Psalm 113:8

Psalm 113:8

Hannah's Song

1 Samuel 2 records the wonderful Song of Hannah. You will remember that she was the wife of a man called Elkanah who also had another wife called Peninnah. Penenniah had produced sons and wives for her husband, but Hannah was barren and clearly felt that she was second rate and cursed for her infertility. Hannah’s rival often provoked her, reducing her to weep bitter tears. You will remember that the Tabernacle was housed in Shiloh at that time and the High Priest was an old man named Eli and most families tried to visit at least once per year. One day, Eli saw Hannah praying and weeping at the entrance to the Tabernacle and he thought she was drunk, in fact she was deep in prayer to the Lord for a son, whom she promised to give back to Him should a pregnancy ever take place. Eli took pity on Hannah and effectively promised her that the Lord God would grant what she had asked. The rest, as they say, is history. Samuel was born and after the weaning period of 3 years he was given to the Lord God and dedicated to serve Eli at the Tabernacle site. 

Hannah wrote a beautiful Song of Thanksgiving and in it, she speaks out some of the content of the Psalm that we are now reading. In other words, the psalmist copies Hannah’s Song in which she contrasts life and death, prosperity and adversity and respectability and poverty. All these are the work of a Sovereign God and His power alone determines the path that our lives will take. Hannah reflects on her own impoverished place in Elkanah’s family and realises that it is only by God’s grace that she produced a son and an heir. 

And that is the point. The poor may be lifted up to be seated with princes if that is what the Lord God determines. Conversely, princes may fall from grace and find themselves grovelling in the gutter with the poor, if that is what God decrees. We all have but one life to live, and it is a wise man or woman who entrusts that life wholly to the Lord and to His sovereign protection and guidance. 

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