Luke 1:46-56 Mary’s Song
Good morning! Turn with me in your Bibles to Luke chapter one, verse 46, page 856 in the pew Bibles.
We are picking up where we left off with Mary and Elizabeth in the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth in the hill country of Judah. If you remember from last week, after the angel Gabriel appeared to Mary and announced the good news to her that she would bear a Son by the Holy Spirit even though she was a virgin, she went to see her relative Elizabeth who was the mother of John the Baptist.
When Mary arrived, the baby in Elizabeth’s belly jumped for joy and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke a wonderful blessing to Mary and we pick up in verse 46 with Mary’s response.
46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.
Let’s pray.
The Catholic church makes much of Mary, too much in fact. Yet they completely ignore Mary’s own thoughts about herself and God’s work in and through her. There is a lot we can learn through Mary’s song here in Luke one.
You may have heard this song of Mary called “the Magnificat.” In fact, the pew Bibles have this passage labeled that. “Magnificat,” is just the first word in this passage in Latin, the word we have here translated, “magnifies.”
The other curiosity we have here is that this is a song even though the text doesn’t say: “And Mary sang,” it says, “And Mary said”… The scholars believe that this was a song based on the original language’s metre and potential rhyming. Any time you see a section printed out this way in the Bible it means that the scholars believed that it may very well have been a song. I’m going to treat it that way anyway.
Mary’s song has three verses all praising the mindfulness, the might, and the mercy of God. And each verse Mary focuses on a different group of people that have experienced those three attributes of God, herself, the faithful, and the nation of Israel.
So let’s look at the three verses of Mary’s song.
First, in verses 46-49a, Mary sings of God’s mindfulness, might, and mercy on herself.
46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
The English language is always evolving, and that can get really annoying when you’re trying to translate the Bible from a language with set rules that don’t change into the messy form of always changing, hard to pin down, gobblety-gook that we speak.
We often read the words in the Bible, “soul,” and, “spirit,” and, “mind,” and, “spirit,” and kind of lump theme together in the same category and assign them all the same meaning, as if the author was just trying to express the same thought in multiple different ways for emphasis.
And when we do that we are wrong. When we do that we miss out on some of the richness and depth of meaning that is expressed just because we are lazy, and then we have the nerve to say that reading the Bible is boring.
When Mary says, “My soul magnifies the Lord,” she is speaking of the depth and center of her feelings, as if she is saying, “my very emotions praise the greatness of the Lord.”
And then she sings, “My spirit rejoices in God my Savior…” If the soul encompasses how we feel, the spirit, as Mary uses it, is how we think. “All of my thoughts experience great joy and gladness because of God my Deliverer, the source of eternal salvation.”
Mary was expressing the Great Commandment, found in Deuteronomy 6:5, and later quoted by Jesus in Matthew 22:37, loving the Lord her God with all her heart, soul, mind, and strength.
“My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me,
You’ll notice that Mary doesn’t say a word about what she has done to deserve the honor that was hers, she only praises the work of God the Father.
She points out her humble estate, her low estate, just a nobody from nowhere, and in doing so contrasts her lowness to God’s excellence and her unworthiness to God’s grace.
I think it’s important to point out again the difference between mercy and grace. These words are often used interchangeably, mostly because we need them to rhyme in our songs, but they don’t mean the same thing.
Simply put, grace is getting something that we do not deserve. We do not deserve God’s love because we are sinners and have fallen short of His glory, but by His grace He loved us enough to send His only Son Jesus for us.
Mercy, on the other hand, is NOT getting what we DO deserve. We deserve God’s wrath because of our sin, we deserve to be destroyed, but, in His mercy He withholds His wrath until the judgment so that people may come to faith in Jesus and be forgiven.
By calling herself low, Mary is displaying God’s grace, she doesn’t deserve the honor that He bestowed on her. This isn’t false humility, this is honesty.
In His mercy God doesn’t exercise His wrath, instead He exercises His blessing, a mercy that will be remembered forever as people forever will call Mary blessed.
Verse 49a ends the first verse of Mary’s song, praising the Lord in His grace and power for doing great things for her. The word translated, “great,” can also be translated, “surprising.” I’m sure Mary was surprised at what the Lord was doing, and how often are we surprised when God does exactly what He said He would do?
Verse 49b starts the second verse of Mary’s song, where she celebrates the power and judgments, and mercy of God in more general terms, she moves on from God’s work in herself to God’s work for the faithful.
and holy is his name. 50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.
Holy is His Name.
It is an unfortunate tragedy that the Name of the Lord has been brought so low in our day, the Name of our Savior Jesus Christ used as a curse word, and calling on the Name of God gets thrown around like garbage.
His Name is holy. His Name is entitled to the highest reverence because He is entitled to the highest reverence.
And His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation. God’s mercy is perpetual. John Calvin said, “He will always be like Himself.” I love that, never failing, never changing, always merciful to those who fear Him.
But what does it mean to fear God? This is not fear that’s associated with terror or fright, this is profound reverence and awe and respect. This is the basis of godliness and religion, and it all finds its basis in faith.
His mercy is perpetual for those who have faith in Him. His mercy, not getting what we do deserve, also known as eternal destruction, is reserved for those, by God’s grace, fear Him.
This isn’t a result of nationality or birthright, as is the belief of some, but on the basis of grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone.
51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.
God the father has performed miracles by His own power, that is what Mary means by “showing the strength of His arm.” God has performed miracles specifically in and through and on behalf of the lowly contrary to the estimation of the proud, and the mighty, and the rich.
God’s kingdom is an upside down kingdom. Though Jesus is God He humbled Himself and took on the form of a servant, the Son of man had no place to lay His head, no pillow, no bed, no palace.
He chose fisherman, and tax collectors, and persecutors to be His Disciples and through them changed the world.
The world’s system exalts the powerful and privileged, the proud, the mighty, the rich,but God’s sytem is not regulated by man’s standards.
Calvin wrote, “The great, and rich, and powerful, lifted up by their abundance, ascribe all the praise to themselves, and leave nothing to God. We ought therefore to be scrupulously on our guard against being carried away by prosperity, and against a vain satisfaction of the flesh lest God suddenly deprive us of what we enjoy.”
Paul also wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:26-31,
26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong; 28 God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, 29 so that no human being might boast in the presence of God. 30 And because of him you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption, 31 so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”
Mary’s final verse praises the Father for His faithfulness to His promise to Israel.
54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
In His mercy God preserved Israel as He promised. Mary is referencing God’s promise to Abraham from Genesis 12:1-3.
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
In remembrance of His mercy God helped His servant Israel. The word translated, “helped,” means to provide what is needed. What Israel needed was a Savior and God supplied one in His only begotten Son, Jesus.
That same Savior who was sent by God to help Israel was also sent for us that whoever would believe in Him would not perish but would have everlasting life.
“My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”
Amen.
