Luke 1:48

This verse and the two preceding form the first of four strophes, into which the song naturally divides. The first strophe expresses simply the singer's gladness. The second (Luke 1:49-50) states its cause. The third (Luke 1:51-53) describes in gnomic aorists the moral order of the world, for the establishment of which God ever works in His holy and wise Providence, overturning the conventional order, scattering the proud, upsetting thrones, and exalting them of low degree, filling the hungry, and sending the rich away empty. It is this third part of the hymn which on first view seems least in keeping with the occasion. And yet on a large view this strophe exactly describes the constant tendency of Christ's influence in the world: to turn things upside down, reverse judgments, and alter positions. The last strophe (Luke 1:54-55) sets forth the birth about to happen as a deed of divine grace to Israel.