and his mercy [is] to generations and generations to them that fear him.
Mary sings this song after Elizabeth greets her, and it turns from what God did for one woman to what He does for all who fear Him. Two questions sit inside the line: who counts as one who fears Him, and how far does that mercy run?
Mary does speak about herself in this song. One writer reads her wording closely and points out what she never claims:
Mary had no thought of exaltation. She says, "All generations will call me blessed," but not a blesser. She was the object of blessing, not the giver of it. "For He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name" — not a word of her own. "And His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation" — not to those who pray to or worship me.
Up to this point the song has been naming God Himself — Lord, Saviour, Mighty One, holy. At verse 50 the song changes gear, and mercy is what it names first:
From verse 46 to 49 she speaks of God Himself: "the Lord," "God my Saviour," "He who is mighty," "holy is His name." But from verse 50 to 55 the stress falls on what He has done. Mercy comes first, then strength (verse 51), by which He humbles the pride of the proud... In verse 52 we see His rule, putting down the mighty of this world and exalting the lowly... Verse 54 tells of His help to His suffering servant Israel, remembering mercy after long years of captivity — and this according to His promise to Abraham and his descendants, not according to the covenant of law.
The mercy has a named recipient: those who fear Him. A commentator explains what that fear is, and what its absence proves:
The natural man is said to lack this quality completely. In the believer it stands out as the ruling principle of action. Whether a person has it or not is the real difference between a true believer and someone who is a hypocrite or is fooling himself. An idea of grace held only in the head, without the fear of God, produces lawlessness... The grace of God is never separable from His fear... Those who hate God dread Him and would run from Him, when they think of Him at all: His fear is the treasure of His children.
The verses that follow show mercy in action. God scatters the proud and fills the hungry. Another writer draws out the state of soul that receives such mercy:
The next three verses set out how God acts in grace, and the state of soul needed to receive it. The proud in their own thoughts cannot stand before a holy God in judgment. Neither can the mighty on their thrones, nor the rich and self-sufficient. The gospel is always preached to the poor. God exalts those of low degree, and fills the hungry with good things.
So how far does this mercy run? One writer notes what the word "generation" means in a context like this:
In a genealogy such as Matthew 1, or where the context calls for it as in Luke 1:50, the word "generation" no doubt means a lifetime.
Whose lifetimes? The same writer sees Mary speaking not for herself alone but for a whole people:
For the moment the mighty action of the Holy Spirit merged her as an individual into Israel, and so she rejoices in Israel's God and Saviour... She adds at once, "And His mercy is for those who fear Him from generation to generation," which shows that God's chosen Israel filled her mind.
- Holy — the verse follows straight on from "holy is His name." The God who shows this mercy is named first as mighty and holy.
- Mercy — verse 50 is the hinge where the song stops describing who God is and starts listing what He does. Mercy heads that list, before strength, rule and provision.
- Fear — the mercy has an address: those who fear Him. That fear is reverence that governs behaviour, not terror that runs away. An idea of grace without it produces lawlessness.
- Low — the proud, the mighty and the self-sufficient cannot stand before a holy God. The lowly and the hungry are the ones He exalts and fills.
- Generations — here "generation" means a lifetime. The mercy runs on, lifetime after lifetime, to a whole people whose God remembers His promise.
He has wrought strength with his arm; he has scattered haughty [ones] in the thought of their heart.
Mary's song moves from what God has done for one unknown woman to what His arm does across the whole world order. The line about strength is the hinge. The same power that showed mercy to a lowly woman scatters the proud. And it strikes pride at its source: the heart.
Mary sings about God's power, but she claims none of it. Her greatness lay in staying out of sight.
She acknowledges God her Saviour in the grace that has filled her with such joy. At the same time she admits her utter littleness. God might use a holy instrument — and Mary truly was one — yet she was only great so long as she hid herself. Then God was everything. By making something of herself she would have lost her place; but this she did not. God kept her, so that His grace might be fully shown.
The wording of the song itself guards against the honour later heaped on her. She expects to be called blessed, but never says she blesses.
Mary had no thought of exaltation. She says, "All generations shall call me blessed," but not a blesser. She was the object of blessing, not the giver or mediator of it. "For the Mighty One has done great things for me; and holy is His name" — not a word of her own. "And His mercy is to generations and generations to those who fear Him" — not who pray to or worship me.
Mary's song shifts partway through. Where strength falls in that order matters.
Notice that in verses 46 to 49 she speaks of God Himself — "the Lord," "God my Savior," "He that is mighty," and "Holy is His name." But verses 50 to 55 stress what He has done. She names His mercy first, then His strength (verse 51). By that strength He humbles the pride of the ungodly, showing judgment along with strength. He brings down to dust the imaginations and high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God.
Mary's word for the proud is precise. It names an attitude, and it points to where that attitude starts.
Pride. There are several words translated this way in the Greek Testament. The one used here (hyperephania) carries the sense of a spirit of self-exaltation in a man, joined with looking down on others. The Pharisees are glaring examples. They trusted in themselves that they were righteous and despised others (Luke 18:9). But the Gentiles are no more free from guilt in this than the Jews (Rom. 1:30). This arrogance shows itself in boastful words and empty deeds. But its origin is within the heart. That line from Mary's song shows it: "he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts." This form of haughtiness is offensive to God and open to His swift judgment. Both James and Peter write that "God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5).
This verse and the two after it are not random examples. They show who cannot stand before God, and who receives from Him.
These next three verses set out how God acts in grace. They also show what a soul must be like to receive it. The proud in the imagination of their hearts cannot stand before a holy God in judgment. Neither can the mighty on their thrones, nor the rich, the self-sufficient. It is the poor who always hear the gospel preached. And so it is the lowly whom God exalts, and the hungry whom He fills with good things.
Nothing had changed yet. No throne had fallen, no proud man had been scattered. Yet Mary sings in the past tense.
Mary regards the deliverance as already accomplished — accomplished in the One who was about to be born.
Her own case became her evidence for everything else she sings.
Her sense of the extraordinary mercy God showed her in her humble circumstances called out this song. She was descended from David, yet she was only engaged to the humble carpenter of Nazareth. In the mercy shown to her she saw the pledge of the final exaltation of those who fear God, and the scattering of the proud and mighty of this world.
- Arm, not applause. The strength Mary praises is God's own. She stays great only by hiding herself, so His grace is what shows.
- Arm as judgment. The song first names who God is, then what He does: mercy first, then strength. By that strength He humbles the pride of the ungodly.
- Arm reaching the heart. The pride God scatters is self-exaltation mixed with contempt for others. He strikes it at its source in the heart, not just in its boastful words.
- Arm sorting people. The proud, the mighty on thrones, and the self-sufficient rich cannot stand before God. The poor hear the gospel, God exalts the lowly, and He fills the hungry.
- Arm already at work. Mary speaks of the deliverance as done, because it is done in the Child about to be born. The mercy she received is the pledge of the scattering and the exaltation still to come.
He has put down rulers from thrones, and exalted the lowly.
Mary is standing in a village house with her relative Elizabeth, and she sings about emptied thrones. Her song looks past her own situation to a settled pattern in God's dealings. So who are "the mighty"? And has this reversal already happened, or is it still coming?
The word behind "mighty" points to people who hold authority. One reference work traces the same Greek word elsewhere in the New Testament:
dynastēs, "powerful one." Jehovah is the only Sovereign — 1 Timothy 6:15. The word also occurs in Luke 1:52: Jehovah "has brought down 'the mighty' from their thrones." And in Acts 8:27 the eunuch was a man "of great authority": such men at times had more power than the kings.
Mary's praise moves in steps. One commentator maps the flow:
In verses 46 to 49 she speaks of God Himself — "the Lord," "God my Saviour," "He that is mighty," and "Holy is His name." But verses 50 to 55 emphasise what He has done. She mentions His mercy first, then His strength (verse 51), which humbles the pride of the ungodly… Verse 52 shows His rule: He puts down the mighty of this world and exalts the lowly. Verse 53 deals with His administration: He fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty. He reverses the cruel order of the world.
Mary was not announcing something new. God has always handed out His honours the same way:
Such honours were not given to many who were "wise according to worldly standards"; "not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth" (1 Cor. 1:26). There have been some from these exalted ranks, but they have been the first and most ready to own that they had no claim at all to such distinction. There is a grand song in the Old Testament, sung by a Spirit-inspired woman who knew something about the ways and grace of God. She sang, "He raises up the poor from the dust; he lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes and inherit a seat of honour" (1 Sam. 2:8). Mary, the mother of our Lord, had learnt the same great truth… This is God's way and it magnifies His grace; it is such as these that He blesses.
Mary was one of the lowly herself, and the verse points at her own place:
Mary had no thought of exaltation. She says, "all generations will call me blessed," but not a blesser. She was the object of blessing, not the giver or mediator of it… "He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate" — this alludes to her own place as well as Elizabeth's.
Hiding herself is what kept her in that place:
She acknowledges God her Saviour in the grace that has filled her with such joy, while at the same time she owns her utter littleness… she was only great so long as she hid herself, for then God was everything. By making something of herself she would have lost her place; but this she did not.
What Mary sings runs through the rest of Luke, and it comes with a condition:
The parables found only in Luke set before us for the most part the tender compassions of God, and that grace of His which flows out without measure wherever there is need. But notice that this grace only reaches those whose need is clear. The parables, like the whole Gospel, illustrate the words of Mary: "He has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; He has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich He has sent away empty" (1:52-53). These words may be taken as a key to the Gospel.
The verse also looks ahead. In Mary's case it was already true, but the world at large still runs the other way:
The world as we see it today is a barren wilderness. In it the lowly are oppressed, the proud are exalted, and unrighteousness prevails… When the glory of the LORD is revealed, He will deliver His downtrodden people. He will exalt "those of humble estate" — "every valley shall be lifted up." He will humble all the pride of man — He will bring down "the mighty from their thrones" — "every mountain and hill be made low"… The pride and unrighteousness of man are not going to triumph for ever, and the godly will not always be a downtrodden and suffering people. Humility ends in exaltation, and suffering leads to glory.
- Rule. The verse shows God's rule in action: pride humbled, thrones emptied, the lowly lifted. It is the middle step of a song that moves from mercy to strength to rule to administration.
- Reversal. He overturns the cruel order of the world; the only true Sovereign unseats the powerful ones.
- Pattern. This is not new. Hannah sang it first, and Paul restates it: not many powerful, not many of noble birth.
- Place. Mary illustrates her own line. She stayed great only while she hid herself, receiving blessing and never dispensing it.
- Reach. The same grace fills Luke's Gospel. But it reaches only those whose need is out in the open. And the public finish is still ahead: humility ends in exaltation.
He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent away the rich empty.
Mary's song sets two groups side by side, with opposite outcomes. Commentators ask who the "hungry" are, why riches leave a person empty, and whether this reversal belongs to that time, to now, or to the end.
One writer reads this line as a picture of how God runs His world.
Verse 53 deals with His administration. He fills the hungry with good things and sends the rich away empty. He reverses the cruel order of the world. The law is left entirely out of Mary's prophecy, for here the glory of God and the person of Christ is the theme. What she says applied at the time, and it will apply again at the end of the Tribulation.
This is not a one-off event but God's settled way.
In the mercy shown to her she saw a pledge: God will finally exalt those who fear Him and scatter the proud and mighty of this world... She had no thought of Israel having deserved anything under the covenant of law. All depended upon the covenant of promise. The hungry were being filled and the rich dismissed empty. This is ever God's way.
"Rich" here means more than money. It marks the person who feels he needs nothing from God.
The proud in the imagination of their hearts cannot stand before a holy God in judgment. Neither can the mighty on their thrones, nor the rich, the self-sufficient. God always preaches the gospel to the poor. So it is those of low degree whom He exalts, and the hungry whom He fills with good things. The Lord Himself taught the same lesson: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you shall be satisfied." Then, turning to the other side, He said, "But woe to you who are rich, for you have received your consolation. Woe to you who are full now, for you shall be hungry." (Luke 6:20-26.)
God's invitation keeps reaching the people the world passes over.
But if the rich man had no desire and so went away empty, He fills the hungry with good things: He preaches the gospel to the poor (Luke 1:53; 4:18). It was the common people who heard Jesus gladly... The search went through the streets and the lanes of the city, and gathered in all the despised of men — "the poor and crippled and blind and lame." This did not exhaust divine grace. The servant said, "Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room."
No one is refused at the door. Those who leave empty brought that emptiness in with them.
Matthew Henry: "None are sent away empty from Christ, but those that come to Him full of themselves."
Nearness to Christ works the other way round: it deepens the sense of need.
It is need that brings us to Him first, and makes us to know Him; and in His presence the sense of need, need met by Him, is ever maintained. "I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing," is what no soul in the presence of Christ can say. Rich He is; and for us those riches are available; but the richer He is in our eyes, the poorer we are in our own.
Luke's own parables run on the same principle.
The parables found only in Luke are very different from those in Matthew. For the most part they set before us the tender compassions of God, and that grace of His which flows out without measure wherever there is need. But notice that this grace only reaches those whose need is plain. In the parables, as in the whole Gospel, we see the words of Mary, most blessed of women, illustrated. We may take those words as a key to the Gospel.
Mary herself is the first illustration of her own line, and she takes the lower place in it.
Mary had no thought of exaltation. She says, "All generations shall call me blessed," but not a blesser. She was the object of blessing, not the giver of it.
One writer applies the verse to the manna — the bread God gave Israel each morning in the desert.
The gathering "every morning" speaks of spiritual diligence. It speaks of an ever-present desire for the spiritual growth that only feeding on the manna can give. But the desire must be there on our part... How sad when the things of this world spoil our taste, so that in our hearts we treat this "bread of the mighty" as "light food."
God keeps the hunger He gives.
God never bids us seek Him in vain... "He satisfies the longing soul" (Ps. 107:9). God will not let us lose our longing.
- Hunger qualifies. Grace "only reaches those whose need is plain" — an admitted emptiness is the one thing God fills.
- Fulness disqualifies. Only those who "come to Him full of themselves" go away empty.
- Reversal rules. God "reverses the cruel order of the world" — He did it then, and He will do it again at the end.
- Promise, not law. What the hungry receive rests on "the covenant of promise," with the law "left entirely out of Mary's prophecy."
- Appetite lasts. We gather manna every morning, yet "God will not let us lose our longing" — the hunger He gives is the hunger He satisfies.
He has helped Israel his servant, in order to remember mercy,
Mary's song ends by turning from what God has done for her to what He has done for a whole nation. The last note she strikes is mercy. Two questions sit inside this short line. In what sense is Israel God's "servant"? And how could Mary speak of help as already given?
The word behind "servant" is pais. It is a common word, and Israel is not the only one it names.
pais, 'a child,' regardless of age, and so used for servant. Matthew 8:6, 8, 13; Matthew 14:2; Luke 7:7; Luke 12:45; Luke 15:26; Acts 4:25. The word is applied to Christ in Matthew 12:18; Acts 3:13, 26 (translated 'Son'); Acts 4:27, 30 (translated 'child'); and to Israel and to David in Luke 1:54, 69.
The help Mary celebrates rests on nothing Israel had earned. Their record ruled that out.
God has remembered His promises to the fathers, which seemed forgotten for so long. They are mercies only, for Israel's complete failure could allow no claim at all. That made them witness all the more to what was in Him, so they could not fail. The help that came to Israel was only the wrapping around a wider purpose of blessing, which the promise to Abraham declared without any conditions.
Which covenant Mary reaches back to matters. She does not name Sinai, the mountain where God gave the law. One writer sees the whole future of the nation resting on that choice.
Notice carefully how mercy is laid as the ground of Israel here. We know the Psalms, so this will be familiar to us. Paul leaves them on this: "In order that they also may be objects of mercy." All this is the true and full ground of Israel's restoration in the latter day, and casts great light on it. It rests on Abraham alone — not on Sinai, not even on Jacob or Israel. It is a present fulfilment of the promise and covenant made to Abraham by mercy, and that mercy comes from on high.
The lines before this one describe God scattering the proud, unseating rulers, and filling the hungry. Verse 54 is where that sequence lands.
Verse 54 tells of His help to His suffering servant Israel. He remembers mercy after long years of Israel's captivity. This is according to His promise to Abraham and his seed — not according to the covenant of law. Mary's prophecy leaves the law out completely, for here the glory of God and the person of Christ is the theme. What she speaks had direct application at the time and will also have application at the end of the Tribulation.
Mary speaks of the rescue in the past tense, though nothing had yet changed in Israel. Her confidence rests on a person.
Mary regards the deliverance as already done — done in the One who was about to be born. So she says that "God has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy; as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham, and to his seed for ever."
The distance between the promise and its fulfilment did not shake that confidence.
Faith gives substance to the things we hope for. The stretches Israel would have to cross before these words came true were dreary. Yet at this moment Mary looked over the accomplishment of all God's purposes of grace for His earthly people.
Mary's praise keeps to one people and one line of promise. An older song in Israel's history ran along the same lines.
The character of the thoughts that fill the heart of Mary is Jewish. It reminds us of Hannah's song in 1 Samuel 2, which speaks prophetically of this same blessed intervention of God. But Mary goes back to the promises made to the fathers, and takes in the whole of Israel.
The earthly blessings Mary sang of did not come at once. The reason lies in how the nation received Christ.
Verses 69-74 recall both the promises to the fathers and the promise to David's house: "He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David… to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, the oath which He swore to our father Abraham." It is almost needless to say that the earthly blessings were deferred, because the nation rejected Christ.
- Servant. The word covers both child and servant. Luke applies it here to Israel and to David — a nation owned by God, not one that had proved itself.
- Mercy. Israel's failure left no claim, so the help comes as mercy only; the song traces it to Abraham, never to Sinai.
- Remembrance. God remembers what He promised long ago. The promise to Abraham carried no conditions, so it could not fail.
- Reach. The help to one nation wrapped a wider purpose inside it. The promise to Abraham's seed reached far past Mary's day.
- Result. Mary spoke of the deliverance as already done, secured in the Child about to be born. The nation rejected Him, so the earthly side of it waits still.
(as he spoke to our fathers,) to Abraham and to his seed for ever.
Mary's song ends where Israel's hope began — with a promise God made to Abraham generations earlier. So the question the verse turns on is simple: did God act because Israel deserved it, or because He had given His word?
The verse gives the reason God moved: He was remembering something He had said. One writer stresses that a remembered promise leaves Israel with no claim of its own.
God has remembered His promises to the fathers, which had seemed forgotten for so long. They are mercies only, for Israel's complete failure could allow no claim at all. All the more did they point to what was in Him, and so they could not fail. The help that came to Israel in fact held within it a purpose of wider blessing, which the promise to Abraham declared without conditions. For in fact the Christ of Israel is the Son of man. The Seed of the woman crushes the serpent's head. Life, righteousness and sanctification are in Him. Crucified in weakness, He is the wisdom of God and the power of God, by grace through faith, alike for all.
Mary traces the coming birth to a promise, not to a bargain. That distinction shapes the whole song.
She also saw that the coming of her Child would fulfil the promise God made to Abraham — God's unconditional promise. She had no thought of Israel having deserved anything under the covenant of law. All depended upon the covenant of promise. God was filling the hungry and sending the rich away empty. This is always God's way.
Luke's sentence is packed tight, and readers can wonder which phrase "to Abraham" belongs with. One commentator weighs the wording.
"To Abraham" certainly seems to hang upon "to remember mercy," and the "for ever" appears to confirm this. Still, the whole sentence holds together as one idea, for His mercy was much in the promise.
Nothing had changed for Israel when Mary sang. Yet she speaks of the promise as already kept, and one writer shows why that is faith.
Mary closes her song with the words already mentioned: "He has helped His servant Israel, in remembrance of His mercy, as He spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever." Faith gives substance to what is hoped for. At this moment Mary surveyed the accomplishment of all God's purposes of grace for His earthly people, however bleak the road Israel still had to travel before these words came true. Indeed, everything was both secured and established in the person of Him who was about to be born into this world.
The same writer sets her beside Hannah, whose song looked ahead to a deliverance still to come:
Mary, on the other hand, regards the deliverance as already accomplished — accomplished in the One who was about to be born.
Mary's hope keeps to one line, and her song echoes an older one.
The character of the thoughts that fill Mary's heart is Jewish. It reminds us of Hannah's song in 1 Samuel 2, which speaks prophetically of this same blessed intervention of God. But Mary goes back to the promises made to the fathers, and takes in the whole of Israel.
If the promise reaches "for ever," what happened when the nation refused Christ? One writer sets this verse beside words sung later in the same chapter.
Again, when Christ came: "as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever" (Luke 1:54-55). Verses 69-74 recall both the promises to the fathers and the promises to David's house: "He has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David … to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant, the oath that he swore to our father Abraham." It hardly needs saying that the earthly blessings were put off, because the nation rejected Christ.
A postponed promise is still a sure one. One writer says where that certainty rests:
What she sang then came from the Holy Spirit, whose power had filled her virgin womb with the Lord's incarnate Christ. Those joyful hopes will come true at the appointed time. For the blessings her song has in view are all secured in Him who was raised from the dead.
- Cause — a word given. God helped Israel because He had spoken to Abraham, not because the nation had earned it.
- Ground — mercy only. Israel's failure left no claim; what God remembered was His own promise, so it could not fail.
- Terms — unconditional. The blessing rests on the covenant of promise, not on the covenant of law, and it comes by grace through faith, alike for all.
- Reach — "for ever." The promise runs to Abraham's offspring with no end date. The earthly blessings were put off when the nation rejected Christ, not cancelled.
- Certainty — a Person. Everything Mary sang is secured in the Child then about to be born and now raised from the dead. That is why faith can sing in the past tense.