He lifts the beggar

He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap, To set them among princes And make them inherit the throne of glory. "For the pillars of the earth are the LORD's, And He has set the world upon them. – 1 Samuel 2v8

I don’t know that I have ever looked at Hannah’s praise psalm in such detail before. It really is a blessing to see the detail with which she praises God. There are a couple of great truths in this verse alone, but I am only going to focus on the first one.

‘He raises the poor from the dust and lifts the beggar from the ash heap to set them among the princes and make them inherit the throne of glory.’

Isn’t that an amazing truth? In a way it seems to give us a picture of the gospel, doesn’t it? Even if Hannah did not mean it that way, it is wonderful to see that her words would be totally fulfilled in Christ.

It is obvious that not everyone on earth is equal, the American Declaration of Independence not withstanding. Some are rich and some are poor. Some live in splendour and some live in garbage dumps. Despite the loftiest dream and aspirations of man, all men are not created equal here on earth.

But that is our earthly view of things. It is tragic and as the children of God we clearly have a responsibility to help those who are in suffering and misery. The poor are our responsibility. Sadly, we can only do so much however.

In Christ it all changes. There is hope, if not here at least in eternity. As Hannah so eloquently put it He will lift up the poor from rubbish dump and the beggar ash heap. Not only that He will set them among the princes and give them inheritance in the throne of glory.

Praise God that our salvation is not based on our status at birth. It makes no difference if we were born with into great riches or abject poverty. There is hope in Christ that by faith in Him the beggar in their ash heap and the royalty in their palaces can both inherit the throne of glory.