Other teenagers have authored songs, but this one and its various circumstances would be unique. And, the divine subject of Mary’s poetry – “Magnificat”, meaning ‘Glorious’ in Latin -- has had such everlasting significance, that His import cannot be overstated. Did her words begin to form from the moment she was visited by the angel, and then grow as certainly as did the holy child inside her when she visited her relative Elizabeth and received still more inspiration from this encounter (shown here in this masterpiece artwork of Raphael from the early 16th Century)? Did the miraculous babes from the seemingly barren wombs of Elizabeth and Hannah, a centuries-old character who would likewise sing a song about her child (1 Samuel 2:1-10), further swell Mary’s heart? The divine nature and the mission of this unborn child, and the details of His conception reverberate forever, right into eternity.
You could say that Mary had experienced all three characters of the Triune God at once when the ‘God-with-us’ – Immanuel (Isaiah 7:14) – came into her to prepare for entry into the human world. It’s something we can ask her in eternity: ‘Did the interaction you had with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit make your poetic words – the Magnificat -- flow so especially well on that occasion?’ Gabriel’s message from the Father (Luke 1:26-38) might have been electric, all on its own, and yet within a short time, the Holy Spirit overshadowed and conceived in her the Son. And, an angel also appeared to Joseph, to reassure him that this awkward situation for Mary and himself was a divinely inspired one, so ‘take Mary home as your wife.’ Do you really think that Joseph would have kept this bit of news to himself, or would he have shared it with his betrothed, to substantiate his decision to do the culturally unthinkable – take a pregnant single teenage girl as his wife? Can you hear the conversation between this couple, when Joseph says ‘Mary, wait’ll you hear about the dream I had!’ (Matthew 1:20-21) ‘Joseph, honey, I know all about it! He told me the baby will be King, forever, following in your family’s line of David!’ (Luke 1: 32-33) Is it too tame to speculate that these two were dumbfounded? Mary might have also considered other supposedly infertile women in her history, including Sarah (Genesis 21: 1-2); Rebekah (Gen. 25:21); Rachel (Gen. 30:22-23); Samson’s mother (Judges 13:2-24); Hannah (1 Samuel 1:2-20); the Shunammite woman (2 Kings 4:8-37); and of course, Elizabeth (Luke 1). What a club, that Mary had just joined! And yet, the child she would bear was holy, unlike all the others. He would be God (Matt. 1:23; Luke 1:32,35). That proclamation from the angels needs no further elaboration. Astonished? Excited? No adjectives suffice to describe how this young girl felt, so maybe the song she wrote was her way of telling family and friends her rationale for proceeding in a situation that, by all outward appearances, was pretty untenable.
For three months, Mary stayed with Elizabeth (Luke 1:56), perhaps the first person to hear Mary’s exaltation to God. While Zechariah’s tongue was stilled until Elizabeth’s child was born (Luke 1:64), Mary’s and Elizabeth’s tongues were excited to tell the startling news of God’s impending arrival. Mary’s voice and her complex feelings cannot be adequately described; perhaps hearing her multifaceted outpouring, her contact with God so personally, is what one musical composer has reasoned should be the response to more closely mimic all that Mary must have been feeling. Randy Gill’s Magnificat round has some of Mary’s feelings emerging bit-by-bit, so that one can sense -- just a little bit, but certainly not completely – what it must have been like for Mary to express what was going on inside, as her spirit cohabitated with this holy unborn God. Miracles are enough to strike anyone dumb (like Zechariah). Blessed be Mary that she was a servant and a poetess, but not silent!
See photos here of the Visitation: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Visitaci%C3%B3n_de_Rafael.jpg (Rafael in 16th Century)
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DARET_Jacques_Visitation.jpg
Hear the Magnificat, as arranged by Randy Gill, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6F33Y7OgXzM
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