46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name. 50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation. 51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty. 54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.” 56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.
No activity in our life is more important than our worship of God. Not our jobs. Not our hobbies. Not our family gatherings. Not our daily meals. Not our sleeping. Not our exercise. Not our weddings. Not our funerals. Not our acts of kindness. Not our celebrations. Not our personal conversations. Not our ministries of service. No activity in our life is more important than worship.

The day before my mom entered her eternal home nearly now three weeks ago, I asked her, “Mom, what will you do when you first enter heaven?” She talked about heaven. She liked to think about heaven. She read books on heaven in the last year and a half. “Mom, what will you do when you first enter heaven?” She said something that I did not expect. I expected something maybe about seeing dad, maybe about other people, maybe about questions she has to ask. But mom smiled and simply said, “When I first arrive in heaven, I will worship the Lord.” She didn’t say it like a Sunday school student in a Sunday school class saying, “What’s the right answer? My son’s a pastor. I’m going to worship the Lord.” She said it like a person who is going over to the stovetop and seeing all this delicious food being made. The food is not set on the table. It’s not time to eat. But you go over there and what do you do? Well, if you’re a guy, at least, what happens? You grab some of that food and you taste it. That’s how she said it. It was like, “I’m tasting a little bit now. I am going to worship the Lord. I’m going to taste it now and then I’ll sit down when I get there and I’ll have this feast. I’ll have this joy of being in the presence of God.”

God’s entire purpose for writing us a Book and sending us a Savior is so that we would worship Him. It’s that we would have this joy of knowing Him and responding to Him in the way that He is worthy. Worship is the very first of the big ten commandments that God gives to us at the beginning of His story. Worship is the culminating expression near the end of God’s story in the book of Revelation. All through, we see worship, worship, worship, worship.
A.W. Tozer writes, “Why did Christ come? Why was He conceived? Why was He born? Why was He crucified? Why did He rise again? The answer to all these questions is, ‘In order that He might make worshippers out of rebels; in order that He might restore us again to the place of worship we knew when we were first created.’” Jesus, in emphasizing the priority of worship to the woman at the well, said this in John 4.

John 4:23 the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him.

Think about that. God the Father, who knows everything, describes His activity as seeking such people who will worship Him in spirit and truth. So as the Father is engaged in that activity this morning, He is coming through this congregation this morning, Bethany Baptist here, and He is seeking for people who are worshiping Him in spirit and truth. His eyes set upon your heart. Does He say, “I found one. There’s another one. There’s another one.” What is the Father’s evaluation, the Father who knows everything, when He comes to see you this morning? He is seeking people who will worship Him in spirit and in truth.

We open up our Bible’s today to the Christmas story in Luke 1. The scene opens with God sending the angel Gabriel to Mary to tell her that she will conceive and bear a Son who is the Son of the Most High. It’s amazing! Mary asks Gabriel, how will this be possible since she is a virgin? She doesn’t plan to change that status until she is married to Joseph. Mary knows that sex before marriage is an act of anti-worship against God. This teenage girl has committed herself to be a worshipper and not an anti-worshipper. How is this going to be, then?

The angel Gabriel answers her question by telling her that the Holy Spirit will come upon her to perform a miracle in her womb. He will perform a work that God has never performed in all the history of mankind from the very beginning, when God said, “Let there be…” This child conceived by the Holy Spirit in her will be called the Son of God. He will be God of very God. Gabriel then tells Mary that her cousin Elizabeth has also conceived a child. This is a huge surprise because Elizabeth and her husband Zechariah are advanced in years. They have been married for a long time and there has been no baby. It is just assumed by everyone and also Elizabeth and Zechariah themselves, that Elizabeth is barren. It is assumed that they’re not ever going to have a child.

Mary only has the angel’s report. That’s the only thing she has. She doesn’t have a Facebook post. She doesn’t have any pictures to see. She just hears an angel say, “Your cousin Elizabeth in the hill country of Judea has conceived.” That’s the only report she has. In faith, upon hearing this word of the Lord, what does she do? She hurries. She gets everything together as quickly as she can and she goes to visit Elizabeth. She leaves her village in Nazareth to go to the hill country near Jerusalem. When she arrives at Elizabeth’s place, the baby in Elizabeth’s womb leaps for joy. Elizabeth feels it and expresses the response of her baby to Mary’s baby. John the Baptist is inside Elizabeth and John is literally a bouncing baby boy. (Laughter!) Even before birth, John the Baptist is giving praise to Jesus. Such is the ordination that God makes for His Son to be praised when He comes. Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit now.

Luke 1:42-45 and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me? For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

Elizabeth is in her third trimester of her pregnancy. Mary is in her first trimester. When they meet together, Elizabeth’s response to Mary’s baby is remarkable! Elizabeth looks at Mary and says to Mary, “Your baby is infinitely more special and superior to my baby.” Now, what mom ever says that to another mom? Has that ever happened outside of this story in the history of mankind? Your baby is infinitely more special and superior to my baby. Why would Elizabeth say that? It’s because she is responding to the revelation of God that this baby is called the Son of the Most High. This baby is the Son of God. This baby is God of very God. Parents, let us pray that we create homes where Jesus’ significance far exceeds the significance of our own children. He is significant. Wherever He is acknowledged as being significant, we find the place of greatest health for everybody in the family.

These two godly women spend some time together. Indeed we find that it’s going to be three months together in fellowship. Somewhere during that three months, Mary composes a Christmas song of worship to God. We’re going to look at that Christmas song of worship as a means by which to understand what worship is and why it’s our priority and how we can pursue the worship of God in our lives. But I want to observe two remarkable details about the setting of Mary’s composition of this song. First, keep in mind that Mary is a teenager. Secondly, keep in mind that Mary has just fellowshipped with her godly cousin, Elizabeth, prior to writing this song.

I think these two observations are important for a couple reasons. First, Mary is a teenager. Often, older people, notice that I say “older,” not elderly. If you’re ever speaking to an older person, always use the word “older,” not elderly. That’s just a little bit of a counsel for you, okay? (Laughter!) Older people often think of teens as having little capacity for mature worship. How old is Mary? We’re not told exactly. It’s likely she’s fifteen or sixteen years of age. We often think of teens as people who need to receive from us, but who have very little to contribute to us by way of spiritual influence. Mary, the teenager, proves this is not true.

Today, this morning, we sit at the feet of a teenager to listen to the words she wrote. She wrote them under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, but she wrote the words of this song. We sit at her feet to say to this teenager, “Mary, I need to learn what the Holy Spirit taught you.” If you are here today and you are two years old or older, I want you to know that God has given you a capacity to worship Him today. Do not think of your spiritual life as something that in the future you may have or you may have influence upon others that is significant and real and true. Mary’s worship was precious as a teenager. God created her for such a significant work that we’re still talking about it today.

It’s the Lord who determines the fruitfulness or significance of the work, but we’re all just called to be faithful. I want you to know if you’re two years old and up, that God has given a Gospel that is accessible. I don’t know exactly what age for each individual person, but God has given a Gospel that is accessible to do a kind of work that is just as real, just as true, just as profound, as the ninety-nine year old person. It’s really remarkable!

This past week, I was with my five year old grandson, Malakai. We were talking about Christmas and I asked him, “What’s your favorite Christmas carol?” Right away, he said, “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing.” We were just in the car together and he was in the back. I asked, “Do you want to sing it together?” He said yes. I loved his little voice. He was just belting it out. He knows every word to every verse. His little voice was singing, “God and sinners reconciled.” He not only knows the words, but he knows the meaning. Here I am in the presence of a little five year old worshiper. I believe he is worshiping. It’s not just words and he likes the tune. He is engaging with the message itself.

As I’m in the front seat singing along with him, I was thinking to myself that I need more of this. I need more of what this little boy in the backseat is giving me. I need some fire. It was like just a ray of light, a ray of fire. It kind of quickened my soul and made me alive. That little boy strengthened and influenced and encouraged me. I want you to know that if you’re a young person here today, regardless of your age, if you know the Lord Jesus Christ, you are not the future of the church. You are the church. God has placed you in the church to be a powerful influence today. Find that. Here is Mary with a powerful influence.

Secondly, Mary had just fellowshipped with her godly cousin, Elizabeth. I think this is important because I believe that Luke wants us to see that this time of fellowship with Elizabeth fueled Mary’s faith and enabled Mary on a human standpoint to be able to write this song. So we see the story and the blessing that Elizabeth gives to Mary that had to encourage her. We know she is staying now for three months. After Mary writes the song, Luke even comes back to that part of the story.
56 And Mary remained with her about three months and returned to her home.
Luke wants us to see how their fellowship impacted one another. This time of spiritual communion stirred up Mary’s heart to make much of God. The idea I just want to draw is this vital influence we have upon each other as we live in community, as we live in relationship with each other. Friends, let’s never underestimate the influence that our communion with other believers has upon our own worship of God. God gives us fellowship with one another as a means of grace to strengthen our faith and to fire up our zeal for Him. We need each other to find refreshment in this weary world of darkness.

I believe that many believers live spiritual lives that are downtrodden. At the root, often it’s because they seldom experience the refreshment of true fellowship. If they’re around believers, it’s only doing superficial, worldly things. Maybe it’s watching a football game or playing soccer. There is nothing wrong with those activities, but they never really experience why God created the church. He created the church for communion, for fellowship, where we speak truth, we speak Gospel, we speak hope into one another’s lives. We pray for one another. We encourage one another. I like what JC Ryle says. “First let us seek the face of God. Then let us seek the face of God’s friends. If we did this more, and were more careful about the company we keep, we should oftener know what it is to feel filled with the Holy Ghost.”

As we think about the ultimate priority of true worship, there are five specific qualities that Mary’s song presents to us. Undoubtedly, there are more qualities. Five is what we have time to think about today. True worship is

1. God-centered

46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

In response to Elizabeth’s encouragement and word of blessing, and the plan of God’s salvation that has been unfolded to her by the angel Gabriel and by her own thoughts on Scripture in interpretation of that event of bearing the Son of God, Mary composes a song of praise. This song is not a sentimental poem about the feelings one experiences when one first conceives a child and is carrying a little one. Rather, this is a song of rich, deep theology. It’s a theology that touches her not just in the element of her mind and her thinking, but it moves deep into her heart and her heart rejoices.

In the devotion that we email to you, our congregation at Bethany, every day, one of the elders, Dan Wilton, wrote this about the song as he reflected upon Mary’s song. “As a songwriter I can’t help but notice how saturated these few stanzas are with who God is and the happiness of seeing Him for who He is. In this way, her song is like a prayer that teaches us that our God is mighty, holy, and worthy of our fear; and yet He also sees us, and through Christ has demonstrated His mercy to accomplish great things for our good and His glorious name.” Mary is God-centered in her worship.

46 And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, 47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

When Mary says, “my soul magnifies the Lord,” what does she mean? Of course, we don’t magnify God by making Him bigger than He is. In other words, it’s not that He is this big and then our soul makes Him bigger. That’s not what Mary means. That’s impossible! God is infinite. That means He can’t be measured in any way. His greatness is so great that no created measure could possibly come close to describing who He is. So it’s impossible to think of God as any larger, any greater, any more majestic or glorious than He truly is. So what does it mean when Mary says, “My soul magnifies the Lord”?
We all have had the experience of walking out on a clear starry night and looking up at the sky. There is maybe a full moon. We can see on some nights and in some places really brilliantly. They are so far away and so distant from us that we see, but we see just a little tiny fraction of what these stars and planets and moon really are. So if we want to see better, what do we do? We get a telescope and we look at the moon, for instance. All of a sudden we say, “Whoa! I didn’t know there was so much texture on the moon.” We’re fascinated because now we can see that the moon becomes magnified. It doesn’t become bigger, but our vision becomes larger or it becomes more accurate to what the moon really is. If we want to see even better, what do we do? We go to a place in some big city that has this amazing telescope and now we see so much more. It’s not because what is there is any different, but because our vision is enhanced. So Mary says, “Here is what I’m going to do in worship. My soul is going to magnify the Lord.”

That’s what worship does. It says God is so great! When a person becomes born again, when they receive new life, God takes blind eyes that can’t see God at all and He opens our eyes to see Him as glorious and good. We stand in wonder. But then as we grow, it’s like looking at God through a keyhole. We see Him and it’s remarkable, but God says, “There is more of me to see.” That’s what growing as a Christian is. Our eyes, our vision of God becomes greater and greater and greater. All through life, it’s possible to have a growing, growing, growing vision of God because our vision will never match the reality. As clear as our vision might become, it won’t ever come close to what the reality is. That’s why for all of eternity, we’ll be growing and growing and growing. One day, we’ll see God face to face, but even then, I think we’re going to be astounded at the growth of our understanding and knowledge of God Himself.

I want you to ask yourself some questions about worship. Worship is the absolute priority. It’s the most important thing that could be about our life. 2022 is almost at an end. Think back to January of 2022. In January of 2022, this is what I could see of God. Let’s say you had a six inch circumference of seeing God. I can see God this big. In the life of the normal Christian, we’ll say a healthy Christian, that vision grows and expands. Our soul says I’m going to magnify the Lord. I’m going to see more. Has that happened for you this past year? Are you seeing more of God now because of the Holy Spirit’s work in your life so that you can worship Him more clearly, more preciously, more joyfully because you’re seeing Him? Has that happened?

It’s also possible to have begun the year seeing this and because of either sins or because of neglect, because of apathy, our vision begins to shut down and close. That’s possible, too. So ask yourself that question. Is my soul magnifying the Lord? Mary spoke to herself. My soul is going to magnify the Lord. If our vision of God is shrinking, then our life is waning. If our vision of God is growing, then our life is flourishing.

In the last week or maybe two weeks of my mom’s life, every time I visited her, you could almost see the drain of her physical energy happen. I would go on Monday and then Tuesday there would be less physical energy. The Saturday before she passed away I was there and she would talk. I’m thankful and God was gracious to her in giving her a lucid mind. She would talk and then she would fall asleep. Then she would wake up and finish her sentence. But I would give her the phone and that’s one of the things that she used to be able to look at to read and to help hear. But the phone would fall out of her hands. So you could just see the physical energy of her body just waning, waning, waning. In all that process, the energy of her soul kept advancing and growing. Her faith and her zeal to see God and to know God just kept growing and growing and growing and growing. That’s what is possible for us. That’s why it’s so exciting to live the normal Christian life. It’s never boring. It’s the most joy-filled pursuit that is possible for all of mankind.

So what hinders us from God-centered worship? I think it’s a preoccupation with self. Mary had a lot of reasons to be preoccupied with herself. I think it was hard on her to be pregnant as a teenager in a society that would have ostracized her. Joseph barely understood. Joseph needed a divine communication in order to get over that. He wanted to put her away secretly. But Mary is a teenager who refused to make her difficulties the center of her focus in life. This is so vital for our worship because we get so often off-focus of God and on-focus of us.

Have any of you ever experienced a day in your life where you’ve had such difficulties? There is suffering. There is trouble. There is maybe physical pain. There are anxious thoughts about what is going to happen at work, or whatever it is. Have you had a day where you wake up in the morning thinking about those things related to you and your life and you think about them all through the day and you go to bed thinking about them and you might even wake up in the middle of the night thinking about them? Has anybody ever had that happen? As we pursue worship, we actively pursue removing self from the center and placing God there. That doesn’t mean that God is not concerned about all those things. It means that our vision is set upon the Lord. That’s what a worshiping life is. True worship is also

2. Salvation-focused
47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, 48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; 49 for he who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is his name.
Mary marvels that God would save her out of her humble estate. She realizes she isn’t anyone that God, the Creator of the universe, should pay attention to. She is a poor Jewish girl living in an obscure village. She recognizes she hasn’t done anything to merit God’s favorable attention. She knows she has sinned against God and that she needs a Savior. She is not worthy of His favor. Yet, here she is being so highly favored and being given such grace by God. She marvels that God in His mercy would look favorably upon her. She knows that God reigns high in the heavens and that she is like dust. In order for God to take notice of Mary, Mary knows that God has to stoop so low to see her. Mary can’t rise up to the heavens and say, “Hey, God! Here I am.” God has to stoop low to see her where she is in her humble estate. But God does that. She says “God condescends. He comes down to pay attention to me and to pay attention for my benefit and to pay attention to me for my blessing.”
I just want you to know that what is true of Mary is true of you and me. God delights to give grace, to give blessing to those who humble themselves before Him. Regardless of our humble estate, regardless of how many sins we’ve had in the past, regardless of how wrecked our life has been, regardless of how little merit we have in our standing before God in our own personal lives, God is a God who stoops down and He takes notice in the midst of our humble estate.

This salvation focus is unique to the Christian because it becomes sort of the fundamental root of our worship of God. I’m able to worship God because God had mercy upon me and I never forget it. I thank God for a lot of things. I thank God for my physical family. I thank God for the food that He provides. I thank God for a healthy body. I thank God for our church. I thank God for many, many things. But at the root, here is what I thank God for. I was a sinner and God set His love upon me. He gave me His Son Jesus to forgive me and I never ever, ever want to forget that. I always want to go back to that. That’s why so many of our hymns in the church relate to this salvation focus. Where we lose the salvation focus, we lose the whole heart of true worship. What is worship if it’s not rooted in the salvation that God brings? Mary rejoices

47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

I want you to notice that this salvation is not theological. It’s very personal to her. She takes note of how the Lord

48 for he has looked on the humble estate of his servant.

She is talking about herself. She says
For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed;
I think this is really significant because the current generation in Nazareth, where Mary is living, they’re not calling her blessed. They’re saying all kinds of things about her, but blessed is not one of them. She says “I know on the basis of God’s promise and God’s explanation of the Child that I’m carrying and how I became pregnant, that His plan for His Son to rule and reign as King will one day come to fruition and all the generations of the earth are going to call me blessed. Right now, that’s not so much, but it will happen.” She’s talking about herself and saying, “God has done this for me.” She is overwhelmed by the grace of God! Amazing grace how sweet the sound. We will make much of God when we become convinced of our own finite smallness and of God’s infinite largeness and when we become convinced of our own infinite sinfulness and God’s infinite holiness and grace. That’s the fuel of our worship. God in mercy is simply refusing to treat us the way we deserve to be treated. Mary writes
50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
She starts with her own reception of mercy and of God being Savior. But then she says, “Hey y’all, as you read this song, know that God’s mercy is available to every person throughout all time and in every culture.”
50 And his mercy is for those who fear him from generation to generation.
We cannot think of God’s mercy without thinking of Christmas and Easter. Christmas is when God became incarnate and Easter is when God shed His own blood as the God-man upon the cross. The whole purpose for the birth of Christ is so that God might show mercy to a people who didn’t deserve mercy. It is so that He might treat them not the way they deserve to be treated, so that they could avoid any kind of punishment, any kind of condemnation. What holiness in God taking the form of a human, living a perfectly sinless life and then receiving the punishment upon Himself that we deserved.

I want you to note that this mercy is given only to those who fear Him. Did you catch that? If you want to know, “How can I be a recipient of God’s mercy?” you need to fear Him. Other texts use the words repent and believe in Him, trust in Him. But here, Mary says that His mercy is available to everyone who fears Him, who trembles when they think of God and His holiness, and yet who rejoices when they think that God in His grace sent His Son, Jesus, to die. So I would ask you, are you one of those who have received the mercy of God through faith? Are you one of those who fear the Lord, who trust in the Lord to receive the benefit of His blessing? If so, then let’s worship. True worship is God-centered. It is salvation-focused. But then here it’s also

3. Joy-filled

47 and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

This is not Mary writing an assignment for a literature class where they say to write a poem about your experiences. This is Mary so filled with joy in the Lord that she says, I have to get it out on the page. I have to talk about it. I have to say something. I have to communicate it in some way. Her heart rejoices in the Lord.

I want to ask as you think about worship, is your heart connected to joy? Joy matters. It’s the easiest of things for a Christian to be involved in what I’ll say, regular worship activities. It could be at your home. You have devotions every morning. You read the Bible. You have prayer lists. It could be here. I go to church every Sunday morning. But true worship is what you present to the Lord, if the Father is seeking such worshipers, then one of the qualities that will always be true of true worship is that there will be joy. There will be joy in God’s salvation, joy in God’s person, joy in His blessing. Christmas reminds us of that, doesn’t it? Almost every carol talks about joy.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come
Let earth receive her King
Let every heart prepare Him room
And heaven and nature sing

Joy cannot be manufactured. That’s why it’s so essential by us. We can’t say, “I just have to be more joyful.” Joy is a fruit of the Spirit of God who indwells us now filling us every day. We submit to the Lord and say, “Spirit of God, I want you to take control of my life.” The Spirit of God then begins to work in us the fruit of love and joy. The second aspect of what He does is joy. He presents us a joy in our hearts.

In the Christmas story, we see joy all over the place, don’t we? We see joy in Elizabeth. We see joy in John the Baptist. This little unborn baby leaps for joy. We see joy here in Simeon and Anna later in the temple. We see joy in the angels as they make the announcement to the shepherds. We see joy in the shepherds as they hear the announcement from the angels. We see joy in the wise men who go and travel from afar. We see joy, joy, joy, joy, joy. True worship is filled with joy. I want to ask you because there is a life isn’t there, where there is joy.

I remember going to a family Christmas party. We arrived at this relative’s house. It was very clear that the house had had some big conflict right before we arrived. They had some big fight. So we arrived and everybody is quiet. Nobody is hardly saying anything. My mom and dad were a little bit timid about that sort of thing, so they came in and they sat down. We’re sitting there and nobody is talking to anybody. We’re obviously thinking this is uncomfortable, but we don’t want to break the ice. I remember as a little boy that I’m just sitting there. This was supposed to be a Christmas party and I’m just sitting there. Then I have another uncle who was an unbeliever, but he was just this bold, out there kind of guy. He comes in and he walks into the middle of the room. He’s looking at everybody and he said, “Who died?” (Laughter!) He was just pacing and he was looking everybody in the eye, wanting an explanation. Then he said, “Who died?” He was not going to let it go. That kind of broke the ice and everything got back to normal.

But I wonder sometimes if the Holy Spirit comes to a church and you’re going through the motions. You’re singing, but He’s asking, “Who died? What’s going on in this place? There is not joy.” I am so thankful at Bethany that very, very, very, very, very few times in my whole time at Bethany I’ve had to wonder that, because I’ve seen joy expressed. But let’s keep the joy. Isn’t that an important part of a Christmas party? It’s important even on a secular level to have some joy. How significant it is for worship to be filled with joy. That’s us bringing joy to the party. True worship is

4. Bible-informed

I’m going to finish this very quickly, but this is amazing! It’s so clear that Mary is meditating upon Scripture as she writes and even before she writes. She is a teenager, but her life is saturated with Scripture to the point that there are at least fifteen direct quotations from the Bible inserted in this ten verse poem. There are fifteen different quotations from 1 Samuel, from the Psalms, from Genesis. If I were given an assignment to make a ten verse poem and include fifteen direct references to the Old Testament, even after all of my Seminary training, that would be hard for me to do. Mary is not even thinking about it. She is just so saturated with Scripture that it just comes boiling out of her as she’s thinking about this amazing event.

I say that because so often today worship is defined not by Scripture-informed, but more like emotion-informed. It’s like if I have this good feeling, if I have this experience, if there are certain tunes that are being played, that’s good worship. But with Mary, we don’t even know what tune she is playing. All we know is that her worship is filled with Scripture and informed by Scripture at every step. Hiding God’s Word in our hearts sets the table for our feasting upon God’s goodness in worship. Finally, the fifth quality of worship is that true worship is

5. God-centered

You might say, “Pastor, are you being forgetful? You already said that.” No. I intended to say it again. True worship is God-centered. This is the most fundamental aspect. Worship is about God. It’s focused on God. It’s focused upon His Person, upon His work. That’s all what worship is about. Mary writes

51 He has shown strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts; 52 he has brought down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of humble estate; 53 he has filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he has sent away empty.

This is what the Lord does. He is just and He is gracious. Then Mary’s thoughts flow back 1400 years earlier to when God made a covenant with the father of her nation, Abraham. She says

54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

Mary knows that her nation, the nation of Israel, has wandered from the heart of worship to God. Yet, she believes that there is going to be an awakening among her own people. He has been faithful and

54 He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy, 55 as he spoke to our fathers, to Abraham and to his offspring forever.”

He is going to continue to be faithful to the promise that He gave to Abraham and to his offspring. How long will that promise endure? It will endure forever, as long as time lasts. Remember that Mary is a Jewish girl living in Israel. She cares about the country of her birth. She cares that God would be faithful to the promise to her nation in particular. She knows that all the nations of the earth will be blessed through her nation. She knows the culmination of that blessing comes from the Son that she is carrying. She makes this grace of God’s covenantal faithfulness to Israel the very climax of her song. God has helped this nation. He’s going to continue to be faithful to the promise He gave to Abraham to bless us.
What she is saying in effect is, “We as a nation do not deserve to be blessed by God. But we in Israel know that God will be faithful to His promises. It’s not on the basis of our merit, not on the basis of our faithfulness to Him, but on the basis of His faithfulness to His Word.” In Christ Jesus, God includes us, the Gentiles, in His covenant so that we too can rejoice in that same covenantal faithfulness. Every one of God’s promises finds their “Yes!” in Jesus. I ask you, have you received the blessing of God through faith? Elizabeth commended Mary and made the statement to Mary

Luke 1:45 And blessed is she who believed that there would be a fulfillment of what was spoken to her from the Lord.”

I ask you, do you have a part in Mary’s faith? It’s a faith that says “When God speaks, I will listen. What God says, I will trust. When God calls I will come.” That’s Mary’s faith. Do you have a part in Mary’s faith? If you do, you have a part in all of His rich blessings. But if you do not have Mary’s faith, that is the only door through which you can obtain any one of them. So I urge to you to come to faith in Jesus.