Summer Playlist: Part 2
SERMON TRANSCRIPT
Well, good morning! I am Pastor Lauren if I haven't had a chance to meet you. And we are in our summer playlist series where we are talking about the different songs in the Bible. There are actually a ton of songs in the Bible. I don't think we always realize this because it's written down and we don't have the music for it. So I think it's easy to forget or not even realize that there are so many songs in the Bible or that they were written for the purpose of praise and worship and even prayer through song. So Pastor Andre last week kicked off our series and talked about Psalm 136 and kind of explained the purpose of music and how music and songs allow us to express ourselves. It helps with memory and memorization. It allows us to recall things, past experiences. You hear a song and it takes you right back there, right? Song is such a beautiful thing that God created for us in our human experience. He also shared some particular songs that allow him to recall experiences and it got me thinking about some of my own.
And so I was thinking this week, I was like, "What are songs for me that draw up some experiences?" So the first one I thought of was the song "Come What May" from the movie "Moulin Rouge!" It was our first dance at our wedding song. So anytime I think about that, I think about our wedding. And in the movie they are dancing on clouds. And so Chris surprised me with a smoke machine under the table. And so we're dancing and all of a sudden we have clouds all around us. And so it takes me back to that moment. Oh, I know. It was all three. I distinctly remember listening to the Hamilton soundtrack while I was in labor with Oakes. I hadn't even seen the musical yet, but I loved the music. So I was laboring for several hours with some Hamilton. The song "Dive" by Steven Curtis Chapman is an old Christian song. It's a great song. But my parents actually started a church when I was about 11 called the River Church. And so at our grand opening we sang this song "Dive" and it was on repeat in our house for weeks. So it always takes me back there. Even just artists like Britney Spears, NSYNC, Backstreet Boys. Didn't think we were talking about boy bands today, right? Backstreet Boys, Destiny Child. Those are the soundtrack of my middle school and early high school days, right? You just you hear those songs and it just takes you back, at least for me, if you're a millennial, takes you back there. And I'm sure we all have those artists or those songs that take us back to those moments.
And that's really what these songs are in scripture. It's the playlist or the soundtrack of God's story throughout the Bible. His story of creation and love and redemption. And so when we look at them, it puts us more in awe of who God is, of what He has done. And it helps us to recall His goodness, His love, and His creation. We are going to be in 1 Samuel today, so feel free to turn there in your Bible or on your phone. We'll have it up on the screen if you need a Bible. There's some in the chairs as well. But we are talking about the song of Hannah. It's listed in the Bible as a prayer, but through Jewish tradition, they actually refer to it as Hannah's song. It was meant to be sung. So a little backstory. Hannah was a Jewish woman who was married to Elkanah and she was one of two wives, because that's what they did then. And she was barren. She wasn't able to have any children. But the other wife, Peninnah, was. She had children and she did not let Hannah forget it. She berated her. She put her down. She was unkind to her, because Hannah couldn't have children. In that day, that was the worth of women, was bearing children, particularly sons. And so Hannah was distraught and she cried out to God for a child. And she promised that if God gave her a son, she would give him back to the Lord. She would dedicate him to the Lord. So that's where we find Hannah here. She had a son, Samuel. And here in chapter 2, she is singing a song as she is dedicating Samuel to the Lord. And by dedicating, I mean she was literally, after he was weaned, literally giving him two services in the temple. He was going to be raised by the priest in service to God. So we're going to pick up here. We're just going to go section by section.
But we're going to pick up here in chapter 1, right off the bat. 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. There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one besides you. There is no rock like our God." Hannah starts by rejoicing in the Lord. Pause with me here though because she's literally leaving her young child in the temple, never to be living in her home again. And yet, she is starting with rejoicing. This really caught my attention because she was barren and it was this long struggle. And she finally conceived and was given a son. And now she's giving him up to the Lord. It was a good reason for her to give to the Lord. If anyone's going to take care of your child, it's going to be the Lord. But she was relinquishing him being in her home. And yet, she was rejoicing. She wasn't rejoicing in her circumstances though. She was rejoicing in God, in who He was. She starts her prayer with personal praise and it focuses her on who God is. And it reminds us to focus our praise on God too. She wasn't focused on the circumstances or even that they changed. She wasn't praising Samuel or even necessarily celebrating the gift that he was. She was celebrating the giver. She was worshiping the God who saved her and loved her. In the first verse, it says that her horn, the Lord, in the Lord, my horn is lifted high. And this idea of a horn being lifted up in scripture is the idea of strength being restored. Like I said, in that time, not being able to bear children was terrible for women. And so for her to bear a son was her strength being restored. Her role in society as a wife, as a mother, as a woman, she was being restored. Her position was restored in bearing a son. Hannah, in this passage, has really similar language to another song. It is a psalm of David in Psalm 18. It says, "The Lord is my rock, my fortress, and my deliverer. My God is my rock in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold." Like David, Hannah is focusing on praising who God is. Out of this gratitude for what he's done for her, she praises because he is the deliverer. He is the restorer. He's the one who raised the horn of her salvation. He is the one who is holy. There is no one else like him. He's the rock that she can count on. And so her prayer reminds us to take the focus off ourselves and even off of our circumstances, good or bad, whatever's going on, and put it back on God, the one who has no equal, who there is none like him.
Moving on to verse 3, it goes from more of a personal prayer to a more broader public praise. It says, "Do not keep talking so proudly or let your mouth speak such arrogance. For the Lord is a God who knows, and by him deeds are weighed. The bows of the warriors are broken, but those who stumble are armed with strength. Those who are full hire themselves out for food, but those who are hungry are hungry no more. She who was barren has born seven children, but she who has had many sons pines away." Hannah cautions the listener here to not boast himself, but to understand that God is all-knowing and is the judge over all. Her song for us is a call to humility. Humility, just general definition, it means to be freed from pride and arrogance and to have a right view of oneself. She knows that it's only by God that anything has happened to her, that her circumstances changed, that anything came to pass in her life. It was only by God. No amount of effort or work on her part, there's no Pinterest hacks or things she could do to get herself pregnant. She knows that it was only by God. She's simultaneously praising God for being the all-knowing judge and encouraging her people to practice humility, to enter into worship with a humble heart. God knows the hearts of man. He's the only one who is all-knowing, who is the judge. And that truth, frankly, should humble us. It should bring about humility in our own hearts to realize that He is omniscient. He is all-knowing and all-powerful. I wonder how often we think that anything that has happened or anything that we have accomplished is in our own strength, that we've done it, we've pulled ourselves up by our bootstraps or we've made it happen, we've pushed through. And to be sure, we are not helpless, we are not useless. God has a role and work for us to do, but it is not dependent on us. And so we must approach God with humility in understanding that it is Him who knows all things. It is Him who judges the hearts of man. In summarizing an idea from C.S. Lewis' book, Mere Christianity, Pastor Rick Warren wrote that, "True humility is not thinking less of yourself, it is thinking of yourself less." And that's reality. We don't have to think that we're useless, we just have to think about ourselves less. By elevating who God is and coming to Him with humility, not that we are nothing, but that He is everything. Hannah is giving credit where credit is due. She's having a right view of herself as she worships and prays and praises God. And we should do the same. It should cause humility in us to do the same. The third section, the last part of her prayer, is really more poetic. It's not metaphorical necessarily, but it is poetry. And it's a beautiful, especially in the original language, it's a beautiful message of the actions of the Lord and of what He has done for Hannah and in the lives of Israelites.
Verse 6, "As the Lord brings death and makes alive, He brings down to the grave and raises up. The Lord sends poverty and wealth, He humbles and He exalts. He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap. He seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor. For the foundations of the earth are the Lord's, on them He has set the world. He will guard the feet of His faithful servants, but the wicked will be silenced in the place of darkness. It is not by strength that one prevails. Those who oppose the Lord will be broken. The Most High will thunder from heaven, the Lord will judge the ends of the earth. He will give strength to His King and exalt the horn of His anointed." This section of Hannah's song encourages us to surrender to God's sovereignty. It talks about how the Lord does this, the Lord gives, the Lord strengthens, the Lord lifts up. He is the one who is sovereign and encourages us to surrender to His sovereignty. For those of us who like to be in control, this is a tough one to handle. I know for me that I struggle, not that I believe that God is sovereign, but to just let Him be sovereign, that I don't have to be in control. Hannah has such great confidence in the Lord because she knows He is who He says He is. She knows that He is worthy of her confidence because of His sovereignty. And really, there's actually so much peace in that truth. Because when we don't have to be in control, when we don't have to feel like we have to have it all figured out, that brings us so much peace. When we are able to really relinquish this illusion of full control and surrender to God's sovereignty and His control, His supernatural peace is able to come upon us. And honestly, we won't always understand the why or the how of things and of situations or circumstances. It won't always make sense.
In fact, it reminds me of Job, who was a man in the Bible who literally lost everything but his life. And in Job 1:20, it says, "Then he fell to the ground in worship." He already lost things, right? "He fell to the ground in worship and said, 'Naked I come from my mother's womb and naked I will depart. The Lord gave and the Lord has taken away. May the name of the Lord be praised.'" Even in the midst of losing everything he worshiped, he sang a song of praise to God. Again, here, Job is not celebrating his circumstances. His joy is not found in the fact that he has lost everything. His joy is in the Lord. God's will doesn't always make sense to us. We don't always understand it, and it can mean walking through really hard things, really hard circumstances. But because we know that He is good, we know His character, and that the Bible says, "In all things, God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose, we can surrender to His sovereignty." In His all-knowing sovereignty, we can trust Him. We can trust that He will judge rightly. We can trust that He knows what's best for us. We can trust that He will have good for us. Even if it doesn't feel good, it's for our good. Back to what I said earlier, Hannah wasn't praising God for the circumstances or praising the gift. She was praising the giver, the one who is sovereign over all. And it means, it shows us that we can do that too. That if we're praying for a circumstance to change and it doesn't change, we can still praise God. And if it does change, we can still praise God. Regardless of where we're at, if we are flying high and things are going great, or we're in the valley of the shadow of death, He is with us and He is worthy of our praise because He is sovereign. When we are surrendered to God's sovereignty, we're better able to praise Him because our praise is not dependent on our circumstances, but on the character of God. So Hannah's song reminds us to focus our praise on God. It calls us to humility and it encourages us to surrender to God's sovereignty. And truly, all of this can only be done by the power of the Holy Spirit. We can't do anything without His work in us. Even to be able to praise or to choose humility or to surrender, that is all done by the work of the Holy Spirit in our hearts, of Jesus' Spirit in us. Lastly, the final verse here in Hannah's prayer is looking forward. It's actually prophetic. We're going to talk about that a little bit.
Let me read verse 10 again. This is, "The Most High will thunder from heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth." That's very much end times revelation language, right? "He will give strength to His King and exalt the horn of His anointed." The interesting thing here is that at this time of Hannah's prayer, Israel didn't have a king. They were ruled by judges. So who is she referring to when she talks about His King? And the phrase in there that says His anointed, the word is Messiah in Hebrew. So she is prophesying out of this place of praise and humility and submission. She is talking about the coming King of Kings. So when we choose praise, when we choose humility and submission, it causes us to worship as well. It really, truly makes room for the Holy Spirit to move. By His power, He is able to move in ways that maybe there isn't room for if we're trying to grasp things so tightly, if we're trying to hold on to control. But He's able to move in mighty and powerful ways, just like He did here in Hannah's prophecy. Something I think that is really important that is shown throughout this whole passage is that God is the God of the great reversal. His kingdom is nothing like any earthly kingdom here in this world. So when Hannah prays phrases like, "He raises the poor from the dust," "He lifts the needy from the ash heap," "He seats them with princes and has them inherit a throne of honor," she is acknowledging that His is the upside down kingdom. It is totally different. We're lowly, we'll be great, and the poor will eat with princes. That can only happen in God's economy. That can only happen in His kingdom.
This prophecy is also what we like to call a hyperlink. It is hyperlinking us and telling us to go look somewhere else. It is in Luke 1. In Luke 1 we have Mary's song. Mary, the mother of Jesus, sings a song of praise when she is pregnant. It's interesting because there are so many themes and parallels to Hannah's song in Mary's song. Even so much that scholars think Luke modeled, Luke who's the author of Luke, modeled Mary's song after Hannah's. So it's something to take note of because we see Hannah prophesying about the anointed one and then we see Mary who is carrying the anointed one sing a very similar song. But it's interesting because it's actually later in Luke that we have another hyperlink. There is another song, Zechariah's song, later in Luke. He's the father of John the Baptist who's Jesus' cousin. He sings a song when John the Baptist is born. And in verse 69 it says, "He has raised up a horn of salvation for us." So we have Mary who's carrying the anointed one singing a song similar to the prophecy about the anointed one. And then we have Zechariah praising God for the horn of salvation that has come. We know that the horn of salvation is Jesus. He is our ultimate strength. He is the ultimate restorer of our strength.
So Hannah's song points us to Luke 1 and Luke 1 reminds us of the prophecy in Hannah's song. And Jesus coming to earth as a human is the ultimate reversal. He not only took on human flesh but then through his death and resurrection he took our sin away. He paid the price for our sins. So Hannah is praising God for the coming King of Kings whom she hasn't even known about yet. When we pray to God with praise and humility and submission, it allows us to glorify God for the works that he has done and has yet to do because we know he will. We know the end of the story. Because of the great reversal of our sin, we are able, like the authors of the Bible, we are able to sing songs of praise to God for what he has done in us, what he has done through us, what he's doing in the world and what he will do in the world to come. What a powerful way to honor and glorify God through singing, through worship, through a praise of thanksgiving for who he is, for his character.
I have a challenge for us today. Pastor Andre challenged you all last week to write your own Psalm 136. So I hope you all did that. But if not, you still can do it. We're not going to check. But it was great. I did it this week and it was really powerful to take the time to do that. I encourage you to do that. Our challenge, or my challenge for you this week, is to pick a song in the Bible. Maybe it's Hannah's song. Maybe you go find another one. Maybe it's a Psalm that you really know or love. And I want you to read it out loud every day this week. The same one. Read it out loud. We don't have the music, so if you want to put your own music to it, by all means, that's great. But just read it out loud. So much of scripture is meant to be spoken aloud. It was passed on so much through oral tradition. And so to say it over and over again is really powerful. It is the word of the Lord. So when you say it out loud, you are literally speaking God's words over you. You can even, like Hannah here, read it as a prayer. Use it as a prayer back to God. Praising Him for who He is. Honoring Him. Glorifying Him. Making a request of Him. And as you do this, ask the Holy Spirit to reveal more of Himself and more of His word to you, because He is good on that promise. When we are in the Word, when we are reading it, when we are studying it and memorizing it, when we are speaking it, He is good to reveal who He is to us. Well, speaking of prayer, we are going to begin a new practice here. Right now we're going to do it about once a month. Maybe in the future we'll increase that frequency. But we are going to start this practice of an extended prayer time as a response for us to respond to how the Lord spoke to us during worship and the Word. So Pastor Chris and Daryl are going to come up and they're going to play a song, another song for us. So you're welcome to just worship from your seat if that's what you want. But Pastor Andre and I are going to be up here at the front and we just want to pray with you. We want to pray with and for you and to be available to you.
I find it appropriate that today is Pentecost Sunday. For those that don't know, this is the day that we celebrate when the Holy Spirit, after Jesus ascended into heaven, the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples. And now we as believers are all given the Holy Spirit. We are all indwelt with Him. And we are going to pray by the power of the Holy Spirit. We believe that there is so much power in prayer. And so there's nothing necessarily magical or particularly special about Andre and I praying with you. We just want to come alongside you and stand in agreement with you about whatever it is that the Lord has put on your heart to pray for. So as the worship song is praying, come on up. We also have prayer team standing by if we need more help, but if not, you can also just form a line and we would love the opportunity to pray for you. We're not in a rush. We'll stay as long as we need. But we want to respond to what the Lord has spoken to us today through prayer and through worship.
So let me pray for us as we head into this time. Father Jesus, Holy Spirit, thank you for who you are. Thank you for your character and that regardless of our circumstances, we can come to you in humility and surrender and praise you because you are good, because you are all knowing, because you are sovereign. Thank you, Holy Spirit, for coming, for indwelling us so that we have a guide. We have one who intercedes on our behalf to the Father, that we are not left to our own devices, but we are given everything we need for life and godliness. I pray for this time of prayer that you would move in a powerful way, that you will speak to the hearts of those who seek you, God. We love you and we praise you in Jesus name. Amen.