1 Sam. 2:9

"He will guard the feet of His saints, But the wicked shall be silent in darkness. "For by strength no man shall prevail" 1 Sam. 2:9

Great things come in threes. The Trinity is in threes: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Moses was hidden for three months before he was placed a basket headed for the Nile. The people would cross the Jordan and possess the Promised Land in three days. Gideon took three hundred men into battle for the Lord. There were three Israelite men who were thrown into the fiery furnace. The fullness of the Gospel came in threes: the death, the burial, and the resurrection of Jesus, and it happened in three days!

In three short lines, Hannah captures the essence of the Christian life. "He will guard the feet of His saints..." Notice that she does not say, "The godly keep their feet." That would put the godly in charge of their own lives. Nor did she say, "The feet of the godly keep them safe..." That would put the godly in the hands of nature or chance. No, Hannah knew that God was in charge. He directs the paths of the righteous, and the righteous are made righteous by the sacrifice of the Son of the Lord Most High.

The wicked are not so well protected. They "shall be silent in darkness..." Notice that Hannah does not say that God silences them, though He definitely has a hand in the process. It is simply a statement of fact. The wicked are silenced. And they are silenced in darkness.

In the third line Hannah tells us that "no man shall prevail" by himself. "For not by might shall a man prevail." Strength alone cannot conquer temptation and sin. We all know that we can not resist temptation for long. Eventually we will succumb to the pressures of well placed temptations. Nor can we eradicate that sin on our own. The only soap strong enough is the blood of the Lamb who takes away the sins of the world.

Hannah knew what she was saying. She had lived it, and came out the winner. You can too if you put your trust in Jesus Christ, the Messiah. Amen and Amen.