Mary's Magnificat

Sung and known by their Latin names, namely Mary's Magnificat, Zechariah's Benedictus, the Angelic Gloria in Excelsis Deo that we'll be singing at our Christmas carols, and Simeon's Nunc Dimittis. Three out of these four songs are classified as canticles, including Mary's song, which we are going to be looking at today. A canticle, from the Latin canticulum, is a psalm-like song used in church worship where the lyrics have been taken from somewhere other than the book of Psalms. Okay, so you can imagine there are very few canticles.

These are recorded songs that have been placed into the psalmody, the worship of God from the Psalms, outside of the book of Psalms. Canticles have been a part of our worship for hundreds, indeed thousands of years. Mary's Magnificat is perhaps the most famous of them. It is also the first, and so we begin our series there. Turn with me to Luke chapter one, and we're going to read a little bit of the context in verse 26.

Luke one, verse 26. In the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David. And the virgin's name was Mary. And he came to her and said, greetings, favoured one. The Lord is with you. But she was greatly troubled at the saying and tried to discern what sort of greeting this might be.

And the angel said to her, do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. Behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give to him the throne of his father David. And he will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end. Mary said to the angel, how will this be, since I am a virgin?

And the angel answered her, the Holy Spirit will come upon you and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Therefore, the child to be born will be called holy, the Son of God. And behold, your relative Elizabeth, in her old age, has also conceived a son. And this is the sixth month with her who was called barren, for nothing will be impossible with God. Mary said, behold, I am the servant of the Lord.

Let it be to me according to your word. And the angel departed from her. In those days, Mary arose and went with haste into the hill country to a town in Judah. And she entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb.

And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit and she exclaimed with a loud cry, blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfilment of what was spoken to her from the Lord. And Mary said, my soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my saviour, for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed.

For he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate.

He has filled the hungry with good things and the rich he has sent away empty. He has helped his servant Israel in remembrance of his mercy as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his offspring forever. And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home. It's true, isn't it, that at Christmas every year we participate in the wonder, the splendour of the Christmas event. We hear again and again the angel's announcement, unto you is born this day in the city of David a son.

We see, we imagine the perplexed shepherds under the angelic sky who praise God, and they are overwhelmed and perplexed at what has been announced. We imagine the three wise men with their gifts, and apparently a little drummer boy who plays a drum for Jesus, pa rumpa pa pa. But against the backdrop of this breathtaking splendour and divine interventions, we can miss the trepidation of the Christmas story. The anxiety of this moment. To a young commoner woman by the name of Mary, came an angel. You are favoured by God and will give birth to a son who will inherit the throne of David, he said, and he will have a kingdom which will never end. Now, upon receiving this news, she travels all the way from the north of the region of Galilee, all the way south to a town in Judah, a journey of about a week through some difficult terrain.

When she arrives in town, she goes straight to Elizabeth's house, who we're told was a relative of hers. Traditionally, we've thought that she's an aunt. There's no actual indication of whether she was a cousin or an aunt. We don't really know. We know that she was much older than Mary.

Elizabeth, we're told, is well and truly on her own journey, her own miraculous journey of pregnancy with a baby who will become John the Baptist. Upon seeing Mary, Elizabeth is inspired to prophesy that Mary is pregnant with a boy that she identifies already as being her Lord. Now, this whole interaction with Elizabeth is a wonderfully encouraging affirmation to Mary who has had this truth just dropped on her in Nazareth. I wonder, for that week's journey, what was going through her head, what she thought about this news. I'm sure she would have thought, how can I bear a son since I am a virgin?

She had asked that of the angel. To that question, the angel had responded, Elizabeth, in her old age, in her barrenness, will also bear a son. And so Mary has rushed down to Judah for what reason? To see if this was true. If Elizabeth is miraculously pregnant, then the same will be true for me.

But more so, we're told the baby inside Elizabeth leaps for joy when Mary reaches her. John the Baptist is, at the age of minus three months, saying, there is the Lord. Behold, the lamb who will take away the sin of the world. And Elizabeth, the carrier of John the Baptist, calls him already her Lord. Whoever is in Mary's womb is special.

And Mary finds comfort in that visit to Elizabeth. But think again with me about the situation. An unmarried, young woman, anywhere between the age of 12 to 16, has been promised a pregnancy via immaculate conception that staggers sceptics to this day. What about her upcoming wedding? She is told, we were told that she is betrothed to a man named Joseph.

But seriously, would Joseph want to marry her now? Would Joseph believe that Mary hadn't cheated on him? She had just been for three months in Judah, far away from him. This poor man, how heartbroken would he be? And what about the rest of the family?

What about the people in the town of Nazareth? How believable is it that a virgin can give birth? Be serious, Mary. Come on. You can tell us.

Surely, it was just one mistake, one night. Don't try and cover up your story with something crazy like this. And what about this son? What about this boy that is going to be born? You think people today aren't the only ones that struggle to believe in the virgin birth?

We actually have an example of the scorn and the scepticism during Jesus' recorded life in the gospel. In John 8, people came to Jesus in his adulthood and said, we know who our father is. Who is yours? Meaning, we know you're not Joseph's boy. Mary had all of this to consider.

Alongside all the normal worries that come from your first pregnancy, and those worries are still fresh in my mind, as they very much were for Dan and Marge this week. I worry about a birth in the first place from a small town without medical care, and you're dirt poor, and you're young, and the truth is a lot of women died in childbirth. What a way to start. And it's in this context that we find Mary praising God with her Magnificat. As I said, this name Magnificat comes from the Latin, and it is simply using the first word of the opening line, my soul magnifies my Lord. My soul magnifies the Lord.

In this song, Mary lists no less than 17 attributes, characteristics, or actions of God. 17 statements about God that have drawn her into worship. In the face of worry, Mary worships. And what is it about her God that has drawn her soul up and out of her precarious situation and into praise? Well, we don't have the time to go through all 17 attributes, but we're gonna try and bundle them together under some general themes.

The song begins with praise to the Lord whose glory deserves magnification. The Lord whose glory deserves magnification. We find a heart that's been captured by reverent awe. Mary begins with the words, my soul magnifies the Lord. What it means for Mary to talk about her soul is to talk about her deepest parts, the essential elements of all her desires and hopes for life.

It's the seat of her deepest passions, and they are filled with a drive to make God and his actions great. That's what it means to magnify God. Now, obviously, we know objectively God is great. In his essence, he is great. But to magnify him is to promote or enlarge him, to promote and enlarge his fame, to extol his glory, to honour him for who he is, and to do so to all of those around you.

You can imagine that's why the Magnificat made its way all the way to doctor Luke, who wrote these words down perhaps 50 or 60 years afterwards. For 50 or 60 years, these words were carried around, perhaps firstly by Mary and perhaps later by others. But you see something of Mary's desire in the reality of Luke's recording of that. You see, it wasn't enough that Mary's God was magnified in just a personal moment of worship. No, Mary's deepest desire was to see the world sense the glory of God.

Think about it. Mary kept the words of this song remembered for all those years until it's finally recorded in Luke's record. Why? So that now, through 2000 years of human history, humanity has marvelled at God's glory, that the perfect Son of God could be born to a virgin and that He would be the redeemer of the world. So to that desire for her soul to magnify the Lord, well, you could say mission accomplished.

God's name has been made great. But we know that God rightly deserves his glory, says Mary, because in that first line, He is announced as Lord. Now we Christians use that term all the time, don't we? When we talk about the Lord, we love the Lord, we walk with the Lord, we believe in the Lord, but we sometimes forget what that term actually means. When Mary calls God Lord, she is saying that God is her master.

He is above all things. He is above all idols. He is above all false gods. He is above kings. He is above kingdoms.

He is above Satan. He is above demons. He is above all evil people. He is above the social trends of her time. He is above the most accepted pop psychology of our day.

God is above atheism. God is above philosophy. God is the master, and so He is Lord. No one in all the universe holds more authority than God does. And since He is Lord, God doesn't need Mary's magnification as though He desperately craves to have some of his glory filled by her.

No, because He is Lord, because He is inherently glorious, all that He needs is to have his glory recognised. He deserves our praise. He deserves the magnification of His name. That is the purpose of the Magnificat. God's true glory being appreciated by a soul that is absolutely captivated by it.

Now, after that opening line, we get a bit of an understanding for the occasion of this moment of appreciation from Mary. Why is it that her soul has been moved to this point? Because as the highest possible authority in the universe, God has set his mind on something relating to little old Mary. Her salvation is in view. Her deliverance is in view.

She says, my spirit rejoices, verse 47, in God, my saviour. And so we see verses 47 to 48, a saviour who knows. The Catholic church holds that Mary was sinless. The Magnificat proves she wasn't. She herself attests to needing a saviour, and God is her saviour.

That word means rescuer. It means deliverer, and significantly, she's not referring so much to the baby growing inside her womb as being her saviour. It's the God who has revealed to her the news that will save her. So the God who has spoken to her is the one that she is calling her saviour. So the question is, what does Mary understand herself to be saved from?

Well, the rest of the song fleshes out things a bit further, but we see a summary in verse 48, saying, for He has looked on the humble estate of His servant. For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed. It's likely that Mary didn't understand everything that Jesus needed to do as the Messiah. Just like Elizabeth probably didn't fully understand what it meant when she called this little baby her Lord, but she recognised something in the sending of this baby from God, that God is saving her. And the reason that God can be her saviour is twofold. Firstly, since He is Lord, He has the authority.

He has the power to save her. He can do it. Whatever she needs to be saved from, He can do it. But, of course, having the ability to do it is one thing. God has become her saviour secondly, because He has seen her.

What that means is God knows Mary. God knows the situation that Mary is in. And because He has seen her, He now can do and will do something about it. That word seen is found all throughout the Bible to talk of God as the one who recognises need. He is the God who doesn't overlook.

He is the God who appreciates the suffering. And so you can read that word see and you can almost translate it as being the word to know. He knows our need. And Mary praises God because He is a God who has recognised her situation. My God knows I am young.

My God knows I am poor. My God knows how fragile I am. That's what she means by her humble estate. He knows my reputation is going to be questioned. My God knows and He's allowed me to be comforted by seeing what He has done for Elizabeth.

If He can do it for her, He can do it for me. My God has seen my precarious situation and He will save me. Despite her undignified state, she says, however, generation after generation of humanity will call her blessed. And so, as much as, you know, us Protestants have moved away from Mary for good reasons, she is a blessed woman. There is no one like Mary.

God Himself, through the angel says, you are my favoured one. Mary is special. Why will every generation call her blessed? Well, it's because God has chosen the least and the most insignificant of women to give birth to the saviour of the world. And in doing so, this God has shown Himself to be mighty.

In verses 49 to 50, we see a God who is powerful, holy, and merciful. For He who is mighty says Mary, has done great things for me. Mary had been told by the angel not to worry, verse 37, for nothing will be impossible for God. Mary, in seeing Elizabeth, now recognises that there is nothing that can thwart God's plans. Satan, sin, circumstance, nothing can outmanoeuvre Him.

He is altogether powerful. If we worship the same God who has created billions upon billions of galaxies, do you think it is impossible for Him to fertilise an egg without a little sperm? For this reason, Mary declares God holy. He is set apart.

He is altogether different from anything else in all creation. And yet, even in His holiness, she declares His name to be holy. He is not so aloof and so unattainable that He is altogether unreachable. No. His revealed character, His personality, His handle by which man may call upon Him, His name is holy.

And so He is the high and lifted up God, dwelling in unapproachable light, yet He stoops to earth for every child who will utter His name. His name is holy, and demons quake at the utterance of it, but His name is given to His children. And so He is powerful and He is holy, but the truly touching thing for Mary and for us is not so much His power or His holiness, but that this powerful and holy God cares. This powerful and holy God is merciful. He says His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation.

This is the heartbeat of the song. Notice not only is God merciful to her, but He is merciful consistently from one generation to the next. My Muslim friends will tell me that Allah is also merciful. Allah is also gracious. He forgives sin.

But they will warn me that Allah is not bound to mercy. He is so holy, they contend, that He is altogether dispassionate. And while Christian theologians will talk of God's impassibility, that God isn't prone to emotional fickleness, while God is powerful and holy, altogether high and lifted up, the reason we know God in the first place, brothers and sisters, is because God is merciful. We only know God because He is gracious and full of love and full of mercy. The God who reveals Himself in the Bible is the God marked by mercy.

And so you could argue that of all the attributes of God, it is His mercy that runs ahead of them all because it runs to us. And it's with this attribute in mind, this mercy of God, that Mary actually rounds off this great psalm of hers from verses 51 to 55, and she holds out several instances of merciful reversals of fortune. Study the gospel of Luke, and you will know its theme. It is the reversal of fortunes. Luke loves it.

He loves the poor being made rich. He loves the rich being brought down. He loves the unexpected plot twists of Jesus' ministry, of things naturally in our expectations going one way, and then God, by His direct intervention, flipping the story upside down. The losers become the winners in the gospel. The winners are made the losers.

And what we find here in Mary's song is exactly that. We find the proud being scattered in the thoughts of their hearts. We see kings deposed of their thrones. The rich go hungry, while the humble are exalted, and the hungry are filled with good things. And all of these things, says Mary, happens out of God's mercy.

But nowhere is God's mercy found more clearly in what God has done for His people, Israel, says Mary in verses 54 and 55. He has helped His servant Israel, she says, in remembrance of His mercy as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to His offspring forever. And that's where her song ends. God is the God who reverses fortunes. Like God has reversed my fortune as a poor, vulnerable teenage mum, says Mary.

Nowhere is that mercy more vividly displayed, however, says Mary, than in what God has done in remembering His promises to Israel. What does she mean by that? Well, this remembrance isn't remembering as though God has forgotten and all of a sudden He's like, oh wait, I've got a people called Israel, and I probably should give some attention to them. This remembrance is to do with God committing and seeing through His plan and His promise to Abraham. It indicates that the boy who is going to be born from this virgin is the culmination of all the promises made to Abraham and his descendant people, Israel.

This is the full and the final saviour. He is the one who will cause Israel to be a blessing to the nations. In this child, God will be honoured, and He will be honoured by honouring His promises to Abraham. And He has done this not because He's strong, not because He's holy, but because He's merciful. For all the power and the glory and the divinity on display at Christmas, for a virgin to give birth, it is God's mercy which Mary magnifies the most.

And friends, if you are a Christian today, that is the thing we magnify the most. In the midst of all the reasons to be overwhelmed, Mary worships with the words, my soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God, my saviour. Her innermost parts have been moved to worship. Her soul glorifies and lifts God up to His rightful place as her master and king. Because He is my king, she says, and because He is both powerful and yet merciful, I am safe.

If you dwell on it long enough, you'll realise that there were plenty of reasons for Mary to worry. Worry denies the care of a sovereign king. Tim Keller writes that worry is called a sin in the Bible because it denies the wisdom of God. It says that He doesn't know what He's doing. Worry also denies the love of God because worry says that He doesn't care.

And worry, he says, denies the power of God because it says that He isn't able to deliver me from whatever is causing me to worry. For this reason, Keller will say that worry is actually practical atheism. It shows you that your mind isn't on God. But worship. Worship is the key.

That's why the pastor's best advice, it's my one line in any situation, is prayer. I don't have any more bullets in my gun. Why is prayer the answer to pain or suffering? Not simply because it is appealing to a God who is powerful and can change your circumstances, but also because prayer changes us. Prayer is worship.

It draws you into remembering the attributes of this God we call our own, and when we do, you will see it. Worship replaces worry. The next time you are tempted to be worried, remember Mary's Magnificat, a song sung in the face of adversity, overwhelmed and inspired by the lordship, the majesty, and the mercy of the God who sees you. But the more important meaning of Mary's song and the greater reason we hand over and can hand over our worries to God is summed up in what that song was pointing to, Jesus coming as the Messiah. He is the embodiment of the saviour God that this song was alluding to.

He is the king who has come to rescue the kingdom. This Jesus is the God who saw our need and rushed to us to fix it. May we sing by the power of the Holy Spirit like Mary did. May we sing our hearts out because we know that Jesus is our saviour and we have lives protected and vindicated by His mercy. May we sing until the worry passes away and peace takes root in our hearts.

Let's pray. Lord, You see us. Lord, You know our need. And God, Jesus, we see our Lord who came to us in mercy. Lord, as we head into Christmas, help us to marvel again at the great reversal of fortunes.

That in a manger, in a stable, in the little town of Bethlehem, was manifested and displayed the glory of the eternal God in a baby. And that from a poor commoner woman like Mary, there would come a king. Help us to know and understand and appreciate again the magnificence of the power displayed in that moment. Help us to see the otherworldliness, the holiness of a God who can do that, who can give miraculous conception in order to display His glory and His perfection. And then, Jesus, help us to be moved to worship, to adoration, and to the magnification of Your name in our souls because You would be so merciful in having done all that for us.

You are high and lifted up. You do dwell in unapproachable light. We are sinful and we are broken and we needed Your mercy. We are the ones who needed a saviour. But we honour You and glorify You today because You came for us.

May our lives reflect that glory. May it be moved in requisite lives, in duty and obedience because You are worthy of that glory. Amen.