Today, we will be looking at verse 9 from our passage, 1 Samuel 2:1-10. I will begin with summarizing verses 6-10 and then verse 9. May we seek to know the character and power of God.
III. God gives and takes away all life, wealth, honor, and power; declaring those against Him destroyed, those with Him protected, and the Messiah King exalted (verses 6-10).
D. To God alone is true power, even power to judge evil and preserve His saints (verse 9).
9 “He will keep the feet of His saints, and the wicked are silenced in darkness, for man does not become strong by power.”
In verse nine, for God to “keep the feet of His saints” is for God to care for the saints as one would care for his children. He makes sure that their way in life is good, that they grow in wisdom and truth, and that they will not become desolate or turn to evil. The word for “keep,” means literally to guard, preserve, or protect. This is like a loving parent keeping his child from danger. The “feet” represent the ways or paths of the saints, including what they do and the council that they listen to.[1] That is a common meaning of feet in this usage, such as in Psalm 40:2, which says of God, “[He] set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings” (KJV). So, God’s keeping the feet of His servants refers to God’s sovereign power in directing and preserving His saints. This fits with the theme seen so far of God blessing those obedient to Him. Yet, this is not meant in a way that refers to believers pursuing an esoteric or secret knowledge of God, but in pursuing (1) obedience to God’s Word, employing godly wisdom for the way of life, and (2) trusting in God to sovereignly grow us in holiness. God is the One who makes us “faithful ones” through Christ’s work on the cross, and He promised to “keep [our] feet,” establishing our lives in holiness.
Another way to put this is to say that God’s promises to use His sovereignty to personally orchestrate our lives in order to preserve us as His saints for holiness. This does not mean that we won’t ever stumble into sin, but that God will use everything in our lives to make us holy (like Christ), and that we have the promise of the perseverance of the saints. God divinely ensures that we can never be lost. So, when we look at this prophetically, we can see an OT declaration of God’s preservation of the saints: God’s promises to keep the feet of His faithful ones. This echoes 1 Peter 1:5, which claims that God’s power protects His own in faith unto salvation. While men are weak without God and not able to keep God’s ways, God Himself comes to their aid to ensure that He does not even lose one (John 10:28).
Also, since the keeping of our feet is done in accordance to God’s perfect sovereign power and will, we can know that God personally directs our lives in accordance to His own measures and purposes and not according to human measures and purposes.[2] God is the standard by which He directs and counsels His people. We don’t need to know why or what God is seeking to do in our various circumstances. Rather, we can trust in His absolute sovereignty that He knows exactly what He is doing, and that what He is doing is in perfect accord with His perfectly good character and will. Our part is seeking to be “faithful ones” to all that God desires of us from Scripture, as we trust in God to bring about His holiness in us.
This is contrasted with God’s silencing of the wicked. Rather than God keeping the path of the wicked, He allows them to continue in their evil to be ultimately “silenced” in death.[3] As well, this reference to the wicked being “silenced” refers back to the wicked in verse three, who were multiplying arrogant words against God. He judges and ultimately silences them. Yet, according to John Gill, this may also have a further meaning. Just as God “enlarged” Hannah’s mouth to give a response to her oppressors (boasting in the Lord), so God will prevent the wicked from having any response whatsoever as they are silenced in hell.[4] They will be without excuse and be the ones to bear the weight of their actions. They will ultimately be silenced in the second death and be in silent despair forever.
The reference to man not being able to become strong by power may seem confusing when not taken in its context. In the usage of “כֹּחַ” (literally referring to a kind of reptile), the term always refers to a certain kind of power.[5] It does not refer to power as if it were a detached and abstract thing, but to a certain possession and usage of power. In the context of verse nine, this power refers to both human power, being possessed by that of a man, and to power that is opposed to God. Clearly, if a man was trying to gain power through his own means (as if it were his own inherent power) to dominate everything that is around him, then he is acting in ignorance of the fact that God is the possessor of all power. Hence, it is not by seeking to attain human power that a person becomes powerful. Rather, a person becomes powerful because God gives him that power. Power, then, is nothing intrinsic to man, since all power is given or taken according to God’s designs (not man’s), as God said in Zechariah 4:6: “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit” (ESV). The LXX (Greek Old Testament) also agrees in their rendering: “for not by strength is man able.”[6] So, God is the One who distributes power according to His good pleasure, towards His own good ends. Anyone claiming to have power apart from God is thus speaking as a fool. We can therefore also trust that, although we may not fully understand why He chooses to distribute power as He does, we can trust Him even despite any power given over to the wicked (Lam. 2:17; 3:22-27). God can snuff out their power in an instant, if He wanted to do so. The wicked are completely powerless apart from God. So, can we trust God even in light of the current power or persuasion of the wicked in our day? We certainly can! Everything, even the power of the wicked to oppress, is, so to speak, spoon-fed to His saints for our good and for His glory. The devil has borrowed power that is subject to the purposes of God. What then do we have to fear, apart from our God? God is greater than all, and there is no wicked scheme or device that surprises God. There is no rogue power that is outside of God’s perfect control. This ought to be a great source of comfort for us as His saints. We never need to question whether evil will overcome or thwart God, and we can see even the most hostile enemy as something being spoon-fed to us by a loving Father who promises to keep the feet of His faithful ones; faithful ones whom He guarantees will continue in faithfulness, forever.
Next time we will be looking at verse 10.
[1] F. Brown, S. Driver, and C. Briggs, The Brown-Driver-Briggs Hebrew and English Lexicon (1906; repr., Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2017), 919-920.
[2] Brown et al., 1036-1037.
[3] Brown et al., 199.
[4] “Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible,” Bible Hub, https://biblehub.com/commentaries/gill/1_samuel/2.htm.
[5] Brown, et al., 470-471.
[6] “Apostolic Bible Polyglot,” Bible Hub, https://biblehub.com/interlinear/apostolic/1_samuel/2.htm.