all of our family and friends, exactly where our limits are. [00:05:37] Maybe it's the limits of our character. [00:05:40] Ouch. [00:05:42] A temptation, a sin that keeps getting the better of us. A way in which our actions and our words don't line up. [00:05:51] Maybe lust, maybe anger, maybe gossip. [00:05:56] Sometimes these obstacles expose the limits of our compassion. [00:06:01] We find that we just can't be patient anymore. That is the end. [00:06:07] We struggle to forgive. We have trouble being reasonable. We stop listening. [00:06:15] And if it's not our character or compassion, it's our competence. We find and we hit problems that we just cannot solve. We need knowledge and wisdom that we don't have and we cannot seem to learn. We research, we study, we read, we ask questions, and it's a blank. There are tasks that must be done, but we seem incapable of doing them. [00:06:44] There is a line, a limit. [00:06:48] So here's my question to you. [00:06:51] What do you do when you plunge your roots down and don't hit soil, but hit an insurmountable obstacle, hit this volcanic rock and can't go any further? [00:07:04] What do you do when you feel stuck, when you feel trapped, when you feel overwhelmed by the force of your problems, especially people problems like. Like Hannah felt. [00:07:17] One option is to pride your way out of it. [00:07:21] Run your mouth, pretend. Act like you know what you're doing. Cover your shame with some fig leaves and hope that God just isn't going to notice. [00:07:34] The other option is to trust God and his messiah king, who can bring life out of death, who can bring blessing, out of cursing, who can take sinful, rotten people and make them fit for new creation, for heaven itself, where our life will never be impeded. [00:08:03] As creatures, we're always going to have limits, even in heaven, and that's okay. But in the new creation, no longer will there be any unholy opposition to us in heaven. There will no longer be any curse, that feeling of frustration, the strangling of our souls. [00:08:23] Hannah's prayer is a prayer that steers us away from fig leaves and priding our way out of our problems. It's a prayer that steers us away from self confidence and prepares us for a way of trusting in God. [00:08:45] It's important for us to pay attention to this and to think very deeply about this. [00:08:51] The Holy Spirit places this bit of poetry right here at the beginning of this story to set our hearts in the right place for hearing the rest of the story. [00:09:02] Fascinatingly, he also puts another song in the exact middle or another piece of poetry in the exact middle of the books of Samuel in two Samuel one. And then he gives us another large poem at the end of Samuel at the books of Samuel in two Samuel 22. [00:09:20] Biblical scholar JP Folkelmann notes that these three pillars of poetry support the entire structure of the the books of Samuel. [00:09:30] And between these songs, songs about the Lord, songs about kingship and kingdom. [00:09:38] Between these songs, you'll find all kinds of interesting connections, reoccurring images of a rock of a horn that give us a lot to think about. But most importantly, they shape our thoughts, they shape our hearts about how we think about God, about how we think about his king and us as part of that kingdom. [00:10:02] So what we want to do this morning is pause with the spirit here at the beginning of one Samuel so that we can hear Hannah's heart. [00:10:12] And what happens as we begin is we see the very happy results of faith. [00:10:21] Let's start by hearing the words of a woman who has been rescued, who has struggled, who has been depressed and anxious and overwhelmed and put her trust in the Lord, but now has seen that faith vindicated. [00:10:41] What we'll see is that vindicated faith feels fantastic. [00:10:48] So in one Samuel one, we meet Hannah, a woman, as I said, facing deep depression and anxiety, and both were years in the making. [00:10:59] We remember, as we considered last time, the lord had closed her womb. She was unable to have children. Penina, a second wife, was an enemy striving against her, mocking her for not having children. [00:11:14] Elkanah, her husband, struggles to understand her and help her. Eli, the priest is quick to judge her and, as we'll learn later, is not paying attention to his own family. [00:11:28] And then, of course, there's her own heart, so troubled, so downcast that she can't even eat. [00:11:37] Then in this valley, in this dark place, in this overwhelming shame and grief and depression, she cries out to the Lord, seeking a son and seeking relief from her sorrows. [00:11:55] The Lord, of course, hears her prayer and then chooses to give her what she asks for. [00:12:03] He blesses her with the promise of a son, opens her womb, and then we read in verse 20. And she called his name Samuel, for she said, I have asked for him of the Lord. [00:12:24] Hannah's faith has been vindicated. [00:12:28] She had faith, of course, before her answer, and that's important to remember. [00:12:36] She trusted in the Lord before she knew he would give her what she asked for. [00:12:43] But you know what has happened now, this moment in the story we're in now. She is in this glorious position of having received what she asked for, having found what she sought. [00:12:57] What's happening in one Samuel two is that Hannah is offering a prayer on the other side of the crisis. [00:13:04] She put her faith in God, and now she sees her faith was not in vain. [00:13:11] And now let's notice a few things about her cheerfulness. [00:13:17] First, an exultant heart. [00:13:21] She says, my heart exalts in the Lord. [00:13:25] Now, exultation is more than being happy, it's triumph, right? Exaltation is jubilation. Exaltation is joy. Hannah has an exultant heart. [00:13:37] She's feeling joy. She's feeling energy in her body. She's like the leper who returned to thank Jesus after he was healed. [00:13:48] As a result, she's doing what later in history, the apostle James says to do. In James 513, he says, if anyone among you is suffering, let him pray. [00:14:02] Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. [00:14:07] I'm sorry about the light. I actually like it a little bit when it's off, but I'm not sure what to do. I shouldn't have looked at that. [00:14:21] Yeah, you're all spots now. [00:14:27] Well, I'll continue on. We'll do our best to ignore it. How about that? [00:14:32] So Hannah has an exultant heart. She's rejoicing. [00:14:36] What's the second thing? She has? An exalted horn. [00:14:42] What is this horn that Hannah speaks of? [00:14:46] Now, let's start with exaltation. Exaltation means lifted up in glory. The image that comes to my mind is the sports team that wins the championship and raises that trophy in victory. [00:14:59] But Hannah doesn't talk about a trophy. She talks about a horn. [00:15:03] Now, this horn is like the horn of an animal, right? In the ancient world and even today, in some cultures, an animal's horn symbolized power and strength. That makes sense, right? This is their tool, this is their glory. Psalm 92 ten, for example, says, you have exalted my horn like that of a wild ox. [00:15:27] Then it says, you have poured over me fresh oil. Now, these two things might seem disconnected, right? Raising one's horn and feeling the strength and power like a wild ox and having fresh oil poured over. But they're not disconnected. [00:15:46] And that's because in the ancient world, oftentimes kings and priests and prophets were anointed with oil poured from an animal's horn. So there's kind of multiple layers going on here. Horns were also used in the crowns of and depictions of various gods and kings throughout Mesopotamia, horns were a symbol of kingly power, strength. So borrowing from the animal world and applying that metaphorically to our own lives. [00:16:19] So basically, Hannah is thinking of herself as powerful. [00:16:23] She's thinking of herself as victorious, as even royal princess Hannah. [00:16:32] She's anointed Hannah, joyful handed, victorious Hannah in her success and power. But where did this come from? Where did this power, this success, this joy, this exaltation, come from? Well, of course, she says, from the Lord. [00:16:50] My heart exalts in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. [00:16:57] So we have her expressive heart and her exalted horn. Now we have her expressive mouth, is how I'm putting it. The last part of verse one says this, my mouth derides my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation. [00:17:13] If we translated it a little more woodenly, it would say something like this. It begins with the verb, so it opens it being her mouth. It opens my mouth over my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation. [00:17:30] It opens my mouth over my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation. [00:17:38] So it could mean this opening of the mouth over enemies could mean deriding one's enemies. But I think it's more likely that what Hannah is doing is praising. [00:17:50] This is what the scriptures, I think, point us to. [00:17:53] Hannah is certainly speaking with her enemies in mind. Where her enemies would have had her be silent and ashamed and feeling terrible, she now speaks freely. But how does she speak? Her mouth opens because she's rejoicing. Her mouth opens because she's rejoicing in God's salvation. [00:18:16] Despite her enemies, which still exist, mind you, Hannah is happy instead of sad. She's feeling strong instead of feeling weak and is no longer silent but is praising God. [00:18:31] Hannah trusted God. God rewarded her. [00:18:36] She's a happy lady. Her faith has been vindicated and it feels fantastic. [00:18:46] Now in the prayer, we come to two reasons that she gives about why we should also trust in God, why we should trust in God ourselves. [00:18:59] The first is because he is who he is. The second is because he will do things he says he will do. So let's think about that first one. The first reason we should trust in God is because he is who he is. And Hannah has a lot to say about this. Let's focus on just three things to remember. [00:19:20] First, we should trust God because he is a God of knowledge. This is what she says in verse three. [00:19:29] The Lord Yahweh is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. We should trust him. We should trust Yahweh, the Lord, because he is a God of knowledge. He's not like the false gods who know nothing, who can do nothing, who are powerless to save. He knows everything. [00:19:53] God knew Hannah's barrenness. God knew paninna's cruelty. God knew Eli's faults. God knew much, much more. [00:20:03] Psalm 44 21 says that God knows, excuse me, the secrets of the heart. [00:20:13] Who knows the secrets of the heart but God? [00:20:17] Psalm 147 five says, great is our Lord, abundant in power. His understanding is beyond measure. You can't even measure it. It's impossible. [00:20:31] The second thing I want you to consider with regard to what Hannah prays is that God's knowledge leads to perfect judgment. She says, the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. [00:20:46] Consider Jeremiah 1710. [00:20:49] I, the Lord, search the heart and test the mind to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds. [00:21:01] God, in his assessments about what he knows is accurate. [00:21:07] Sometimes we get information in our lives and it tricks us up. It fools us. Empty promises, fancy words, fancy dress. These things don't muck up God. They don't confuse him. They don't distract him. He knows perfectly. He assesses perfectly, he judges perfectly. [00:21:30] This will become a very important theme throughout the books of Samuel. I'll give you one verse which you might recognize if you're familiar with these stories. [00:21:41] In one Samuel 16 seven, the Lord says this to Samuel with regard to choosing kings. [00:21:51] He says, do not look on his appearance or the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the Lord sees not as man sees, but the Lord looks on the out. Man looks on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart. [00:22:11] The Lord isn't fooled the Lord knows. He can assess. He can judge. And that leads us to the third thing. He can act. He has the power to work. God not only knows perfectly, assesses righteously and wisely, but he can do something about it. And that's what Hannah says in verses four through eight. [00:22:35] If you take a look at it and let your eyes scan over this section, you will see one by one of this magnificent section, the Lord. [00:22:44] Hannah praising the Lord for his ability to make what is normally impossible a reality. [00:22:53] The Lord breaks the bows of the mighty and weakens those who are feeble. He fills the hungry and makes those who are full search for bread. He kills. He raises to life. He closes the womb. He opens the womb. He can do anything and everything he wants because of his knowledge, because of his righteous judgment, and because of his power. Hannah begins this section rightly by saying this in verse two. [00:23:28] She says, there is none holy like the Lord, for there is none besides you. There is no rock like our God. [00:23:39] That's a confession of faith, isn't it? [00:23:42] It's a confession of faith here. Confessed directly to the Lord and by the Holy Spirit. By the grace of the Holy Spirit, we get to hear it. [00:23:52] We get to hear this confession of faith. And we say, with our trophies held up, amen. That's right, victorious Hannah, your faith was placed well because it was placed in the Lord. And there's none wholly like the Lord. There's none besides you. There is no rock like our God. [00:24:15] And if all this. [00:24:17] If all of this knowledge of God, all of this praise of God, all of this work of God is displayed in this miracle of opening Hannah's womb, how much more in his opening of Jesus tomb, when the Lord who came into the world and suffered and died, was risen from the dead and soon would ascend into heaven and be seated on the great throne of God when you are struggling in your faith, reread Hannah's prayer. [00:24:56] Memorize Hannah's prayer so that you won't forget who God is. [00:25:03] And then once you remember who God is, you'll want to hear what Hannah has to say about what God is going to do. [00:25:14] Hannah doesn't ground her hope in this or that circumstance, but in the un eternal, unchangeable nature of goddesse. And she closes her prayer not by clinging to her present circumstances, but to God and his promises about the future. Things that God himself has sworn and that we can all put our hope in. [00:25:36] Let's listen to what she says again. Three things. [00:25:42] First, God has promised to guard the righteous. Second, destroy their adversaries. And three do so through his glorious king. [00:25:54] Let's begin with the last of these three. [00:25:56] Hannah becomes something of a prophet. Here. She rings the bell of the coming kingdom of God. [00:26:05] No one's mentioned a king for a while. In the Bible. [00:26:10] Israel has been ruled over a number of judges. Samuel, who will be their next one? But she knows something is coming. [00:26:20] She knows a king is coming and that God will exalt him and give his strength to the king and exalt the horn of his anointed. [00:26:33] And what does anointed mean? How do we translate that? Or how is it? Or what's it translated from? From Messiah. From Christ. He will exalt the horn of his messiah. [00:26:46] Now, as she speaks of this king, this glorious king, as she rings this bell telling of the coming kingdom, we see that it's a kingdom. We will come to see that it's a kingdom that will be promised to David and prefigured in him, in David's rule. But that kingdom and that king will not come to full fruition until David's royal grandson, and also his lord, comes into the world and inaugurates the final kingdom of God, the kingdom of heaven. That same kingdom that we hear, repent, and believe. For the kingdom of heaven is at hand. [00:27:28] For Hannah, this is a very future hope. [00:27:33] It is much, much closer for us, isn't it? [00:27:38] Although the Lord has not yet come to judge the world at the great resurrection, he's not yet returned. He is currently extending his rule and his judgment to the ends of the earth, ruling in the midst of his enemies, as the scriptures say, ruling in a way that hearts are being changed, the lost are being gathered in, the dead are being kept. [00:28:05] Unto that great, glorious resurrection day. [00:28:10] We see his work in the changing of hearts. We see his work in the guiding of our steps. [00:28:17] Which brings us to the first of these three things. [00:28:22] He says, or she says in verse nine, he will guard the feet of his faithful ones. He will guard the feet of his faithful ones. [00:28:33] In Colossians three one five, Paul tells us to consider the risen and reigning Christ our king, with whom we are seated within power. Listen to these words. Listen to this kingly language and our connection with it. From Colossians three one five, Paul writes, if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. [00:29:01] Set your minds on things that are above, not things that are on the earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ who is your life appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. [00:29:24] So in light of that reality, we have died, we have risen to life. And the glorious nature of that resurrected life which we now have will appear when he appears in his glory. [00:29:41] So in light of that, then Paul tells us one of the things we need to do about that. In verses five through seven, he says to this, he says this, put to death. Therefore, what is earthly in you? Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. On account of these, the wrath of God is coming in these two. You once walked when you were living in them. [00:30:10] Hear that language of feet. Hear that language of walking. All connected with who our king is. We are dead according to these things. We once walked in them because we were living in them. But what do we live in now in Christ in his glory, in his resurrection, in his seating. We were once living in those things, but now the power of resurrection, the power of new life, if I could say the power of the kingdom has come. [00:30:46] We have been born again to a new and living hope. We once walked in the things of this world because we were living in them. Of course we walked in them. But now, because of the death of Christ and our place in him, we are dead in them. And this is one of the ways, beloved, that God guards your steps. [00:31:10] He not only provides a new path for you to walk, but he also changes the internal principle of the power by which you walk. [00:31:21] You have been endowed with the power of King Jesus. You might say that your horn has been exalted, that you are an anointed one in him. [00:31:35] Sin and death have been dealt with. And so Paul says again from Colossians two six. As you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him. [00:31:49] Here's another great verse that ties these things together, and there's many, many more, but just one more from Ephesians 210. [00:31:57] For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. [00:32:09] The promise to guard the righteous is put in terms of feet in verse nine. He will guard the feet of his faithful ones. [00:32:17] He will guard our conduct. He will guard our movement. He will keep us on the right path, and he will help us not to stumble as we go. [00:32:28] And when we stumble, the Lord picks us up and lifts us and guards us and carries us on. [00:32:36] Why? Because these are the works that he's already created us to do. This is the path that he set us on, and we have the power of Christ and his spirit in us. [00:32:48] We can walk in the newness of life because we walk in Christ. [00:32:54] And for this we ought to rejoice and we ought to sing with Hannah or with the psalmist in psalm 116 eight. [00:33:03] For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. [00:33:12] For you have delivered my soul from death, my eyes from tears, my feet from stumbling. [00:33:22] The last thing we'll mention as we think about what the Lord promises to do with regard to our adversaries, our enemies, the protection of our walking, the protection of our lives, the wiping away of our tears, includes and must include the defeat of our enemies. [00:33:44] Staying in Colossians still, in chapter two, verse 15, Paul tells us that on the cross Jesus, quote, disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them in him. Or God put to death rulers and author. I'm sorry. God disarmed rulers and authorities and put them to open shame by triumphing over them. In Christ on the cross, the enemies of the Lord Jesus rejoiced when he was put to death. They felt that they had accomplished their mission. They had killed the son of God. They had killed the king. And they mocked him, of course, with a crown of thorns on his head, the king of the Jews on the cross displaying him publicly for all people to see. [00:34:39] But what was happening at that moment was the great reversal that Hannah talks about here in for Samuel two. [00:34:53] He's crucified, he's dying, and he's eventually dead. And what the scriptures say is at that moment the Lord God is disarming the rulers and authorities at the moment at which they feel the height of their power, at the moment in which they are saying, our horn is exalted, we have defeated the king. It was at that moment that they were being disarmed, that their horn, their power, their swords, their strength was being removed. It was at that moment when the Lord died. Because he was defeating death, he was undoing the curse. He was a perfect sacrifice for sin. So that Satan would no longer be able to control us with the fear of death, he put them to shame. [00:35:57] Now, the enemies of Christ still remain. The scriptures tell us so when we see it everywhere. There are people who persecute him, who persecute his people, but they cover themselves with fig leaves. [00:36:10] It's a lot of talk. [00:36:13] The reality is, the reality that Hannah sees and that we should see is that they stand in shame of the shame in the knowledge of their eventual total failure. [00:36:28] Now, this is a great encouragement to the faithful of the Lord and those who call out to him and love him and belong to him. It is also a great warning to those who would seek to destroy the Lord, a fight against the Lord and his people. [00:36:47] It's a warning that we have to hear very carefully and seriously. [00:36:54] In all of Hannah's prayer, one verse jumps out among all the rest, in which she offers not just praise to God himself, but instructions for those who might be listening, including us. [00:37:08] What does she say? Where does it happen? It happens in verse three when she says, talk no more, so very proudly. Let not arrogance come from your mouth. [00:37:22] Talk no more, so very proudly. Let not arrogance come from your mouth. [00:37:29] And then she grounds that in the glorious truths that we've considered, the Lord's knowledge, the Lord's ability to judge and act, some refuse to trust God. They cling to their pride, their self confidence. They think they can solve their problems on their own. [00:37:52] These limits that I'm experiencing, I'll eventually get through it. [00:37:58] This is a dangerous plan, and we're all tempted to do it in the flesh. [00:38:08] We're all tempted to neglect the Lord or sometimes even fight against the Lord. What's the antidote? What's the antidote to our pride? What's the antidote to running our mouths and ignoring him and his promises and his strength and these great reversals that he says he is capable of and that we see him capable of? [00:38:31] The antidote to our pride is to remember these reversals in verses four and following, and to remember chiefly the cross. [00:38:42] God does not look at our striving without him. [00:38:46] God does not see us toiling away on our own, rejecting him, ignoring him, and then pat us on the back and say, hey, way to get after it. [00:38:58] What does he do? [00:39:02] Hannah says in verse nine, not by might shall man prevail. [00:39:14] Not by might shall man prevail. [00:39:17] It's not going to happen that way. [00:39:22] And so the Lord, in his justice and also in his compassion for foolish people like me who get prideful and run our mouths, he breaks us. [00:39:40] He breaks the bows of this mighty and shows them that their bows aren't as hot as they thought they were. [00:39:47] He takes away their bread and says, and reminds us that we must be dependent on him for our daily bread. [00:39:57] He makes us poor. [00:40:00] He causes us to struggle. [00:40:03] He takes away our money, our health, all kinds of other things. Sometimes the Lord makes us face our limits, the limits of our compassion, the limits of our character, the limits of our competence, so that we would find him, so that we would not try to prevail in our own strength, but in his, which is inexhaustible, never ending, deeper than anything you can imagine, wider and farther than any way you can go. [00:40:40] The Lord in his grace is calling us to stop trusting in things that cannot save us. And look to him and said, who is offering us his salvation? [00:40:52] Nothing is as powerful as God. [00:40:56] Nothing can save us except for him. [00:41:01] Hannah knows and has perhaps learned herself that self confidence, the source of our problems, and it leads to our destruction. [00:41:13] And for those who are persecuted by the lovers of this world, this is news of great joy. [00:41:19] To know that God will guard us against the wicked, against the wickedness in ourselves and against the wicked in the world. This is the sound of victory, to hear the Lord saying, the wicked shall be cut off in darkness. This is the roar of the lion of Judah as God makes his mighty promises to us. [00:41:45] But it's also good news for the enemies of God. This passage, because the lion of Judah, as we learn in revelation, is also the sacrificial lamb who is broken and slain to take away the sins of the world. [00:42:02] When we put our faith in him, he saves us not only from others, but he saves us from herself in her salvation. In this moment, where her faith is vindicated, Hannah says, talk no more. So very proudly and given that this is a prayer, I think she was saying it to herself. [00:42:26] I'm going to follow her example, and you should, too. [00:42:32] Talk no more so very proudly, o my soul. [00:42:37] But bless and trust the Lord, the God of your salvation, and the risen king Jesus, who has been exalted and is coming again. [00:42:52] Self trust, self confidence. Filling our mouths with empty words does nothing good for us. Worse, that kind of pride destroys us. [00:43:03] Hannah's prayer, given to us by the Holy Spirit, points another way. [00:43:10] The work that God does in our life and the truths about him remind us. They help us to let go of any remaining pride that we have and to put our confidence in Christ, who will guard every single step of yours between now and the resurrection and forever. [00:43:33] Let's pray. [00:43:36] Our heavenly Father, our hearts rejoice with Hannah's and all the saints who have gone before you and the angels in heaven who cry out, worthy is the lamb who is slain to open the scroll. [00:43:52] We rejoice with you, remembering the strength that you have, the power that you have exhibited in rescuing your people in opening wombs, in bringing down the mighty, in raising up the poor from the dust and the ash heap. [00:44:16] O Lord, only you can take those who are so needy and hungry and make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. [00:44:28] We see ourselves in these verses. [00:44:31] We see ourselves as the anointed ones. For we have been anointed in Christ. [00:44:38] We have died with him. We live with him. We have been anointed by his spirit. We have been made, as your scriptures testify, a kingdom of priests, all to the glory of your name. [00:44:52] Lord, this is not our own doing. It is not by our might that we have prevailed. But by the mighty and amazing grace of God, of you, our king and our Lord. [00:45:07] We ask this morning that as we reflect on the various limits in our own lives, the boundaries of which we face, the obstacles that feel insurmountable, that you would help us to give up on ourselves, to consider all of the tools and strengths of this world as Paul did, as rubbish. That we might put our faith only and always in you. [00:45:33] If you give us a bow, let us use it for the Lord and for your glory. [00:45:39] If you give us life, if you give us honor, if you give us food, if you give us children, let us live it, enjoy it, and proclaim it all for you and in your name. [00:45:55] For there is none holy like you. There is none besides you. There is no rock like our God. [00:46:03] In the name of the Messiah, the exalted king, we pray. Amen.