Rejoicing and Boasting

 DEVOTION

1 SAMUEL

REJOICING AND BOASTING

1 Sam 2:1

2:1 Then Hannah prayed and said: "My heart rejoices in the LORD; in the LORD my horn is lifted high. My mouth boasts over my enemies, for I delight in your deliverance.

NIV

Although this is a prayer of Hannah, it is also a song, as it is divided into eight stanzas and is prophetic. As we work through it, we will see that Hannah uses a word in Hebrew that means 'Messiah'.  She also makes comparisons between the righteous and the wicked, the humble and the proud, the poor and the rich. This first stanza is all about her heart rejoicing in the LORD. Strangely, she rejoices that her horn is lifted up, but looking into this word, it is used mainly as the horn of an altar, but can also be applied as strength, which would make sense. She was downcast, weakened by the constant provocation of Peninnah, and now, because the LORD opened her womb and she bore a son, she is renewed in her strength. Her character, or personality, has been restored, and she is a mother. We cannot be sure if it is appropriate for her to boast over her enemies, because she delights in the LORD’s deliverance. However, this is one of those prophetic phrases that speaks of our mouths boasting over Satan, the enemy of our souls, because the Lord delivered us from death. However, the Hebrew word translated as boasting carries, making my mouth large, concept, which could mean that she testifies to the greatness of the LORD over the weakness of the enemy because of his salvation. Paul did not boast about his fleshly, or human, accomplishments, but his boasting, his making his mouth large, his testimony was all about the power of God. In fact, Paul, if he boasted about himself, it was his weakness. This is where we come into this story. We should be careful not to boast about any of our human accomplishments or deeds, as that would be lifting ourselves up. Hannah was boasting in the power of the LORD, giving her a son, whom she dedicated to the LORD’s service. She rejoiced, as we know we should rejoice, and I’ll say it again, rejoice always, rejoice for we have experienced the Lord’s salvation. Can we get bogged down in life’s worries, or just the business of life itself? It is possible that we can get so entangled with our daily wants, desires, goals, or envies, jealousies, hurts, physical, or emotional, along with many other personal or self-centered feelings, that we forget how great our salvation is. It does not matter how much we have or do in this world, even in our Christian walk, for all of it is temporary, whereas our salvation is eternal. Let’s rejoice in the Lord, delighting in our deliverance, in the work of the Lord, for he and he alone is worthy of our rejoicing and boasting.