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APRIL 30
Therefore David calls Him ‘Lord’; how is He
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then his Son?”
Then, in the hearing of all the people, He
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said to His disciples, “Beware of the scribes,
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who desire to go around in long robes, love 20:40 they dared not question Him. The
more questions Jesus answered the clearer it
greetings in the marketplaces, the best seats became that His understanding and authority
in the synagogues, and the best places at were vastly superior to that of the scribes and
feasts, who devour widows’ houses, and for a Pharisees.
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pretense make long prayers. These will
receive greater condemnation.”
DAY 30:What do the two prayers of Hannah teach us about prayer?
In 1 Samuel 1:10,11,Hannah vowed in “bitterness of soul”to give the Lord her son in return for
God’s favor in giving her that son. She prayed as a “maidservant”—a humble, submissive way of
referring to herself in the presence of her superior, sovereign God.“Remember me,”she requested,
asking for special attention and care from the Lord.She would give the child to the Lord “all the days
of his life,”which was in contrast to the normal Nazirite vow, which was only for a specified period
of time (see Num. 6:4,5,8).
In contrast to the prayer that came from her bitterness,Hannah prayed from joy in 2:1–10.The
prominent idea in Hannah’s prayer is that the Lord is a righteous Judge. He had brought down the
proud (Peninnah) and exalted the humble (Hannah).The prayer has four sections:1) Hannah prayed
to the Lord for His salvation (vv.1,2);2) Hannah warned the proud of the Lord’s humbling (vv.3–8d);
3) Hannah affirmed the Lord’s faithful care for His saints (vv. 8e–9b); 4) Hannah petitioned the Lord
to judge the world and to prosper His anointed king (vv. 10d-e).This prayer has a number of strik-
ing verbal similarities with David’s song of 2 Samuel 22:2–51:“horn”(2:1;22:3),“rock”(2:2;22:2,3),sal-
vation/deliverance (2:1,2; 22:2,3), grave/Sheol (2:6; 22:6),“thunder” (2:10; 22:14),“king” (2:10; 22:51),
and “anointed”(2:10; 22:51).

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