1 Samuel 1:15-16

Hannah answered and said, No, my Lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit.

A woman of a sorrowful spirit

The special cause of Hannah’s sorrow arose from the institution of polygamy, which, although it was tolerated under the old law, is always exhibited to us in practical action as a most fruitful source of sorrow and sin. The worse the woman the better she could get on with the system of many wives, but the good woman, the true woman, was sure to smart under it. But enough sources of grief remain; and there is not in any household, however joyous, the utter absence of the cross. The worldling say, “There is a skeleton in every house.” I know little about such dead things, but I know that a cross of some sort or other must be borne by every child of God. The smoking furnace is part of the insignia of the heavenly family, without which a man may well question whether he stands in covenant relationship to God at all. Much that is precious may be connected with a sorrowful spirit. Note well the precious things which went in Hannah’s case with a sorrowful spirit. She was a godly woman. As we read the chapter, we are thoroughly certified that her heart was right with God. Many of the sweetest flowers in the garden of grace grow in the shade, and flourish in the drip. True, there are children of the tropical sun, whose beauty and fragrance could only be produced by having bathed themselves in the golden flood, and these, in certain respects, must always stand in the forefront, yet are there choice flowerets to whom the unshaded sun would be death. They prefer a sheltered bank, or a ravine in the forest, under the shadow of the thick boughs, where a softened, mellowed light developes them to perfection. I am persuaded that he “who feedeth among the lilies” has rare plants in his flora, fair and fragrant, choice and comely, which are more at home in the damps of mourning than in the glaring sun of joy. I have known such, who have been a living lesson to us all, from their broken-hearted penitence, their solemn earnestness, their jealous watchfulness, their sweet humility, and their gentle love.

2. Hannah was a lovable woman.

3. In Hannah’s case, too, the woman of a sorrowful spirit was a very gentle woman.

4. There was more, however, than I have shown you, for Hannah was a thoughtful woman, for her sorrow drove her first within herself, and next into much communion with her God. That she was a highly thoughtful woman appears in everything she says. The product of her mind is evidently that which only a cultivated soul could yield.

5. Remember, also, that though she was a woman of a sorrowful spirit, she was a blessed woman. It is now clear that much that is precious may go with a sorrowful spirit.

Much that is precious may come out of a sorrowful spirit: it is not only to be found with it, but may even grow out of it.

1. Observe, first, that through her sorrowful spirit Hannah had learned to pray. In too many cases ease and health bring a chill over supplication, and there is a needs be for a stirring of the fire with the rough iron of trial. Many a flower reserves its odour till the rough wind waves it to and fro, and shakes out its fragrance. As a rule the tried man is the praying man, the angel must wrestle with us in the night before we learn to hold him, and cry, “I will not let thee go.”

2. In the next place, Hannah had learned self-denial. This is clear, since the very prayer by which she hoped to escape out of her great grief was a self-denying one. She desired a son, that her reproach might be removed; but if her eyes might be blessed with such a sight she would cheerfully resign her darling to be the Lord’s as long as he lived.

3. Another precious thing had come to this woman, and that was, she had learned faith.

4. Still more of preciousness this woman of a sorrowful spirit found growing out of her sorrow: she had evidently learned much of God. Driven from common family joys she had been drawn near to God, and in that heavenly fellowship she had remained a humble waiter and watcher. In seasons of sacred nearness to the Lord she had made many heavenly discoveries of his name and nature, as her song makes us perceive.

(1) She now knew that the heart’s truest joy is not in children, nor even in mercies given in answer to prayer, for she began to sing, “My heart rejoiceth in the Lord”--not “in Samuel,” but in Jehovah her chief delight was found. “Mine horn is exalted in the Lord.”

(2) Next, she had also discovered the Lord’s glorious holiness, for she sang, “There is none holy as the Lord.”

(3) She had perceived His all-sufficiency; “There is none beside thee; neither is there any rock like our God.”

(4) She had found out God’s method in providence, for how sweetly she sings, “The bows of the mighty men are broken, and they that stumbled are girded with strength.”

(5) She had also been taught the way and method of his grace as well as of his providence, for never did a woman show more acquaintance with the wonders of divine grace than she did when she sang, “He raiseth up the poor out of the dust, and lifteth up the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes, and to make them inherit the throne of glory.”

(6) She had also seen the Lord’s faithfulness to his people.

(7) She had foreseen, also, somewhat of His kingdom, and of the glory of it. Her prophetic eye, made brighter and clearer by her holy tears, enabled her to look into the future, and looking, her joyful heart made her sing, “He shall give strength unto his King, and exalt the horn of his Anointed.”

much that is precious will yet be given to those who are truly the Lord’s, even though they have a sorrowful spirit.

1. Hannah had her prayers answered.

2. Not only did there come to Hannah after her sorrow an answered prayer, but grace to use that answer.

3. Hannah had acquired another blessing, and that was the power to magnify the Lord.

4. Moreover, her sorrow prepared her to receive further blessings, for after the birth of Samuel she had three more sons and two daughters, God thus giving her five for the one that she had dedicated to him. This was grand interest for her loan: five hundred per cent. Last of all, it was by suffering in patience that she became so brave a witness for the Lord, and could so sweetly sing, “There is none holy as the Lord, neither is there any rock like our God.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Hannah’s gracious disposition

Hannah still found prayer and patience the best anodynes and antidotes for assuaging her grief; cold patience must quench her corrival’s fiery contumely, and hot fervent prayer must quicken and prevail with God to grant her desire; and to animate her devotion the more she adds warm tears thereunto, and, as if all this were not enough, she subjoins likewise her solemn vow to God, saying, If thou wilt give thine hand maid a man child, then will I give him to the Lord all the days of his life. The judge misjudged, and misconstrued her true devotion, as was that of those Primitive Christians (Acts 2:13). Thus also both ancient and modern martyrs have been misjudged in all ages, and if we be so in our age, God is not leading us through any untrodden paths; many better than we have tons before us in that way, but our comfort is the day of judgment will judge over again all that are misjudged. (Psalms 37:6). Hannah is silent, touching the taunts of Peninnah, that was so peevish to her; and though she could not be so to Eli’s taunts here, but answers them, yet she setteth not up a loud note at him, calling him a false accuser; nor doth she twit him in the teeth, with bidding him to look better to those drunken whoremasters, his own sons, saying vies corrects sin, as many pert dames would have done in her circumstances; but she gives him a milder answer to his reproaches than the blessed Apostle could scarcely give to the High Priest in his day (Acts 23:5) calling him a whited wall, etc., but she here gives the high priest good words, patiently bearing his unjust censurings of her.

3. Here is her prudence, as well as patience, she seeketh to satisfy him against his false judgment. Saith she, I am a woman, in whom drunkenness is more abominable than in men; and thereupon the Romans punished it with death, as well as adultery, and that she was a woman of a troubled spirit, so more likely to be drunk with her own tears (whereof, good soul, she had drunk abundance) rather than with any intoxicating liquors.

4. Behold here, her humility and modesty together with her patience and prudence, none of which could have shined so forth in her, had she been really drunk according to Eli’s over-severe sentence; notwithstanding Eli’s rash severity in so misjudging her, yet she useth no railing accusation against him, as is said of Michael against the Devil (Jude verse 9) in calling him an unjust judge. (C. Ness.)