This is a wonderful outpouring of faith, in its language going immeasurably beyond the circumstances of the moment. We might suppose that the gift of a son to Hannah scarcely called for this. But God always has Christ before His mind, and His Spirit through the humble instrumentality of Samuel's mother spoke of Him as the ultimate resource of Israel and of the earth.
A king, therefore, was thus in God's mind. The fallen priesthood was no longer His link with men. A change was impending. The closing verses of the book of Ruth have prepared us for this. That charming production is at once an appendix to the book of Judges and an introduction to the books of Samuel and Kings. David's pedigree fittingly concludes it.
Although the birth of Samuel was the occasion of Hannah's prophetic outburst concerning the king, it was not he who was destined for the royal office. The man of God's choice appeared in God's time, after the man of the people's choice had brought disaster upon the nation. Yet not David, but Christ, is God's true Anointed. When God's time comes to bring Him upon the scene, He will indeed thunder out of the heavens, and all adversaries shall be broken to pieces. For Him we wait, at this late hour in the world's history, assured that nothing can really be right here until the iron scepter passes into His firm competent hand. “The Lord alone shall be exalted in that day” (Isa. 2:11).