Category: Sermon Supplements

“Then David fled from Naioth in Ramah and came and said before Jonathan, ‘What have I done? What is my guilt? And what is my sin before your father, that he seeks my life?’ ² And he said to him, ‘Far from it! You shall not die. Behold, my father does nothing either great or small without disclosing it to me. And why should my father hide this from me? It is not so.’ ³ But David vowed again, saying, ‘Your father knows well that I have found favor in your eyes, and he thinks, “Do not let Jonathan know this, lest he be grieved.” But truly, as the LORD lives and as your soul lives, there is but a step between me and death.’ ⁴ Then Jonathan said to David, ‘Whatever you say, I will do for you.'”

—1 Samuel 20:1–4

Our covenant-making God makes a covenant-making people. Our covenant-keeping God makes a covenant-keeping people.

Why does David return? Jonathan. He returns because of their covenant devotion to one another. David is certain about Saul. Jonathan is ignorant. If David flees, it seems he not only wants Jonathan to know why, he wants his blessing.

The reason we might be confused by David’s actions is because we’re not driven by the same stuff. We think ourselves wiser when we’re simply selfish. We think ourselves more perceptive when we’re merely self-preserving. David fears the Lord. David walks in His ways. He demonstrates true wisdom. He demonstrates unfailing covenant love. If being covenantally faithful means looking a fool, then gladly don the motley of a jester. It is blessed to be thought a “fool” of the court of the King of kings.

Because their covenant devotion to one another is born of their covenant devotion to God, these friends don’t argue. David doesn’t insist. He allows Jonathan to test. Jonathan does not protest. He puts himself fully at the disposal of his friend. They trust one another and pursue truth together. Jonathan submits to David’s plan to expose his father. David entrusts himself to Jonathan’s plan to preserve his life. When they plan, they don’t really toil over the plan. They toil over their covenant. Before they are practical, they are principled. Covenant first. Planning second. 

A reason so many of our friendships and plans go sideways is because we strive to be wise more than we strive to be faithful. We need to meditate and think covenantally first. Then we may build our plans on that solid foundation.

Underlying Jonathan and David’s covenant faithfulness to one another, is their covenant faithfulness to God. Underlying their covenant faithfulness to God, is God’s covenant faithfulness to His people. Their covenant faithfulness to one another is an expression of our God’s covenant faithfulness to Israel. It is an expression of His covenant faithfulness to us. God delivers His King, thus, He deliveries His people. In doing so, our covenant-making God makes a covenant-making people and our covenant-keeping God makes a covenant-keeping people.

“And he went there to Naioth in Ramah. And the Spirit of God came upon him also, and as he went he prophesied until he came to Naioth in Ramah. And he too stripped off his clothes, and he too prophesied before Samuel and lay naked all that day and all that night. Thus it is said, “Is Saul also among the prophets?” —1 Samuel 19:23–24

“A servant who deals wisely has the king’s favor, but his wrath falls on one who acts shamefully” (Proverbs 14:35). That was written by a wise king. Saul is no such king. His wrath falls on his best servant. Thus, Saul destroys himself.

The themes introduced in chapter 18 continue to develop throughout chapter 19. Saul’s folly, his mad hatred, grows in intensity and consistency. The lighting strikes are brighter and come without interruption. There is now more storm than calm. Covert plans give way to overt missions. Subtlety is traded in for flagrancy.

The irony of all this is that darkness wants to shine, but only finds itself fading into oblivion. Saul’s deception makes David’s devotion more radiant. Saul’s depravity serves to highlight David’s integrity. And Saul’s faithlessness is the dark backdrop against which David’s faithfulness shines. The proud king thus brings himself down and exalts the humble king. The darkness in Saul that wants to snuff David out, only serves to extinguish itself. Saints, ultimately, the bark of evil is worse than its bite. The darkness may terrify, but in the end, we find that it has no real substance. God is.

With the lightest touch, the great I AM brushes aside the violence of Saul. “The Spirit of God,” writes Robert Bergen, “was gently invincible; those who had entered into Naioth under the influence of the ruler of Israel now found themselves under the infinitely greater influence of the ruler of the universe.”

Four times Yahweh’s anointed is delivered. He is delivered through Jonathan, through skill, through Michal, through Samuel. Through, through, through, through—these are only the means. Who is delivering David? David ends the prayer of deliverance that he penned on this occasion, with this praise, “But I will sing of your strength; I will sing aloud of your steadfast love in the morning. For you have been to me a fortress and a refuge in the day of my distress. O my Strength, I will sing praises to you, for you, O God, are my fortress, the God who shows me steadfast love” (Psalm 59:16–17).

God delivers His king, and notice how effortlessly He does so. He uses the weak to shame the strong. Jonathan’s covenant loyalty to David is a fruit of the Spirt’s work in Jonathan. The true “spy” in Saul’s camp is the Holy Spirit. Jonathan’s covenant loyalty is an expression of Yahweh’s covenant loyalty.

David’s skill in warfare is as much a gift of God as is his heart for God. How is it that David evades Saul’s spear, now three times? David later sings, “For who is God, but the LORD? And who is a rock, except our God? This God is my strong refuge and has made my way blameless. He made my feet like the feet of a deer and set me secure on the heights. He trains my hands for war, so that my arms can bend a bow of bronze. You have given me the shield of your salvation, and your gentleness made me great” (2 Samuel 22:32–36).

Michal’s idolatry and lies, like those of Rachel, are evil, but they are used for good. Yahweh makes sin, and Saul, and Satan nothing more than servants for His purposes.

Samuel is the most Moses like figure we see in the OT other than Moses, but this is as close as he gets to performing any wonder or sign. He does nothing. It is the Spirit of God that comes upon Saul.

God uses all of this to deliver His king. The king, even in his humiliation, is unassailable. Man’s strength is helpless against God’s “weakness.” The throne of God and the throne of David are united. God’s rule is manifest among man in this humble king. Though he may seem vulnerable, he is invincible. Man’s strength in rebellion only demonstrates God’s sovereign rule. Man’s time bound plots and schemes work nothing but God’s eternal counsel.

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with mighty works and wonders and signs that God did through him in your midst, as you yourselves know—this Jesus, delivered up according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of lawless men. God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it” (Acts 2:22–24).

God delivers His King, and in doing so, He delivers His kingdom. He delivers the undeserving—His wayward people who have sought a king like the nations. Despite this, He graciously gives them a King after His own heart, His only begotten Son, born in humility, resurrected in glory. God delivers His King and thus He delivers His kingdom.

“‘Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:54–57).

God delivers His King, and thus He delivers the kingdom. This is the good news, “the gospel of God… concerning his Son, who was descended from David according to the flesh and was declared to be the Son of God in power according to the Spirit of holiness by his resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 1:1, 3–4).

And “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:11).

God has delivered His king. He has delivered His people. Dear sinner, do not rebel. Repent. Do not be a Saul seeking to preserve your kingdom. Be a Jonathan, knit in covenant to God’s King, loving Him with all your soul.

And the women sang to one another as they celebrated,

“Saul has struck down his thousands,
and David his ten thousands.”

And Saul was very angry, and this saying displeased him. He said, “They have ascribed to David ten thousands, and to me they have ascribed thousands, and what more can he have but the kingdom?”

—1 Samuel 18:7–8

Saul is angry at the truth. Saul has struck down his thousands. David has struck down his ten thousands. David is the better warrior. Saul is angry at the truth, but the truth is nothing to be angry about.

Raw truth is a dangerous thing to rail against. It’s like butting your head against a granite wall. That wall ain’t gonna give. Saul is angry at the truth, which is to say, he is angry at God. God is free to give according to His good pleasure. Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights (James 1:17).  What do you have that you did not receive (1 Corinthians 4:7)?

Every good is a gift. Man merits only wrath. Wages are earned. Gifts are free. If you want wages, the pay is death. If you want gifts, you can’t demand them. God is free to freely give His free gifts as He chooses. And so it is that envy is anger at God. Envy is murmuring against God. Envy is accusing the just God of injustice. Envy demands redistribution on the basis that God idolize us.

Angry at the truth, Saul eyes David (v. 9). What does this mean? He is suspicious of David. He fears David is that neighbor that Samuel told him was better than him, that neighbor to whom God would give the kingdom (1 Samuel 15:28).

Saul is jealous of the truth but suspicious of a lie. No one demonstrates greater loyalty and undying devotion to Saul than David. Jealousy often sees a twisted version of the truth and then twists the truth into a greater lie. David is better than Saul. David will receive the kingdom. But David will not usurp Saul. David is the greatest blessing God has placed in Saul’s life. David, the Lord’s Anointed, humbly bows as Saul’s servant. Saul’s jealously makes an enemy of his best servant. What should Saul have done? Jonathan models another way. Saul should have honored him and covenanted with him.

Do you see the folly of jealousy? Jealousy refuses God’s blessing if it comes on or through another person. The carnal mind believes that blessings are a zero sum game. “If you’re blessed, I’m not.” But the spiritual man looks at God’s blessings like a sunset He doesn’t have to possess it is to appreciate it, and yet, though it is not his to possess, it is still his to enjoy. Saints, we should learn and know this in the body of Christ. Having received grace upon grace, infinite grace, who are we to demand more? And yet, more we have. All is ours in Christ Jesus. A blessed toe means a blessed body. When God blesses your brother, he blesses you. But jealousy, believing itself robbed, only then becomes robbed.

David and Goliath has to be the most famous story of the Old Testament, so naturally, it is also one of the most abused. Culturally, while girls have their Cinderella stories, boys have their David and Goliath stories. Equivocating the two, that ain’t right. But it’s just as bad within much of the church—from flannel graph Sunday school lessons, to FCA pep talks, to Facing the Giants. 

A big part of the problem is that we tell this story as though it were just a good story. It is a great story, but it is not a story like you find in Aesop’s Fables or Grim’s Fairy Tales. By this I mean more than that it true, whereas those other stories are make-believe. I mean that this story is part of a bigger story—the story. It is not independent. It doesn’t float. It is not disconnected. The story of David and Goliath is part of a story that has you longing not to be a king, but longing for a king. You’re longing for God’s king. And Saul’s presence has only heightened your desire for God’s king.

No, this story does not come to first encourage you to conquer the giants that oppose you. It comes to you as part of the Israel of God, shaking and trembling as you stand before an unbeatable foe. It comes to you as good news that God has raised up a king and deliverer. But even that story isn’t big enough yet. This story comes to us as we are longing for the promised serpent-crusher who will undo the curse and bring a deliverance by judgment (Genesis 3:15).

We are not David. We need a David. We need a King. We need a second Adam. And then, having Him, entering into His victory, being conformed to His image, being sent out in His name, then we will begin to image Him forth. But you will always fail if you first dare to be a David. You must first behold and look to the true and greater David.

Look to Him! Born in Bethlehem of the tribe of Judah. Laid in a manger and lauded by shepherds. Exiled to Egypt because a false king seeks his life. Coming suddenly as the Lord’s anointed to minister to the afflicted. Despised and rejected by men. Defeating our greatest foes not by a display of strength, but by humble weakness beheading the scaly serpent, undoing the curse, triumphing over the grave. God has given Him strength and exalted His horn (1 Samuel 2:10). He rose. He ascended. He rules. He stands supreme over all. And He will return in glory to judge the ends of the earth and deliver us and bring us into the land of eternal rest.

Look to Him! Look to Him! Look to Him! Oh that you had eyes to see Him, the eyes of faith. Do not be jealous like an Eliab. Do not be impressed with a Saul. Do not be intimidated by a Goliath. Look to Christ! Don’t in pride seek to be king. Don’t in folly embrace a king like the nations. Don’t in fear bow before a tyrant king.

Look to the Christ who bowed lowest before God and rose highest over men. Look to He who is God incarnate and man exalted. Look to the one who stood in our place, God’s champion, the in-betweener. Look to the King whom God has raised up for Himself, the King after His own heart. Look to the one whose bruised heel rests triumphant on the crushed head of the dragon. Look to the one who conquers by the cross.

Do not doubt Him. Do not disdain Him. Believe in Him, enter into His kingdom, and know that there is a God in Israel, know that there is a God who saves not by sword or spear. He has saved sinners with a wooden sword stained with His own blood, for the battle is the Lord’s. Look to His King.

“But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart.’”

—1 Samuel 16:7

“Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; righteous and having salvation is he, humble and mounted on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9). Those words were written long after David about the Son of David, but David sets up the typological background that gives them shape. He is the shadow of which Christ is the substance. Behold your king, humble, righteous and having salvation. Such humble beginnings for the greatest of Israel’s old covenant kings. Such humble beginnings for the King of kings.

Samuel looks on Eliab and thinks, “Surely the LORDs anointed is before him” (v. 6). But this king is not to be like the last, and Eliab looks like Saul. We were introduced to Saul as, “a handsome young man. There was not a man among the people of Israel more handsome than he. From his shoulders upward he was taller than any of the people” (1 Samuel 9:2). Tall Saul was rejected. And now Yahweh tells Samuel, “Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him. For the LORD sees not as man sees: man looks on the outward appearance, but the LORD looks on the heart” (v. 7).

The word for “height” (v. 7) is the same word for “tall” (9:2), It may also be translated haughty or proud. That’s the way Hannah used it in her song. “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” (1 Samuel 2:3). “Talk no more so very proudly” is literally “Talk no more so tall tall.” Why are the proud not to talk tall tall? Because “the LORD is a God of knowledge, and by him actions are weighed.” He sees.

We are looking for a King that God sees. We are looking for the man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14). He is not tall. He is small. After seven sons pass before Samuel, we are once more asking, “Is there a man yet to come?” (1 Samuel 10:22). But there is no man. There is only a boy. “There remains yet the youngest” (v. 11). This may be translated, “there remains yet the smallest.” For instance, the same word is translated as “small” in Psalm 115:13. Saul the tall is rejected for David the small. The Spirit rushes on David and departs from Saul.

Rejoice in how your king comes! He is not like the kings of the nations! “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it” (John 1:1–4). This is who our King is—the matchless, eternal, sovereign King of glory.

But this is how He came, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us…” (John 1:14). Remaining all that He was, He became what He was not. The divine Son stooped down to Himself a human nature. And if that infinite, unfathomable condescension is not enough to leave you in awe, look at the humility of His birth. Look at the humility of his life. Look at the humility of His death. Born in a manger. Rejected by men. Crucified on a cross. And though all of this humility masks His glory, yet it also reveals it. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14).

O sinner, do you see this glory? Do you see the glory revealed in His humility? Has the Father said “Let there be light” so that you behold His glory in the face of the Christ, the anointed Son who was crucified for sinners? “The word of the cross is folly to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God” (1 Corinthians 1:18). Do not look for a Saul. Look to the true and better David, come to serve those who hate Him, come as the Anointed to serve the afflicted, come as a Savior for sinners.

Look to the humble Christ crucified for sinners. Look to the glorious Christ risen in victory. Look to Him with the eyes of faith and enter His kingdom of life and light.

Come humbly, in awe of the God who chooses the weak to shame the strong, Who chooses that is lie and despised in the word, event the things that are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God (1 Corinthians 1:27–29).

Come humbly to the Christ who humbly came, and you may sing with Hannah, “My heart exults 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 besides you; there is no rock like our God. 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. 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” (1 Samuel 2:1-5).

Come humbly to Bethlehem, the house of Bread, and behold Him who took on flesh to become the Bread of Life. See the Bread of Life broken on the cross, partake of Him by faith, and hunger no more.

But the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel. And they said, “No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations, and that our king may judge us and go out before us and fight our battles.” And when Samuel had heard all the words of the people, he repeated them in the ears of the Lord. And the Lord said to Samuel, “Obey their voice and make them a king.” Samuel then said to the men of Israel, “Go every man to his city.”

—1 Samuel 8:19–22

Oh if Israel only knew, and if we only could learn, what good a little patience could bring us and what trouble it might save us. If they only knew that in a short time, God would give them a king, not like the nations, but a king after His own heart. God would give them a king whose rule would be an expression of His own rule. David would rule as an adopted Son. His throne would be a manifestation of the throne of God. Yahweh would give a king, not who would take, but who would give.

And yet, despite their impatience, God is patient. Despite their ingratitude, God is gracious. Despite their rejecting Him as King, God is Sovereign. He rules their rebellion for redemption. Their demand for a king like the nations to judge them is answered, not only as judgment, but as chastisement. A chastisement meant to bring them to repentance. Saul prepares them, and us, for David. Saul is a foil, he is set up to contrast with David and bring out David’s excellencies.

God uses our sin to show us His holiness. He uses our blindness to open our eyes. He uses our hardness to soften us. He uses our disobedience to work His will. God answers their demand for a King to prepare their hearts and ours for a different kind of King. A King after His own heart. He will not be a pragmatic king, heeding the voice of the people. He will be an obedient King, heeding the voice of His God. He will judge in perfect righteousness and fight with absolute victory. He will not be a king who takes, but a King who gives. He will not be a king like the nations, but a heavenly King. Yet, though from the heavens, He will not be a foreign king, but one from among His brothers. His name is Jesus. He is not a king that we try to put in the place of God, but a King who comes as God taking the place of man.

Citizens of the kingdom of God, look on your King, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:6–11).

Check your envy. Pitch your impatience. Look to the King who has already come and who will come again.

“From the day that the ark was lodged at Kiriath-jearim, a long time passed, some twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD.”

—1 Samuel 7:2

The ark has returned, but it has no home. A prophet has arisen, but we do not hear from him. A king is expected, but there is no deliverance. And, yet, before the events of 1 Samuel 7 ever take place, within the darkness and confusion, Israel could still have said, “Ebenezer! Till now Yahweh has helped us.” 

When Samuel says these words, they are words, not of termination, but continuation. “Till now”— those words can be devastating. “Till now, you’ve been insured.” “Till now, we’ve been engaged.” “Till now, you’ve been employed.” But this is not how Samuel raises Ebenezer. It is a monument to the past in hope of a future. Monuments are meant to endure as a testimony to the enduring. The stone Ebenezer has been lost, but the steadfast covenant love of God endures still. “Ebenezer” speaks to something more solid than stone.

The ark has returned, a prophet has arisen, and a king is expected. Still, it is the time of the judges. But even throughout these dark days, Israel could say again and again, “Till now, the LORD has helped us.” And she could say it, not with sorrow for something that has ended, but with hope for something greater still.

Israel will receive David. But greater things are still to come. Israel will receive the temple and the ark will find a home. But greater things are still to come. Yes, the tree of the Davidic dynasty would be felled. Yes, the temple would be destroyed. Yes, the ark would be lost. Even so, Israel could still say, “Till now, the LORD has helped us.” Greater things were still to come. In the darkness they lost only shadows, but the Light that cast those shadows was certain to dawn.

Christ has come. Christ has died. Christ has risen. Christ will come again. Till now the LORD has helped us. And greater things are still to come. God has given us the King. Atonement has been made. We may draw near before the throne of grace. And we have the hope, not a veiled temple containing an isolated ark. No, we have the hope of beholding the glory of our Redeemer evermore. Till now, the LORD has helped us. And if He has given us Christ, His only begotten and eternally beloved Son, how will He not with Him give us all things (Romans 8:32)?

And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. 

Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines. They encamped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines encamped at Aphek. The Philistines drew up in line against Israel, and when the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the field of battle. And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, “Why has the Lord defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the Lord here from Shiloh, that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.”

1 Samuel 4:1–3

Dale Ralph Davis states, “Our writer draws a heavy line across the page after chapter 3.” In chapters 4–6 our focus sifts dramatically.

“And the word of Samuel came to all Israel” (v. 1a). These words belong to the narrative of chapter 3. Draw the line after them. This is one of those glaring blunders that remind you that the chapter divisions you have in your Bible are nothing more than uninspired addresses to help you find your place.

Though these words belong to the narrative of chapter 3, they naturally flow into chapter 4, and yet, they make that line all the more bold. “And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines.” There is a line dividing these narratives, but there is also a line connecting them. “Israel” connects them. “Samuel” marks part of the division. Samuel will not be mentioned again until 7:3. 

All our focus, and much of our hope and anticipation have been tied to this boy now turned prophet, and then, having become a prophet, he disappears for three chapters. The Word has come to all Israel, but now, Samuel is mysteriously absent. Whatever actions Israel is about to take, you know this, they are not guided by the Word of the Lord through His prophet Samuel. Israel has retrogressed. Before Samuel, the “word of God was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision” (3:1). Samuel is absent. They are again doing what is right in their own eyes.

When the word of God comes to Israel through Samuel, it is not then because they have their act together. It is not because they have been faithful. It is because God is faithful. And while His faithfulness to His covenant does mean grace, it first means judgment. But grace is enveloped in judgment.

Psalm 78:67–72 (ESV)

He rejected the tent of Joseph; 
      he did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, 
but he chose the tribe of Judah, 
      Mount Zion, which he loves. 
He built his sanctuary like the high heavens, 
      like the earth, which he has founded forever. 
He chose David his servant 
      and took him from the sheepfolds; 
from following the nursing ewes he brought him 
      to shepherd Jacob his people, 
      Israel his inheritance. 
With upright heart he shepherded them 
      and guided them with his skillful hand.

     —Psalm 78:67–72

There is a line dividing God’s grace and His judgment, but there is also a line connecting them. Enveloped within this judgment is grace. Shilo is destroyed that Jerusalem might be built. Ephraim is rejected that Judah might be chosen. The ark is captured that it might come to rest in the temple. A wicked priesthood falls that the Davidic dynasty might be established. Here, there is not only reason to fear the judgement of Yahweh, but hope for His grace.

At the cross we see best that when God draws a line of judgement, He also draws a line of grace. A line was drawn in judgment, as the Man hung forsaken on the cross. A line was drawn in grace, reconciling God and man.

"My heart exults in the LORD; 
      my horn is exalted in the LORD. 
My mouth derides my enemies, 
      because I rejoice in your salvation" (1 Samuel 2:1).

Hannah’s prayer of praise opens with exclamation for personal reversal. Many a song has been ruined by a predominance of “my” and “I.” But “my” and “I” are not necessarily poisonous to every song. If you are to rejoice in redemptive reversal, it must be personal. David sang, “But I have trusted in your steadfast love; my heart shall rejoice in your salvation. I will sing to the LORD, because he has dealt bountifully with me” (Psalm 13:5–6). If you cannot sing “my” and “I,” you have no reason to sing.

What separates the bad “my and I” songs and prayers from the good ones? Much of it can be seen in this: Hannah’s song is as theological as it is personal. Matthew Henry well expresses what it is that makes this song beautiful instead of ugly. 

“What great things she says of God. She takes little notice of the particular mercy she was now rejoicing in, does not commend Samuel for the prettiest child, the most toward and sensible for his age that she ever saw, as fond parents are apt to do. No, she overlooks the gift, and praises the giver, whereas most forget the giver and fasten only on the gift. Every stream should lead us to the fountain; and favors we receive from God should raise our admiration of the infinite perfections there are in God.”

"There is none holy like the LORD: 
     for there is none besides you; 
     there is no rock like our God" (1 Samuel 2:2)

The gift was good, but Yahweh is peerless. Our God is not only incomprehensible; He is incomparable. He is incomprehensible. We cannot comprehensively master His infinite glory. He is incomprehensible, but one thing we may comprehend about Him, is that He is incomparable. “There is none holy like Yahweh.” When Moses asked God what he should say when the people ask the name of the God of their fathers, God answers “I AM.” Names define. God alone can define Himself. There is no other. “There is none besides you.” God always wins His class because He is the only one in His class. His position is uncontested. This is not because His class is low and insignificant. It is the highest and most esteemed.

“There is no rock like our God.” After the Red Sea swallowed the Egyptian forces, Moses sang, “Who is like you, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like you, majestic in holiness, awesome in glorious deeds, doing wonders?” (Exodus 15:11). The understood answer—no one! As Israel prepared to take Canaan, Moses gathered all the people and sang to them of this Rock. “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. …their rock is not as our Rock; our enemies are by themselves” (Deuteronomy 32:4, 31).

With Hannah we may rejoice that the incomparable Lord is our God. He is our Rock. We are not by ourselves. It’s personal. It’s theological. Such is the stuff of true praise and prayer.

Samuel opens with a birth narrative, a nativity. Though the Bible is filled with such stories, they are not told recklessly.  The Bible is not littered with nativities. Select nativities are set within the narrative. God does not toss nativities like trash out of a window. He sets them like gems in jewelry. When God tells a birth story, He is preparing us for a bigger story.

God made man and blessed him saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth” (Genesis 1:28). A multitude of births followed, but the hope of man looks for just one—the promised Seed of the Woman who will crush the head of the serpent (Genesis 3:15). When God tells a birth story, it is pregnant with this hope. 

Genesis is structured around genealogies. The story of the patriarchs is a story of births. God promised Abraham that “in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 26:4). When God tells a birth story, He is telling the story of the Offspring in which all the nations are blessed. When God tells a birth story, pay attention, because something big is about to happen, something God-sized.

To tell any birth story, some introductions must be made. Ours opens telling us that “there was a certain man.” Before God has told us the man’s name, he has told us much. Samuel opens during the time of the judges and transitions us to the kings. The birth story of the most well known judge opens in this way, “There was a certain man of Zorah, of the tribe of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his wife was barren and had no children” (Judges 13:2).

Do you remember the rest? 

“And the angel of the LORD appeared to the woman and said to her, ‘Behold, you are barren and have not borne children, but you shall conceive and bear a son. Therefore be careful and drink no wine or strong drink, and eat nothing unclean, for behold, you shall conceive and bear a son. No razor shall come upon his head, for the child shall be a Nazirite to God from the womb, and he shall begin to save Israel from the hand of the Philistines’” (Judges 13:3–5).

This is the birth story of Sampson. When God tells us a birth story, He is telling us He is about to do something. 

Later in Samuel we will encounter this phrase again. “There was a man of Benjamin whose name was Kish, the son of Abiel, son of Zeror, son of Becorath, son of Aphiah, a Benjaminite, a man of wealth” (1 Samuel 9:1). This is how we are introduced to Saul. When God tells us a birth story, He is telling us He is about to do something.

Yes, this nativity anticipates the nativity, but it foreshadows Elizabeth more than it does Mary. Elizabeth was barren. Her husband Zechariah receives a vision in the temple. The child is to be dedicated to the Lord. He is not the Seed, but he will introduce Him. Neither of these nativities tell of the King, but in both of them, we are introduced to the introducer. God is about to do something.