God Knows
What can you boast about as you’re in touch with God’s goodness tonight?
1 Samuel 2:3, 10 The Inclusive Bible
All bragging must cease. Boastful arrogance must come to an end.
For YHWH is all-knowing, and weighs all mortal deeds.
It is YHWH who shatters foes.
The Most High thunders against them in the skies; YHWH judges the ends of the earth.
Now YHWH will endow the ruler with strength and exalt the head of the anointed one.
To have a record of more than one prayer uttered by a female in the ancient Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek scriptures says plenty about the God who empowers the full spectrum of gender expression and sexual identity.
Hannah’s prayer influenced the author of Psalm 113; and later Jesus’ mother Mary would model her own such song-prayer after Hannah’s. Hannah’s prayer calls out all the mansplaining she endured prior to Samuel’s birth.
God knows when you’re just blowing hot air, she dares to retort. Actions speak far louder than useless arrogant blithering. It is not, after all, by displays of machismo that anyone has true success. ‘For the Lord is a God who knows…’ prays Hannah and no amount of disregard will keep Hannah from singing that God’s praises.
What prayer of thanksgiving beyond systematic suppression, oppression or crappy circumstances is bubbling for you today? Or is it a prayer of lament? Either can be true and both can be true.
Sometimes boasting helps you tell the truth about where God has found you, lifted you and reoriented you or your people. What can you boast about as you’re in touch with God’s goodness tonight?