Wednesday Devo
Scripture:
1 Samuel 2:1-11
Hannah’s Prayer of Praise
2 Then Hannah prayed:
“My heart rejoices in the Lord!
The Lord has made me strong.[a]
Now I have an answer for my enemies;
I rejoice because you rescued me.
2 No one is holy like the Lord!
There is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.
3 “Stop acting so proud and haughty!
Don’t speak with such arrogance!
For the Lord is a God who knows what you have done;
he will judge your actions.
4 The bow of the mighty is now broken,
and those who stumbled are now strong.
5 Those who were well fed are now starving,
and those who were starving are now full.
The childless woman now has seven children,
and the woman with many children wastes away.
6 The Lord gives both death and life;
he brings some down to the grave[b] but raises others up.
7 The Lord makes some poor and others rich;
he brings some down and lifts others up.
8 He lifts the poor from the dust
and the needy from the garbage dump.
He sets them among princes,
placing them in seats of honor.
For all the earth is the Lord’s,
and he has set the world in order.
9 “He will protect his faithful ones,
but the wicked will disappear in darkness.
No one will succeed by strength alone.
10 Those who fight against the Lord will be shattered.
He thunders against them from heaven;
the Lord judges throughout the earth.
He gives power to his king;
he increases the strength[c] of his anointed one.”
11 Then Elkanah returned home to Ramah without Samuel. And the boy served the Lord by assisting Eli the priest.
Hannah’s Prayer of Praise
2 Then Hannah prayed:
“My heart rejoices in the Lord!
The Lord has made me strong.[a]
Now I have an answer for my enemies;
I rejoice because you rescued me.
2 No one is holy like the Lord!
There is no one besides you;
there is no Rock like our God.
3 “Stop acting so proud and haughty!
Don’t speak with such arrogance!
For the Lord is a God who knows what you have done;
he will judge your actions.
4 The bow of the mighty is now broken,
and those who stumbled are now strong.
5 Those who were well fed are now starving,
and those who were starving are now full.
The childless woman now has seven children,
and the woman with many children wastes away.
6 The Lord gives both death and life;
he brings some down to the grave[b] but raises others up.
7 The Lord makes some poor and others rich;
he brings some down and lifts others up.
8 He lifts the poor from the dust
and the needy from the garbage dump.
He sets them among princes,
placing them in seats of honor.
For all the earth is the Lord’s,
and he has set the world in order.
9 “He will protect his faithful ones,
but the wicked will disappear in darkness.
No one will succeed by strength alone.
10 Those who fight against the Lord will be shattered.
He thunders against them from heaven;
the Lord judges throughout the earth.
He gives power to his king;
he increases the strength[c] of his anointed one.”
11 Then Elkanah returned home to Ramah without Samuel. And the boy served the Lord by assisting Eli the priest.
Commentary:
2:6 Sheol here refers to the place of the dead. In the Bible, it is usually found in idiomatic expressions such as “go down to Sheol” or “come up from Sheol.” God is also the One who raises up a soul from Sheol (e.g., Ps. 30:3), so he has authority over the dead as well as the living. He is the One who holds the key to Job’s question: “If a man dies, shall he live again?” (Job 14:14). Job remains confident: “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last he will stand upon the earth” (Job 19:25). Hannah affirms that same confidence.
2:7 The raising of the downtrodden that Hannah experiences prefigures the reversal of positions with Christ’s coming (Luke 1:48–53).
2:8 The Lord is sovereign over life, for he created and owns the world. The exact meaning of the word pillars (Hb. metsuqe) is not known, but there are similar expressions using the ordinary word for “pillars” (Hb. ‘ammudim; Job 9:6; Ps. 75:3) or “foundations” (2 Sam. 22:16). The reference to the foundation or support (“pillars”) of the earth is meaningful here, for the Lord upholds both the place where his people live as well as the moral order of this world; he protects his faithful, while he destroys the wicked (1 Sam. 2:9).
Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 493–494.
2:7 The raising of the downtrodden that Hannah experiences prefigures the reversal of positions with Christ’s coming (Luke 1:48–53).
2:8 The Lord is sovereign over life, for he created and owns the world. The exact meaning of the word pillars (Hb. metsuqe) is not known, but there are similar expressions using the ordinary word for “pillars” (Hb. ‘ammudim; Job 9:6; Ps. 75:3) or “foundations” (2 Sam. 22:16). The reference to the foundation or support (“pillars”) of the earth is meaningful here, for the Lord upholds both the place where his people live as well as the moral order of this world; he protects his faithful, while he destroys the wicked (1 Sam. 2:9).
Crossway Bibles, The ESV Study Bible (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2008), 493–494.
Questions:
Hannah keeps singing about the kind of God she has come to know. And she makes something very clear: God has a way of turning everything upside down. He brings down and He raises up. He makes poor and He makes rich. He brings people low and lifts them from the dust. The person everyone overlooks can be the very person God chooses to honor.
Hannah knew what that felt like. For years, she had been the woman without children. She knew what it was like to watch someone else have what she desperately wanted. She had been hurt, mocked, and pushed aside. But now she is celebrating the God who sees people the world doesn't always see. Hannah says that God can take someone from the dust and seat them among princes. In other words, our current position does not determine our value, and our current circumstances do not determine our future. God does.
We are constantly tempted to measure our lives by where we stand compared to everyone else. Who is ahead? Who has more? Who is more successful? Who gets noticed? Who seems to have everything together? But Hannah's song reminds us that God isn't impressed by the scoreboard we create for ourselves. He is the God who sees the person everyone else overlooks. He strengthens the weak. He feeds the hungry. He lifts the humble. And He brings down those who believe they have made themselves untouchable.
The gospel shows us this same pattern in an even greater way. Jesus willingly humbled Himself, took the place of a servant, and went all the way to the cross. Then God raised Him from the dead and exalted Him above every name. What looked like defeat became victory. The God who holds the pillars of the earth is the God who lifts people out of the dust. Our circumstances may change. Our position may change. But God is still the One who holds us.
Hannah knew what that felt like. For years, she had been the woman without children. She knew what it was like to watch someone else have what she desperately wanted. She had been hurt, mocked, and pushed aside. But now she is celebrating the God who sees people the world doesn't always see. Hannah says that God can take someone from the dust and seat them among princes. In other words, our current position does not determine our value, and our current circumstances do not determine our future. God does.
We are constantly tempted to measure our lives by where we stand compared to everyone else. Who is ahead? Who has more? Who is more successful? Who gets noticed? Who seems to have everything together? But Hannah's song reminds us that God isn't impressed by the scoreboard we create for ourselves. He is the God who sees the person everyone else overlooks. He strengthens the weak. He feeds the hungry. He lifts the humble. And He brings down those who believe they have made themselves untouchable.
The gospel shows us this same pattern in an even greater way. Jesus willingly humbled Himself, took the place of a servant, and went all the way to the cross. Then God raised Him from the dead and exalted Him above every name. What looked like defeat became victory. The God who holds the pillars of the earth is the God who lifts people out of the dust. Our circumstances may change. Our position may change. But God is still the One who holds us.
- Who are the people you naturally notice, admire, or consider successful, and who are the people you tend to overlook? What might Hannah's song expose about the way you measure a person's value?
- Why does it matter that God is the One who "lifts the poor from the dust and raises the needy from the garbage dump"? What does that tell us about the kind of people God delights to draw near to? And How does Jesus' willingness to welcome the overlooked, broken, and needy help us understand God's heart?
- Where are you tempted to believe that your current circumstances say something about your worth? What would change if you truly believed that your value comes from belonging to God rather than from your position, success, relationships, or circumstances?
Prayer Topics:
- Confess the ways you have measured yourself or others by success, status, appearance, possessions, or position rather than seeing people the way God does.
- Thank God that He sees the overlooked and draws near to the needy, and that your worth is not determined by your circumstances.
- Ask the Holy Spirit to give you eyes to notice people you might normally overlook and a heart that values what God values.
This Week's City 7:
Try to commit to memory!
3. Why did Jesus have to die on the cross? Since “all have sinned” and the “wages of sin is death,” Jesus had to die on the cross to pay the fine for my sin so I could be right with God.
(Romans 3:23, 5:8, 6:21-23, 2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 2:1-6; Colossians 1:13-14, 21-22)
(Romans 3:23, 5:8, 6:21-23, 2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 2:1-6; Colossians 1:13-14, 21-22)
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