Sermon 6: 1 Samuel 2:8-11

Hence it happens that God is not invoked by them; indeed, he is rather provoked by them to a contest, so that they wield even the gifts received from him against him as if in combat, and in the manner of giants seem to want to drag him from his throne. Moreover, Hannah here speaks not only of those who are endowed with bodily strength and power, but by the name of the mighty she includes also those who possess some authority and rank, such as kings, princes, and other such magistrates. But what, I ask, are the thoughts of such men generally, what their pursuits! I confess that if asked by whom they were raised to this dignity, they would answer 'by God.' Yet you see them full of vainglory, threats, cruelty, tyranny, and savagery; and though they are most abominable, they promise themselves admirable success in their schemes. Therefore it is not surprising if God brings low these puffed-up men who trust in their own strength and breaks them, because they abuse God's gifts. And in this sense the prophet spoke in Psalm 33, verses 16-17: 'The strong one is not delivered by the greatness of his strength; the horse is deceptive for safety, nor does it save by the greatness of its strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon those who fear him, who hope in his mercy.' And yet the more spirited a horse someone obtains, the more God wants his power to be acknowledged by men through it. Why then is God not pleased with the strength of horses? Namely, because of men's arrogant insolence: the more spirited and stronger horses they have obtained, the more they are puffed up and kick against God with the utmost contempt, and trampling him underfoot when their plans succeed prosperously. Therefore, because we defile and pollute God's gifts by our malice and ingratitude, they rightly also displease him. Finally, experience, the teacher of things, teaches us more than enough that God is accustomed to crushing those who trust in their own strength and exalt themselves so. If this does not always happen, let us not therefore call divine judgments into question, whose fullness we cannot see here, but it is much if we contemplate them in part. But truly, if we looked at them with attentive eyes and mind, we would see the truth of this statement — 'The bow of the mighty is broken' — being fulfilled in reality. Therefore from these things we must learn that we ought not to be so desirous of power and strength, since we are so weak and so incautious that these become for us an occasion of all the greater fall. Therefore if God has raised us to a higher degree, let us, mindful of our lowliness, run the course of life with all modesty and the fear of God, and let us be persuaded that God is looking after us and our salvation when he keeps us in a humble state and does not exalt us according to our will. On the contrary, the feeble are said to be girded with strength, so that we may be taught that God, when we are weak and feeble, will bring us timely help. And indeed we must know that it can happen that we spend the whole course of our life in a lowly and abject condition and creep along the ground, as it were; yet God in this lowliness and weakness will never fail us, but will supply the necessary strength so that we never give out. For God himself has promised that he will give strength to the oppressed. Hence, then, in sum we must learn this: that God's power and majesty is greatly to be feared and dreaded by all who exalt themselves and are proud — a power that threatens all who rise up against him in the manner of giants and wage war against him with ultimate destruction and confusion. On the contrary, that same power which brings destruction upon all the proud gives comfort and consolation to the lowly and humble who claim nothing for themselves but acknowledge their weakness — namely, because they recognize that all things depend on the grace of God alone. Therefore the more they understand God's power, the more confidently they dare to stand against whatever insults and violence of proud and insolent men, since the Lord's help will not be lacking when necessity demands it.

Continuing, Hannah says that the full have hired out their labor for bread, and the hungry have been satisfied. By the hungry, understand wealthy men who, from either ample riches or the administration of great affairs, have such revenues that they live even in luxury — she says they will hire out their labor for bread, meaning they will one day beg for their livelihood. On the contrary, the hungry will be filled, with God abundantly supplying them with sustenance. This change indeed seems novel and unusual, and rightly so to anyone, especially to one who considers God's immutability. For since God is immutable, and his works too ought to flow always in the same course, human reason might judge — and it commonly reasons thus: 'Why does God take delight in such confusions and seemingly random events, so that the whole world seems to threaten confusion and ruin — with the powerful and strong brought low and weakened, the rich and wealthy drained and impoverished, and the full at last emptied and made hungry?' Indeed, first of all, if we observed this world being governed by a continuous and unvarying course of events, God's providence would certainly be far more obscure, and that universal governance would cast such a stupor upon our senses that it would strip us of all thought and memory of God. For example, if the sun always illuminated the earth with its rays without the alternation of night, surely that doctrine so often repeated in sacred writings — that God governs all things created by him — would never come to mind. So when we suffer some loss from barrenness, we are reminded of our sins; but if the weather is fair, we have a most abundant testimony of divine blessing and of his perpetual providence, by which he alone governs the weather as he wills. And in this sense Scripture says in Psalm 147:16 that God sprinkles the ground with fine frost as if with ashes. So God wraps the sky in dark clouds, and the same God soon clears it, with the sun illuminating the world with its rays; then he sends rains upon the earth. By these changes of the sky we are stirred to contemplate God's providence, by which he alone governs all things and rules and administers them as he sees fit. The same applies to the various events in human life; for if all things were carried along at the same pace without any changes, we would surely strip God of his proper honor and attribute the administration of the world to fortune, and would be plunged into the darkness of error. But when we see someone made poor who was once rich, and wretched and abject who was once powerful, and observe that nothing is so stable that it cannot be shaken, then — unless we are utterly blind in broad daylight — we are urged to raise our minds to certain deeper causes of these changes and to look up at the effects of divine providence. And this is the first doctrine to be drawn from these words. Then this also must be observed: that God, in impoverishing the rich and reducing the satisfied to want and hunger, has just reasons for his counsel with himself, even if not immediately known to all. But the one who has been impoverished, for example, ought to investigate those reasons within himself and examine his whole self and life — whether he has converted God's gifts to bad uses, whether he has accumulated such great wealth by wicked means, how he has used it, whether for luxury, pride, or other such vices by which he has made himself unworthy of them. Finally, although the causes of divine judgments are usually hidden, they often strike the eyes so that no room is left for doubt. Therefore we ought so to admire and reverence divine judgments and look up to his infinite wisdom, that we may well understand that human wisdom without it is empty and vain. Finally, whatever is done by him must be acknowledged as just and perfect. For this reason also the blessed Virgin Mary, in harmony with this prophetess, says that God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. For you commonly see the rich so insolent with their goods and riches that they burst, not unlike those who, gorging themselves with too much food, suffer from indigestion. For it happens through their own intemperance that what should have served as nourishment becomes ruinous and destructive to them. The same thing indeed happens generally in this world; for the powerful, swollen with arrogance, burst, and are so satiated that no stable remedy can be applied. And indeed often you see that hunger and poverty are a faithful and useful medicine. Yet often you may see many not sufficiently emptied or humbled, because they have not learned to abase themselves before God's majesty. And the poor you may often see, on the contrary, so puffed up that they refuse to flee humbly to God. For we are not all so wise as to rise toward God even when he urges us. But when necessity and want press us, even though we were previously as if stupefied and sluggish, yet as if awakened from a deep sleep we are compelled to flee to him. Therefore God rightly is said to fill and satisfy the poor and hungry. I confess indeed that these things do not always happen in a perpetual succession: many being born poor and afflicted, whom poverty accompanies all the way to the grave; on the contrary, many being wealthy from birth, transmitting their riches even to their posterity, and indeed for many generations. For this reason also the prophet complains in many places, as in Psalm 17:14 and 73:12, that contemners of God are glutted with such delicacies and their belly is filled so that they leave the remainder to their grandchildren. But truly, as I touched on above, the perfection and fulfillment of divine judgments is not to be expected in this world. For otherwise, I ask, what would become of our hope? What, I say, if everything seemed fulfilled to us, would become of that chief article of our resurrection? Therefore let us know that God in the administration of this world gives us only some taste of his judgments, so that with our senses raised on high we may expect greater things. Meanwhile, let us so attentively look up to and admire his power and providence that we attribute nothing of the divine works to fortune, but recognize it as the property of God alone to fill these or those even to satiety, and on the contrary to impoverish and strip them of all their fortunes, however ample. Nor should we think that examples of these things are few; and oh, would that there were not so many! For look, I ask, at what misfortunes have followed the wars that have arisen in our own and earlier times — with the ruin and calamity of so many great, powerful, and wealthy families, with the destruction of so many wretched people, of whom some perished from cold, some from hunger, some by the sword, and some from other calamity and want. How many, I ask, are we ourselves forced to see with our own eyes — once most wealthy, now begging for alms and overwhelmed by six hundred other misfortunes? And someone might perhaps say these things are rather remote from us; but when they reach even us like planks from a shipwreck, what stupor would it be not to observe them?

But truly we must take care, on the other hand, not to lose heart, since the Lord himself reveals that he is the one from whom riches and wealth flow, and he is the same from whom they come. And let us pray to him that he may open our eyes with which we may observe these examples, so that as long as he prolongs our life here, we may profit more and more in them. And on these matters, enough for now. There follows: the barren has borne, and she who abounds in children has languished. By these words Hannah returns to the proclamation of the special benefit she had received from God, so that what she had said in general about God's power she might apply to herself and to the present subject, which had been the occasion for this canticle — as if to say that although she was lowly and abject before men, yet God's benefits toward her were so great that she could rightly be counted among those afflicted and hungry whom God has comforted and filled with good things. Therefore these things are connected with what we said above: that Hannah does not satisfy herself by proclaiming God's special favor toward her, but rises higher, so as to magnify, according to her measure, God's power both in heaven and on earth, and his providence by which he rules and administers all things. Moreover, she compares her barrenness to a lowly and worthless hungry soul, which is then satisfied. For, as we saw, she was formerly weighed down by a heavy burden, because being exposed by God to all manner of insults and reproaches on account of her barrenness, she seemed destined to spend her life in perpetual mourning and sorrow. But having obtained a son from God, she marvels at so great a change with a mind as if astonished, and proclaims it. Someone might here rightly ask why she mentions seven children, when at that time she had only the one Samuel, even though she later bore more children by God's blessing. Some explain these words thus: since the faithful are content with little, as Psalm 37:16 teaches, Hannah regards this benefit as equivalent to far more and greater ones. And indeed, when God bestows his benefits upon us, if we are governed by the power of the Holy Spirit, the smallest of his kindnesses will always stand in place of greater ones, and we will praise and celebrate him for them, as is fitting. But this interpretation does not fit well, since by these words Hannah seems rather to be opening up the hope she had conceived for the future. For there is no doubt that she, having experienced God's power which she had received for conceiving, has good hope for the future and expects greater things, and sees by faith what had not yet been fulfilled in reality. But God is by no means bound by Hannah's words; rather, his power and might are celebrated, by which he can bestow upon her a multitude of children up to the number seven. Now the number seven in Scripture contains in itself the idea of multitude. From the foregoing, then, we gather that God, who makes fruitful women who were previously barren, both satisfies and wastes away, fills the hungry with good things, and on the contrary strips those who rely on their own riches and resources. And this, she says, is evident even before women give birth. By this we are taught that even God's smallest benefits ought to be of such value to us that from them we may rise to the perfection of the divine works, and may look up with admiration more and more to God's glory and magnificence; and so that we may have some taste of his otherwise infinite and incomprehensible majesty, we should learn to rise from his smallest benefits to greater ones. We shall therefore have profited greatly if from each of God's works that meets our eyes we admire his power — as, for example, when we see even grass springing up, resting in this very thing, we may be lifted up to God himself, even if deprived of the sight of heaven or earth itself. Therefore there is nothing in the whole world so small that it does not testify to God's justice, glory, and goodness. But because the smallest things usually become cheap to us, he therefore adds great ones as well. Since, then, we are of such dull understanding that we scarcely acknowledge God's majesty as is fitting, we must begin from these smallest things, from which we may be led to those greater ones. So Hannah here specifically counts among God's singular benefits the fruitfulness of women who were previously barren. And indeed this sentiment is often repeated in Scripture, so that we know it is not Hannah alone who proclaims this — especially in the Psalms, where in Psalm 113:9 the prophet says that God makes the barren woman dwell in a family and become a joyful mother of children, to teach that a numerous offspring should be counted among God's greatest benefits, and that thanks should be given to him alone specifically for this benefit. But how great, I ask, is the ingratitude of mortals in this regard! For you see some anxious and troubled by a numerous offspring, and others boasting and puffing themselves up. What, then, will become of God? Will the author not be acknowledged? Will thanks not be given to him? Will this benefit not be received from his generosity and hand with the reverence that is due? Furthermore, we must also learn from Hannah's words that when God begins to bestow his gifts upon us, greater things are always to be expected. For he is not to be compared with mortals, nor should his works be measured by a human standard; for if someone has helped another with some benefit when he was in some need, he resents being approached again. But God, on the contrary, invites us to himself and removes all fear of importunity from us, when we ask for the continuation of his gifts and the perfection of the work he has begun in us. You have the use of these words of Hannah, who promises herself a numerous offspring from the fact that she had received a son from God, but on the contrary announces a diminution of offspring for the one who boasts proudly and exalts herself with insults. So indeed God wisely crushes and confounds the glory and excellence by which men boast over others. For he rightly wants his glory to be conspicuous in proportion to his generosity and goodness. But because we are either too slow or too dull in acknowledging and praising God's glory as is fitting, it happens that it often becomes a cause of our confusion and reproach; for indeed by our sluggishness we profane the goods destined for our salvation, of which we do not know the right use. For who would say that the right use of that benefit leads to salvation, when we provoke him against us and, as far as ...is righteousness and goodness, stripping ourselves of them, when we do not direct his benefits toward us for the usefulness and edification of his church, when finally we do not acknowledge so liberal a giver as was fitting?

Anna continues and teaches that the Lord puts to death and restores to life; brings down to the grave and raises up, whose aim and purpose is the same as the foregoing, namely that we should know that so many and so great changes and transformations in these lands are just so many testimonies of divine power — not indeed of a confused power, but one joined with the highest justice. Therefore Anna here undertakes to celebrate the rectitude of divine works, which she first recognizes in this, as we said above: that God satisfies the hungry, namely because they flee to him, and God hears their prayers; but on the contrary strips and divests of their goods those who are sated and puffed up with their possessions, turned away from God. And this is one part of God's judgments, that these indeed are impoverished while those grow rich; the other part follows: that the Lord puts to death and restores to life.

This is indeed common to the faithful and the unbelieving alike, but it is especially and principally to be considered by us in God's children. Not without reason, therefore, is God said to put to death and conversely to restore to life: for death must precede life. By the word 'life' she understands any kind of diminution. For those conducting their affairs well and prosperously are said to live, while those declining and falling into poverty are said to be diminished and as it were to die. And in this sense Paul, saying that we must be dead to the world, speaks not only of worldly pleasures and delights, but of all those things that pertain to this transient and fragile life. Thus God brings low and casts down those who have attained great honors in this age and feed themselves on them, lest they be carried away on high with rebellion and defiance. Thus he strips those glorying in their great wealth of those same riches, or diminishes them, lest they become lethal to their possessors. Therefore by the word 'death' Anna rightly encompasses any kind of diminution and whatever gradually leads to death, just as conversely by the word 'life' she encompasses any happy and prosperous outcome, and whatever can make a person content with his lot, enjoying an abundance of things.

I said that this thought pertains also to the unbelievers themselves; but the sequence of matters treated here shows more than sufficiently that God wishes it to be applied specifically to his own people. Why so? Namely lest, being puffed up, they leave God far behind them. For if everything succeeded according to our heart's desire, and we brought all our plans to the desired outcome, we would think nothing at all, so to speak, of God's majesty. Therefore it is best to be cast down by him, so that afterward, being restored, we may acknowledge his beneficent hand. If we always remained in infancy, we would have no strength for walking, but having been made more mature we acknowledge that we have been strengthened by God's power, and we are taught by experience itself that we are aided daily by his help.

Furthermore, not without reason does Anna mention life and death: for if we were diminished only in part, God's favor and goodwill toward us would not be so conspicuous. For example, if someone afflicted with a light illness recovers, it will seem a slight benefit; but if, having struggled with a grave illness, and already having one foot in the boat [i.e., at death's door], he is restored to health, then unless he is utterly dull, he must confess that he has recovered from God a life already nearly lost. Therefore, in order that we may come to life, death must be before our eyes. And so, since God sets these things before us in his church, come, let us not marvel if at some time we are not only diminished and cast down by the Lord, but even with bowed necks we are as it were trampled underfoot and oppressed; but let us rather be cast down and humbled before him all the more: for this is salutary for us. Therefore we must take care not to indulge too much in complaints arising from softness, not recognizing the reasons why we are treated thus by God; but rather, whenever it happens that we are nearly overwhelmed and as it were driven down to the underworld, let the remembrance of this thought come to our minds: that it accords with God's justice to lead us even to death, especially since the stupor of human nature is so great that it is moved only by the harshest chastisements and the terror of death, and driven to acknowledge God.

But truly, on the other hand, we must hope that he who leads to death will also restore us to life: so that in death itself we may confidently expect life, and in the gravest afflictions not despair of divine help. And she mentions not only death but also the grave, to magnify God's power and help all the more. For it is possible that someone may be near death, and yet not yet so dead as if he lay in the grave — since burial is the confirmation of death, one would then have been wholly taken from the living. And so Anna teaches that God not only punishes and afflicts people, but casts them down so that he sends them into the very grave, as if to say that when God redoubles his blows, we are not only like the dead, but like corpses reduced to ashes and dust. Therefore we are more and more confirmed and raised in hope by this saying, so that even if God so scourges us that we nearly fail and are reduced to nothing, yet we should not lose heart, but patiently await restoration and revivification, relying on his power. For he who created the world from nothing, who restored what was lost — how would he not call back the dead and restore them to life? Nor should we think that our burial can impose any delay upon him, but rather we should fix more deeply in our minds that saying of the prophet: that the exits from death belong to the Lord God — by which words we are taught that even though we are overwhelmed by six hundred deaths, we can nevertheless be made alive by his immense power; and though oppressed, we are to be liberated and rescued in innumerable ways which God has in his power. ...to be liberated and rescued. Moreover, beyond the fact that in this miserable and transient life, even though overwhelmed by a thousand miseries, we hope for divine help and full restoration, something more must be learned from this passage and fixed more deeply in our minds: namely that even though we lie in the grave, reduced to ashes and dust, we are nevertheless to be restored to life — for God has indeed promised this. Therefore come, let us place all our confidence in him, firmly persuaded that having run the course of this life we are not to be wholly consumed in the grave or reduced to nothing, because God has not cast off his care for us; but when the time of redemption appointed by him arrives, we will be raised and granted that eternal life promised to us. When therefore that time of redemption has arrived, we will perceive in reality the effect and fulfillment of the saying of our Lord Jesus Christ, in which he declares himself to be the resurrection and the life, so that we may not fall into groaning and complaints when we have hastened toward the grave and corruption. For what, I ask, is to be feared by us when the Son of God himself is our resurrection? Therefore the grave is mentioned, first, so that as we pass into corruption we may bear it with equanimity. Why so? Namely because we must die in order to live. Therefore if we desire the Son of God to become our life, it is necessary for us to die to ourselves and to renounce the world and all these transient things. In sum, let this usefulness return to us from this passage: that God, though casting us down and diminishing us so as nearly to reduce us to nothing, has not nevertheless cast us off, but so disposes us for the reception of his grace, that we may attribute ourselves and our life to him alone; and let us truly hold that we are led out from the grave by him, and let us direct all our afflictions to this end.

Continuing, Anna says that God impoverishes and enriches, casts down and also raises up. These are plainly the same as the foregoing; but from them it becomes clear to us with what ardor of spirit Anna entered into this prayer, namely so that she might set forth as in a mirror the divine providence to be contemplated, so that we may know that nothing in the whole world happens by chance or fortune, but that God's providence administers each thing. And indeed this doctrine needs to be impressed upon us often, and by frequent repetition driven into us, before we either grasp it or derive any fruit from it. For although sacred Scripture so often proclaims divine providence, and specifically in the Gospel the Lord assures us that not even one sparrow falls without God's will, and that all the hairs of our head are numbered, yet we labor under such great distrust and dullness of mind that we can scarcely rise to God, depend on him alone, and hope for timely help in afflictions, but instead attribute our deliverance to human reasoning or to fortune.

Therefore this doctrine must be frequently impressed, frequently ruminated upon, as I said, and by frequent repetition driven into our minds — a doctrine we scarcely, indeed hardly at all, digest: that it is necessary for people to be impoverished, diminished, and cast down by God. And this certainly not because he regrets his generosity toward them, but partly because, puffed up with riches and wealth, they grow fierce and tyrannically abuse them against the wretched and needy, and it is right that they too be afflicted by God with fitting punishments; partly so that God may make his goodness and power known toward the faithful who call upon him and flee to him, and also that he may hear all. Such things do not happen daily for us because it would not be useful in the future; but when similar examples occur, these things must be recalled to memory: so that when this one grows rich and that one is reduced to poverty, when this one is raised to a higher rank and that one is cast down, we may hold that the poor and lowly person is thus recalled to greater modesty, and conversely that so many miseries and calamities do not befall the poor by any fortuitous chance but are sent by God's will.

Anna next proclaims the same also concerning honors, dignities, and fortunes: so that when we see so many and so great changes and transformations of affairs in these lands, we may rise to God's providence, governing all things in heaven and earth according to the nod of his will, and attribute nothing here to fortune — which nevertheless we usually do. For whenever such changes occur, what admiration and mental agitation enters our minds? If we see a wealthy man reduced to poverty, or someone cast down from the highest rank of dignity to a lowly condition, and conversely a man of lowly and abject condition raised to the highest dignity — do we not stand wholly amazed and shaken? Who rises to God's providence? Who looks up to his admirable wisdom? Therefore this doctrine must be meditated upon by us all the more, the slower and duller we are: so that even though all things seem to be turned upside down, we may establish that nothing is confused, nothing fortuitous, but grant this glory to God, that we may know that he weighs all things in the balance, even though the rich celebrate their triumphs and delight in them. Indeed, if anything appears disturbed and confused here, all of it must be attributed not to the wise governor and administrator, but to the dimness of our eyes and the disturbance of our minds. Therefore what we cannot grasp with our senses must be embraced by faith. And first of all we must remember that the just cause of such judgments is to be sought in people themselves and nowhere else: because those who have attained the highest honors, forgetting their condition, strive to drag God himself from his throne so that they may be exalted — and for this reason God rightly not only diminishes them but... ...diminishes but crushes and destroys them. And that supreme ingratitude is the cause of so many and so great confusions and transformations, as they seem to us. And here, I beg you, recall with me the sudden and unexpected fall of many kings and emperors of old, who, having oppressed many peoples by force and arms and having established their tyranny, struck terror into the whole world and touched heaven with their heads — yet were suddenly dragged to the gallows. And in our own memory, indeed quite recently, have we not heard of dreadful threats against the wretched faithful, and horrible conspiracies of adversaries, carrying themselves with such uncontrollable spirit that they seemed about to mix heaven with earth — whom yet divine providence in a moment restrained and overthrew? These things, I say, we have seen and contemplated, and therefore, unless we are utterly dull and leaden, they supply us with ample material for instruction.

Therefore come, since in this age there is such great disturbance of affairs throughout the whole world, so that all things seem to be turned upside down, let us nevertheless, mindful of this doctrine, acknowledge that all things are ruled and administered by God and divine providence; let us humble ourselves under the strong and mighty hand of God and be utterly cast down, and let us commit ourselves entirely to him, firmly persuaded that we are to be rescued from the hand of our oppressors by him, and indeed that he will supply us with strength by which we may resist their assaults and violence. And therefore, whatever may happen, let us never allow ourselves to be torn from this hope: that he himself will be our defender and vindicator, and will bring timely help in uncertain circumstances.

Therefore, having become suppliants before the majesty of God Almighty, acknowledging the many lapses and offenses by which we have provoked his wrath against us, let us pray that he engrave the fear of his majesty upon our minds, and make us partakers of those things we have learned in this passage, so that our weakness and frailty may be supported by his strength, and we may be made victorious by the power of his Spirit, and he may supply us with strength by which we may stand against whatever temptations, which we would otherwise be unequal to bearing, and run the whole course of our life in obedience to him; and let us render him immortal thanks for so many and so great benefits toward us; finally, let all our faculties be directed to his worship for his eternal praise and glory, and may we be led in the way of salvation not only for our own private benefit but for the edification of our neighbors. Amen.

8. He raises the poor from the dust, he lifts the needy from the dunghill, to seat them with princes, and to make them possess a throne of glory: for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and he has set the world upon them. 9. He will guard the feet of those whom he has graciously received; but the wicked shall be silent in darkness: for by his own strength shall no one prevail. 10. Those who contend against the Lord shall be shattered; against each one he will thunder from heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth: for he will give strength to his king and will exalt the horn of his anointed. 11. Then Elkanah went to Ramah, to his house.

As we learned in yesterday's reading, the changes of human affairs by which God exercises his judgments are to be considered not only in kings and commonwealths, but in individual persons. To this are to be referred the matters remaining for us to explain, when it is said here that God raises the poor from the dust, and lifts the needy from the dunghill, and makes them possess a throne of glory — words that are repeated in nearly the same terms in Psalm 113. It seems extraordinary to people that someone of lowly and abject condition, and indeed so calamitous as scarcely to be counted among human beings, should be raised to the highest honors, and indeed so that he may rule over subject peoples and hold the reins of government. Conversely, that the powerful and rich, seated at the helm of commonwealths and empires, should be impoverished and cast from their thrones — so much so that they are compelled to become suppliants to those whom they formerly despised. Hence it happens that people inquire into those judgments of God, asking why God permits such transformations of affairs. But truly, although these things are to be wondered at and marveled at, nevertheless the more extraordinary and unexpected they are, the more certain are they as testimonies of God's hand and power.

Although the greater part of people attributes this to fortune, yet unless we are altogether blind at noonday, it must be confessed that such great inequality occurs in these lands because God thus chastises human pride, and casts from their thrones those swelling with excessive ferocity, so that they may learn modesty. For the mind of human beings is ignorant and unknowing of God, who alone has the power to pull down the mighty from their thrones and to raise the lowliest to the helm of government. Moreover, since God first raises persons of lowly and abject condition to the highest honors and the helm of government, we are taught that kings and princes hold their place not by their own virtue and dignity but by God's will. It is fitting to acknowledge hereditary princes themselves as ruling by God's will: first, because by God's willing and disposing their successors as kings were born; second, because he grants and sustains their life; and finally, because he cherishes and protects them. In short, the greatest kings and monarchs in the world must acknowledge that they have been raised to such great dignity by God's will, and are safe under his protection, and owe all that they are and have to him alone. But because human madness and folly is such that people do not recognize this divine providence in the distribution of honors, it happens that God sets before us certain remarkable and unusual examples, so that we may learn to rise up even to him.

The result is that God is not called upon by such men — rather He is provoked by them to a contest, so that they wield even the gifts received from Him against Him as if in combat, seeming in the manner of giants to want to drag Him from His throne. Moreover, Hannah here speaks not only of those endowed with physical strength and power; by the name of 'the mighty' she includes also those who possess authority and rank, such as kings, princes, and other rulers. But what, I ask, are the thoughts of such men generally — what their aims? I grant that if asked by whom they were raised to this dignity, they would answer 'by God.' Yet you see them full of vanity, threats, cruelty, tyranny, and savagery — and though they are most abominable, they promise themselves remarkable success in all their plans. Therefore it is not surprising if God humbles these proud men who trust in their own strength and breaks them, because they abuse His gifts. The prophet speaks in this sense in Psalm 33:16-17: 'The strong man is not saved by the greatness of his strength; the horse is useless for safety, nor does it deliver by its great strength. Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon those who fear Him, who hope in His mercy.' And yet the more powerful a horse someone obtains, the more God desires His power to be acknowledged by men through it. Why then is God not pleased with the strength of horses? It is because of the arrogant insolence of men: the more powerful and swift the horses they have obtained, the more they are puffed up and kick against God with complete contempt, trampling Him underfoot when their plans succeed. Therefore, because we defile and pollute God's gifts by our wickedness and ingratitude, those gifts rightly also displease Him. Experience, that great teacher, shows us more than enough that God is accustomed to crushing those who trust in their own strength and exalt themselves in this way. If this does not always happen immediately, let us not therefore question God's judgments — we cannot see their fullness here, but it is much to see them even in part. And truly, if we looked on with attentive eyes and mind, we would see the truth of this statement — 'The bow of the mighty is broken' — being fulfilled in reality. From these things we must learn that we ought not to be so hungry for power and strength, since we are so weak and incautious that they become for us an occasion of even greater fall. Therefore if God has raised us to a higher position, let us — mindful of our lowliness — run the course of our lives with all humility and the fear of God, persuaded that God is caring for us and our salvation when He keeps us in a humble state and does not exalt us according to our will. On the other hand, the feeble are said to be girded with strength — teaching us that God, when we are weak and frail, will bring us timely help. We must know that it can happen that we spend the whole course of our lives in a lowly and humble condition, creeping along the ground as it were — yet God in this lowliness and weakness will never abandon us, but will supply the necessary strength so that we never give out. For God Himself has promised that He will give strength to the oppressed. In sum, then, we must learn this: that God's power and majesty is greatly to be feared and dreaded by all who exalt themselves and are proud — a power that threatens all who rise up against Him in the manner of giants with ultimate ruin and confusion. On the contrary, that same power that brings destruction upon all the proud gives comfort and consolation to the humble and lowly who claim nothing for themselves but acknowledge their weakness — namely, because they recognize that all things depend on the grace of God alone. Therefore the more they understand God's power, the more boldly they dare to stand against whatever insults and violence proud and insolent men may bring — for the Lord's help will not be lacking when necessity demands it.

Continuing, Hannah says that the full have hired out their labor for bread, and the hungry have been filled. By the 'full,' understand wealthy men who, from either ample riches or the management of great affairs, have revenues that allow them to live in luxury — she says they will one day hire out their labor just for bread, meaning they will eventually beg for their livelihood. On the contrary, the hungry will be filled, with God abundantly supplying them with sustenance. This reversal indeed seems novel and unusual — and rightly so to anyone who thinks about it, especially one who considers God's unchanging nature. For since God is unchanging, and His works ought also to flow in a consistent course, human reason might judge — and commonly does: 'Why does God delight in such upheavals and apparently random events? The whole world seems to threaten confusion and ruin — with the powerful brought low, the rich drained and impoverished, and the satisfied at last emptied and made hungry.' Yet first of all, if we observed this world being governed by a completely uniform and unvarying course of events, God's providence would be far more obscure to us — that steady universal governance would cast such a dullness upon our senses that it would strip us of all thought and memory of God. For example, if the sun always illuminated the earth with its rays without the alternation of night, surely the truth so often repeated in Scripture — that God governs all things He created — would never come to mind. So when we suffer loss from a bad harvest, we are reminded of our sins; but when the weather is fair, we have the most abundant testimony of God's blessing and of His perpetual providence, by which He alone governs the weather as He sees fit. In this sense Scripture says in Psalm 147:16 that God sprinkles the ground with fine frost as if with ashes. So God wraps the sky in dark clouds, and the same God soon clears it again, with the sun illuminating the world with its rays — then He sends rain upon the earth. By these changes of sky and weather we are stirred to contemplate God's providence, by which He alone governs all things and rules and administers them as He sees fit. The same applies to the varied events of human life; for if all things moved at the same pace without change, we would surely strip God of His proper honor and attribute the administration of the world to fate, and be plunged into the darkness of error. But when we see someone made poor who was once rich — wretched and humbled who was once powerful — and observe that nothing is so stable that it cannot be shaken, then, unless we are utterly blind in broad daylight, we are pressed to lift our minds to deeper causes for these changes and look up at the effects of divine providence. This is the first lesson to be drawn from these words. Then this also must be observed: that God, in impoverishing the rich and reducing the satisfied to hunger, has just reasons for His purposes — even if not immediately apparent to everyone. But the one who has been impoverished ought to search his own heart and examine his whole self and life — whether he converted God's gifts to bad uses, whether he accumulated his great wealth by wicked means, how he used it — whether for luxury, pride, or other vices by which he made himself unworthy of them. Finally, although the reasons behind God's judgments are usually hidden, they often strike the eyes plainly enough that no room is left for doubt. Therefore we ought to admire and reverence God's judgments and look up to His infinite wisdom, understanding well that human wisdom without God is empty and vain. Whatever He does must be acknowledged as just and perfect. For this reason also the blessed Virgin Mary, in harmony with this prophetess, says that God has filled the hungry with good things and sent the rich away empty. For you commonly see the rich so bloated with their goods and riches that they burst — not unlike those who, gorging themselves with too much food, suffer from indigestion. Through their own excess, what should have served as nourishment becomes ruinous and destructive to them. The same thing generally happens in this world; for the powerful, swollen with arrogance, burst — so satiated that no stable remedy can be applied. And indeed hunger and poverty are often a faithful and useful medicine. Yet often you may see many who are not sufficiently emptied or humbled, because they have not learned to abase themselves before God's majesty. And the poor you may often see, on the contrary, so puffed up that they refuse to flee humbly to God. For we are not all so wise as to lift ourselves to God even when He is urging us. But when necessity and want press us, even though we were previously as if stupefied and lazy, we are jolted awake as from a deep sleep and compelled to flee to Him. Therefore God is rightly said to fill and satisfy the poor and hungry. I grant that these things do not always happen in an unbroken succession: many are born poor and afflicted, and poverty accompanies them all the way to the grave; on the contrary, many are wealthy from birth, passing their riches on even to their descendants for many generations. For this reason the prophet also complains in several places, as in Psalm 17:14 and 73:12, that despisers of God are stuffed with delicacies and their belly so filled that they leave the remainder to their grandchildren. But truly, as I touched on above, the full and final expression of God's judgments is not to be expected in this present world. For otherwise, I ask, what would become of our hope? If everything seemed already fulfilled to us, what would become of that chief article of our faith — the resurrection? Therefore let us know that God in governing this world gives us only a taste of His judgments, so that with our senses directed upward we may expect greater things. Meanwhile, let us look up to and wonder at His power and providence so attentively that we attribute nothing of God's works to chance — but recognize it as God's alone to fill these or those even to satisfaction, and on the contrary to impoverish and strip them of all their fortunes, however great. Nor should we think that examples of this are rare — and oh, would that there were not so many! For look at what misfortunes have followed the wars that have arisen in our own and earlier times — with the ruin and destruction of so many great, powerful, and wealthy families, with the devastation of so many wretched people, of whom some perished from cold, some from hunger, some by the sword, and some from other calamity and want. How many are we ourselves forced to see with our own eyes — once very wealthy, now begging for alms and overwhelmed by hundreds of misfortunes? Someone might perhaps say these things are rather remote from us — but when they wash up even to us like planks from a shipwreck, what numbness would it be not to take notice?

But on the other hand we must take care not to lose heart, since the Lord Himself shows that He is the one from whom riches and wealth flow — and He is the one from whom they depart. Let us pray to Him that He would open our eyes to observe these examples, so that for as long as He extends our life here, we may profit more and more from them. Enough on these matters for now. There follows: the barren has borne children, and she who had many children has languished. By these words Hannah returns to celebrating the special benefit she had received from God, so that what she had said in general about God's power she might now apply to herself and to the present occasion which had given rise to this song — as if to say that although she had been low and despised before others, yet God's benefits toward her were so great that she could rightly be counted among those afflicted and hungry whom God has comforted and filled with good things. These things are therefore connected with what we said above: Hannah does not content herself with celebrating God's special favor toward her, but rises higher, to magnify, according to her measure, God's power both in heaven and on earth, and the providence by which He rules and administers all things. She also compares her barrenness to a lowly and hungry soul, who is then filled. For, as we saw, she was formerly weighed down by a heavy burden — being exposed by God to all manner of insults and reproaches on account of her barrenness, she seemed destined to spend her life in perpetual mourning and sorrow. But having received a son from God, she marvels with a mind almost astonished at so great a change, and proclaims it. Someone might rightly ask here why she mentions seven children, when at that time she had only the one Samuel — even though she later bore more children by God's blessing. Some explain these words this way: since the faithful are content with little, as Psalm 37:16 teaches, Hannah regards this one benefit as equivalent to many greater ones. And indeed, when God bestows His benefits upon us, if we are governed by the power of the Holy Spirit, even the smallest of His kindnesses will always stand in place of greater ones, and we will praise and celebrate Him for them as is fitting. But this interpretation does not fit well here, since by these words Hannah seems rather to be expressing the hope she has conceived for the future. For there is no doubt that she, having experienced God's power in enabling her to conceive, has good hope for the future and expects greater things — seeing by faith what had not yet been fulfilled in reality. But God is by no means bound by Hannah's words; rather, His power and might are celebrated — the power by which He can bestow upon her a multitude of children up to the number seven. In Scripture, the number seven carries the idea of fullness and completeness. From the foregoing, then, we gather that God — who makes fruitful women who were previously barren, who satisfies and strips, fills the hungry with good things and on the contrary empties those who rely on their own riches — does all this, she says, even before women give birth. By this we are taught that even God's smallest benefits ought to be valued so highly that from them we may rise to behold the fullness of God's works, and look with growing wonder at His glory and greatness; and to have some taste of His otherwise infinite and incomprehensible majesty, we should learn to rise from His smallest benefits to greater ones. We will have profited greatly if, from each of God's works that meets our eyes, we wonder at His power — as, for example, when we see even grass springing up, and in that very thing we are lifted to God Himself, even when deprived of the sight of heaven or earth itself. Therefore there is nothing in the whole world so small that it does not testify to God's justice, glory, and goodness. But because small things usually become cheap to us, He therefore also adds great ones. Since we are of such dull understanding that we scarcely acknowledge God's majesty as is fitting, we must begin from these smallest things — from which we may be led on to greater ones. So Hannah here specifically counts among God's singular benefits the fruitfulness of women who were previously barren. And indeed this thought is often repeated in Scripture, so that we know it is not Hannah alone who proclaims it — especially in the Psalms, where Psalm 113:9 says that God makes the barren woman dwell in a household and become a joyful mother of children, teaching that a numerous offspring should be counted among God's greatest blessings, and that thanks for it should be given to Him alone. But how great, I ask, is the ingratitude of people in this regard! For you see some troubled and burdened by a large family, and others boasting and puffing themselves up over it. But what, then, of God? Will the author not be acknowledged? Will thanks not be given to Him? Will this blessing not be received from His generous hand with the reverence that is due? Furthermore, we must also learn from Hannah's words that when God begins to bestow His gifts upon us, we should always expect greater things. For He is not to be compared with mortals, nor should His works be measured by a human standard; if someone has helped another in a time of need, he resents being approached again. But God, on the contrary, invites us to Himself and removes all fear of being a burden when we ask for the continuation of His gifts and the completion of the work He has begun in us. You have here the point of Hannah's words, as she promises herself a large family from the fact that God gave her a son, while on the contrary announcing a diminishing of children for the one who boasts proudly and lorded her advantage over others. So God wisely crushes and confounds the glory and advantage by which people exalt themselves over others. For He rightly desires His own glory to be visible in proportion to His generosity and goodness. But because we are either too slow or too dull in acknowledging and celebrating God's glory as is fitting, it often becomes a cause of our confusion and reproach — for by our sluggishness we profane the blessings meant for our salvation, and we do not know their proper use. For who could say that a blessing serves our salvation when we use it to provoke God against us — when we strip ourselves of His righteousness and goodness by not directing His benefits toward the usefulness and growth of His church, and when we do not acknowledge so generous a giver as He deserves?

Hannah continues and teaches that the Lord puts to death and restores to life — brings down to the grave and raises up — whose aim and purpose is the same as the foregoing: that we should know that so many and so great changes and upheavals in this world are just so many testimonies of divine power — not a confused power, but one joined with the highest justice. Therefore Hannah here undertakes to celebrate the righteousness of God's works, which she first recognizes in this, as we said above: that God satisfies the hungry, namely because they flee to Him and He hears their prayers; but on the contrary strips and divests of their goods those who are sated and puffed up with their possessions, turned away from God. And this is one part of God's judgments — that some are impoverished while others grow rich; the other part follows: that the Lord puts to death and restores to life.

This is indeed common to the faithful and unbelievers alike, but it is especially and primarily to be considered by us in God's children. It is not without reason, therefore, that God is said to put to death and conversely to restore to life — for death must precede life. By the word 'life' she understands any kind of flourishing. For those conducting their affairs well and prosperously are said to live, while those declining and falling into poverty are said to be fading away and as it were dying. In this sense Paul, when he says that we must be dead to the world, speaks not only of worldly pleasures and delights, but of all those things that belong to this passing and fragile life. Thus God brings low and casts down those who have attained great honors in this age and feed on them, lest they be carried away into rebellion and defiance. Thus He strips those who glory in their great wealth of those very riches, or reduces them, lest they become deadly to their possessors. Therefore by the word 'death' Hannah rightly encompasses any kind of diminishment and whatever gradually leads to death — just as conversely by the word 'life' she encompasses any happy and prosperous outcome, and whatever can make a person content with his lot, enjoying an abundance of things.

I said that this applies also to unbelievers themselves — but the flow of the argument here shows more than sufficiently that God intends it to apply specifically to His own people. Why so? Namely, lest they become puffed up and leave God far behind them. For if everything succeeded according to our heart's desire, and we brought all our plans to the outcome we wanted, we would think nothing at all of God's majesty. Therefore it is best to be brought low by Him, so that afterward, being restored, we may acknowledge His beneficent hand. If we always remained in infancy, we would have no strength for walking; but being made more mature, we acknowledge that we have been strengthened by God's power, and we learn by experience itself that we are aided daily by His help.

Furthermore, it is not without reason that Hannah mentions life and death: for if we were diminished only in part, God's favor and goodwill toward us would not be so clearly visible. For example, if someone afflicted with a minor illness recovers, it will seem a slight benefit; but if, having struggled with a grave illness and already standing at death's door, he is restored to health — then unless he is utterly dull, he must confess that he has received from God a life that was already nearly lost. Therefore, in order for us to truly come to life, death must first be before our eyes. Since God sets these things before us in His church, let us not be surprised if at times we are not only diminished and brought down by the Lord, but even pressed down with bowed necks and trampled underfoot; rather, let us be cast down and humbled before Him all the more — for this is good for us. We must therefore take care not to indulge too much in complaints born of weakness, failing to recognize why we are treated this way by God; instead, whenever it happens that we are nearly overwhelmed and driven as it were to the very pit, let this thought come to mind: that it is consistent with God's justice to lead us even to death — especially since the dullness of human nature is so great that it is moved only by the harshest discipline and the fear of death, and so driven to acknowledge God.

But on the other hand, we must hope that He who leads to death will also restore us to life — so that in death itself we may confidently expect life, and in the gravest afflictions not despair of God's help. She mentions not only death but also the grave, to magnify God's power and help all the more. For it is possible that someone may be near death and yet not so far gone as if he lay already in the grave — since burial is the confirmation of death, one who is buried has been wholly removed from the living. And so Hannah teaches that God not only punishes and afflicts people but casts them down to the very grave itself — as if to say that when God redoubles His blows, we are not only like the dead, but like corpses reduced to ashes and dust. And so we are all the more confirmed and lifted in hope by this saying — so that even if God so scourges us that we nearly fail and are reduced to nothing, we should still not lose heart, but patiently await restoration and new life, relying on His power. For He who created the world from nothing, who restored what was lost — how would He not also call back the dead and restore them to life? We should not think that our burial can impose any delay upon Him, but rather fix more deeply in our minds that saying of the prophet: that the exits from death belong to the Lord God — by which words we are taught that even though we are overwhelmed by a thousand deaths, we can nevertheless be made alive by His immense power; and though pressed down, we are to be freed and rescued in countless ways that God holds in His power. Moreover, beyond the fact that in this miserable and passing life — even when overwhelmed by a thousand miseries — we hope for God's help and full restoration, something more must be learned from this passage and more deeply fixed in our minds: namely, that even when we lie in the grave, reduced to ashes and dust, we are still to be restored to life — for God has promised it. Therefore come, let us place all our confidence in Him, firmly persuaded that having run the course of this life we are not to be wholly consumed in the grave or reduced to nothing, because God has not abandoned His care for us; but when the time of redemption He has appointed arrives, we will be raised and granted the eternal life promised to us. When that time of redemption arrives, we will see in reality the effect and fulfillment of our Lord Jesus Christ's own words, in which He declares Himself to be the resurrection and the life — so that we may not fall into groaning and despair as we approach the grave and corruption. For what, I ask, should we fear when the Son of God Himself is our resurrection? Therefore the grave is mentioned, first, so that as we pass into corruption we may bear it with steadiness. Why? Because we must die in order to live. Therefore if we desire the Son of God to become our life, it is necessary for us to die to ourselves and renounce the world and all these passing things. In sum, let this be the lesson from this passage: that God, though casting us down and diminishing us so as nearly to reduce us to nothing, has not cast us off — but so prepares us to receive His grace that we may attribute ourselves and our life to Him alone; and let us truly believe that we are led out of the grave by Him, and let us direct all our afflictions toward this end.

Continuing, Hannah says that God makes poor and makes rich, casts down and also raises up. These are plainly the same as what came before — but from them it becomes clear with what intensity of spirit Hannah entered into this prayer, namely to set forth as in a mirror the divine providence to be contemplated, so that we may know that nothing in the whole world happens by chance or fortune, but that God's providence governs each thing. And indeed this doctrine needs to be pressed upon us often, and driven into us by frequent repetition, before we either grasp it or draw any fruit from it. For although Scripture so often proclaims divine providence — and specifically in the Gospel the Lord assures us that not even one sparrow falls without God's will, and that all the hairs of our head are numbered — yet we labor under such great distrust and dullness of mind that we can scarcely lift ourselves to God, depend on Him alone, and hope for timely help in afflictions; instead we attribute our deliverance to human reasoning or to chance.

Therefore this doctrine must be frequently impressed and frequently pondered, as I said, driven into our minds by repetition — a doctrine we scarcely, indeed almost never, fully digest: that it is necessary for people to be made poor, diminished, and cast down by God. And this certainly not because He regrets His generosity toward them, but partly because, puffed up with riches and wealth, they grow harsh and tyrannically abuse them against the poor and needy — and it is right that they too be afflicted by God with fitting punishment; and partly so that God may make His goodness and power known toward the faithful who call upon Him and flee to Him, and also so that He may hear them all. Such things do not happen daily for us, because it would not always be useful — but when similar examples occur, these things must be brought to mind: so that when one person grows rich and another is reduced to poverty, when one is raised to a higher position and another cast down, we may recognize that the poor and humble person is thereby called to greater modesty — and conversely, that so many miseries and calamities do not fall upon the poor by any random chance but are sent by God's will.

Hannah next proclaims the same also concerning honors, dignities, and fortunes — so that when we see so many and so great changes and upheavals in human affairs, we may lift our minds to God's providence, which governs all things in heaven and earth according to the nod of His will, and attribute nothing to chance — which is nonetheless what we usually do. For whenever such changes occur, what astonishment and mental agitation enters our minds? If we see a wealthy man reduced to poverty, or someone cast down from the highest rank to a humble condition — and conversely a lowly and despised man raised to the highest dignity — do we not stand utterly amazed and shaken? Who lifts his mind to God's providence? Who looks up with wonder at His admirable wisdom? Therefore this doctrine must be pondered by us all the more, the slower and duller we are — so that even when all things seem turned upside down, we may establish that nothing is confused, nothing is accidental, and give this glory to God: knowing that He weighs all things in the balance, even while the rich celebrate their triumphs and delight in them. Indeed, if anything appears disturbed and confused here, all of it must be attributed not to the wise governor and administrator, but to the dimness of our eyes and the disorder of our minds. Therefore what we cannot grasp with our senses must be embraced by faith. And first of all we must remember that the just cause of such judgments is to be found in people themselves and nowhere else: because those who have attained the highest honors, forgetting their condition, strive to drag God Himself from His throne so that they may be exalted — and for this reason God rightly not only brings them down, but crushes and destroys them. That supreme ingratitude is the cause of so many and so great upheavals and reversals as they appear to us. And here, I urge you, recall with me the sudden and unexpected fall of many kings and emperors of old, who, having oppressed many peoples by force and arms and having established their tyranny, struck terror into the whole world and seemed to touch heaven with their heads — yet were suddenly dragged to their destruction. And in our own memory, quite recently, have we not heard of dreadful threats against the struggling faithful, and horrible conspiracies of adversaries, carrying themselves with such uncontrollable arrogance that they seemed about to mix heaven with earth — yet whom divine providence restrained and overthrew in a moment? These things, I say, we have seen and contemplated — and therefore, unless we are utterly dull and leaden, they supply us with more than enough material for instruction.

Therefore come — since in this age there is such great upheaval throughout the whole world, so that all things seem turned upside down — let us nevertheless, mindful of this teaching, acknowledge that all things are ruled and administered by God and His providence; let us humble ourselves under the strong and mighty hand of God and be utterly cast down before Him, and let us commit ourselves entirely to Him, firmly persuaded that He will rescue us from the hand of our oppressors, and that He will supply us with strength by which we may resist their attacks and violence. And therefore, whatever may happen, let us never allow ourselves to be torn from this hope: that He Himself will be our defender and vindicator, and will bring timely help in uncertain circumstances.

Therefore, having become suppliants before the majesty of Almighty God, acknowledging the many failures and offenses by which we have provoked His wrath against us, let us pray that He engrave the fear of His majesty upon our minds and make us partakers of what we have learned in this passage — so that our weakness and frailty may be supported by His strength, and we may be made victorious by the power of His Spirit, and He may supply us with the strength to stand against whatever temptations we would otherwise be unable to bear, running the whole course of our lives in obedience to Him; and let us render Him everlasting thanks for so many and so great benefits toward us; finally, may all our faculties be directed to His worship for His eternal praise and glory, and may we be led in the way of salvation not only for our own private good but for the building up of our neighbors. Amen.

8. He raises the poor from the dust; He lifts the needy from the dunghill, to seat them with princes and to make them inherit a throne of glory; for the pillars of the earth are the Lord's, and He has set the world upon them. 9. He will guard the feet of those whom He has graciously received; but the wicked will be silenced in darkness, for by his own strength no one will prevail. 10. Those who contend against the Lord will be shattered; against each one He will thunder from heaven. The Lord will judge the ends of the earth; for He will give strength to His king and will exalt the horn of His anointed. 11. Then Elkanah went to Ramah, to his house.

As we learned in yesterday's reading, the changes of human affairs by which God exercises His judgments are to be considered not only in kings and nations, but in individual persons. To this belong the remaining matters we must explain, when it is said here that God raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the dunghill and makes them inherit a throne of glory — words repeated in nearly the same terms in Psalm 113. It seems extraordinary to people that someone of lowly and despised condition — indeed so wretched as to scarcely be counted among human beings — should be raised to the highest honors, even to rule over peoples and hold the reins of government. Conversely, that the powerful and rich, seated at the helm of nations and empires, should be impoverished and cast from their thrones — so much so that they are forced to become suppliants to those they formerly despised. Hence it happens that people question God's judgments, asking why He permits such reversals of fortune. But truly, although these things are to be marveled at, the more extraordinary and unexpected they are, the more certain they are as testimonies of God's hand and power.

Although most people attribute this to fortune, yet unless we are altogether blind in broad daylight, we must confess that such great inequality occurs in this world because God chastises human pride, casting from their thrones those swollen with excessive arrogance so that they may learn humility. For the human mind is ignorant and blind to God, who alone has the power to pull down the mighty from their thrones and raise the lowest to the helm of government. Moreover, since God first raises persons of lowly and despised condition to the highest honors and positions of leadership, we are taught that kings and princes hold their place not by their own virtue and merit but by God's will. It is fitting to acknowledge that even hereditary princes rule by God's will: first, because by God's willing and disposing, their successors were born as kings; second, because He grants and sustains their life; and finally, because He cherishes and protects them. In short, the greatest kings and monarchs in the world must acknowledge that they have been raised to such great dignity by God's will, that they are safe under His protection, and that they owe all that they are and have to Him alone. But because human madness and folly is such that people do not recognize divine providence in the distribution of honors, God sets before us certain remarkable and unusual examples so that we may be moved to lift our minds up to Him.