Luke 1:46 – “And Mary said, ‘My soul magnifies the Lord'”.
“Mary praises God for choosing to use her, a woman of such humble origins. She begins this psalm asking that her life might magnify the Lord. A simple statement, but a prayer that should be on the lips of all the saints. May our life and existence be used to magnify the greatness of God’s name! May he be exalted and made much of through our lives. His glory must be our greatest treasure and longing joy. Just as a magnifying glass enlarges and makes clear, so too should our lives magnify the glory of a God to a world who cannot see clearly. Our lives are to increase in size the font of God’s grace so that this near-sighted world can read its truth.
However Mary’s first statement is not so much one of a prayer, but an indicative statement. She is not asking the Lord to use her to magnify the Lord, she is praising him for already using her for such a purpose. Mary is carrying in her womb the savior of the world. She is carrying the son of the Most High God. God has already chosen to use this woman to magnify His name by bringing Jesus into this world through this humble country girl from Nazareth. As a result of this truth her “spirit rejoices in God”. She is filled with overwhelming joy over the fact of God’s amazing plan includes her! How wonderful it is to be apart of the divine plan of God to spread the glory of his name! How wonderful it is to be used to magnify the name of the Lord!
Yet, just as Mary was chosen by God to magnify His glory, so too is every Christian chosen by God for the same purpose. As Christians we have been given the charge of the great commission. We have been given the task sharing the good news of the arrival of the savior to the nations. As we take the Gospel to the ends of the earth, God is using us to magnify his name. The glory of God is spreading to the ends of the earth as King Jesus reigns in the hearts of all peoples. Yet, he has chosen us for this task. The wonderful thing about the church is that it is filled with a bunch of nobodies. The early church was filled with common, uneducated fishermen, hated ex-tax collectors, and despised gossiped about ex-prostitutes. Yet God has chosen those who are rejected by the world for the most important of purposes. He has chosen the rejected on the most urgent of mission and the most glorious of tasks – magnifying the Lord.
Mary confesses that she is a woman of humble estate. There is nothing about her that any king of the earth would chose to bring his son into the world. No human being would chose Mary to bring the savior of the world into existence. Yet, the Gospel reverses the perception of the world. He chooses a woman of humble estate, a nobody, to be the mother of the word become flesh. All generations will call this woman blessed, because she has been called chosen by God for the most wonderful tasks. God’s mighty hand will use those who are humble and rejected by the world for incredible things. Mary makes it clear in v. 49 that it is “he who is might” who has done all of this. There is nothing special or unique about Mary that earned her the right to carry God’s son or to participate in God’s story of redemption. No, she is but an ordinary teenage girl whom God chose to lavish his grace towards by his mighty hand. God alone is the one who has accomplished all of this and he alone is the one who lavishes grace on his children.”