The Theme Song

6 · The pastor provides grammatical-historical exposition of verse 1, carefully defining the Hebrew semantic range of key terms—exult, horn, exalt—to establish what Hannah is declaring about her emotional and social transformation

Look at verse number one. And as we jump into the text, I'll give you a quick vocabulary check just to make sure that we're all tracking. We're all on the same page, and I'll do that kind of fast. So verse one. And Hannah prayed and said, my heart exalts in the Lord, and that's not a Word that we throw around too commonly and too often, my heart exults in the Lord. The first word is exalt. Can you say that with me? Exalt. To exalt basically means to rejoice greatly, to overflow with triumphant joy. So when Hannah says, my heart exalts in the Lord, what she's really saying is, my heart is bursting with joy in him. And it says, my horn is exalted in the Lord. And again, I've talked with many of you in between the services and I've never heard a testimony or anybody say, man, my horn is exalted, bro. And I'm like, okay, so what are we talking about? Second, the word is horn. It's not literal here, right? It's a metaphor. Horn in the Bible often means strength or dignity. Hannah is saying, the Lord has lifted up my strength or my standing, my dignity. Remember, she said that she was in misery. And that ties to the next word, exalt, which is not to be confused with exaltation. To exalt means to lift up. Hannah is rejoicing because the Lord has lifted her from a low place to a place of honor. And the verse goes on, my mouth derides my enemies because I rejoice in your salvation.

7 · The pastor expounds the meaning of God's holiness in verse 2, correcting a common reductionist understanding

Verse 2. There is none holy like the Lord, for there is none besides you. There is no rock like our God. Two important things we shouldn't miss in these two verses are the following. God is holy. There is none holy like the Lord. And what is. Have you ever thought, what does holy actually mean? Right? Because sometimes we can just think it just means without sin. But. And that is an aspect of it, right? That it's a moral cleanness. But when it describes God, it goes beyond that. Holy meaning, set apart, consecrated. She's describing God's utter distinctness, uniqueness and moral perfection. No one else is set apart in the way that he is. That's what sets the God of Israel apart from all the other so called gods of the nations. He has made this clear from the beginning.

8 · The pastor illustrates God's holiness by recalling the burning bush narrative where God commanded Moses to remove his sandals

But before we get to that, that beginning part, it's just when we say God is holy, we're saying there's no category for him. He's in his own category altogether. It's not fair, it's not fitting or right to put him in a category with anything else. He's otherly, I think back to the burning bush when he told Moses, do you remember this deliverer that God sent to Egypt to bring his people out? Do you remember what's the first relation that God had to him from the burning bush. Do you guys remember the first words that he said? Moses, Moses, take off your sandals. Because the feet, the. The ground that you are standing on, it's holy ground.

9 · The pastor establishes God's holiness as a programmatic theme for interpreting the rest of First and Second Samuel

That's something that God wants to leave super clear in his word, and especially in this song of hope. God's holiness is one of those central themes that we'll have to keep in mind as we read the rest of the books of Samuel. Knowing this is key to understanding even the very next event that starts in verse 12 that we're not getting into today.

10 · The pastor makes a theological assertion about God's purpose in suffering—hardship exists not merely to be resolved but to reveal God's character more deeply

So when Hannah praises God's holiness, she's testifying to what she has come to know of him through her waiting and pain. That's the other thing to observe, that she's just not busting out with this. He's wholly out of nowhere. She's been through quite the process. And here's what this means for us. When God allows us to go through waiting or hardship, his purpose isn't just to get us out of the difficulty, which is what we would all like, right? It's to show us more of himself.

11 · The pastor provides three biblical examples demonstrating the pattern that God reveals Himself more fully through and after suffering

Think about it. Moses saw God's glory after the wilderness. Job saw him more clearly after his suffering. Isaiah had a vision of his holiness in a time of crisis. Crisis. And Hannah, too, on the other side of her pain, has a deeper awareness of God's holiness.

12 · The pastor shifts to direct pastoral address, applying the principle of suffering-as-revelation to the congregation's present experiences

Friends, this is often what God is doing with us in hard seasons. Just want to encourage you today, he's giving us a greater revelation of himself. Where have you seen God's holiness or glory more clearly because of a trial you've walked through? How might your current difficulty, and we all probably have something big or small. How might your current difficulty be preparing for you to say, with Hannah, there's none holy like the Lord. We got to give the Lord those seasons, right? In order to see that revelation, not fight it out ourselves. But when we're going through these difficulties, surrendering, surrendering them to the Lord and letting him give a chance to reveal the greatness of his otherliness, to be there for us.

13 · The pastor provides grammatical-historical exposition of Hannah's use of the divine name YHWH, noting its frequency in the prayer and unpacking its covenant significance

Second thing to see in these verses, he is the Lord. Hannah doesn't just call God God, she calls him the Lord. And I don't know if you've seen in your text there, in your copy of God's Word, that Lord is all capitals. And when you see that, it means she's using the covenant name of God, Yahweh. Three times in these opening verses and nine times in the whole prayer, she leans on that name. And why? Because she knows him as the covenant keeping God. He is not distant or generic. He is the Lord who bound Himself to His people by promise and who never breaks his word. That that's why Hannah can trust him with her pain and her future. Because he's faithful to the covenant he made. We can do that too. That's why we trust in him. Because he is faithful to keep his promises and he will be faithful to keep us.

14 · The pastor moves from exegetical observation to theological assertion, connecting Hannah's use of YHWH to the doctrine of divine sovereignty

But notice something else. By using his covenant name, Hannah is also acknowledging his sovereignty. He is the Lord, the one who rules the the One who writes the story, who directs the rise and fall of leaders and nations. He is not a supporting actor in Israel's history. He is the main character. And that's true of our lives today. He's not our cheerleader. He's written our story. He is the main character of our lives. Everything that unfolds in the book of Samuel is under his covenant keeping, sovereign hand.

15 · The pastor signals completion of the first movement (God's character) and transitions to the second movement (God's actions)

So we're seeing the first part of the theme song of Hannah, which brings great hope. And she's praising God's character for who he is. Now the song moves her. Theme song begins by praising who he is, that he's holy, faithful and sovereign. But a good theme song doesn't just introduce the main character, it hints at the storyline. And that's exactly what happens in the next section. She moves from celebrating who he is to celebrating what he does.

16 · The pastor expounds verse 3's warning against pride, connecting it to the human tendency to trust in self-sufficiency and forget God's sovereignty

But look at the the warning. The verse three starts with talk no more, so very proudly. Let not arrogance come from your mouth. For the Lord is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed. This cuts right to the heart of Israel's problem. And I don't think it's just Israel problem, but it's ours too, by nature. We trust in our own strength. We sometimes act as if we're the one holding the pen and writing our own story. We can be tempted often to forget that God is the One who sees and he weighs all things. And this warning sets the stage for the great reversals that follow from verse four.

17 · The pastor introduces the reversal theme and distinguishes divine reversals from random chance by using a personal Uno story

And on we're going to see this great imagery of changes and. And reversals. And it's not. Again, it's not some random thing. And I want to make sure we see that, that God is in control. It's not by chance. I think of a funny story. Sorry, when I say reversal, sometimes I think of. I don't know why, but my mind went to holiday this year. During the holidays, Thanksgiving, Christmas, do you guys get together with your families and friends and neighbors and play board games? Or different types of card games. We play Uno and I just hate it when, you know, I'm like going great. And I have a blue card and it's my turn. And I'm like, this is my last blue one. You know, I made it. And the next car somebody pulls is a reversal card. And we got to reverse the order. And I'm like, that was my last blue. You know, my brother in law used to taunt me and say, cannery, what is it? Cannery yellow. And I'm like, why cannery? You know, the color of a canary or I don't know. But he would just cannery yellow sound. Cannery yellow. Reversal. So weird. But anyways, this is not that kind of reversal. This is a reversal that God is in control and drives.

18 · The pastor reads verses 4-8, highlighting the reversal pattern through vocal emphasis and repetition

Look at verse four. 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. You see the reversal. Those who have hungry have ceased to hunger. The baron, look at the reversal. Has born seven. But she who has many children, another reversal is forlorn. The Lord kills and brings to life. He brings down to Sheol and raises up. He's in control. The Lord makes the 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 and inherit a seat of honor. For the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and on them he has set the world

19 · The pastor pauses mid-exposition to apply the reversal pattern to the congregation's present circumstances

so. He's the one that fashioned creation right. So as Hannah's song shifts from who God is to what he does, notice the flow. Verse three gives the warning. Don't talk proudly, don't be arrogant. For the Lord is the God who knows and weighs all things. And then in verses 48, he shows us why he is the God of reversals. The mighty break, the feeble are strengthened on and on. He humbles and exalts. He praises the poor from the dust and seat them with princes. So I want to pause real quick here and just think about that. Whatever the status is of our life right now, the Lord sees it and the Lord knows it. It's not by our might, and it's not by anything we can boast of or anything that we have written. But that's where God and his providence has us. Amen. This is Hannah's story, but it's more than Hannah's story.

20 · The pastor cites Tim Chester to establish that Hannah's experience is programmatic—a picture of God's pattern with His people

As Tim Chester puts it in his book, what the holy Lord has done for Hannah is a picture of what he will do for his people. This is God's pattern. He opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. We see that in Proverbs and in James, and we'll see it again again in first and second Samuel. And it has gospels all the way into the Gospel story and itself. So this section of reversals, this is both a warning and a comfort. If you cling to pride, trusting in your own strength, God will bring you low. But if you are humble and dependent on him, even in weakness or in need or obscurity, take heart. We serve a God who delights to lift up those who trust him according to his wise and perfect purpose purposes.

21 · Direct application question asking listeners to identify areas where God is calling them to humility and dependence

How might God be inviting you to humble yourself and rely on him in the meek, in the midst of weakness and uncertainty?

22 · The pastor applies the sovereignty theme polemically, contrasting Hannah's trust in YHWH's reversals with contemporary spiritual manipulation—horoscopes, crystals, manifesting

And another thing that the Lord impressed upon my heart just this morning as an application point. You know, when we're in difficult situations, we get real desperate sometimes, right? And it's hard to trust God's processes. And we're looking for another avenue, another way, because we think God doesn't see and weigh all the actions like the Word tells us. Notice, these reversals don't come from chance or fate or human schemes. They don't come from trying to manipulate the spiritual world through things like witchcraft or spells or the kind of spiritual shortcuts that even Saul himself will tragically seek later in this book. No, the Lord alone weighs actions. He humbles and exalts. And that's important for us too. In our culture, people still run after things like horoscopes and crystals. And manifesting is real big right now and some kind of self made spirituality. We cannot manifest ourselves out of God's will for our plan. God's will and plan for our lives, brothers and sisters. The Hannah song reminds us that the living God, not superstition, not human, not human control, is the one who rules history and writes our story. Amen.

23 · The pastor signals the third and final movement of the sermon—from God's character and actions to God's future plan

So now the song takes an interesting turn. Hannah has praised God for who he is and what he does, humbling the proud and lifting up the lowly. This part of Hannah's theme song will show us where God is taking the story. He is lifting up a king.

24 · The pastor expounds verses 9-10, emphasizing the repeated negation of human strength and building toward the shocking prophetic announcement: God will raise up His king

Look at verse nine. He will guard the feet of his faithful ones. Who but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness? For not by might shall a man prevail. Take quick note of that last line of verse nine. Not by might shall a man prevail. This is another theme in Samuel. It's not human strength that makes the Difference of the change or the reversal or that brings victory. Verse 10. 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. And then here's the surprise. He will give strength to his king and exalt the horn of his anointed friends.

25 · The pastor synthesizes the three movements into the sermon's controlling thesis

This is the climax of the theme song. Here's what we've seen in this song. This is where the big idea comes and puts everything together. The holy God rules by humbling the proud and raising up his king. This is the spoiler alert section.

26 · The pastor uses a contemporary cultural illustration about spoiler alerts to explain why verse 10's king announcement is so significant

Everybody know what a spoiler alert is? I hope so, right? Especially like before movies come out. Like this summer, we had a ton of movies like Fantastic Four and Other Things. And people are, you know when you scroll social media, and the first kind thing that an influencer can do is tell you spoiler alert, right? Because they're like, maybe I don't want to watch this clip because I want to find out when I go to the movie. I hate people spoiling it. My wife, she gets anxious during a movie, and halfway through, she'll look it up and read it all. And do you want me to tell you what happens to him? Like, no, it's hard to watch a movie with her. No. I love her company, but I don't like her getting ahead of herself.

27 · The pastor traces the barrenness-to-birth pattern through redemptive history, establishing a typological thread from the patriarchs through Hannah to Elizabeth

But this scripture here, I have permission to spoiler alert it because Hannah's the one doing the spoiling here. Thanks to the spirit of prophecy, at this point in history, Israel doesn't even have a king, if you remember. But by the spirit, Hannah sees ahead to where the story is going. God will raise up his chosen king. But before we continue to look ahead to that announcement, let's look back through redemptive history for a minute. Hannah's not alone in this kind of story. Barrenness has been a recurring theme in redemptive history. Each of the founding patriarchs of Israel, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, had a barren wife, right? Do you remember their names? Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel. And now Hannah falls in that pattern, giving birth to Samuel out of barrenness, who will prepare the way for Israel's greatest king that they ever had, humanly speaking. David. Right? So now let's look forward again. Let's fast forward centuries and you find a woman named Elizabeth. Have you guys heard of Elizabeth? Like Hannah, she was barren, and she gives birth to a man named John, whom they call John the Baptist, who is also figured to be a Nazarite like Samuel, who prepares the way for another king who Would that be Jesus, the son of David?

28 · The pastor asserts the theological purpose behind the barrenness pattern: God deliberately chooses impossibility to demonstrate that salvation is His work from start to finish

And let's think about this for a moment. Why would God choose in all these stories to give children to barren women? It's kind of an odd choice for a storyline, right? Why would he do that if not to show, if anything, that salvation will be accomplished through his power and grace alone. He has not made a mistake in choosing these barren couples, but rather he is demonstrating to us through these very real stories that from beginning to end, salvation is a work of God. Man has no hand in salvation. This is what we're seeing in these patterns. And after choosing barren women repeatedly to play a role in the Savior's bloodline, when it comes to the Savior himself, he was also born in a miraculous way. Jesus was born of a virgin. The ultimate demonstration that salvation is by God's power and grace alone.

29 · The pastor personally testifies to his ongoing need for the gospel's detoxifying work against self-reliance

Thank God for those reminders and those stories, right? We still need to read them today and be reminded. Still today, Today I need the gospel to detox me from thinking that salvation in any aspect, that I have any control over, that my justification, my sanctification are in God's hands through his grace and power alone.

30 · The pastor reads Mary's Magnificat in full, pausing mid-reading to point out explicit echoes of Hannah's song—the holiness declaration, the reversal pattern

And interestingly enough, we find that, much like Hannah, Mary sings a song in response to her conception. And if you do a comparison of Mary's song, often referred to as the Magnificat, right, Mary's song and Hannah's song, you'll see striking similarities. In fact, Mary's song is a deliberate echo of Hannah's song. Let's turn there. Luke, chapter 1, verse 46 to 55. Verse 46 says, and look at how it starts, just like Hannah's song. And Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. For he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on, all generations shall call me blessed. Let's read the whole song. I think we have time for it today. Verse 49. For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. See how she recognizes the holiness of God as well. And his mercy is for those who fear Him. From generation to generation he has shown strength with his arm, he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has 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 has sent away empty. Look at those reversals, that theme still there, that he's the one writing. Don't be confident in where you're at or Your strength or where your strength has gotten you. Verse 54. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his offspring forever.

31 · The pastor asserts that the Holy Spirit authored both songs, making the intertextual echo intentional divine composition rather than mere literary influence

You see the striking similarities there between Hannah's song and Mary's song. Could it be that it's the same writer penning the hope that Hannah was singing about and now the hope that Mary sings about centuries later? Do you notice the similarities? Both celebrate the great reversals of God. The proud brought low, the humble lifted up, the hungry filled, the needy helped. Hannah's song looked ahead to God's king. But Mary's song rejoiced that the king had come.

32 · The pastor makes the christological assertion that Jesus is the ultimate fulfillment of Hannah's reversal pattern—the one who descended lowest and was exalted highest

And that king is Jesus, the son of David, the Son of God, who humbled himself on the cross and was raised in glory. And he humbled himself to the lowest. It's no wonder that he says he's the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Nobody will ever be humbled more than Jesus, the Son of God was humbled. Nobody will ever go as low as he went. Nobody will suffer the way he suffered.

33 · The pastor recapitulates the sermon's main thesis and moves toward gospel application

The holy God rules by humbling the proud and raising up his king. Brothers and sisters, Hannah's song reminds us that our pride and self reliance will always fall short. Whether it's trusting our wealth, our abilities, our status, our titles. Like the mighty who are brought low, we cannot save ourselves. But the good news is that God doesn't leave us in our failure. Just as he lifted Hannah from barrenness to blessing, he has provided the ultimate reversal of our fortunes through his anointed king, Jesus Christ on the cross. Jesus bore the guilt of our pride. He bore our sin and our judgment. Humbling himself to the lowest. He was exalted in resurrection so that we united to him might share in his victory.

34 · Direct imperative application calling the congregation to abandon self-reliance and trust in God's sovereign grace

Today, brothers and sisters, let go of self reliance and that's so hard. And trust in him, the One who raises the lowly, who gives strength to the weak and secures our hope forever. Rest in his sovereign grace. Let it transform how you live this week and every day of your life. Rest in what he does.

35 · The pastor corrects a moralistic misunderstanding of Christianity, asserting that the gospel is not about human moral achievement but about recognizing God's holiness and sovereignty and humbling oneself before Him

You see, this is not just about. You know, Christianity is just not just about. Look, this is the way we want to live. We want to live clean and moral and perfect. And we want to be goody too. That's not what Christianity is about. By God's grace, we have recognized that there is a holy God that rules behind the scenes. And if you'll humble yourself before him today, he will lift you up. We've all been in an ash heap with sin and brokenness and wickedness. He raises those people up when you put your trust and your faith in him alone. Amen.

36 · Closing prayer that recapitulates the sermon's main themes while addressing God directly

Let's go to the Lord prayer today, Father. This afternoon. Lord, I'm humbled. And that's a good thing. Our culture doesn't promote humility. Our society does not celebrate it. But for those who are on the right side of history, Lord, who recognize your greatness and recognize that you are God, that you are holy and that you are Lord, you grant us, Lord, the nobody's the least you grant us to sit with you on your throne. Like revelation says, thank you. It's filled with to those who overcome. To those who overcome. But it's not by our strength that we prevail. It's not by our strength that we will overcome, but by the blood of the Lamb and the word of his testimony. Thank you, Lord, for this reminder of your grace and for this hope that we find in the broken world that we live in that there is a holy God behind the scenes who hasn't surrendered one bit of his authority or his control. But he's weaving together a perfect story where he humbles the proud and he raises the lowly and exalts his great king.