What divine condescension is made known to us here. That the Almighty God should

desire to meet with and commune with His earthly people Israel: this is beyond our

The Hebrew word used for mercy seat is kapporeth, which is derived from the word

kaphar, always translated "to make atonement". Atonement is an essential part of the

great sacrificial work of Christ. The meeting place, a beautiful symbol of the result of

atonement, contains within itself the ideas of entrance, access, and acceptance. God

spoke to Moses, and Moses spoke to God before the blood-sprinkled mercy seat.

Through the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, which He offered on Calvary's

Cross, He has made possible to all who trust in Him a Meeting Place, so that we, sinners

though we are, may not only speak with God but may one day live in His presence. The

N.I.V. translates Rom. 3: 25 "God presented Him (the Lord Jesus Christ) as a sacrifice

of atonement, through faith in His blood". Propitiation--i.e. mercy on the grounds of a

sacrifice. What a God! What a Saviour! Surely we, like Samuel, must worship the Lord

Who has done such great things for us.

Hannah and Elkanah had brought their son, Samuel, probably about three years of age,

to the Tabernacle at Shiloh, and given him into the care of Eli the high priest. This is

what Hannah had promised to do. She had kept her word and here in chapter 2: we have

recorded her prayer, or rather her song of thanksgiving for the gift of her son. It is,

however, not only a hymn of praise, but also a prediction of the preservation and blessing

of all in Israel who remain faithful to their God, and the destruction ultimately of all His,

and their enemies. It closes with a prophetic reference to the glory of the coming

Messiah, the Anointed One, the Christ.

The chapter opens with the words: "And Hannah prayed . . . . .". It is rather a song of

thanksgiving, dictated not only by the spirit of prayer, but by the spirit of prophecy.

While its origin is the birth of Samuel, its burden is prophetic. She had returned to Shiloh

to fulfil the promise she had made, and to give thanks for the mercy God had bestowed

upon her in giving her a son. Unlike the nine lepers who were healed (Luke 17: 12-17)

and promptly forgot the One Who had made them whole, Hannah remembered.

Thanksgiving is surely an essential part of prayer when we lift up our hearts to our

heavenly Father.

Verse 1 of chapter 2: continues "My heart rejoiceth in the Lord, mine horn is exalted

in the Lord".  The trumpet, or the horn, was blown by the priests on the Day of

Atonement in the Jubilee year of the Jewish calendar. Does the word `horn' here refer to

this, or could it be a reference to the strength and protection afforded, as by the horns of

In the prayer or thanksgiving made by Zacharias after the birth of John the Baptist,

which has much in common with Hannah's hymn of praise, he speaks of "the horn of