1 Samuel 1:9-16 - "The Sinner's Cry Unto the LORD"

1 Samuel 1:9-16

"So Hannah rose up after they had eaten in Shiloh, and after they had drunk. Now Eli the priest sat upon a seat by a post of the temple of the LORD. And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore. And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head. And it came to pass, as she continued praying before the LORD, that Eli marked her mouth. Now Hannah, she spake in her heart; only her lips moved, but her voice was not heard: therefore Eli thought she had been drunken. And Eli said unto her, How long wilt thou be drunken? put away thy wine from thee. And Hannah answered and said, No, my lord, I am a woman of a sorrowful spirit: I have drunk neither wine nor strong drink, but have poured out my soul before the LORD. Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial: for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto."

In Hannah we are given a portrait of the needy sinner, not in theory, but in living experience. Her trial was outwardly physical—the barrenness of her womb—but Scripture never separates the physical from the spiritual. The bitterness of her soul reached far deeper than circumstance. The LORD had shut up her womb, and in doing so He was drawing out of her heart a cry that only His Spirit can produce. The world looks on such affliction and questions whether the sufferer belongs to God at all. Yet Scripture teaches us the opposite: it is precisely through affliction that the LORD draws His own unto Himself.

Hannah’s sorrow was real and consuming. She wept, she could not eat, and her heart was grieved. Even the loving encouragement of Elkanah—“Am not I better to thee than ten sons” (1 Samuel 1:8)?—could not remove the burden. Still, those words were not wasted. They were a reminder that love bears reproach, and that comfort often comes not by removing the trial, but by sustaining the sufferer within it. Elkanah himself stands as a picture, however faint, of Christ’s zeal for His people—the zeal that bears shame and reproach for the sake of love.

Yet Hannah’s comfort did not rest finally in her husband, nor in human sympathy. After eating and drinking, she went to the place where God had appointed to meet with His people. At Shiloh, before the tabernacle of the LORD, she prayed. This is the mark of Grace: “she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD” (v.10). Bitterness drove her not away from God, but unto Him. This is not natural to the flesh. Left to ourselves, sorrow hardens us. Only the Spirit of God causes a sinner to cry unto the covenant LORD.

Her prayer was not outwardly impressive. Her lips moved, but no sound was heard. Eli, judging by appearance, misread her condition and accused her of drunkenness. How often men err when they look upon the LORD’s work from the outside. But Hannah’s prayer did not need human approval. She spoke “in her heart” (v.13), pouring out her soul before the LORD. This is the cry of the needy sinner—not rehearsed words, not learned forms, but a heart emptied before God.

Here Scripture teaches us something vital: true prayer is the work of the Spirit. As Paul later wrote, “we know not what we should pray for as we ought” (Romans 8:26). Hannah did not come with confidence in herself, nor with demands, nor with a timetable. She came helpless, groaning, and undone. Her very inability was her qualification. The Spirit Himself was giving utterance to her cry, shaping her grief into prayer according to the will of God.

The presence of Eli at the tabernacle reminds us that God is always approached through a Mediator. Under the old covenant, that mediation was imperfect and temporary. Eli himself failed. But even his failure points us forward to Christ, the Great High Priest. Hannah stood at the door of an earthly tabernacle; believers today are drawn to the Heavenly throne, where Christ is seated, His work of salvation completed, and now ever lives to intercede on behalf of His redeemed and justified ones (Hebrews 7:25). Yet the Truth has not changed. God is holy, and sinners come only by the Mediator that He has appointed. In Christ, that mediation is perfect and complete. He is not seated by a post of an earthly sanctuary, but passed into the heavens. He is touched with the feeling of our infirmities (Hebrews 4:15). Where Eli misunderstood, Christ intercedes. Where human comfort fails, Christ remains. The cry that Hannah uttered from the depths finds its true fulfillment in Him.

And here is the comfort: the throne to which we are drawn is the throne of Grace (Hebrews 4:16). From it flows Mercy—God withholding what we deserve—and Grace—God giving what we do not deserve. The needy sinner is not driven away, but welcomed. There is always Grace to help in time of need, because there is never a time when we are not in need.

Thus Hannah’s cry becomes our own. Out of the depths we cry unto the LORD, not because we are strong, but because He is faithful. And in that cry, sustained by the Spirit and answered in Christ, the needy sinner finds Hope.