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.