Luke 1:67-80

3. The song of Zacharias: Luke 1:67-80.

It might be supposed that Zacharias composed this song in view of the religious and moral progress of the child, or on the occasion of some special event in which the divine power within him was displayed during the course of his childhood. We are led, however, to another supposition by the connection between the first words of the song, Blessed be the Lord, and the expression which the evangelist has employed in Luke 1:64, “he spake, blessing God. ” This song, which was composed in the priest's mind during the time of his silence, broke solemnly from his lips the moment speech was restored to him, as the metal flows from the crucible in which it has been melted the moment that an outlet is made for it. At Luke 1:64, Luke is contented to indicate the place of the song, in order not to interrupt the narrative, and he has appended the song itself to his narrative, as possessing a value independent of the time when it was uttered.

We observe in the hymn of Zacharias the same order as in the salutation of Elizabeth. The theocratic sentiment breaks forth first: Zacharias gives thanks for the arrival of the times of the Messiah (Luke 1:68-75). Then his paternal feeling comes out, as it were, in a parenthesis: the father expresses his joy at the glorious part assigned to his son in this great work (Luke 1:76-77); lastly, thanksgiving for the Messianic salvation overflows and closes the song (Luke 1:78-79).

The spiritual character of this passage appears even from this exposition. It is the work of the Holy Spirit alone to subordinate even the legitimate emotions of paternal affection to the theocratic sentiment.

1 st. vers. 67-75.

Zacharias gives thanks, first of all, for the coming of the Messiah (Luke 1:67-70); then for the deliverance which His presence is about to procure for Israel (Luke 1:71-75).