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Sing a Song: Hannah, David & the Lamb

  • Eva Marie Everson Featured Writer, Crosswalk.com
  • Published Sep 06, 2006
Sing a Song: Hannah, David & the Lamb

Sing a Song… is a short series which looks at specific songs of the Bible and their Ah-ha Moments. This is the fifth and final installment.

 

In the last few Ah-Ha articles we have looked at a series of songs: the song of the angels, the song of Moses, the song of Deborah, the song of Zechariah, and the song of Mary. The last three songs we will study are the song of Hannah, the song of David, and the song of the Lamb.

 

Laid out in the order in which way you have read them (hopefully) gives us a story. Do you know what it is?

 

The Song of Hannah
Have you ever wanted something so much… so intently… that you would be willing to give it away if you actually got it?  Hannah was such a woman. Though she had a husband who loved her and, no doubt, a nice home to love him in, she was most unfulfilled.

 

She also had an enemy that taunted her at every turn in the form of her husband’s “other wife,” Peninnah. Would you know it; Peninnah had children.

 

Their husband, Elkanah, did everything he could to make Hannah happy, but it just wasn’t enough. She knew what she had been born into this life to do - to be a mother. One year, as was the custom, the family went to Shiloh for worship and sacrifice on the Feast of Tabernacles. While there, Hannah made a bold move; she went to the temple and poured her heart out to the Lord. Her emotions were so expressive and so raw, the old priest, Eli, thought she was drunk. But when he heard her pleas, he blessed her.

 

God blessed Hannah, too. Hannah gave birth to a baby boy; she named him Samuel.

 

But she did not rear him, for in her prayer to the Lord she made a vow, O LORD Almighty, if you will only look upon your servant's misery and remember me, and not forget your servant but give her a son, then I will give him to the LORD for all the days of his life…[i]

 

And Hannah sang….

 

The Song of David
I stood in front of the group of women who had listened to me speak during the sessions of their weekend retreat. “What song,” I asked, “would you like played at your funeral? What song would most express your life?”

 

An older woman named Joy, sweet of face and with gentle eyes, answered, “The Potter’s Hands.”

 

Joy was a potter. It was her hobby, her profession, and her ministry.

 

I could write an entire book just on the song[ii]  David sang over his life, but there is no room to do that here. What I would like to do is share with you something I read once (and recorded in my notes) about him. I believe it adequately summarizes a life well lived.

 

There is no other character in the OT to be compared to David  in the complexity of its elements, passion, tenderness, generosity, and fierceness; David was a soldier, shepherd, poet, statesman, priest, prophet, and king…He founded a dynasty. He was patriotic, generous, and kind, a man of strong impulses, and firm faith, brave and forgiving; yet a child of his time. He placed religion above everything. Of him alone has it been said that he was a man after the heart of God. He fostered a simple trust in God; he was a heinous sinner, but a correspondingly sincere penitent. He was the “sweet psalmist of Israel.”[iii]

 

He was the sweet psalmist of Israel, it says, and goes on to say: His songs lead the worshiper up to God….

 

Because, imperfect as he was, David sang!

 

The Song of the Lamb
It is a song all believers will one day come to sing, the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb. John recorded in his revelation:

 

And I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast and his image and over the number of his name. They held harps given them by God and sang the song of Moses the servant of God and the song of the Lamb:


   "Great and marvelous are your deeds,
      Lord God Almighty.
   Just and true are your ways,
      King of the ages.
 Who will not fear you, O Lord,
      and bring glory to your name?
   For you alone are holy.
   All nations will come
      and worship before you,
   for your righteous acts have been revealed
."[iv]

 

But is this a song we must wait to sing?

 

In his priceless work, Into the Depth of God, Dr. Calvin Miller wrote: There’s not one verse in the entire Bible that teaches we are going to have life after death. The Bible teaches we can have life instead of death. Jesus Christ comes into a life, and at that precise moment eternal life begins. Someday pulse or respiration may cease, but not us — we will already have taken the giant step into the pleasure of God! Heaven begins at that moment. Eternity is now (emphasis mine).[v]

 

The Ah-ha Moment
The shepherds heard the Good News first, the ancient Hebrews were freed by Moses, ancient Israel was led to victory by Deborah after their stubborn fall back into slavery, Zechariah learned that a time in silence is filled by a time of singing, Mary was empowered to do what otherwise she could not have done, Hannah learned that the only true sacrifice is total sacrifice, David had a life well-lived, and — one great day — believers from every nation will sing the Song of the Lamb.

 

In this way, you heard the Gospel, you asked Jesus to free you from the slavery of sin, you tripped and fell and had to call out to Him again. As you walk with Him you learn that a time of silence is followed by a time of singing, that in order to do what you are called to do, you must pour out of yourself to be filled with His Holy Spirit. Hopefully, at the end of your life you will recount a life well-lived and will, with the redeemed and the angels, sing the Song of the Lamb!

 

In the course of the Christian life, we must experience maturity in Christ. We take it one step, one note, one measure, and one song at a time.

 

And then we sing! For He alone is holy!


Award-winning national speaker Eva Marie Everson is a graduate of Andersonville Theological Seminary. Her most sought after conference topic is “Arise, My Soul, Arise” in which she explores the songs of the Bible. She can be contacted for comments or for speaking engagement bookings at www.evamarieeverson.com.

 


[ii]  See 2 Samuel and Psalms 18

[iii] Taken from “The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia Volume II,” David: An Estimate of David, page 797A

[v] Miller, Calvin; Into the Depths of God, (Bethany House Publishers, Bloomington, MN., 2000) pgs. 220-221.