"And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord, mine horn is exalted in the Lord; my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation. There is none holy as the Lord, for there is none beside thee, neither is there any rock like our God. Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth; for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength. They that were full have hired out themselves for bread, and they that were hungry ceased, so that the barren hath born seven, and she that hath many children is waxed feeble. The Lord killeth and maketh alive; he bringeth down to the grave and bringeth up. The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, he bringeth low and lifteth up. He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes and to make them inherit the throne of glory; for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them. He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them. The Lord shall judge the ends of the earth, and be shall give strength unto his king and exalt the horn of his anointed.—1 Sam. 2:1-111And Hannah prayed, and said, My heart rejoiceth in the Lord, mine horn is exalted in the Lord: my mouth is enlarged over mine enemies; because I rejoice in thy salvation. 2There is none holy as the Lord: for there is none beside thee: neither is there any rock like our God. 3Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth: for the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. 4The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength. 5They that were full have hired out themselves for bread; and they that were hungry ceased: so that the barren hath born seven; and she that hath many children is waxed feeble. 6The Lord killeth, and maketh alive: he bringeth down to the grave, and bringeth up. 7The Lord maketh poor, and maketh rich: he bringeth low, and lifteth up. 8He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he hath set the world upon them. 9He will keep the feet of his saints, and the wicked shall be silent in darkness; for by strength shall no man prevail. 10The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the Lord shall judge the ends of the earth; and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed. 11And Elkanah went to Ramah to his house. And the child did minister unto the Lord before Eli the priest. (1 Samuel 2:1‑11).
HANNAH was a saint without doubt, and the language of her lips is truly saintly! Let me stop and ask, are you a saint, my reader? I think I hear you say, “A saint? No! I could not take that ground!”
What ground will you take, then? You must either be in the condition of which Hannah speaks here in verse 9, “He will keep the feet of his saints," or in the condition of which she speaks in verse 10. "The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces.
What are you? Are you a saint? If not, you are an adversary. Hannah knew but two classes, and Hannah was right. And mark the difference! You are sure to be preserved if you are a saint of God. “He will keep the feet of his saints," and you are sure to be broken in pieces sooner or later, if you are an adversary.
I pray you face the truth of Scripture.
People often do not like to take the ground of being a saint, because if a man says he is a saint, people expect him to walk like a saint, and he does not like to face that.
What is a saint? It is the word most often employed in Scripture in speaking of God's people. You say, A saint is a very holy person. "That is what a saint ought to be.
“Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." A saint in Scripture, is one who is separated to God. And that is the great truth of Christianity, that by the work of Christ for you, and the work of the Holy Ghost in you, you, if a believer, are set apart to God, you are a saint. You were once a sinner in your sins, but you have been broken down, and have learned to know God, and to find your all in Him.
You will soon find out if you are a saint or no Hannah says, “My heart rejoiceth in the Lord." Do you rejoice in the Lord? Does your heart go out to Him? If not you are not a saint!
It is not rejoicing merely in what you have got from the Lord, but in the Lord Himself.
Do you know any experience like this of Hannah's, my reader? I am persuaded if you know anything of the Lord you do.
"I have everything in the Lord," Hannah says. She knows what every child of God knows, God's salvation. Hannah begins with the Lord and goes on with His salvation, and I find the Holy Ghost saying elsewhere, "Him that glorieth let him glory in the Lord.”
Do you ask, "How do I get salvation?" God offers it! You have only to take it! It is free.
The reason people do not get salvation is because they do not believe they need it! They do not believe they are lost!
Have you ever taken the ground of a lost sinner? Do you say, "I hope one day to be saved." My friend, do not trifle with God.
These things are realities, eternal realities. And God is holy, as Hannah says, “There is none holy as the Lord": Holiness is that which marks God. He is love, too, but He is holy, and He is not going to make light of your sin and your carelessness and your indifference to His salvation, “Without holiness no man shall see the Lord." "But," says some troubled soul." I have been finding out lately my own unholiness." Ah, my friend, it is a blessed moment in your history when you learn that. But now go farther, look outside yourself, look at the One who is perfectly holy, who was perfectly holy as He walked this earth, whom even the devils had to own as the Holy One, though they would not own Him as Lord then. In the coming day Satan and his myrmidons will all have to own Him as Lord, but even down here they were obliged to own Him as holy. He went back to God by the pathway of the cross, that He might save you and me. The Holy One of God suffered that terrible death on Calvary's tree, because the Holy God could not pass over sin. The very Holy One if He become the sin-bearer must suffer.
I see the holiness of God. at that cross, but I see the love of God, too, for He gave His only begotten Son to suffer there, the just in the room of us, the unjust, to bring us to God, God, in this chapter, by the lips of Hannah, addresses every heart: " Talk no more so exceeding proudly; let not arrogancy come out of your mouth." Whenever the sinner talks about himself, he is talking arrogance, and we know how this talking of self sticks to us. The last thing a person owns is, that there is no good thing in self. “For the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.”
You may be on very good terms with yourself, but the Lord knows better, He knows your heart; He reads you through and through.
He weighs not your words merely, but your actions. Do not forget that the Lord is a God of knowledge. I know people like to forget it.
Do not be like the ostrich, hide your head and fancy yourself secure because you do not see the danger.
A sinner does not like to have the eye of God on him, and Satan does his best to lull your conscience and keep it quiet, for conscience is the eye of God on us.
Do not think that your life is unmarked by God. You do not weigh your actions, very likely, but do not think that God does not, that He is as indifferent as you are, that He thinks nothing of your slighting His Gospel and His Son.
“By him actions are weighed." And what will you say to God when you stand before the great white throne, and every action of your life is made known, and the correct balance taken?
“The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength.”
Do you say, “I am a poor feeble sinner with nothing to commend myself to God." Then you are just fit for God, He will gird you with strength. Why is it you have never yet tasted the blessing of the Lord? Because you have been too full, full of your own doings, full of the world, full of yourself: He must empty you out.
Hannah says, “They that are full have hired themselves for bread," i.e., the Lord brings them down till they feel need. “And those that were hungry ceased." Why? Because God fills and satisfies them. This is very different from the world. The world thinks of the full, the rich, the great; God thinks of the poor, the feeble, the broken-hearted.
"The Lord killeth and maketh alive." I must bring you down to own you are nothing, God says, to own you are hungry, to own your need. How often God brings souls down to the gates of the grave, to give them blessing, to awaken them to their real state, and the realities of the world to come.
“The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, he bringeth low and lifteth up; " i.e., the Lord brings down a person, and then He exalts him.
Before Joseph got exaltation he was brought down to the pit and dungeon. The blessed Lord Himself went down to the grave, and God exalts Him. The only way to exaltation is by abasement, and if you will not humble yourself the day will come when the Lord will have to humble you.
The soul must come down to the spot where it owns itself a sinner and then God says I will bless you, I will meet you. God will take up the beggar, the man that has got nothing, and who lives on the dunghill. This is wig t God sees the sinner's state is to be. He has nothing, and his position is one of absolute repulsion. But God's love takes him out of it, “He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to make them inherit the throne of glory." Are you in the dust yet, my reader? Do you say "No." Then God cannot raise you. Do you say “Yes; I am a beggar, I have nothing to bring to God." Then God brings to you by the gospel, everything you need, not only the tidings of His love, but He lifts you up and seats you in Christ at His own right hand in glory.
Christ went down into the dust of death for me; God raised Him up out of it; the believer is in Christ. Therefore, when God raised up Christ He raised every believer, and gave them Christ's place in glory.
At God's right hand now is the One who humbled Himself on man's account, and God says, I propose to give to every believer, who takes his place in the dust, a part with my Son in the glory.
God lifts up the man who has no righteousness, no good works of his own, and sets him with Christ.
Look at the thief on the cross. He was in the dust of death; cast out of the world as too bad to live in it any longer, and gibbetted on a cross, but he turns to Christ and says, "Lord remember me when thou comest in thy kingdom," for he knew the Lord would so come, and what is the answer of the Lord? “Verily, I say unto thee, to-day shalt thou be with me in paradise; “and the Prince of Life goes into paradise, and who goes as his companion?
That poor thief taken from the jaws of death and hell, and put among princes; yea, with the very Prince and Lord of Life and Glory that day. This is grace! Had he any right?
None! It was free grace through righteousness, and this is how you and I must get there.
Do you say, “I take my true place in the dust, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.”
Then you are a saint. Have you believed the truth? Then you are a saint, and the Holy Ghost says, “He will keep the feet of his saints." “The wicked shall be silent in darkness." What is the believer's portion?
Everlasting glory, where everything is suited to God. What is the portion of the unsaved.?
To be silent in darkness. Oh, unsaved man or woman, what an awful future for you.
If it were possible that some of the songs of heaven could be wafted down to the pit where your terrible portion is, think what it would be to hear those notes of heavenly melody, and you could not sing them, You would have sealed your own doom by your careless indifference to the Gospel.
You have lived an adversary, and died an adversary, and you are among the adversaries "silent in darkness." Oh, believe on the Lord now. Own Him now; no longer be among the adversaries, but among the saints, the believers. Be on Christ's side, own what you are, own what Christ is, hear His own word, “Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out.”
W. T. P. W.