Enlarge my mouth

And Hannah prayed and said:
“My heart rejoiceth in the Lord;
My horn is exalted in the Lord.
My mouth in enlarged over my enemies,
Because I rejoice in Your salvation. – 1 Samuel 2.1

Sometimes I almost wish we still spoke 17th century English. I really like some of the expressions. Of course it helps that I cut my teeth on the old King James translation.

Here we have one of those phrase – ‘my mouth is enlarged over my enemies.’ This is Hannah’s praise song after God gave her a son.

‘My heart rejoices in the Lord. My strength is lifted up in the Lord.’

And then the wonderful line ‘my mouth is enlarged.’ I love the image here. Today was would say ‘I smiled at my enemies,’ but can't you just see a great big smile on her face? Think about how someone looks when a smile breaks out – doesn’t ‘my mouth in enlarged’ make a good picture?

Anyway, Hannah could do that because she was rejoicing in God’s salvation and deliverance.

We too can smile when things are going well because we can rest assured that God as it sorted. This old song comes so close to getting it right but falls just short:

Smile though your heart is aching
Smile even though it's breaking
When there are clouds in the sky, you'll get by
If you smile through your fear and sorrow
Smile and maybe tomorrow
You'll see the sun come shining through for you

But we can end the song with ‘smile and be sure tomorrow you’ll see the Son come shining through for you.’

No matter what we face we can smile because we rejoice in the salvation of the Lord.