1 Samuel 2: Hannah's Song and God's Signature Move

Introduction

On ABC radio in Melbourne, there is a show called "Changing Tracks". A listener writes in to describe a turning point in their life, often painful, sometimes bright, and the host, Raph Epstein, reads the story on air before playing the song that has stayed attached to that moment. That is how Nat Rosner opens his message, preached at St Jude's Anglican Church Carlton in a series on the first book of Samuel.

For him, 1 Samuel 1 and 2 are Hannah's "changing track": a woman who wept because she had no child, a son given, then handed back to Yahweh, and a song. Most of the songs on that show are sad. Hannah's is a song of joy: “My heart exults in Yahweh!”

The preacher follows the text of 1 Samuel 2:1-11 in three movements. Hannah rejoices in Yahweh's personal and powerful deliverance, in his signature move, and in his king. He ends with a question that concerns you directly: what is your own signature move?

Outline of the message

1. Hannah's "changing track"

Nat Rosner imagines the letter Hannah might have sent to the show. She lives in Ephraim, at the end of the time of the judges. She is married to Elkanah, but she has no children, while her husband's other wife, Peninnah, has sons and daughters.
Peninnah makes her life hard, especially each year at the time of the sacrifice at Shiloh. Elkanah tries to comfort her, gives her a double portion and tells her he is worth more to her than ten sons. “He didn't really understand.”
One year, at Shiloh, Hannah pours out her heart before Yahweh and asks for a son, promising to give him to Yahweh for his whole life. The priest Eli thinks she is drunk. When she explains that she is praying, he says to her: “Go in peace; and may the God of Israel grant your petition that you have asked of him.”
God hears, God answers: he gives her a son, Samuel. Once the child is weaned, Hannah keeps her promise and entrusts him to Yahweh, at Shiloh. “And here is my song, my song to God.”

2. A joy for Yahweh's personal and powerful deliverance (verses 1 to 3)

Throughout the song, the name "Yahweh" is the Hebrew name YHWH, the personal name God gave to Israel when he brought them out of slavery, when he introduced himself to Moses in Exodus 3 as the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Hannah knows this personal God, and he cared for her in a very personal way by answering her prayer.
She also sings of a powerful God: “My horn is exalted in Yahweh. My mouth is enlarged over my enemies, because I rejoice in your salvation.” The preacher admits it: Hannah sounds more like a victorious army than a young mother.
The word translated as strength means the horn: the image of an animal that has just won and lifts its horn. The proud ones of verse 3 may be these enemies: Peninnah, or others who looked down on her because she had no child.
This language also echoes the song of Moses in Exodus 15, after the exodus from Egypt. The same God, powerful enough to deliver Israel, is powerful enough to deliver Hannah. A first clue to the link between Hannah's story and Israel's.
Hannah responds with her whole being: her heart, her strength, her mouth. In the Bible, the heart is not only the seat of emotions, it is the center of the person, of their thoughts, their plans, their will. Her joy in Yahweh is complete.

3. When God doesn't answer the way you hoped

The previous week's message had reminded us: Hannah's story does not teach that God always gives what we ask. Jesus prays in Gethsemane, Paul prays about his thorn in the flesh, and their prayers are not answered the way they wanted.
If you have been a Christian for a while, you may have lived this: prayers for healing, or prayers to have a child, that did not receive the longed-for answer. “I don't want to minimize the pain we feel when that happens.”
The Bible is clear that God cares for you, that he is with you in your griefs, as you keep trusting in Jesus.
Hannah's song raises another question: do you rejoice in your salvation with your whole being, as she does? And when your personal, powerful God answers your prayers the way you desired, do you take the time to stop and thank him, the giver of every good gift?

4. Yahweh's signature move: the great reversal (verses 3 to 8)

You may have a signature move, something you do or say that makes others say: “That's so you.” The preacher mentions Taylor Swift's heart hands, Rafael Nadal's ritual before he serves, or Dustin Martin's famous "Don't Argue" in Australian football.
Yahweh's signature move is the reversal. He flips the usual order of the world: the rich no longer get richer, the poor no longer get poorer. He brings down the proud and lifts up the humble, because “Yahweh is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.”
“The bows of the mighty men are broken. Those who stumbled are girded with strength.” That is the Exodus. Slaves on the run, on foot, chased by Pharaoh's best chariots, and Yahweh closes the Red Sea over the Egyptian army.
“Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread”: the pastoral team had just read 1 Samuel 25, where a rich and proud man refuses to share his feast with David's hungry men, and where God humbles him.
“Yes, the barren has borne seven”: Hannah will actually have three sons and two daughters besides Samuel (1 Samuel 2:21). But seven is often the number of fullness in the Bible. God turned the distress of her barrenness into fullness, and Peninnah's joy was perhaps not as secure as she thought.
“Yahweh kills, and makes alive”: this is the reverse of the natural order, which goes from life to death. Out of death, Yahweh brings life.
Power, health, wealth, influence: it is tempting to look for security there. But these things do not keep their promises over time. “Nor is there any rock like our God”: he alone offers the stability and shelter of an immense rock. Putting your trust anywhere else makes you proud, and pride sets a person against God.

5. This move in Israel's history and to the ends of the earth (verses 8 to 10)

Hannah sees this move at Samuel's birth, and it continues in her son's life. Eli's sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are wicked and do not serve Yahweh: this prominent family is brought down, while the unknown Samuel becomes Israel's last judge.
The rest of the book confirms it. Saul, the son of an important man, taller than everyone by a head, is anointed Israel's first king. But his heart proves proud and stubborn, he disobeys, and Yahweh rejects him.
David, for his part, is the youngest of Jesse's sons. He is not even there when Samuel comes to anoint the king: someone has to go and fetch him from the sheep. Yahweh lifts up a humble shepherd to make him a king after his own heart.
The move extends to the whole earth: Yahweh is the creator, “for the pillars of the earth are Yahweh's”. He is holy, he will keep the feet of his holy ones, and the wicked will be put to silence in darkness.
“For by strength no man will prevail.” It is folly to think you can run your life on your own strength, trusting in governments, systems, technology or human ideologies. The picture of judgment is harsh, but for those who have suffered evil and injustice, it is also a comfort: one day, everything will be set right.

6. Joy for Yahweh's king

How will Yahweh carry out this judgment? Through his king. Hannah ends: “He will give strength to his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.” Yahweh lifted up Hannah's horn, and he will do the same for his king.
The word "anointed" is Messiah in Hebrew and Christ in Greek. The song ends on a question: who will this king be?
Much later, another humble young woman, a virgin this time, sings a very similar song in Luke 1: “He has put down princes from their thrones, and has exalted the lowly. He has filled the hungry with good things. He has sent the rich away empty.” Mary sings because Yahweh has promised her a son who will reign forever.
Jesus' signature move is Yahweh's. Born in a manger, raised as a carpenter, he spends time with outcasts, tax collectors, sinners, the poor, the lame, the blind, the lepers. He denounces the hypocrisy of the powerful. He dies an unjust and shameful death, in our place, and Yahweh brings him back to life.
“Yahweh kills, and makes alive.” Humanity throws everything against death, from medical research to the mind-uploading projects mentioned by Elon Musk. The preacher quotes the mathematician John Lennox, whom he loves to listen to: Jesus got there two thousand years ago, through his death and resurrection. He offers life beyond death to all who humble themselves and trust in him.

7. Do we see it today? No, not yet, and yes

If Jesus is king, do we see his signature move in the world? Nat Rosner gives three answers, all true at the same time: “No, not yet, but we will see it, and yes.”
No, often not: Jesus is king, but he does not yet reign in all his fullness. Many have not humbled themselves under his hand, the wicked persist, and his upside-down kingdom often stays hidden.
Not yet, but one day: when Jesus returns, every knee will bow before him. Those who humbled themselves will be lifted up, the proud brought down, and justice will be done.
And yes, partly right now, and it depends on us. The signature move of the Christian life is death and then life. Hannah sang her song after giving Samuel back to Yahweh, entrusting her future to him.
Jesus calls his disciples to take up their cross: to die to greed and give generously, to die to selfishness and love at your own expense, to die to comfort and serve with your gifts and your money, to die to lust and live in chastity if you are single, in faithfulness if you are married. “It's painful. It's costly. But it's the path to life.”
For the Church, this means that the homeless person matters as much as the influential person, that the weak are protected, the poor helped, the vulnerable surrounded, and that everyone hears the good news of Jesus' love. The Church of the first centuries took in babies abandoned on rubbish heaps, protected women, cared for the sick and collected money for the poor.

Key takeaways

Hannah rejoices with her whole being in a personal and powerful God, who delivered her as he delivered Israel from Egypt.
God does not always give what we ask, but he cares for you in your griefs. When he does answer, take the time to thank him.
Yahweh's signature move is the reversal: he brings down the proud, lifts up the humble and brings life out of death.
The king announced by Hannah and sung by Mary is Jesus, who died and rose again, and who offers life to those who humble themselves before him.
The Christian's signature move is death and then life: this is how God transforms the world through his Church.

Personal application

Do you rejoice in your salvation with all your heart, like Hannah, or has that joy faded?
Which prayer has God answered recently, and have you taken the time to thank him?
Where do you look for security: your health, your money, your influence, or the rock that God is?
What is Jesus calling you to die to this week so that his life may grow in you?
What would be, concretely, your church's signature move toward the poor, the weak and the vulnerable around it?

Verses cited

Frequently asked questions

Why does Hannah's song sound like a victory song?

Hannah speaks of her strength being lifted and her mouth opened against her enemies. The Hebrew word translated as strength means the horn, the image of an animal lifting its horn after a victory. For Nat Rosner, her song also echoes the song of Moses in Exodus 15: the God who delivered Israel from Egypt is powerful enough to deliver Hannah.

What is God's signature move in 1 Samuel 2?

It is the reversal: Yahweh brings down the proud and lifts up the humble. He breaks the bow of the mighty, satisfies the hungry, lets the barren bear children, kills and makes alive. Nat Rosner shows this move in Hannah's life, in the story of Eli and Samuel, of Saul and David, and fully in Jesus.

What is the link between Hannah's song and Mary's?

Hannah ends by announcing that Yahweh will raise up the strength of his anointed, a word that is Messiah in Hebrew and Christ in Greek. Centuries later, Mary sings a very similar song in Luke 1: God overthrows the mighty and lifts up the humble. The king announced by Hannah is Jesus, who died and rose again.