Week 1 | Mary's Song of Praise
Study Guide
Here’s a helpful introduction to Luke 1-2 from the Bible Project.
Note to parents: If you are incorporating these lessons in your family’s advent devotionals, you may want to pause the video at 2:49 and save the second half for Lesson 3.
Introduction
Two pregnant relatives meet to talk about their upcoming births. This sounds like a routine event, but the scene could not be more shocking. One of the pregnant women was an old, infertile woman and the other was a young virgin. This was not merely an improbable meeting but an impossible one. But as the angel said to Mary when he announced the news that she would bear God’s promised Son: “No word from God shall ever fail!”
By the Spirit, Elizabeth and the baby in her womb both recognized the earth-shattering implications of these pregnancies: into this cursed world full of sin, injustice, and death God was bringing a new order. Jesus would change everything. Indeed, he already was. The barren woman had conceived. The virgin would give birth. Where once there was emptiness and grief, now there was fullness and uncontainable joy. The LORD was working to restore the fortunes of Zion. God’s promised salvation had finally arrived.
And for Mary there could be no mistaking where this salvation came from. When Elizabeth praised Mary for her trust in God’s seemingly impossible words, Mary immediately burst into a Spirit-inspired song of praise to “God my Savior.”
Theological/Canonical/Biblical Background
In Exodus 15, as Israel stood on the other side of the Red Sea with the bodies of their enemies lying dead on the shore, they broke into a song of praise:
I will sing to the LORD for he is highly exalted. Both horse and driver he has hurled into the sea. The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will praise him, my father’s God, and I will exalt him!
—Exodus 15:1–2 (NIV)
In the OT, this song of Moses in Exodus 15 became a pattern for the LORD’s people when he delivered them from their enemies. Deborah led Israel to sing such a song when the LORD delivered Israel from Sisera, the Canaanite general. Hannah prayed such a song when the LORD delivered her and her people through the gift of Samuel and eventually David. And David sang the words of Psalm 18 “when the LORD delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul.” (Psa 18 NIV)
And as the OT authors considered these songs of deliverance, they looked forward to a new song, a song the LORD would put in the mouths of his people when he would climactically save them from the curse of darkness, sin, and death through his promised Son (Psa 33:3; 40:3; 96:1; Isa 42:10).
In Mary’s song, we hear the first stanza of this new, greater song of the Lamb (see also Rev 15:1–4). Thus, Mary’s song bursts with the words, phrases, and ideas of the OT. Various phrases in Mary’s song either quote from or allude to OT books like Exodus, 1 Samuel, Psalms, Isaiah, Zephaniah, and Micah among others. Through Mary, the Spirit weaves these OT references into a new song, celebrating the coming of God’s promised Son into the world.
Luke also crafted the narratives around Mary’s song so that OT narrative and prophetic texts provide the harmony for Luke’s main melody of God’s Promised Son coming as light into this cursed world. In Elizabeth’s miraculous pregnancy, the stories of Sarah, Hannah, and Naomi resound in the background. When Gabriel announces the virgin birth to Mary, we hear echoes of Isaiah, proclaiming a coming Davidic King who would reign over an eternal kingdom of justice and life. Luke wants us to know that Jesus changes everything. Through his coming, God would fulfill his long-awaited promises to Abraham. Through Jesus, God’s blessing would finally overcome the curse of darkness, sin, and death.
Study Notes
v.46
“And Mary said” - Note how Mary responded to Elizabeth’s praise. Mary immediately turned the spotlight to God as the source and cause of her blessing rather than herself.
“My soul magnifies” - By magnify, Mary means that what God has done for her has opened her eyes in new ways to how good and great God is (Psa 145:3). She knows and delights in God’s greatness in a renewed and greater way. John Piper comments on this word "magnify":
“There are two kinds of magnifying: microscope magnifying and telescope magnifying. The one makes a small thing look bigger than it is. The other makes a big thing begin to look as big as it really is.” -From “How to Magnify God” by John Piper
Here in v.46 we see “telescope magnifying.” Because of what God has done, Mary is seeing how big God really is.
OT Background: Psalm 34:1–3 is one of the OT texts that form the background for Mary’s words in this verse.(1)
v.47
“My spirit rejoices” - The word “rejoice” (ἠγαλλίασεν) refers not just to joy but to intense, overflowing joy.(2) We could translate this verse as: “My spirit is overwhelmed with joy.” In a cursed world that constantly surprises us with grief and sorrow, God’s saving work brings unexpected, overwhelming joy.
But what or (better yet) who is the reason for Mary's overwhelming joy?
“in God my Savior” -
- The Greek prepositional phrase (ἐπὶ τῷ θεῷ τῷ σωτῆρί μου) identifies God as the ground for Mary’s overwhelming joy.(3) She is overwhelmed with joy “because of God my Savior.”
- When the angel announces Jesus’s birth to the shepherds, he calls Jesus by the same title (savior).(4)
- Do not miss the pronoun Mary uses (God my Savior). She does not just describe God as “a Savior” or even “the Savior.” The cause of her uncontainable joy is that God is her savior.
OT Background: 1 Sam 2:1 and Hab 3:18 are some of the OT texts that form the background for v.47.(5)
V.48
“For he has been mindful” -
- This clause provides the ground (for/ὄτι) for verses 46b–47. “My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my savior, because…”
- The verb (has been mindful/ἐπέβλεψεν) expresses God’s loving, attentive care.(6)
“humble estate” - What drew God’s loving attention to Mary? Was it some moral quality in her like humility or modesty? No! The word translated as humble estate (ταπείνωσις) refers not to something Mary has but to what she does not have. It refers to her lowliness, her poverty, and her status as an oppressed person.(7) Just as God looked upon the Israelites with fierce love when he heard the groanings of their slavery in Egypt (Exod 2:23–25), so now he looks upon Mary and by extension all the oppressed people of God. This is the grace of YHWH, the God whose supremacy is seen most marvelously in his care for the most vulnerable (Deut 10:17–18).
“From now on” - The NET notes comment on this phrase: “From now on is a favorite phrase of Luke’s, showing how God’s acts change things from this point on (5:10; 12:52; 22:18, 69; Acts 18:6).”(8)
Jesus changes everything. Mary’s life would never be the same.
“...all generations will call me blessed.” - Again, Mary does not emphasize her moral superiority nor does she put herself at center stage. Instead, Mary recognizes that she has become an example of God’s generous grace.(9) We ought to look at Mary and marvel at the grace of Jesus.
OT Background: 1 Sam 1:11 as well as Deut 26:7 and 1 Sam 9:16 provide some of the OT background for this verse.(10)
v.49
“because the Mighty One has done great things for me” -
a. The connector (because/ὅτι) confirms what we stated above. All generations will call Mary “blessed” not because of what she has done but instead because of what God has done for her.
b. In the phrase “[he] has done great things for me,” Mary is likely referencing Psalm 126:
When the LORD restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like those who dreamed. Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, ‘The LORD has done great things for them.’ The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.
—Psalm 126:1–3
By referring to this psalm, Mary recognizes that Jesus’s birth would not merely restore her but would also restore the fortunes of all God’s people. With the birth of Jesus, God was fulfilling his promises to bring his people out of their exile in darkness, sin, and death.
c. Zephaniah referred to God as the “The Mighty One” in Zeph 3:17.(11) YHWH is a warrior who delivers his people from their enemies (Exod 15:2).
“and holy is his name” -
a. This phrase often occurs in the Prophets when they speak about the coming Second Exodus (Isa 47:4; 57:15; Ezek 36:22–25; Mal 1:11). Mary sees Jesus’s birth as the beginning of a new and greater exodus. The night of their oppression was finally giving way to the light of the Son.
b. Andy Naselli comments on the meaning of “holy”:
In its most focused usage, “holy” is an adjective uniquely associated with God. “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty” (Isa 6:3; cf. Rev 4:8)...Saying “God is holy” is like saying “God is uniquely God” or “God alone is God”: the word “holy” in such a context becomes almost an adjective for God...God is supremely and exclusively God. He has no rivals. As uniquely excellent, he is his own category: “There is no one holy like the LORD; there is no one besides you” (1 Sam 2:2; cf. Exod 15:11; Ps 77:13; Isa 40:25).(13)
V.50
“His mercy extends...from generation to generation” - The phrase refers to God’s faithful, covenant love and alludes to the LORD revealing his name to Moses in Exod 34 and subsequent OT texts like it (see for example Psalm 103 and Micah 7:18 among many others). In the coming of Jesus, we see God revealing his glory as “the compassionate and gracious God” in a new and greater way.
“...to those who fear him…” - To fear the LORD is to have a heart that belongs wholly to him. Those who fear the Lord are those who look to the LORD and his word alone for life.
V.51
“He has performed mighty deeds with his arm” - In the Song of Moses (Exodus 15), the Israelites looked to YHWH to lead them into the Promised Land “by the power of [his] arm.” Once again, Mary identifies the birth of Jesus with a new and greater exodus out of slavery into the light of the Lord’s presence. Further, other OT texts identify the LORD’s arm with the coming Messiah and Servant of the LORD (see for example Isaiah 52:13–53:12).
“he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts” - Here Mary references Psalm 89:10, a messianic psalm that calls God’s people to hope in a future Davidic king and foretells the Messiah’s suffering and glory. Note also how this phrase points back to OT and the Lord’s joyous work to reverse the misery of the poor and oppressed. In doing so, this verse anticipates the work of Jesus in Luke’s Gospel when he condemns the rich as well as the self-righteous but blesses the poor and destitute.
vv.52–53
“He has brought down rulers from their thrones” - This clause as well as the following ones draw out the implications of Jesus’s birth and coming kingdom. Darkness is the normal order of life in this cursed world. The rich get richer. The poor get poorer. The powerful oppress the weak, and injustice reigns. But Jesus changes everything. He overturns the normal order of this world and ushers in a new order where justice reigns. Already this kingdom of light has broken into our dark world. One commentator notes:
The pregnant Mary anticipates Christ’s birth with some fiery political theology — potentates tossed from thrones, the haughty humbled, the rich made bankrupt, the lowly exalted, and the hungry fed. These words from Jesus’ mother should keep this baby from simply being gazed upon and adored. They create disturbing ripples that rock the placid waters of the comfortable who think all is right with the world, with God safely tucked away in heaven and oblivious to injustice on earth. Through Mary we hear the insistent voice of the marginalized ringing out a challenge from on high to those entrenched in their seemingly impregnable seats of temporal power.(14)
“but has lifted up the humble” - Here again the word “humble” (ταπείνωσις) refers to the lowly, poor, and oppressed. One commentator notes: “The adjective tapeinous (“the lowly”) is not simply a socioeconomic status label, but is one that refers to the oppressed people of God (cf. 1:48).”(15) In the birth of Jesus, God has come to liberate his people from their oppression. Indeed, we read in Luke’s gospel that Jesus is for the weak, the poor, the sinners, the prodigals. He proclaims his blessing over those who weep, who are broken by the darkness of this world, and he proclaims his judgment upon those who use this brokenness to their own advantage. We read that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. We see Jesus fill the hungry and redeem the corrupt tax collector. We read with joy and wonder as he unexpectedly opens the eyes of the blind and makes the lame leap for joy. We marvel and worship our Lord as he grabs the hand of a dead little girl, and he pulls her up out of death, back into life simply by the power of his life-giving words: “My child, get up!”
And we see this most marvelously in the cross and the resurrection. In a world where all life gives way to death and all suffer as slaves to sin, Jesus changes everything. In his crucifixion, Jesus frees us from the power of sin. In his resurrection, Jesus’s life swallows up death. The normal order of life in this world is broken and replaced with the joyous, life-giving order of his kingdom. A kingdom where darkness gives way to light. A kingdom where war gives way to peace. A kingdom where death gives way to life.
vv.54–55
“just as he promised our fathers, Abraham and his offspring forever” -
a. By referencing “our fathers,” Mary uses the language of Deuteronomy and Joshua among other OT texts. The LORD redeemed Israel and brought them into the land not because of their righteousness but because of his faithfulness (Deut 7:7–10).
Indeed, this is what the phrase “just as” communicates. The Lord’s covenant love is the foundation for this new, saving work. God did not send Jesus because we deserve him. God sent Jesus because he freely and faithfully loves his people and because of his promises to Abraham. We must set our hope on God’s faithful character and trustworthy words as revealed and accomplished through Jesus. As Edward Mote wrote in his hymn “My Hope is Built on Nothing Less”:
His oath, His covenant, His blood Support me in the whelming flood When all around my soul gives way He then is all my hope and stay
b. By referring to “his servant Israel” and “Abraham’s seed,” Mary prepares us for Jesus. Jesus came as Abraham’s true seed (Gal 3:16) to fulfill both God’s promises to Abraham as well as Israel’s calling as YHWH’s servant (Luke 4:14–30). Through faith, God unites us to Christ and we receive the curse-overcoming blessing promised to Abraham: the Holy Spirit (Gal 3:10–14).
We encourage you to continue singing Mary's song this week as you rejoice in what our God has done!
Recommended Resources
The following resources helped us as we prepared this study guide, and we point you to them for further study:
Endnotes: