Well, I invite you to turn tonight as we have now our second sermon in the book of 1 Samuel to 1 Samuel chapter 1, that's found on page 288. 1 Samuel 1, we'll be picking up at verse 21 and reading through Hannah's prayer, which is the focus tonight. Let's give our attention tonight to the word of the Lord, beginning at verse 21. The man Elkanah and all his house went up to offer to the Lord the yearly sacrifice and to pay his vow but hannah did not go up for she said to her husband as soon as the child is weaned i will bring him so that he may appear in the presence of the lord and dwell there forever elkanah her husband said to her do what seems best to you wait until you've weaned him only may the lord establish his word so the woman remained and nursed her son until she weaned him and when she had weaned him she took him up with her along with a three-year-old bull and ephaph a flower and a skin of wine and she brought him to the house of the lord at shiloh and the child was young then they slaughtered the bull and they brought the child to eli and she said oh my lord as you live my lord i am the woman who was standing here in your presence praying to the lord for this child i prayed and the lord has granted me my petition that i made to him therefore i have lent him to the Lord as long as he lives he is lent to the Lord and she worshiped and he worshiped the Lord there and Hannah prayed and said my heart exalts in the Lord my horn is exalted in the Lord my mouth derides my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation there is none holy like the Lord for there is none beside you there is no rock like our God talk no more so very proudly let no arrogance come from your mouth for the lord is a god of knowledge and by him actions are weighed the bows of the mighty are broken but the feeble bind on strength those who were full have hired themselves out for bread but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger the barren has born seven and she has she who has many children is forlorn the lord kills and brings to life he brings down to sheol and raises up the lord makes poor and makes rich he brings low and he exalts he raises up the poor from the dust he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor for the pillars of the earth are the lord's and on them he has set the world he will guard the feet of his faithful ones but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness for not by might shall a man prevail the adversaries of the lord shall be broken to pieces against them he will thunder in heaven the lord will judge the ends of the earth he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed then elkanah went home to ramah and the boy was ministering to the lord in the presence of eli the priest and there ends the reading of God's Word. One of the things that I have most struggled with as a preacher is how to relate often personal experiences that we have in life to the larger story that God has told us of deliverance and of salvation all throughout the Scriptures. And of course, I worry a bit at times that preaching today is simply all about God solving all of our aches and our pains in this life as if that's the end goal to everything. This is a lot of what happens. That God is just here to fix your problems and we know well how to pander and pull on people's heartstrings and emotions in the hardships that they're going through. And in this way, what we do is that we make a God who exists for us to fix our problems and give us this pain-free life, which we know is really not something we always experience. We leave the impression that God exists for us often. So sometimes we shrink back from being in response to that too personal in our applications because it feels often narcissistic and selfish. After all, the story is much bigger than our personal problems, right? It's about Jesus, right? Of course. But after studying Samuel this week and thinking through this first section, it seems that what is before us in this opening chapter is this great dilemma. it solves this great dilemma for what it's doing is it's helping us to understand and appreciate how we are to look at our individual stories as importance as important and tied into the greater story and we can appreciate this if we can and look at exactly what hannah is showing us here then we're going to see this in light of the grand story of salvation and how god is teaching us things through these very things that we that we face and this is what i was moved with in the first section here of first samuel that we're up in the mountains we're up to uh a bunch of nobodies that nobody really knew in israel that was the remarkable thing about first samuel chapter one these people nobody really knew they were nobodies and god starts the story of a book of kings here we come to this nobody and then he zeros in on a little barren woman and her struggle with barrenness now before us that doesn't seem to be a very important beginning does it it doesn't seem to have much punch to it, to a book this grand about Solomon and David and kings and Saul and battles and warfare, but we start here. Well, there's many ways to begin this book and to look at how we should, and there's no doubt that one way is that these are lessons, as people sometimes present them moralistically on how to help people, and we should with these very real struggles in life, help them out of them. But I want to take that and show you tonight what God is doing in light of the grand story with her struggle. And I believe that's an important message for us. That's answered of what we see in Hannah's prayer in chapter 2, where she takes her awful hardship that meant a lot to her, that was incredibly burdensome to her, That was hard for her. And she talks about it of how the Lord helped her as she breaks into praise and then tells us what she learned through all of this. She learned to look at life differently after this. She learned to see and look at all of circumstances differently. That her individual experience in light of what this was saying about her God and how He saves all of Israel. And in this way, I hope to help you see tonight that all of the things and the hardships and the trials and the testings that we face in life have the specific goal of teaching us how He is bringing in His kingdom and His salvation. And you say, well, that's a pretty big leap. What do you mean? How He's bringing His kingdom and His salvation. Our little events in life teach us something about that? And the answer is yes. And hopefully that's clear by the time we're done. As we open up Hannah's prayer, we are particularly moved by how first Hannah is taken with her own deliverance. She's speaking with all of these personal pronouns in the first few verses here. And Hannah prayed and said, my heart exalts in the Lord, my horn is exalted in the Lord, my mouth derides my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation. You can't disconnect that with what just happened. What her experience was. It was a dark scene in chapter 1. She was the wife of Elkanah, who had another wife named Penina. They would come up and worship at the tabernacle at Shiloh. They would worship the Lord. And Penina, her room was open. Hannah's room was closed. And to be barren in that culture was one of the worst afflictions and worst things a woman could face. This was life to them. This was existence for them. So they would come up and Hannah would provoke her severely. What are you doing here? Why are you worshiping? God has not helped you. Look. Look at my children. They just keep coming. But you, why are you here praising the Lord? Why are you here thanking the Lord? You have no children. I think, as I said last time, it's important to feel her pain. For when Elkanah comes to her and questions her, she says so plainly in chapter 1, I am overwhelmed, I am overburdened with anxiety about this affliction. I am distressed, I am full of grief, I am full of vexation. That's how bad the pain is. so much so that she couldn't even get the words out of her mouth when she prayed full of crying and tears she spoke moving her lips with no words it's a prayer from the heart because the pain of the emotion and in her face and in her tears and on her mouth she couldn't get them out and we studied last time what that led her to do is that in this prayer as she cried out to the Lord with one of the most beautiful prayers she borrowed from Israel's history. She used the prayer of Israel's bondage in Egypt to the Lord when they cried out in their affliction asking the Lord to remember them and come and deliver them. By the time we ended chapter 1, there in her arms is the baby boy. In one chapter, God had solved the problem. When we open up chapter 2, we are at the height of praise. My heart sings for joy. The highest of all joys, she has gone in one season to another season from the depths all the way to the heights. Now we looked at the importance of this. Many people do suffer terrible things in life and it's perplexing to us for often it's believers. Often it's believers. And we struggle with exactly what God is doing. And we struggle with why God would afflict us in such a way. And we often can't find the answer to these things. We can't read providence. We don't have answers to these things. And in the middle of the pits that we fall in and stumble in, it is painful. It is hard and we don't understand and can't answer the question as to the why. But we get some sense of the purpose when we're out of it. We get some sense of the purpose when we've come out and we've again are able in fullness of joy when He's turned our mourning into laughter. When He's turned our sorrow into joy. And we've learned things. And we certainly do learn things. God gives great release, doesn't He? God loves to pull up out of the pit, doesn't He? He loves to help in this life. Ultimately, the greatest help comes in the resurrection. And I'm not at all denying that. But I don't want to also minimize what He does for us in life. And this is where we were. You have this afflicted, tormented woman in deep sorrow in chapter 1. Her rival, God has opened her womb. But two painful statements came out in chapter 1. But the Lord had closed Hannah's womb. In every case, the psalmist understood that oftentimes, not in every case, there are times when we dig our own pits because of sin. We'll come back to that thought. but that often the pits that we're in are pits that God dug for us. And that's hard. Why does He afflict? Why does He do this? The most painful thing to read in chapter 1 was in the midst of her thinking in bitter anguish, in vexation, in overwhelming tears, the Lord had done this. The Lord had closed the womb. the Lord had afflicted her. Now, the psalmists say this everywhere. Psalm 88. All your wrath lies heavy on me. You've afflicted me with all your waves. Your waves and your billows in another place have gone over me. He's teaching us something, isn't He? He's teaching us something constantly that when we're in the depths, when we have fallen, when everything is taken away and we come to places like this and it drives us to cry out to the Lord in this kind of trial and this kind of pain when we pray out in affliction to Him like this and He answers us, what does that do for us? Well, you're all here at some point. You will be. Sometimes you don't even know how you got there. What is this? And how many times looking over the course of life? Has the Lord helped you? How many times has He delivered you? How many times has He taken your hardships and your sorrows and turned them to joy? And you've experienced encouragement and strength. I read in the prayer, Psalm 103, bless the Lord, O my soul. I use this all the time. It's something you have to constantly remind yourself of. Bless the Lord, O my soul. And all that is within me, bless His holy name. Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits. And then He rehearses them. He not only, number one, forgives all your iniquities, but He heals your diseases. You can't say that, can you? Yeah. How many times pastors know this? Do you pray, and the Lord has heard and answered and lifted people out of the pit? He heals your diseases. He redeems your life from destruction. He pulls you out. He crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies. He renews your strength like the eagles. He fills your mouth with good things. Constantly he's doing this and he's doing it after periods of affliction so that you see something and that you learn something. The Lord has been so good to me and that he's pulled me out of the mire. What did he teach me? The beginning of the prayer is a righteous woman overwhelmed with praise for God, overcoming her plight, overcoming the hardship, the obstacle he had laid to his own promise as we looked at. Overcoming the mockery of her enemy. Listen to some of the psalms. I know, O Lord, that your rules are righteous and that in faithfulness you have afflicted me. Huh. It is good for me that I was afflicted, that I might learn your statutes. The whole first part of the prayer here, you'll notice, is so individual with that kind of thought. My heart exalts in the Lord. My horn is exalted in the Lord. My mouth derides my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation. There's none holy like the Lord for there's none beside you. There's no rock like our God. What is being shown to us in the first part? He took me down to raise me up. He took me down to lift me up on the rock. She's gone from the lowest depths to the greatest heights in one chapter as she holds a son. In fact, she keeps saying, for this child I prayed. You'll notice in that section preceding the song, for this child I prayed and the Lord has granted me my petition Samuel's name means asked for. She gave him the name asked for. I asked for Samuel from the Lord. I asked for the asked for one and you answered. That's a very individual experience. What has Hannah learned in this little deliverance? Well, there's something that God is always teaching us. This is not reading providence. This is reading what Scripture tells us to read. Every time He lifts us out of the pit, every time He turns our sorrows in this life to joy, which He ultimately will do in the resurrection, He is showing us the greater truth of His salvation. Every single time. But you don't look at life that way. I don't look at life that way. Because in the distress, we're often not only not crying out, but we're trying so desperately to beat it we're not seeing and thinking through it. And I love about this story as God is saying He's in the details. God is what we would think in the small things. God is what we would think are in the little things that every time He afflicts, it has in view that we would cry out to Him. And when the sorrow is turned to joy, we would see in that little story something of a greater story. that's how wonderful he is that's how involved he is i didn't quite know what to do with chapter one it just seems disconnected in this big powerful book of what we know is coming saul david kings battles warfare it seems disconnected from a little woman whose struggle of barrenness at the beginning of chapter 1 and what the book is about, the establishing of His kingdom with a king fulfilling a covenant and promise. It doesn't seem to go. It just doesn't seem to go, does it? What does the blessing when God turns sorrow into joy in this life, what does God really show? Listen to the psalm. Now you understand it. The bows of the mighty are broken. Verse 4, But the feeble bind on strength. Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger. The barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn. The Lord kills and brings to life. He brings down to Sheol and raises up. The Lord makes poor and makes rich. He brings low and He exalts. He raises up the poor from the dust. He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's and on them He has set the world. He will guard the feet of His faithful ones, but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness. For not by might shall a man prevail. The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken to pieces. Against them he will thunder. The Lord will judge to the ends of the earth. This God considered me. This God, this king. He helped me. And as he has lifted me out of the pit, he has taught me something about his whole salvation. This is how he builds his kingdom. But what do you mean? Penina represented something. She represented the wicked. She represented the battle of the seeds like we talked about last time. The strength in their boats. The world in opposition to the Lord and His anointed. Eli's house is the most corrupt priesthood in Israel's history. Illegitimate. they're lying with the women at the door of the tabernacle. God was protecting Hannah. What does she understand? It's not really Penina that she's thinking about. She's describing herself as a victorious army. The imagery she uses is that of an animal with his powerful horn that symbolizes power. And she says, my mouth is wide open. You have the imagery of an animal goring its enemies right into submission, devouring its prey. She's thinking about God's deliverance. She's thinking that in this birth, God is bringing about a deliverance for Israel as He always does in the past and He always will in the future. Her suffering is representing Israel's cry in bondage. Her suffering is representing in 1 Samuel Israel's affliction under this tyrannical leadership with no deliverer. Her barrenness symbolized Israel's barrenness. And with her little deliverance that He has blessed her with, my little salvation, my help, my pit, my cry, my lift up out. This is how God brings His whole salvation. You look at life that way? How often has He done this? That today you may be in the pit and uplifted tomorrow and you have a whole different view of life after that. You look at things differently. And this is what you should see. The greatest pit we ever dug was our sin. We threw ourselves in. And the righteous who cry out to the Lord. Those who squirm in the mire and the muck and feel all the pains of living in this world. He wants you to know when you cry, He delivers. He answers. He pulls you out. And He promises He will turn all of your sorrows to joy in the morning. All of this is the greater story that God has given us that when we ask of the Lord deliverance, there is one who we asked for. that he has answered and he's provided the lord will judge to the ends of the earth did you see the last verse of the song he will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed What Hannah sees is a greater truth. The greater reality of the opening of her womb is the testimony that God will open the womb of somebody else one day, overshadowing a womb. And she tells the enemies of the Lord, be careful. You have irrigated yourself over the Lord. Talk no more proudly. He's provided for us. He has given the barren seven children. The Lord, verse 6, kills and makes alive. He makes the poor rich. He brings the low and lifts up. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap and makes them inherit the throne of glory. What is the Lord doing? This, right now. You see, in verses 21-28, I finally understood when Hannah said, I'm going to pay my vow. And I'm going to give this blessing back to the Lord. She would give this son back to the Lord all the days of his life. It's remarkable, ultimately, where this takes us. I want you to turn tonight to Luke. I want you to turn to Luke 1. Just listen to it. The Magnificat. Verse 46. And Mary said, My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For He's looked on the humble estate of His servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed. For He who is mighty has done great things for me and holy is His name and His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation. He has sown strength with His arm. He's scattered, doesn't this sound familiar, the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He's brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate. He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich He sent away empty. Where'd she get this? He's helped His servant Israel in remembrance of His mercy as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and His offspring forever. She is the fulfillment in the long line of the One whom God would overshadow the womb and give you a king. And all of your cries throughout history, all the cries of God's people and all their pain, He's answered you. All your barrenness, all the sufferings, all the trials, all the afflictions, even the little ones, it all comes down to this. And the whole book of Samuel is about this. He will tear down Saul and raise up David. He will tear down the thrones of the mighty and give you Jesus, and He has. This is the bigger truth of what He's done for you. This is the bigger truth of His deliverance, and this is how we should look at all of life. He's answered you. He's answered your cry. He's answered your prayers. He's forgiven your sins. He sent you a deliverer. And that kind of understanding is what transforms us into a life of praise. And I think we should do that now in prayer. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for your faithfulness to your promises. And thank you for showing us the whole story unfold right here in Hannah's remarkable prayer. Showing us as Mary understood of what you've done in giving us a Savior. in opening the womb, giving Your eternal Son who would come here and take on human flesh and who is our King who lives and reigns forever, is seated today ruling all the enemies and giving us this grand deliverance. Encourage us in whatever we face then in this world to look to You and to remember You've heard our prayer in the little deliverances that You give us. Let us remember this, the greater story that we're a part of, for it has most certainly and always will turn our sorrow into joy as you have already done in Jesus. In His name we pray tonight. Amen.