Advent: The Songs of Christmas

But, in the faith of the Bible, we have a young virgin girl, a sweet-natured woman who brought forth the Son of God who came in love to identify with His Creation. Our God came not to tempt, but to be tempted for us. Our God came not to satisfy passions, but was one who left His royal dwelling with the Father in order to satisfy Divine justice by dying on an old rugged cross.

This is the story that needs to be told.

So, as the Scripture tells us, Elizabeth blessed Mary and under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit announced that Mary would be blessed among all women forever more.

What was the response from that little maiden from Nazareth?

She burst forth in a Song that originated from God Himself and bubbled up from the soul of Mary. I say again: We have no evidence in the text of musical notation, but we have every evidence of a lilting happy young woman who rejoiced in her God. And in her response, in this Magnificat, we witness a hymn to the Lord that is unequalled by any other writer. It is a song of the soul: a praise song, a sweet song, and a deep song.

A Praise Song

A symphony may begin with quiet, contemplative strains in the opening movement that build to a recognizable tune, starting slowly and building to a magnificent crescendo. But Mary’s Song starts strong and finishes strong. There are three distinct movements in her spontaneous symphony of the soul, as we shall see, but she leaves no room for wondering. She gets right in there from the very beginning and lets us know exactly what’s on her heart.

This is a praise song. In verses 46 and 47 she tells us, in sweet poetic strain, that what we hear coming from her is the song of her soul:

My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced!

The Magnificat of Mary is a praise song because the first thing on her heart is worship. The revelation that God the Savior would come into the world through her, a virgin, caused deep, soul-satisfying wonder. That wonder and awe broke forth in praise from her lips and heart.

We all know that there are great and majestic hymns that weave strong, transcendent themes. These hymns teach and communicate the great truths of our faith. Mary will do that as we shall soon note, but she begins with simple praise. A quaint little verse put to music can carry major doctrinal truth in a happy little note. This is what is happening here.

Some years ago, the distinguished German theologian Karl Barth visited the United States. His

so-called “neo” or “new” orthodoxy was controversial but it was primarily aimed at recovering a higher view of the Word, which had suffered under the weight of German higher criticism. At any rate, Dr. Barth had completed a lecture at Princeton and a reporter there asked him, “Sir, in all of your years of study what is the greatest single thought you have ever studied?” Barth smiled and shocked the audience with his reply. “The greatest thought I have ever encountered is this, “‘Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.’”