“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…. 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 Messiah” (1 Sam 2:6-8, 10).
Hannah’s prayer, strategically located in the introduction of 1-2 Samuel, not only highlights key themes in the entire book but also anticipates David’s Messianic poems which appear at the end of the book (2 Sam 22:1-51; 23:1-7). Hannah refers to an “exalted horn” in the first and last line of the prayer (vv. 1, 10), a phrase explicitly tied to the Messianic hope (see 1 Sam 16:1, 13; 2 Sam 22:3; Psa 18:2 [3]; 89:17, 24; 92:10; 132:17; 148:14). Hannah also explicitly prays that God would raise up the King-Messiah (v. 10; see 1 Sam 2:10; 2 Sam 22:51; Psa 2:2; 18:51; 20:6; 89:38, 51; 132:10, 17).
It’s within this Messianic frame of reference we must interpret Hannah’s references to divine reversals from death to life and from dust heap to a throne. She prophesies that God will raise up Israel’s Messiah out of the most obscure and challenging circumstances, the fact of which is thematized in the story of the rejected, suffering boy from Bethlehem named David who eventually becomes king over Israel. It is impossible, therefore, to read that God “brings down to Sheol and raises up” (v. 6) and “raises the poor from the dust” (v. 7) and not recognize the resurrection of Yeshua from the dead as the ultimate expression and most explicit fulfillment of Hannah’s prayer!
As a short-term fulfillment of her prayer, God gave us Samuel and David. And as a long-term fulfillment, God gave us a king born in Bethlehem, whom he miraculously raised from the dead. And one day, this king will take his seat on David’s throne and bring peace to the entire world!
“And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying: ‘Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for He has visited us and accomplished redemption for His people, and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David His servant — as He spoke by the mouth of His holy prophets from of old” (Luke 1:67-70).
