I promised myself I was going to move on from my study of Hannah and her prayer for her son, Samuel. But I needed just one more day to spend pulling the pieces together of what’s been rolling around in my heart and mind as I read and read again this story for two weeks now…
If you didn’t read my previous blog, you can read it here.
What was meant to be a week-long study, five days, over 1 Samuel 1 & 2 has stretched into two weeks and taken me to Psalm 100, the “thanksgiving” psalm as well as 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 where Paul tells the church to give thanks in all circumstances. Linked with Hannah’s story, here’s where I’ve landed…. and as a believer who has read and studied scripture since I was 12, I can’t believe the simplicity that has turned on lightbulbs for me spiritually. But isn’t that just how God moves through scripture? At least in my experience I can tell you, it is.
1 Samuel, Hannah’s story and particularly her prayer, teaches us that we can bring heavy hearts and burdens to God. We can honestly tell Him how we feel, what’s weighing us down and give it to Him with all the true emotions behind it. She herself describes it as “speaking out of my great anxiety and vexation,” (ESV version). Not just anxiety… great anxiety. Great anxiety can be defined as deep distress, overwhelming concern, inner turmoil. It wasn’t just an everyday worry. It was the weight of something out of her hands, something she couldn’t control. That helpless, hopeless feeling that comes from a burden that doesn’t seem to have any solutions. She carried deep sorrow over this unanswered prayer and a heaviness of the reality that there was nothing in her power to change the circumstances. If Hannah were to speak this today, I think she would say something like, “My heart is carrying more than I know what to do with.” I hear you, Hannah… I’ve been there, too.
Then she uses a word we don’t usually tap into in our modern day English — “vexation.” This means deep frustration, agitation, grief caused by painful circumstances, mistreatment or ongoing disappointment. It describes something more than sadness. It paints a picture of a heart worn down and deeply frustrated. Hannah’s vexation could have included sorrow, frustration, and even humiliation and exhaustion from trying to move forward day after day while she carried this in her heart with no end in sight.
I love that Hannah didn’t wait until she had planned a perfect prayer or until she had her emotions in check. She came to the door of the Tabernacle with all of it… all of the emotional mess. Then, she leaves with no real change to her circumstances, but yet the scriptures say her face was no longer sad and she ate. While the circumstances for us may not change, there is a real sense of release when we dump our emotional burned on God.
Now… looking at Psalm 100. We are told to “make a joyful nose to the Lord,” and to “come before His presence with singing.” The same Psalm tells us to enter His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise, to be thankful and to praise His name. I am sure early in my childhood, I had committed this Psalm to memory. There’s a million references to these verses in hymns, worship songs, well-known (and well-meaning) faith-based sayings. However, when put on the end of Hannah’s story I am challenged with a few things. When I pray like Hannah and I leave it all at the door, I can walk away with joy and thanksgiving. Even when my circumstances haven’t proven or shown God’s response to my prayer. In fact, the Psalm tells us to do a few things…
1). Make a joyful noise and come into His presence with singing. We use this a lot to reference worship and worship slots in our Sunday services, but really… we are in His presence all day, every day. What would it look like to leave our burdens, in prayer, at the foot of the Father and spend the rest of our day singing and making joyful noises… humming a tune, smiling, offering kindness, showing love… all of that is joyful in God’s eyes.
2). Serving with gladness - going about our day with our faces “no longer sad” like Hannah’s. We leave burdens and replace it with gladness. Go about our days “serving” others with gladness not telling everyone that bumps into us all about our burdens and hardships. I know a few people who are always about “gladness” and I know their life isn’t easy. They CHOOSE gladness, trusting that God has the rest taken care of, just like Hannah. Her example shows us that she left with gladness. She ate. She didn’t come back to the table and regurgitate all that was unfair in her life. She dumped it at the door and trusted God to pick it up.
3). Know and trust - Vs. 3 of Psalm 100 tells to “know” that the Lord is God. That “know” isn’t just name recognition. It’s knowing who He is and trusting who He is. In fact the verse goes on to remind us who He is- he made us and we are His sheep. So in real 2026 language… He’s got it covered… you can trust and believe it.
4). Come with thanksgiving and praise - there’s that theme again. After Hannah’s prayer at the door of the Tabernacle and her encounter with Eli the priest, verse 19 says they "(Hannah and her husband and their family) rose up in the morning early, and worshipped before the Lord.” Literally they came with thanksgiving and praise. And what a praise it must have been for Hannah. But don’t dismiss all the other times she must have CHOSEN to praise and be thankful… many years, many times before this prayer happened. I’ve got to believe that this verse in Psalm 100 is more about choice than it is about feeling. Hannah’s story reminds us that worship and gratitude don’t only follow the answered prayer… we are asked to do so before, during and after.
In 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 we read Paul’s writing to the church and he tells us all the same things. Rejoice. Pray. Give thanks. There’s an underlying “always” theme in these verses… as if Paul is saying “do it all the time.. rejoice, pray and give thanks… don’t ever stop, no matter what’s going on.” Paul is urging us to give thanks in all circumstances, not necessarily for all circumstances. Gratitude isn’t about pretending everything is fine and living in unrealistic denial. It’s about recognizing God’s goodness and faithfulness even when things around you seem to be not so great. We see this over and over again in the Bible. To man/woman, it seems done and over… and then God shows up and the plot twists. We see it at the Red Sea, we see it with Isaac on the altar, we see it with Esther and Israelites, we see it with Hannah and a baby… and that’s just in the Old Testament. What about Jesus on the cross and three days later… a resurrection. God is in the business of plot twists so we praise Him as the author, knowing He writes the chapters of our lives if we only rejoice, pray and give thanks.
And here’s the part that makes me sit up and pay attention….
I am guilty of 1). praying but then picking it up and trying to fix the situation myself, and 2). choosing to rejoice, sing, praise, give thanks, etc. once the deal is done. And sometimes it’s “Thank you God! We did it!” instead of God doing it.. solo, without me. He’s probably thinking…. Girl, I could’ve done this easier without you! Stay out of the way!
When we look at the love of God, it’s something to realize that He indeed loves us so much that He wants us to only focus on rejoicing, praising and being thankful. He never wants us to lift the burdens ourselves. I mean… He calls us “sheep.” He likens us to animals that do nothing without the shepherd making it happen. Everything from finding food to safety and protection to finding their way home each night… none of this is on the sheep’s mind. They literally just follow the shepherd and trust that he’s got it covered. Wow… to be as simple as a sheep. To trust so fully, to be so carefree, to be so enthralled with a shepherd that our dependency is fully on him.
That reality alone should strike a chord in our heart for rejoicing, singing and giving thanks.
