1 Samuel 2:1-11

1 Samuel 2:1-11. The Song of Hannah

Hannah's song is a true prophecy. She is inspired "to discern in her own individual experience the universal laws of the divine economy, and to recognise its significance for the whole course of the Kingdom of God." The deliverance from her proud adversary which had just been vouchsafed to her was but one instance of the great principles of Jehovah's moral government of the world, principles which receive their fullest illustration in the exaltation of the Lord's Christ through humiliation to victory, and which will only he fully realised when "the kingdoms of this world shall have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his Christ." Hence it is that her own peculiar circumstances are so soon lost sight of in the wider view of the dealings of God's Providence. The failure to recognise this has led critics to deny the authenticity of the song, and to conjecture that some ancient triumphal war-pæan has been erroneously placed in Hannah's month by the compiler of the book.

A brief analysis will help to explain the connexion of thought.

"Jehovah is the sole author of my deliverance. He shall be the theme of my song.

There is none to be compared with Him for holiness, power, faithfulness: be silent before him, all ye proud boasters! He knows your thoughts and weighs your actions.

Observe the vicissitudes of human fortune: the haughty are humbled, the humble exalted: this is Jehovah's doing: for He is the Almighty Governor of the universe. He guides and guards His saints, and destroys the wicked.

May He finally discomfit his adversaries, judge the world, and establish the kingdom of His Anointed One!"

The Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55) should be carefully compared with Hannah's song, of which it is an echo rather than an imitation. The resemblance lies in thought and tone more than in actual language, and supplies a most delicate and valuable testimony to the appropriateness of this hymn to Hannah's circumstances. The 113th Psalm forms a connecting link between the two.