Devotion for today: The humble find joy in God: 1 Samuel 2:1-10

Today brings us to the end of our Old Testament Canticles study.

1 Samuel 2:1-10

Hannah’s Song of Thanksgiving

Then Hannah prayed and said,

“My heart exults in the Lord;
My horn is exalted in the Lord,
My mouth^]speaks boldly against my enemies,
Because I rejoice in Your salvation.
 “There is no one holy like the Lord,
Indeed, there is no one besides You,
Nor is there any rock like our God.
“Boast no more so very proudly,
Do not let arrogance come out of your mouth;
For the Lord is a God of knowledge,
And with Him actions are weighed.
 “The bows of the mighty are shattered,
But the feeble gird on strength.
 “Those who were full hire themselves out for bread,
But those who were hungry cease to hunger.
Even the barren gives birth to seven,
But she who has many children languishes.
“The Lord kills and makes alive;
He brings down to Sheol and raises up.
 “The Lord makes poor and rich;
He brings low, He also exalts.
“He raises the poor from the dust,
He lifts the needy from the ash heap
To make them sit with nobles,
And inherit a seat of honor;
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord’s,
And He set the world on them.
“He keeps the feet of His godly ones,
But the wicked ones are silenced in darkness;
For not by might shall a man prevail.
 “Those who contend with the Lord will be shattered;
Against them He will thunder in the heavens,
The Lord will judge the ends of the earth;
And He will give strength to His king,
And will exalt the horn of His anointed.”

JOHN PAUL II GENERAL AUDIENCE Wednesday 20 March 2002

The humble hope in God, rejoice in him
The canticle of Anna [Hannah], the mother of Samuel

1. The voice of a woman leads us today in the prayer of praise to the Lord of Life. In fact, in the story of the First Book of Samuel, it is Anna who sings the hymn we have just proclaimed, after offering her child, the little Samuel to the Lord. He was to be a prophet in Israel and his action was to mark the transition of the Hebrew people to a new form of government, monarchy, in which the unfortunate King Saul and the glorious King David would play the lead. Anna had a history of suffering in her past, for, as the story says, the Lord "had closed her womb" (I Sam 1,5)…. The hymn of thanksgiving that sprang from the lips of the mother was to be taken up and expressed anew by another Mother, Mary, who while remaining a virgin conceived by the power of the Spirit of God. In fact, in the Magnificat of the Mother of Jesus we can perceive an echo of Anna's canticle which for this reason is known as "the Magnificat of the Old Testament"…. This is a profession of faith spoken by both mothers before the Lord of history, who arrays himself to defend the least, the poor and the suffering, the offended and humiliated…. At this point hope does not only concern the life of the child who is born, but also the life God can bring back after death. Hence an almost "paschal" horizon of resurrection opens. Isaiah was to sing: "Your dead shall live, their bodies shall rise. O dwellers in the dust, awake and sing for joy! For your dew is a dew of light, and on the land of the shades you will let it fall" (Is 26,19).