See the Big Picture. Dig In. Live It Out: A 5-Day Reading Plan in 1 SamuelSample

The Big Picture

We sometimes think of a psalm strictly as one of the 150 chapters of the book of Psalms, but in fact, one can find many psalms in other books. Hannah’s song of praise is such a psalm, and this event, a woman singing a psalm as an expression of her faith in Yahweh, would have been to an ancient Israelite a normal part of religious life. David was the most famous psalmist of Israel, but he was not the only one, and he was not the first. In fact, the psalms we have in the Bible represent only a tiny fraction of the psalms people sang through the history of ancient Israel. Most of them were never written down, just as most of our prayers are never written down. 

Hannah composed this psalm to give thanks to God for answered prayer. Even though it was her own composition, it was not entirely original. If you read the Psalms, you will see that they reuse many ideas several times, and sometimes one psalm will repeat phrases verbatim that are found in other psalms. Thus, one did not need to be highly gifted in composition to “create” a new psalm. Much of the psalm composition would be a matter of mixing and matching words and concepts that were part of the standard repertoire of psalms. Finally, although we do not know much about ancient Israelite music, it appears that they were sung to a fairly simple chant. For that reason, an ordinary person could sing a psalm (and all psalms were sung) without being a skilled or trained singer. We should not be surprised that Hannah created and sang a psalm in thanks for the grace she had received; for a pious Israelite woman, it was the normal thing to do. 

Digging In    

For us, perhaps the most remarkable thing about Hannah’s prayer is what she does not say: She never says, “I thank you, God, for giving me a son.” This does not mean that she was not grateful for the fact that God answered her earlier prayer and allowed her to have a son. Clearly, she was grateful for this, and she probably voiced her thanks in other, more specific, and private prayers. Psalms, however, are almost always general and non-specific. David often prays for deliverance from his enemies in the Psalms, but it is often unclear who these enemies were and what precisely they were doing. Often, we have very little information about what problem David specifically prays about in his psalms. Was he sick? Were his enemies closing in, or was it something else? We often don’t know. In the great psalm of confession, Psalm 51, David never mentions that he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and murdered Uriah (we only know that this is in the background of the psalm because of the heading, called a “superscript,” at the top of the psalm). 

The fact that the Psalms (including Hannah’s psalm) are non-specific is of great advantage to us as readers. It allows us to read and pray the psalms in our situation and apply the words of the psalm to our needs, sorrows, and joys. If the psalms were specific, they would be of historical interest but would be of much less value as texts of prayer and praise for us. Anyone, male or female, who has experienced answers to prayer and God’s help can pray Hannah’s psalm. It is not just for women who had been barren and who now have a baby. 

Hannah’s psalm is in four parts, as follows: opening praise to Yahweh (1 Sam. 2:1–2); exhortations against arrogant behavior (2:3–5); how Yahweh responds to arrogance and to humility (2:6–9); Yahweh’s future work of judgment and salvation (2:10).     

The opening praise begins with Hannah’s joy in Yahweh (v. 1) and then proceeds to describe the greatness of Yahweh (v. 2). This may seem logically backward as if we should assert first that God is great and then describe how we love him. But the Old Testament is often very personal, focusing on how humans feel and react first and then moving to theological concepts. That is what gives it such great appeal. Hannah says her heart exults, her horn is raised, and her mouth opens against her enemies (the NRSV translates “horn” as “strength” and translates “opens” as “derides”). The “heart” is the mind and personality; her whole being rejoices in God. The “horn” is a metaphor taken from how a ram or bull raises high its horns as a show of power and confidence; Hannah feels that God has given her great power and a victory. Her mouth is “open” in that she is not put to shame and silenced but can boast in God before all who hate her. Hannah did not necessarily have a large number of personal enemies (although her rival-wife Peninnah no doubt hated her). But language about one’s “enemies” is common in psalms; it is a literary motif. It describes anyone who might despise those who fear God. Hannah can rejoice because God has vindicated her. 

Verse 2 says there is no “Holy One” like Yahweh (NRSV). The other holy beings could be angels, but it is more likely that it refers to the gods of the nations. The Old Testament will often describe the other gods as though they were real for the purpose of making a comparison to Yahweh. For example, Exodus 15:11 says, “Lord, who is like you among the gods?” The nations have no one like Yahweh to turn to. Hannah then says there is “no one besides you,” indicating that the other gods do not exist at all. She finally says Yahweh is her incomparable “rock,” meaning that no other god offers such safety. 

In her exhortations against arrogant behavior (2:3–5), Hannah talks directly to her audience—those of us who hear or read her words. Psalms are not private prayers or meditations; they are given so that other people can learn from them. She tells us to avoid arrogant behavior and attitudes, warning us that God knows all and carefully weighs all our actions. Again, focusing on human experience, she then gives us three examples of what has befallen people who either did or did not heed her warning (vv. 4–5). Mighty warriors have suffered defeat (because of their arrogance), but physically weak people won victories (if in humility they sought God’s help). Rich people (who thought they did not need God) fell into poverty, but the poor (who trusted in God rather than wealth) never went hungry. A barren woman finds herself with a household full of children, but a woman who gave birth to many sons finds herself with no children to care for her. This last example obviously ties to Hannah’s own experience, in that she prayed to God for a son, but even so, her psalm is not meant to be read as autobiographical. This idea—that God gives children to the barren but leaves the arrogant woman with many sons destitute—is a biblical motif for how God exalts the lowly and humbles the proud (Isa. 54:1). 

When Hannah describes how Yahweh responds with hostility to arrogance but with compassion to humility (1 Sam. 2:6–10a), she asserts that it is not blind fate or “karma” that balances the scales. It is God who brings down the proud and exalts those that turn from their brokenness to him. We serve a living God, and we should take our fears to him. Also, Hannah’s psalm effectively equates pride with wickedness. In the Bible, the fear of God comes out of true humility and leads to a devout and upright life. 

In her account of Yahweh’s future work of judgment and salvation (2:10), Hannah first declares simply that God is great and will judge the wicked and then says he will give strength to his “king” and “anointed.” But when Hannah prayed, there was no king in Israel. This is what marks her psalm as truly inspired, just like the psalms of David. She foresaw that God’s great work of salvation would be in the anointed king. Although this was fulfilled in a limited way in David, we should remember that the word for “anointed” in Hebrew also means “Messiah.” 

Living It Out

Hannah exhorts those of us who are doing well to humble our- selves and those of us who are suffering to turn to God. A broken heart can drive us to God, but prosperity can drive us from him. It is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle (Matt. 19:24).