No One Holy Like the Lord
Hannah's song opens with a confession that puts every rival power in its place.
1 Samuel 2:2NIV
1 Samuel 2:2. There is no one holy like the Lord. There is no one besides you. There is no Rock like our God. Hannah has just left her only son at the sanctuary, and instead of grieving she sings, and the first thing she sings about is not her son but God's uniqueness.
Holy means set apart, wholly other. Hannah is saying that the God who heard her has no competitor. Peninnah's provocations, Eli's misjudgment, the years of waiting, none of them had the last word, because none of them were the Rock.
The word Rock is a favourite of the Old Testament for God's unchangeable reliability. Hannah had learned it not from a book but from being carried. Her circumstances had shifted from bitterness to joy, and through all of it one thing had stayed exactly where it was.
On an ordinary Wednesday, this is the confession that steadies a day. Whatever provokes you, whatever authority misreads you, whatever you are still waiting for, there is no one besides him. Start there and the rest finds its size.
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