LK 1:46 And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord LK 1:47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, LK 1:48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, LK 1:49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me– holy is his name. LK 1:50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. LK 1:51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. LK 1:52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. LK 1:53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. LK 1:54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful1:55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.” This is amazing. It is prayer that we can learn from. This song, commonly known as the Magnificat, has several striking features. First, it is saturated with OT concepts and phrases (especially Hannah’s prayer in 1Sa 2:1-10). Second, it shows Mary’s deep piety and knowledge of Scripture. She is a woman who knows what she believes. But first lets look at the form. Why form? Well we are a denomination that doesn’t take much notice of worship or prayer form. We are into free prayer or extemporaneous prayer. So we often don’t have structure to our prayer. Why is this important? Well for starters, every prayer in the bible has an element of structure. I don’t believe that this is just because of the culture of the day, but because God wants us to take notice of something. The structure is similar to the Lord’s Prayer which in turn is similar to some of the Old testament prayers. 1. Open’s in acknowledging God for who He is and her relationship to Him.LK 1:46 And Mary said: “My soul glorifies the Lord LK 1:47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,a. Use of the term Lord – She is sub-servient to himb. Saviour – acknowledges God’s role in her life. 2. She recognises her state before God – humility and blessed.LK 1:48 for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, This verse coupled with the next verse gives the impression that she is in awe of what is going on, who wouldn’t be. After all she is going to be the mother of the messiah, an angel has talked to her and given her a message from God. Even though her situation is so different from ours, we need to be in this state in our prayer. Recognise in humility our state before God and recognise His blessing on us. Look at verse 49 LK 1:49 for the Mighty One has done great things for me– holy is his name.Mary seems to be getting into the prayer. She is building on the theme. Explaining to herself and us more of her concept of God. The Mighty One -–the ultimate in Godness. Has done for her. Isn’t there n element of awe here. Let’s emphasize different things here.for the Mighty One has done great things for me—for the Mighty One has done great things for me—orfor the Mighty One has done great things for me— How do you think she meant it to sound? How was it meant???Each of these parts build on each other – creating a big picture of God. But also an intimate picture of God dealing with a young woman. Actually it is very Jewish to build on concepts like this. It happens in Psalms all the time. They say it, repeat it say a bit more then say it a different way. There is structure here but also a seriousness about their prayer life. Our culture seems to start praying and finish and get on with the next thing. We need to dwell in God’s presence. Spend time working on our prayer and here is a way to do it. Work through our prayer statements, let God work through them with us. The next few verses are straight out adoration for God’s capacity to save.LK 1:50 His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. LK 1:51 He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. LK 1:52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. A couple of things here.“Mercy” expresses an aspect of God’s character sometimes overlooked when his power and holiness are stressed. “Fear” means here, as often in Scripture, a pious reverence. Fear = phobeomai is used as an analogy of being in awe or being in reverence of God.Sure we can be in fear as we would use the word today of God. But it isn’t quite what Mary had in mind. She was amazed at God. Part of that amazement is that she recognised that this God was capable of destroying nations but also being personal and gentle with her. Notice what she says next. LK 1:53 He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. LK 1:54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful1:55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.” In God’s eyes he poor are just as important as the rich. In God’s eyes there are no little people. There are no insignificant people. The term the hungry = the people who had no land, no money to buy food and relied on the rich people to feel generous. The people who are important in the worlds eyes are often the people who are not important in God’s eyes. Why? Because they have no relationship to God. Notice what the next verses talk about. LK 1:54 He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful1:55 to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.”God had a relationship with Israel, with Abrahams people and promised to look after them – and he keeps his promises. Mary is counting on it. She prays this prayer with a confidence that God will look after her. This prayer is a specific prayer. Prayed in response to something happening. We can learn more of prayer by looking at it. So take it home and look at it again.
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