The Magnificat

The people of God may be weak, but He is not. In this brief clip, R.C. Sproul draws encouragement from Mary’s Magnificat, showing how this song of praise extols the power of God to establish His kingdom and overcome all His enemies.

Transcript:

If you want to do something that will change your life, write out the words to the Magnificat and put it on your refrigerator and memorize it, so that that prayer is in your head. You won’t believe how many times you’ll be moved to utter it. Listen to it: “My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in God my Savior.” Why? “For He has regarded the low estate of His handmaiden. For behold, from henceforth all generations shall call me blessed, for He that is mighty hath done to me great things, and holy is His name.” One of the reasons why we shrink from Christian service is because we believe that the powers that be out there that stand over against the work of the kingdom of God are so strong and so powerful that we are powerless in the face of it. But, Mary said, “He who is mighty has done great things for me,” and listen: “and His mercy is on them that fear Him from generation to generation. He has shown strength with His arm.” There’s the arm of the Lord again. You won’t hear Mary saying, “How are You going to do it,” you know? She doesn’t believe in a God with a withered arm. “He has shown strength with His arm.” What does He do with His arm? Listen. “He has scattered the proud and the imagination of their hearts.” Here come all these proud people, defiant people over against God, and God just takes His arm, and it’s like sweeping chess men off a chess board on a table. He scatters them across the floor. He has yanked down the mighty from their seats. God raises up and God brings down. All He has to do to Caesar is to just grab a hold of the hem of his garment and slip him off the throne, and that’s the end of Caesar. And Mary understood that.