Luke 1:46-50

‘And Mary said,’

My soul magnifies the Lord,

And my spirit has rejoiced in God my Saviour.

For he has looked on the low estate of his handmaiden,

For behold, from henceforth all generations will call me blessed.

For he who is mighty has done to me great things,

And holy is his name.

And his mercy is unto generations and generations,

On those who fear him.

Mary’s heart is overflowing with joy and gratitude. Here all is joy and gladness. (We learn here nothing of the distraught Joseph, who later, on hearing his future wife’s explanation of her pregnancy, goes away, far too wise to be taken in, and determines that as a compassionate man he will not have her called to public account before the elders, but will divorce her privately, only for him to finally be enlightened by God - Matthew 1:19-21. For Luke wants all to be praise). Her soul is opened wide as she praises God continually, ‘my whole being magnifies the Lord’.

Meanwhile her spirit is seen as having rejoiced once for all in God Who is her Saviour (compare Psalms 24:5; Psalms 25:5; Micah 7:7; Habakkuk 3:18), and Who through her is fulfilling His saving actions. Like all women Mary was a sinner and needed a Saviour, and she rejoiced because she could look back to when she had responded to Him and recognised in Him her own Saviour. She knew that God was her Saviour. It was something that she would never forget.

Her gratitude is also because God has looked on her in her lowliness and relative poverty (compare Psalms 106:23), and raised her to a position where future generations will declare how blessed she has been (Psalms 2:12; Psalms 21:6; Psalms 34:8; Psalms 128:1), as they see that the promises made to her were indeed fulfilled. They will see her as blessed because of ‘the great things’ that God has done in and through her in the birth of the Messiah, in the same way as that same mercy is applied to all who fear Him of all generations in the way now about to be described, and especially so through this One Who will be born from her. Mary’s blessedness will thus be shared by all.

‘Holy is His name.’ In His treatment of her He is revealing Himself as distinct, unique and otherworldly because His purposes are so far beyond man’s.

In all this there is no idea of the over exaltation of Mary. She is seen as a godly woman who has been highly favoured by God in what is about to happen, but not as one who has in some way become superior to others of mankind. Nevertheless she is a model believer, and, in contrast to Zacharias, takes God at his word, (Luke 1:37-38). She is favoured of God (Luke 1:30), thoughtful (Luke 1:29), obedient (Luke 1:38), believing (Luke 1:45), and worshipful (Luke 1:46).

‘And His mercy is unto generations and generations, on those who fear Him.’ She recognises in what is happening to her the same graciousness and love as He has revealed from generation to generation, and will continue to reveal into future generations. For all those who fear Him will experience His lovingkindness and mercy.

We gain from her words something of Mary’s theology. God is her Lord, her Saviour, He is the Mighty One, His Name (that is, He as He essentially is) is holy, and He is compassionate and merciful. But what she understands of His saving work is very practical. It is just the theology we might expect from a teenager.

Note. There have been attempts to suggest that ‘Mary said’ should read ‘she said’, signifying Elisabeth, or ‘Elisabeth said’. But the manuscript evidence overwhelmingly supports ‘Mary said’. There are only a few Old Latin manuscripts, plus some copies of Irenaeus writings which disagree and cite the verse as ‘Elisabeth said’. Thus textwise the text undoubtedly stands firm. The arguments that it fits Elisabeth better are based on laying a certain emphasis on words which are translated to suit, but the song fits adequately into what we would expect Mary’s position to be, and ‘all generations shall call me blessed’ fits only Mary. There are really therefore no grounds for the change except in order to support a preconceived theory. End of note.