Mary's Praise

As the redeemed people of God, we are called to a life of praise. As the gathered church of God, we are set apart to praise. Maintaining a spirit of praise can be a challenge. One key help to this challenge is to meditate on particular “praise passages” in the Scriptures. Mary's praise, after the angel's message to her and her cousin Elisabeth's own words of praise, is one of those passages that engages the mind and stirs the soul to join in with a song of adoration.

Worship is a right response to God. This song was part of Mary's response. One can tell from Mary's opening words that what she is responding to is a “big deal”! God, in His great power, was doing something truly astounding. The Holy Spirit would produce, in a miraculous work, a conceived child in the womb of Mary apart from the natural course of reproduction. This was done not as some random trick, but as part of the means by which God would bring eternal life to corrupt and condemned sinners! God was doing this in accordance with plans (from all eternity) and promises He had made (reaching even as far back as Abraham), demonstrating His full trustworthiness and faithfulness. Needless to say, these were not small things! Mary's response is one of a deep desire and expression of exalting and lifting up and making much of her God. It was one of great joy in her Savior. Is the reason we sometimes struggle with praise due to forgetfulness of how significant and great and noteworthy are the mighty acts of God? In one sense, there is nothing that happens that is insignificant. After all, our heavenly Father is interested in sparrows that fall to the ground (Matt. 10:29). However, note this: what God has done through Christ for His people makes the next election, the next Super Bowl, the next landmark scientific breakthrough pale in comparison. God's Son humbled Himself to take on human nature as a developing embryo in the womb of young Mary. In His humanity, He would experience weakness and dependence upon the care of a mother. All this...so that He might carry out the task of bringing redemption to sinful human beings. All this is worth making a big deal!

Mary speaks of her soul magnifying God and her spirit rejoicing in Him. She is not making a distinction between the soul and the spirit, in my understanding. Rather, Mary is essentially repeating herself, using the poetic Hebrew parallelism, which underscores that fact that her praise is from deep within, rather than a mere outward formality. Don't misunderstand, part of worship is outward. The body has to actually go to meet with the gathered church. The mouth and lungs, and lips have to be engaged to speak and sing words of adoration. But, people can do the outward and have nothing of the internal to go along with it. When God saves sinners, He does something within! Our desires and longings, what we admire and treasure, all change. God's character and His great salvation become precious to us, something worthy to talk and sing about. It is what brings about the most profound joy and peace our souls experience. It's not that believers always feel a rush of holy emotion. But, deep within, Christ and His love to us is the solid ground our souls stand upon. When you come to God in prayer, when you sing with God's people on Sunday morning, prepare and engage your heart. Remind yourself that this is not just a “go through the motions” exercise, but rather that you engaging with the Almighty, holy God who is rich in saving grace and love.

Mary's praise was shaped by Old Testament Scripture. We see elements of it in the Psalms and in Hannah's praise in 1 Samuel 2. Hannah's adversary had boasted and taunted Hannah repeatedly because of her infertility, while the adversary had given birth to multiple children. When God finally granted Hannah a son, her soul was filled with praise. Part of her praise was celebrating this fact: God rebukes the proud but lifts up the humble. Mary's praise echoes that of Hannah. Mary was a nobody in society. She spoke of her “low estate.” Apparently, she and her family were not impressive socially or economically. Mary was profoundly honored that of all the women in Israel, God would grant her this privilege to mother the Messiah. “...from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed.”

But there is more about Mary's humility. It's not just that she was poor and socially low. Mary's heart was humble before God. “For he hath regarded the low estate of his handmaiden.” How did Mary see herself? As God's handmaiden (female servant). Mary was young, but spiritually mature. She was young, but wise. Her view of life was not self-centered but God-centered. She saw that the greatest, most noble occupation in life is to be God's willing servant. Mary was truly a beautiful woman! This is true humility, not living day to day with the great aim to fulfill all of one's own personal agenda, but to live daily for God's agenda. This means self-sacrifice, self-denial and a valuing of what matters most: the glory of God. God loves to honor such humility.

Humility is also manifested in a sense of need and spiritual hunger. “He hath filled the hungry with good things; and the rich he hath sent empty away.” Those who rely upon themselves and their resources as their sufficiency are not hungry for the salvation that Mary, Zachariah and Elisabeth hoped for. The proud and lofty, impressed with the world's glory rather than God's glory, will find themselves severely lacking. All that they are rich in will sooner or later come to an end. All these things can't fully satisfy in this life and will be useless in the face of eternity. Herod and the Jewish high priests all possessed the seats of the “mighty.” But, they missed out on the real treasure. They tenaciously held on to the position and prestige they cherished while proudly rejecting God's Son.

On the other hand, God fills the hungry with good things. Jesus Himself said, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled” (Matt. 5:6). Oh, this is cause for praise! The soul that God's Spirit grants a hunger to be righteous will be filled! God's gracious work brings us to see our spiritual need, our incapacity to make ourselves right with God. God's kindness produces a realization that this world and the things in it are insufficient to meet humanity's deepest need. The God that produces the spiritual hunger also provides the Bread of Life, Jesus, to satisfy that hunger. Jesus is the Savior who takes away our unrighteousness and gives us, as a free gift, the perfect righteousness He has earned for us. This is why God sent the Messiah to be born of the young, virgin Mary.

Believer, you and I will never be called upon to do exactly what Mary did. But, we can and must identify with her attitude. She saw herself as deeply blessed and honored. The reality is: it is the same with every soul whose eyes God has opened to see and love Jesus. We would still be the proud, arrogant sinner, rich and filled with a foolish world and sinful self had not God made our souls hungry and then given us Jesus to feast upon by faith. So, magnify God and rejoice in Him, and say with Mary, “For he that is mighty hath done to me great things; and holy is his name.”