Dr. Kevin DeYoung | The Magnificat

Sunday Morning, December 14, 2025
Given by Dr. Kevin DeYoung | Senior Pastor, Christ Covenant Church

The Magnificat

Luke 1:39-56

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Transcript

Let's pray as we come to Luke chapter 1. 

Our gracious heavenly Father, we thank you for the message that you give to us through your word. And now we ask that you would help this poor, frail minister to be a steward of your mysteries – that we all, as we have the privilege to listen, may be ready, that we may turn our hearts to the wisdom of the just, and that we may be ready at your second coming, and we may be found as a people acceptable in your sight. And so, we ask that you would give us yours. In Jesus’ name. Amen. 

Our text this morning comes from Luke's gospel chapter 1, verses 39-56. Follow along as I read Luke chapter 1, beginning at verse 39. Whether you've heard these stories a hundred times or for the first time, what a delight to hear this story: 

“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 fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.’ 

And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my Savior, 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.”

If there are any students out here this morning – and I know there are some of you who fit this category – you are taking Latin. And you have, perhaps, in a moment of weakness dared to say to others, "When am I ever going to use Latin? Well, only about every day of your life, if you're paying attention. But besides that, this morning. This morning, I want you to think about your Latin, because I have some Latin for you. Et Maria. You got that? Maria. Magnificat anima mea Dominum. Alright, there's too many of you to ask for a show hands for a translation, but that's Luke 1:46 from the fourth century Latin Vulgate, translated by Jerome, which has been one of the most influential Bibles in the history of the church. “And Mary said, ‘My spirit magnifies the Lord.’" It's called the Magnificat, because that's the word in Latin. 

In fact, there are, by tradition, four songs – or sometimes called canticles – four little songs in Luke's gospel, and they each have a Latin name. So, you can just think, Latin students, if you can come up with the translation here. Mary's song is the Magnificat. Zechariah’s song is the Benedictus: “Blessed be the Lord God.” Each of these is because of the first word, or words, in the song. The angel’s song in chapter 2 – you know this one – Gloria In Excelsis Deo: “Glory in the highest to God.” And then Simeon's song in Luke chapter 2, called the Nunc Dimittis. Nunc Dimittis, which means, “Now (nunc) let your servant depart.” These four songs, given by those Latin names as they're found in the Vulgate, have had a privileged place in the history of the church's worship, liturgy, art. There are famous paintings and statues of all of these scenes in sacred music. In the daily office that developed out of the monastic tradition, they often use the language from these four songs. And the most famous of them is the one that we just read, the Magnificat. I want us to look not only at the Magnificat, but what comes before it, and that is Elizabeth and Mary and their interchange – Mary, we just hear, gives a greeting, and then Elizabeth crying out with a loud voice. So, if you want an outline, it's a very simple outline. We’ll look at these two women, Elizabeth and Mary. Or you could think about it as Elizabeth talking about the person of Christ and Mary extolling the work of Christ, or to give it two different words: theology and then doxology. 

So, we'll start with Elizabeth, verses 39-45, as she gives us some of the most important theology. It is striking – it's one of the reasons we know that the gospels are true – if you were wanting to make up a story that would be most convincing, you would not, in the first century, have given to women such a prominent place in the story. To think that the very first human being to give voice and recognition to who this Messiah is comes from the lips of a woman, Elizabeth, and those who will declare the empty tomb and run to tell the disciples – those first emissaries are women, bookending this story from the womb to the tomb. We read in verse 39, “In those days, Mary arose and went with haste.” One of the things that I think we love about the Christmas story is this mingling together of scenes and expressions that are very ordinary, that we can all relate to and familiar. And then there's the miraculous and the supernatural. Here is something that many, many women in this congregation could relate to. It's not at all an abnormal thing for two women to want to get together and talk about their pregnancies, especially when it's each of their firsts and it's come to each of them in a very surprising way. So, Mary probably had in her mind more than just the pregnancy and what this pregnancy represented, but that was part of it too. In haste, she wants to go to her much-older relative, and she wants to share this utterly amazing, good news. You can just picture these two women, one likely a teenager, one however old is old for that culture, beyond the years of childbearing, coming together, talking to each other about these two astounding occurrences. Wait, you? You? You too? Tell me about it. It's amazing. And there's – Elizabeth's husband cannot get a word in edgewise. Don't have to worry about him. He cannot interrupt, cannot talk about – he's going to have to sit and listen. 

So, Mary makes this trip – it says in the hill country in Judea, a town in Judah. We don't know exactly where it is. By tradition, a small village, five or six miles west of Jerusalem. It would have been a three or four day trip – 75 to 100 miles. She makes it there. And what a time it must have been for these two miraculous mothers. And we see in verse 41, upon her entrance and her greeting, there is one giant leap for mankind, and it comes from this little baby. Don't you see everywhere? Again, parenthesis: everywhere in this Christmas story, these children in the womb are not potential children. They're not something that later will be given a soul and become full-born persons. They are acting agents, the Holy Spirit upon them and through them, and they're moving – these babies in the womb. All we read is that Mary entered the house of Zechariah and greeted Elizabeth. Now, it's possible that this involved a longer explanation. Maybe greeting is just kind of a big summary word and that she came in and said, "Liz, it's me, Mary. You won't believe it. Well, maybe you will. I'm pregnant, and I'm still a virgin, and I'm going to have the Messiah.” Maybe she said all of that, but there's no record. All we hear is that she gave a greeting, and it suggests something much simpler and shorter: “Hello, it's me, Mary. I'm here to see you.” Because of course, you couldn't have sent a text and said, "I'm coming," or a phone call, or even a Morse code. You just would have found the way. They've been together before. They're relatives. Maybe she had someone who made the journey with her – almost certainly, you would not have sent off a pregnant teenage girl all by herself on a 4-day journey. And they know the way, and she shows up, and what a pleasant surprise it must have been. 

And Mary gives a greeting. And when Elizabeth hears the greeting, the baby inside her starts kicking for joy. Every mother who has had a baby inside her has known that – there's a hand, there's a foot. She reflects on it in verse 44: “When the sound of your greeting came to my ears,” Elizabeth interprets what happened – this was the baby in my womb leaping for joy. I didn't have much room to go, but that kick, that little foot that pressed through, that was a leap for joy, because this child knew who it was that had come to visit. Remember, this is John the Baptist. This is the one who will be the forerunner, and what we're meant to see here is already in the womb, several months ahead of Jesus in the womb, he is the forerunner of the Messiah. He is already preparing the way, because his job will be, in a manner of speaking, to jump up and down and say, "Have I got good news for you. This is the Messiah." He's already doing his job, as a little baby, kicking in the womb with joy. Let me just say, as you think about evangelism and how to share your faith, on one level, it's as simple as what John does here. It is the joyful announcement that the son of God has come into the world. Now, it's hard to find a way to share that conversation sometimes, and people know that it's coming, or they don't like it, or they have objections. All of that may come, and that's why we think and pray and are strategic and have apologetics. But at its simplest level, here it is – and this is something all of us can do – it's to jump with proverbial joy, like this little baby in the womb, to say the son of God, the Messiah, has come into the world. Can you believe it? I believe it. Do you believe it? He's come into the world. And what Elizabeth says next sure seems to be a supernatural revelation to her. We don't have any record of Mary saying more than a simple greeting. That's why we read that she was filled with the Holy Spirit. Flesh and blood did not reveal this to her, but the Spirit of her Father who is in heaven, and she, too, explodes with loud rejoicing. You see, verse 42, she exclaimed with a loud cry. She is excited. 

She announces a threefold blessing. Blessed are you among women. That's true. Mary has the singular privilege. Mary is full of grace. She is literally full of grace. She has the divine son of God taking upon a human body within her. She is full of grace. Blessed is the fruit of your womb, this chosen one who will come from you. And then the third blessing: blessed is she who took the Lord at his word. You believed God, and you took him at his word. Notice Mary is not the dispenser of blessing. She is the recipient of blessing. She is an example of the grace that comes through faith. And then look at what Elizabeth says in verse 43 – this may be most remarkable of all. At least I find it most poignant, touching, inspiring, challenging. She says, "And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” There are centuries of the most glorious, profound theology that can be pulled out of that one simple sentence. Elizabeth the theologian – as she says, "Why should it be granted to me that the mother of my Lord” – just think about those simple words, that she recognizes in Mary “the mother of my Lord.” Now, we don't know that Elizabeth had all of the connotations of Lord in mind, but later these would be developed. Luke will record, later in Acts 10:36, that the Christ, he is Lord of all. But she certainly means to say that Mary is going to give birth to the Messiah, the son of David. 

We know from this passage, and from the angel's announcement in the previous passage, that he is holy, he is the son of God. Whether Elizabeth understood all of that, she is giving this great description, that that one – she can't even see him, he's but multiplying cells at this point – that one is my Lord, the one that she will give birth to, the Messiah, the son of David, the promised offspring of Abraham, the divine son of God. And she recognizes that Mary – this is mind-blowing – Mary is his mother. The child will come from her belly. It will be a normal birth, a normal gestation. Mary will nurse him as a normal nursing mother would. There will be a normal umbilical cord to be cut. All of the normal blood and guts and water that rushes out at a birth – all of that, normal. The conception, supernatural. A normal birth, a normal gestation, a normal trip through the birth canal. What is supernatural, overshadowed by the Holy Spirit, is the virginal conception. So, the greatest minds in the history of the world for 2,000 years have been singing and celebrating and writing poems and pieces of art and whole musical cantatas and the deepest, longest tomes of theology to explain and to celebrate how the son of God, who has no beginning, will now have a mother. Son of God, who has no beginning, will now have a mother. The key expression from the Nicene Creed – and we sing it in “O Come, All Ye Faithful” – is “begotten, not created.” Begotten from the Father, not created. But he is assuming, he is taking to himself, a human nature, so that the second person of the Trinity, the divine Logos – that's the word that John will use – you know the word “word,” the word made flesh – the word became flesh and dwelt among us, that in taking to himself a human nature, he became what he was not without ceasing to be what he was. He became what he was not – a real human being, a body, a mother, he could suffer, he would get hungry, he would get tired, he would die – without ceasing to be all that he was, the divine son of God. And so, when we speak about the one person of the incarnate son of God, sometimes we ascribe to that one person the things according to his human nature, and sometimes the things according to his divine nature. But there's one agent who is doing them, and that is the incarnate, enfleshed son of God. 

Elizabeth may not have understood all of that, and she certainly didn't know about the Council of Nicea or the Council of Chalcedon. And yet she makes a tremendous statement as she talks about the person of Christ, that he will be Lord, and he will have a mother. It's going to lead into the one person and the two natures. And she's also a trinitarian theologian. She understands that Mary has believed what was spoken from the Lord – now, that received the message from Gabriel, but remember, Gabriel the angel had come from the presence of God. So, Elizabeth extols Mary for believing what was spoken by the Lord, the Father. Elizabeth speaks by the Lord, the Holy Spirit, and she celebrates the coming birth of the Lord, the Son. You don't have to make this up to see the Trinity at work – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – to save the people of God. And if that weren't amazing enough, what she says in that simple phrase, “the mother of my Lord,” don't miss what she says right before that, because this is just as amazing, if not in theological depth, then in heart and mind and spirit: “Why is this granted to me?” Do you feel any of that at Christmas? Why? Why should you and I be privileged to know this word, to be in this beautiful place, and it's all decorated so nice, and the candles, and the flowers, and the song, and the musicians, and the organ, and the familiar hymns. Why should we know the Lord Jesus Christ? Why should we have been – by God's free, unmerited grace – been given the privilege of hearing and receiving this word? Do you think that at Christmas? Is that the attitude of your heart and my heart? I shudder to think, some of us, if we were Elizabeth, what our hearts might have done. Rather than saying, “Why is it granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me,” some of us might say, “Why did I have to wait so long to have a baby?” or “Why does this little teenage girl, my whatever cousin, why does she get to have the Messiah? Man, I thought this was going pretty special for me. I get the forerunner, and then I find out this little girl gets the Messiah. What gives?” That's the way some of us are. You want to make a child happy, give him a toy. You want to instantly make him unhappy, give his sibling a bigger toy. It doesn't matter what that is. But that's not Elizabeth. Her attitude is one of heartfelt worship, adoration, humility. Why? Why? Why should we get to sing these songs? Why should we be reminded of these truths? Why should we know the way of salvation? 

Do you live your life prepared to be disappointed with people? Do you live your life prepared to be upset that someone else has something better than you, that you think you deserve? Or do you prepare, in your life, to be amazed, to be grateful? I’m not making light of all sorts of pain and real disappointment, but there is a way, and here's Elizabeth's way of – this is why it said Elizabeth and Zechariah were blameless before the Lord. This is a godly couple, and she has the kindling in her heart that's ready to receive this, not as a “Well, what about me?” but “Why should I be so blessed that you would come to my house?” We have been privileged with such good news. 

Elizabeth gives us the theology. Mary gives us the doxology: “My soul magnifies the Lord.” Soul there, and then you see verse 47 – spirit – this is typical of – you find it in the Psalms, you find it in Proverbs – it's often called Hebrew parallelism. It just means that when you have a song or a kind of poem like this, you often have line A, line B, and they say almost the same thing, with just a little different language. So, my soul and then my spirit. We should not think too much about, well, soul and spirit mean two different things there. She's simply extoling and celebrating, everything within me, the deepest part of me – we would probably say my very heart magnifies and rejoices. I remember hearing John Piper say this, and it always stuck with me, that when we magnify God, we magnify God like a telescope, not like a microscope. A microscope magnifies incredibly small things by making them look bigger. That's not what we do with God. Or you can magnify by a telescope that makes unimaginably grand things, at a far distance, now able to be seen by human eyes. We magnify with a telescope, not with a microscope. My soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God, my savior. 

This whole passage – in fact, the whole Christmas story – is just shot through with joy, joy, joy, joy. That's why we sing about it. You want to know what you love, what makes you happy. And it might be a bit of a good exercise, if maybe a little convicting, to ask a friend, a roommate, a spouse, your kids, if you're bold, sometime this afternoon – what makes me happy? What would they say? Some of you, there's some sports things that can make us real happy and real sad, real quickly. Why? Why, honey, are you basing your mental/emotional state on 19-year-old young men? Why? Well, when you put it that way, it is a bit ridiculous. What makes you happy? And it's not that other things can't make us happy. Don't feel ashamed that you're happy with family and that food makes you happy or even that sports or art or music or a sunset or the mountains or the ocean. God gives us all good gifts to enjoy. What makes you happy? Joy reveals the heart. This is one of the big sirens, warning bells – if you never rejoice in your spouse, you probably have a bad marriage. When's the last time that I was happy when she came into the room, when he sat down beside me? And if you never rejoice in God, you may not be a Christian. There's lots of things that make us happy. That's good. Does God ever make you happy? Would your kids, your roommates, your parents, would they say – when you ask them, "What makes me happy?" – would they say, "Oh, boy, going to church makes you happy." Okay, don't answer that right now. Oh, singing songs, reading the Bible makes you happy. Thinking about God, reveling in the story of Christmas makes you happy. My soul magnifies the Lord. My spirit rejoices in God, my savior. 

And what follows is a powerful, beautiful exploration from Mary of God's strength and our weakness. Now, you might think to yourself, alright, if Mary is, as we guess, a teenage girl, how could Mary have burst into such a song? I mean, this is pretty good. She's just ready to do the Magnificat at a moment's notice? Well, some people have suggested that it doesn't say exactly that she said it in the next moment. Verse 46 just says, "And Mary said." So, could it have been that during the three months with Elizabeth, she took time to compose this, and this was a song of celebration? You could certainly say that. It wouldn't take away anything from the scene or from the inspiration of Scripture. Others say, "Well, she was borrowing from an existing Jewish hymn that must have been out. Others, and I think this is really the explanation that we need, point out that everything she says come from scriptural words, scriptural phrases, scriptural lines, and scriptural imagery. There are parallels here to Hannah's words of praise. Remember, Hannah was another mother who thought she couldn't have a child and then did. First Samuel chapter 2, particularly the Psalms – we could look at Psalm 34:3, Psalm 35:9, and many other psalms. In other words, it's quite possible, even apart from a supernatural intervention of the Holy Spirit, that Mary might be able to burst into something like this, because as a first century Jew, she would have memorized much of the scripture. She would have heard it in the prayers of a faithful household. She would have heard it sung and recited and prayed in the synagogue worship. It is a reminder and a challenge – what is in your head and your heart? It's not wrong that you listen to “secular songs.” Yeah, we do too. We listen to the Sirius XM different holiday Christmas stations that play the same, you know, 15 diva Christmas songs all the time. I like Christmas. We even like some of those songs. Are you putting into your head and your heart enough Bible that something like this – okay, you don't have to be Mary – but might come out when you need it? And you don't know when you’ll need it – when you're weeping tears, when you're at the hospital bed, when you're experiencing a joy you never thought you would or a sorrow you never thought you would have. Do you have those things hidden in your hearts? It's why we take care, why we have the liturgy that we do. And some of you may say, "Well, this is a little – it feels traditional, or it feels kind of dull." Well, I hope it doesn't. Part of it is we're trying to give you good words, good songs, good theology, good Bible. Here's a good goal for the new year: even if you've tried before and failed, try again. And if you fail, you you'll at least get something. You think about how could I memorize Scripture in the new year? You can go find the Navigator verses or the old Fighter verses, or I'm sure there's a whole bunch of Bible apps, or knowing that we're going into Romans, you could pick a section of Romans and try to memorize some of those verses – I'm going to try to do that – to have this in your heart, like Mary evidently had the word in her heart. 

And listen to what she sings about God, what she describes God as doing and having done. Now, you notice most of what she describes is in the past tense or the past perfect. It's an aorist in Greek – you don't have to worry about that. But these are likely to be taken as not only things that God has done, but as we describe what God has done, we're also reminded of what he is doing, and there's also a prophetic element of what he will do in Christ. He has looked out for the humble. He has done great things for me. He has shown strength with his arm. He has scattered the proud. He has brought down the mighty. He has exalted those of humble estate. He has filled the hungry with good things. He has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant, Israel. He spoke to our fathers. Mary sings of all of that. And look at the names and the attributes in the first half of the Magnificat in particular. Verse 47, he is called savior. Verse 49, mighty. Verse 50, merciful. Verse 49, holy is his name. If you wanted to think and meditate on just four characteristics, four attributes of God, you could do a lot worse than to pick these four that Mary focuses on: Savior, mighty, merciful, holy. Is that what you think about when you think about God? What's that famous line from A.W. Tozer? He begins his book The Knowledge of the Holy, “The most important thing about you is what you think about when you think about God.” Savior, merciful, mighty, holy. 

But of course, the point of the song is not to give just a bullet point of things God has done or an abstract list of qualities. It's a song, really, about two ways to live, about the way of the lowly, which will be lifted up, and the way of the lofty, which will be cast down. You see how it's reversed? It's one of the central themes in Luke's gospel, and we see it here, that God has and will work a great reversal. And that's meant to be a warning to some and an encouragement to others, to think what would it mean? What would it mean for me if everything about my life as it is now were completely turned upside down? That doesn't mean that, well, if you're blessed and you have a home and you have food and you have family that all of that has to be taken from you. But it's really talking about a poverty of the heart or a pride of the heart. 

Think about the story in Esther. You know Haman. There's Mordecai, and Haman is the king's kind of right-hand man. And Haman hates Mordecai, the Jew. And the king asks Haman, "Hmm, Haman, come here. I got a question for you. What should be done whom the king delights to honor?" And you know what Haman’s thinking? Well, oh, that's a good question, king. What should you do for those the king delights to honor? Because Haman is thinking to himself, "Surely that's me." He thinks there's no one the king honors more than me. So he says, "King, I got it. Here's what you should do. You should give to that man royal robes. You should get him a royal horse. You should parade him through the city, and you should announce to everyone that guy is amazing." Haman's there probably in his London suit. He's feeling good. And the king says, "That's a great idea, Haman. Everybody do exactly what Haman said, and let's get ready to have a parade for Mordecai.” And it gets even worse, if you remember the story, for Haman, because he prepares the gallows that he thinks are going to be for Mordecai, and it ended up being the means of his own death. The celebration he thought he deserved went to the man he hated, and the ignominious defeat he thought was awaiting his enemy went to him. That's the great reversal. What do you think you are owed? What do you think you deserve? Mary sings of this kind of reversal when she talks about these two ways. She says there is the way of the humble – verse 48, verse 52. She describes herself as one of low estate, low status. Certainly, to be a woman, to be a pregnant unwed mother, to be a teenager – all of these things did not accrue great status in her culture. She doesn't focus on herself. She focuses on what God has done. She doesn't call herself the queen of heaven or a redeemer or a mediator. She considers herself a poor, lowly maiden, uniquely favored by God. And in fact, the one name that she does give to herself is the name “blessed”: “For behold, from now on, all generations will call me blessed” or blessed. So, if you call her the blessed virgin Mary, there's a Bible verse for that. Just remember that the Bible also says, "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are the meek. Blessed are the pure in heart." This is a kind of beatitude. And we can be as blessed as Mary if we walk in the same path of humility – low estate, humble (verse 50), fearful. 

He has mercy on those who fear him. All healthy fear starts with the fear of the Lord. There's all sorts of books about this anxiety pandemic that has fallen upon young people, and it comes from phones and screens and all sorts of other things. Everyone is afraid of something. It's true. You're afraid of your parents, you’re afraid of, you know, fear of missing out. You're afraid of what your life will be or not be. You're afraid of what people think of you. The Bible understands you better than you understand yourself. It knows that everyone is motivated, at some visceral level, by fear. That's why it says you want to be wise? The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Now, it's not a servile fear. It's to say to God, “You're big. I'm not. You call the shots, I don't. You know what is better than I do.” Verse 53, she describes herself as hungry. Now, physical hunger is not the only kind of hunger. Jesus says, "Blessed are those who hunger and thirst after righteousness, for they shall be filled." You know, when food tastes the best? When you're hungry. Some of you might say, "It tastes the best when my kids are in bed.” That's when dessert tastes the best. But when you're hungry. We did this fourteener this summer when we were out in the mountains and climbed – and praise God, we, I, made it up with the kids and made it down with all the kids, and no one was worse for the wear – and we did bring some snacks, but you do that and you're hungry, and we went to this little kind of dive cafe that was there in Buena Vista, and I had some amazing scrambled eggs. Wow. Because I was hungry. And a lukewarm glass of orange juice right from the carton. Food tastes good when you're hungry. It's to the hungry that God fills. It's only when you know what you don't have that you can enjoy what God alone can give you. 

And she sings, in contrast to the lowly, about the way of the lofty. Verse 51, the proud – the proud in the thoughts of their hearts. Can I just say something here to the women, maybe young women in particular? You got lots of movies, lots of songs out there. Girl power, what it means to be a strong woman. Supposedly, if we're to believe the movies, you can weigh about 85 pounds and still beat the snot out of the biggest, strongest guy imaginable. That's the only way. That's the only way they know how to show women as strong. Make them more like men. Here's some good girl power. Would you be like Mary in her strength? Mary's not a weak character. No, Mary is strong, highly favored by God, and understands that she is the recipient of God's grace. Not to revel in some sort of pride, but to revel in the strength that God can give her. The mighty, in verse 52, those of high esteem, those who sit on thrones. Well, God has got another thing coming for the mighty, unless you and I say, "Well, that's us. We don't sit on thrones. We're not that high and mighty." Might comes in a lot of different ways. It can come to you through money. It can come to you because you're blessed with good looks or a good family or good clothes or smarts or sports or any number of gifts, anything that would make you the envy of other can be a source of wrongly placed might. And then verse 53, the rich – not that the materially prosperous by themselves are to be condemned, but it's talking about those who are not only full but full of themselves, trust in their own strengths. Those are the two ways. And this song about the lowly and about the lofty and about how we relate to God and who God is in relation to us. 

Think about those four words I gave earlier: Savior, mighty, holy, merciful, or strong. Well, if God is a savior, that means we need a deliverer. If he's mighty, it must be because we're weak. If he's holy, it must be because we're sinners. If he's merciful, it must be because we've done something wrong. And notice what he does for the lowly. Verse 48, he looks upon us. Verse 49, he works for us. Verse 50, he's merciful toward us. Verse 52, he exalts us. 53, he fills us. 54, he helps us. That's what he does if you're lowly. And what does he do to the lofty? Verse 51, he scatters. 52, he brings down. Verse 53, he sends away empty. So, what side of the equation do you want to be on? Matthew Henry puts it like this: “God takes pleasure in disappointing their expectations who promise themselves great things in the world and in outdoing the expectations of those who promise themselves but a little.” If you think yourself deserving of but little, God will blow away those expectations. 

Let's close here with a word that all of you talk about and think about a lot. It's one of the words of our age: identity. Identity in our culture is defined by your sex, gender – those are supposed to be two different things, according to some. Or maybe your race or your politics or your language or your nationality or your sexual desires or experiences or the way your body is formed, your income, maybe your sports team, your shows, your looks, your brains, your degree, your neighborhood, your car, your house, your stuff, your vacation – all identity. Here's where biblical identity starts. It's what Mary said way back up in verse 38: “Behold, I am the servant of the Lord.” A servant. If you get that right with your identity, you've set yourself up for everything else to fall into place. And if you get that wrong, whatever else you say you believe about God and believe about the Bible and believe about the church, it’s going to get all mixed up if you don't start there. If you think to yourself, I am, first of all, a servant of my body. I'm a servant of my desires, or I'm a servant of my ethnic tribe, or of my political party, or a servant of my nation, rather than I'm a servant of the Lord. Don't trust me. You can trust Mary. You can trust Luke. Better than that, trust the Holy Spirit, who inspired this book. This is the way of joy, of satisfaction, of unexpected blessing, to make your identity as a servant and as a worshipper. “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God, my savior.” Let's pray. 

Father in heaven, we give you thanks for this holy word. Shape us by it. Form us. Convict us. Conform us, that we might be your people. In Jesus, we pray. Amen.