Prayer of Praise and Thanksgiving

My soul doth magnify the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for He has regarded the lowliness of His handmaid,

and all generations shall call me blessed.

 

For He Who is Mighty has done great things for me,
And holy is His Name.
He has shown mercy from generation to generation
toward those who fear Him.

He has shown the might of His arm
and scattered the proud in the conceit of their heart.
He has cast down the mighty from their thrones,
and lifted up the lowly.
He has filled the hungry with good things,
and the rich He has sent empty away.

He has come to the help of His servant Israel,
just as He promised to our father Abraham
and to his seed forever.

 

Mary's song is a song of deliverance, echoing the song of Moses and Miriam after they and all the people of Israel had crossed the Red Sea and were safely delivered out of the hands of Pharoah's army and everlasting captivity (Ex. 15).  This is the song of those who have been rescued from powers too strong for them, the song of those who have been rescued by a Hand and a Power not their own.

 

Anyone who has ever been trapped by a power stronger than themselves and who has been delivered from the captivity of depression, alcohol, anger, confusion -- the domination of slavery of any kind -- can finally understand the Book of Ephesians, where Paul prays that "the eyes of your understanding may be opened, that you may know....the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him....far above all principality and power and might and dominion...and he put all things under His feet...."(1:18-22).

 

Mary knew that deliverance for Israel would have to come from above. Israel had no power of its own under Roman rule.  When she says, "He hath regarded the lowliness of His handmaid," she is indeed speaking on a personal level, but she is also the voice of all Israel, at that time under the dominion of the world "principality and power and might and dominion."  She knows that mankind itself-- even the mighty Romans -- need a Savior to free them from their sins.

After slogging through years and years of self-help handbooks, "I'm okay; you're okay" philosophies, transcendental meditation techniques, primal scream therapies, people just get tired.  As one husband of a workshop leader told me many years ago, "I'm just tired of living from workshop to workshop."  Until we realize that we cannot help ourselves, that our deliverance must come from above, we are stuck in the human condition.  Some of us may seem more "put together" than others, but believe me, there is not one of us who can save ourselves from sin and its residual effects. 

The good news is that we don't have to save ourselves.  When we finally "get it," that deliverance and salvation has been already given to us in Christ Jesus, who has already disarmed all the powers of sin and death, we will be like Mary, like Moses and Miriam, singing the song of praise and thanksgiving:  My soul doth magnify the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior!  for He has done great things for me, and I am glad indeed.

 

May the Spirit of the Lord teach us to sing in the New Year, as our deliverance from evil continues.  For what God has done in the past, he continues to do in the present:

 

As this year draws to a close, receive My peace.  This is still your deepest need, and I, your Prince of Peace, long to pour myself into your neediness.  My abundance and your emptiness are a perfect match.  I designed you to have no sufficiency of your own...I want you to be filled with My very Being, permeated through and through with Peace.....My Peace, which lives continually in your spirit, will gradually work its way through your entire being (Jesus Calling: Dec. 31).