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Luke 1:46-49
A Mother’s Song: God is Mindful of Us
/And Mary said: /
/“My soul glorifies the Lord /
/and my spirit rejoices in God my Saviour, /
/for he has been mindful /
/of the humble state of his servant.
/
/From now on all generations will call me blessed, /
/for the Mighty One has done great things for me— /
/holy is his name.”/
| G |
od is mindful of us.
What does that thought mean to you?
The words are drawn from the first strophe of Mary’s song recorded in Luke’s Gospel.
Since it is the Advent Season, I wish to focus on this song in the coming several messages, discovering what this new mother sang as she delighted in the knowledge of God’s choosing.
What would we sing if we were to permit ourselves to be lost in wonder and admiration of God’s goodness?
Would we consider His gift to be good?
I was intrigued to discover that translators of Luke’s Gospel seemed to have struggled in their efforts to translate Mary’s words.
The New International Version translates her words/ He has been mindful of the humble state of His servant/.
Other translators have endeavoured to translate the text in various other ways.
Charles Williams renders the passage; He has smiled upon His slave in her lowly station.[1]
Weymouth renders the clause, He has not turned from His maidservant in her lowly position.[2]
More recently, Eugene Peterson gave us a paraphrase which reads, God took one good look at me, and look what happened![3]
Whatever else may be true, we know that this young woman is astonished and amazed by what has happened.
What did happen?
Why should this teenage girl express such amazement?
Elizabeth, a cousin to the teenage Mary, was in her sixth month of pregnancy when we pick up the story.
That Elizabeth should be expecting a child was itself a miracle.
Menopausal women don’t become pregnant … spontaneously or otherwise.
No doubt Mary rejoiced with her cousin for it was a tragedy beyond our comprehension for women to be childless in that day.
We are so much more sophisticated today.
Consequently, we have no idea what we have sacrificed by buying into the lie which is advanced by the prince of this world and which teaches us to regard children as a burden.
Mary, perhaps busy about her household work, was startled by the sudden appearance of an angel.
We are led to conclude from the divine account that she was alone in her house because no one else was present to witness what transpired.
Her parents appear to have been absent.
The purpose of the angel’s visit was to announce that God had chosen her to bear the Messiah, the Anointed One of God, into the world.
Mary challenged the angelic announcement.
After all, she was a virgin.
Literally, the young girl states: *a man I’ve never known*!
At the beginning of this account, Dr. Luke provides the information in medical terms, stating twice that she was /a virgin/ (parqevnon) [*Luke 1:27*].
She did not reject his approach; she merely questioned how it could happen.
Most of us would do no less were we challenged by a similar announcement.
The entire conversation couldn’t have taken much more than three minutes, but what changes the angel’s words portended for this young girl!
She would be exposed to vicious slander, her veracity and faithfulness even questioned by her fiancé.
Her breast would be torn open and her raw emotions exposed for all the world to see ere this story should be complete [cf.
*Luke 2:35*].
Hurrying to the home of Zechariah and Elizabeth after the angel had departed, Mary was again surprised by the greeting she received from her cousin.
The infant John leapt in his mother’s womb at the sound of Mary’s voice [*Luke 1:41*] and Elizabeth burst out in a paean of praise: /Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear!
But why am I so favoured, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished/ [*Luke 1:42-45*]!
Spontaneously, Mary responds with her own hymn of praise to God.
As we study the first stanza of this glorious hymn, I ask you to note especially the joy … the exuberant, overwhelming, stunning joy which Mary expresses.
Lost in wonder before the grace of God, she cannot help but sing.
If I could but bring the people of God into the presence of the Living God I do not doubt that they would break forth in song.
The only reason we are able to participate in the services of the church with an attitude approximating boredom is that we fail to realise the presence of our God with us.
Were we, like Mary, to discover the joy of His presence, we could not help but sing His glory.
What in particular gave Mary such joy?
Could we also know that joy?
God Took Note of Me — Mary’s song, the song of a mother, glorifies the Lord and rejoices in God the Saviour, because He took note of her. /He has been mindful/… is the witness of this young girl.
So very often we think that we are insignificant and of no great account in the eyes of the Lord.
No Christian should ever think that way.
Among the verses of the Bible is an exciting verse in Isaiah’s prophecy which is a source of richest encouragement.
The people of God were lamenting that the Lord had forsaken them.
The Lord has forgotten us, was their pitiful cry.
God broke in on their mournful lament to remind them of His commitment to them.
/Can a mother forget the baby at her breast /
/and have no compassion on the child she has borne?
/
/Though she may forget, /
/I will not forget you! /
/See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands/
[*Isaiah 49:15,16*].
In similar manner the child of God can draw encouragement from the knowledge that God, having invested His very life in that one, can never forget His child.
Christmas is a testament of God’s knowledge of us as a people.
Have you ever noticed how we tend to sterilise the doctrines of the Word?
Instead of seizing on the intimacy resident in the truths which God has revealed to us, we reduce those truths to insipid statements which are remote and distant from our hearts.
For instance, when I say that God takes note of His own, our normal response is to sagely nod our head and say, “Well, yes, of course, God is omniscient; He knows everything.”
Then we continue to struggle in lonely battle against the evil of the day which threatens to overwhelm us.
The worst offenders are too often those who consider themselves to be the most spiritual among us!
We keep our masks on so that no one will suspect our fraudulent spirituality.
Instead of love we exude tolerance.
Instead of joy we exhibit forced acceptance.
Instead of peace we invite fellow worshippers to focus on our busyness.
Anxiety replaces patience, abruptness is exalted over kindness, faithfulness is jettisoned for authority, brusqueness replaces gentleness and spontaneity replaces self-control.
Thus worship becomes a sterile activity in which we perform by rote certain motions and congratulate one another on another time of enjoying the presence of God.
One of the sweet truths of the Word of God is that God knows us.
One of the sweetest of the Psalms must surely be the *139th Psalm*.
Listen to a portion of that song.
/O LORD, you have searched me /
/and you know me.
/
/You know when I sit and when I rise; /
/you perceive my thoughts from afar.
/
/You discern my going out and my lying down; /
/you are familiar with all my ways.
/
/Before a word is on my tongue /
/you know it completely, O LORD/.
/You hem me in—behind and before; /
/you have laid your hand upon me.
/
/Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, /
/too lofty for me to attain/.
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