And Who Is A Rock

Not only do Hannah’s thoughts run to God in her desolation and distress, but this woman, a stunning example to us, has an amazing imagination for the might and majesty of God, almighty and reigning over all nations and circumstances.

Think about it.  The desire of her soul was given to her.  That which she had pleaded for, before God, had come to pass.  The very thing she longed for, she had been given.  Yet when she offers thanks to God, she doesn’t even mention her answered prayer specifically.  She knows that there are so many things bigger than her story.  Instead, she magnifies God Himself.

She briefly acknowledges that her “heart rejoices before the Lord” and tells her Lord, “I rejoice in Your salvation”; she acknowledges that the Lord has lifted her up: “My horn is exalted in the Lord” (the imagery of the horn is threefold: as an effective defensive weapon, as a representation of power and status in a social context, and as a symbol for radiance, with other parallels in Scripture between “horn” and “lamp”.—Dictionary of Biblical Imagery) 

But then she immediately launches into noting God’s character:  “No one is holy like the Lord, for there is none besides you, nor is there any rock like our God.”  Nothing about herself, nothing about her glorious, miraculous pregnancy.

“For the Lord is the God of knowledge, and by Him actions are weighed.” 

“Those who stumbled are girded with strength.”

The sovereignty of the Lord in His dealing with men.  The mysteries of His turning the tides of human conditions.

“The pillars of the earth are the Lord’s and He has set the world upon them.  He will guard the feet of His saints, but the wicked will be silent in darkness.”

Again turning to the might of our Lord God:  “For by strength no man shall prevail.  The adversaries of the Lord shall be broken in pieces; from heaven He shall thunder against them.  The Lord will judge the ends of the earth.” 

For Hannah, God’s glory, His might, His justice, was transcendent over all the affairs of her little world.  No matter that she had just had her greatest desire fulfilled.  The important thing was to draw attention to Who God Is.

Her words are later mirrored by David “when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies”:  "The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; the God of my strength, in whom I will trust.  My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold and my refuge.”  “”For who is God, except the Lord?  And who is a rock, except our God?  God is my strength and power, and He makes my way perfect.”  (II Samuel 22:1-3, 32)

In the testimony of our words, how can we exalt our glorious, mighty, just God?   Can we, too, put aside the smallness of our story to grow eloquent in proclaiming His Story?  He takes care of us in the same way He attended to Hannah.  “And the Lord visited Hannah, so that she conceived and bore three sons and two daughters.  Meanwhile the child Samuel grew before the Lord…the child ministered to the Lord…(I Samuel 2:21, 2:11, 3:1)

He is still our Rock.  He is still the same God to us, His people, as he was to Hannah, to David.

He still makes our way perfect.

Worship.