Rob Morgan: Holy Is His Name

Holy Is His Name A Pocket Paper
from
The Donelson Fellowship
______________Robert J. Morgan
December 14, 1997 ----

For those of you who turn up your nose at contemporary Christian music, I want to remind you of an 18-year-old songwriter named Isaac Watts. He dreaded going to church every week because the music was so ponderous and old fashioned. One Sunday, returning from worship, he complained about it to his father, who replied, as fathers sometimes do: Those hymns were good enough for your grandfather and your father, so they will have to be good enough for you. But Isaac replied, They will never do for me, father, regardless of what you and your father thought of them. An argument followed, and Mr. Watts finally shouted, If you don't like the hymns we sing, then write better ones! And that is exactly what Isaac did. During the course of his life, he wrote hundreds of our favorite hymns, providing his generation with the contemporary Christian music of its own day.

Every generation writes its own songs to the Lord, and our great privilege after 2000 years of Christian history, is to enjoy the new songs while still treasuring some of the older ones as well.

Among the older songs we treasure is a Christmas carol Isaac Watts wrote as he studied Psalm 98. In that psalm, Watts was struck by the Psalmist's declaration that all the world should shout for joy. Why? Because the Lord is making known his salvation to the nations. Watts thought of the Christmas story, and he picked up his pen. A few minutes later, the world had his great Christmas carol: "Joy to the world, the Lord has come. Let earth receive her king."

But Isaac Watts wasn't the first person to compose a Christmas carol. The oldest carol of them all is not Joy to the World, or God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, or O Come All Ye Faithful. The oldest of all our Christmas hymns is called the Magnificat, and it was written the virgin Mary herself, recorded for us by Luke. It seems to have been composed on the spot as Mary was visiting her older relative Elizabeth in the desert country of Judea. It is given in Luke 1:46-55:

And Mary said: "My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me-holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, even as he said to our fathers.

We said last week, as we began to study this passage that Mary was chosen by God to raise the Christ-child because: (1) she had made a commitment to sexual purity; (2) she thought of herself as the Lord's servant; (3) she was a woman of faith, believing that what the Lord had said to her would be accomplished; and (4) she was a woman who magnified the Lord. The opening words of this song in the King James Version says: My soul doth magnify the Lord.

Now, I'd like to suggest a fifth reason that Mary was so useable to the Lord. She was a woman who loved and knew the Scriptures. Her hymn borrows heavily from Old Testament. It reverberates with echoes from Hannah's song in 1 Samuel 2 and from many of the Psalms of David. Some Bible scholars think that she composed this song with an open Old Testament before her, but more likely she just knew the Old Testament so well that her prayer naturally reflected the Scriptures she had memorized. Robert Murray McCheyne once wrote, "Turn the Bible into prayer. Thus, if you were reading the First Psalm, spread the Bible on the chair before you, and kneel, and pray, 'O Lord, give me the blessedness of the man'; 'let me not stand in the counsel of the ungodly.' This is the best way of knowing the meaning of the Bible, and of learning to pray."

Well, that is just what Mary did. In the first stanza of the Magnificat-verses 46-49-I would like to show you two activities, three mercies, and four names for God.

Two Activities

The two activities are in verse 46: My soul magnifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior. Notice the order-first we magnify him then we rejoice in him. Everyone today is looking for joy, looking for something to make them feel better. I saw an interview with Ted Turner this week and he was asked why he gave one billion dollars to the United Nations. Why do you think? Why would anyone give a billion dollars to the UN? Because children around the world are hungry? Because the world is torn apart by war? Because people are oppressed by poverty? No. He said, "I gave away the billion dollars because it made me feel good, and I like feeling good." He went on to say how his whole life has been a search for something to make him feel good, and he has discovered that giving away money makes him feel good. So that's why he does it.

People want to feel good. They want to have joy in their lives. But there is no short cut to genuine joy. It comes as we magnify and glorify Jesus Christ and put him in his rightful place in our lives, making him the object of our hearts and of our worship. My soul magnifies the Lord and [as a result] my spirit rejoices in God my Savior.

What does it mean to magnify the Lord? We talked about that last week. It means to focus on the Lord, making him bigger and bigger in our eyes until we are so overwhelmed by his glory that we cannot but share it with someone else. It means, in short, to praise and worship him. Someone once said, "Too many Christians worship their work, work at their play, and play at their worship." The other day I was reading the introduction to a new hymnbook, and the author said:

If Christ were bodily present and we could see him with our eyes, all our worship would become intentional. If Christ stood on our platforms, we would bend our knees without asking. If He stretched out His hands and we saw the wounds, we would confess our sins and weep over our shortcomings. If we could hear His voice leading the hymns, we too would sing heartily; the words would take on meaning. If Christ walked our aisles, we would hasten to make amends with that brother or sister to whom we had not spoken. If we knew Christ would attend our church Sunday after Sunday, the front pews would fill fastest, believers would arrive early, offering plates would be laden with sacrificial but gladsome gifts, prayers would concentrate our attention.

"Yet," said the author, "Christ is present."

And Mary had the correct order: We magnify him, and as a result, we are filled with joy and we can rejoice in God our Savior. But why did she magnify the Lord and rejoice in her Savior? Because of three different mercies she mentions in verses 46-49.

Three Mercies

First, in verse 48, I magnify and rejoice in the Lord because he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. God is aware of our circumstances and he knows our needs. I read a fascinating story this week about a missionary named Solomon Ginsburg. He was a Jew, born in Poland, whose father was a Jewish Rabbi, who became a Christian as a young man and eventually a missionary and an evangelist throughout Europe and South America. In 1911, he was very tired and he planned a furlough for rest in the United States. He traveled across Europe to Lisbon and was about to embark for London when he read a number of urgent telegrams telling him of terrific storms raging in the dangerous Bay of Biscay. He had a stop-over ticket and could easily delay his journey, taking the next boat a week later. What should he do?

Well, the Lord is mindful about all the affairs of our lives. Psalm 139 says that he hems us in ahead and behind. And, believing that our steps and stops are ordered by the Lord, Solomon Ginsburg prayed, asking the Lord to show him what to do. His prayer calendar for that day highlighted a verse from the Old Testament, Deuteronomy 2:7-The Lord your God has blessed you in all the work of your hands. He has watched over your journey through this vast desert. These forty years the Lord your God has been with you, and you have lacked nothing.

As he read that verse Ginsburg had a strong sense of God's care and protection. His heart was at complete rest, and he boarded ship immediately and sailed to London, proceeding on in perfect safety to New York aboard the Majestic. He soon learned that if he had, in fact, delayed his journey for a week as advised, he would have found himself booked aboard the maiden voyage of-the Titanic.

Mary was a poor girl, living in modest dwellings, in a small town in the mountains of Israel. But, she said, the Lord knows all about me and he cares for me. He watches over me. He protects me. He is mindful of me, despite my humble status in life. The same is true for you and me, if we live in Christ Jesus. That's why we magnify the Lord and rejoice in him.

But there's a second reason. He blesses us. Verse 48b: From now on all generations will call me blessed. If you want to devote a month to a tremendous uplifting personal Bible study, just look up the word "blessed" in a concordance and trace the word "blessed" throughout the Bible. It occurs 234 times. The first time it occurs is in the first chapter of the Bible when it says that God blessed Adam and Eve. The last time it occurs is in the last chapter of the Bible, in Revelation 22:14: Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. And in between are scores of references to the way in which God wants to bless our lives. If you're discouraged or weary, just spend some time in the "blessings: of the Lord. Mary said, "I magnify the Lord and rejoice in him because he is mindful of my humble estate, he has blessed me, and, third, because he has done great things for me. Verse 49: For the Mighty One has done great things for me-holy is his name.

Here Mary is quoting from the Psalms. Psalm 126 says: The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.

And I want you to know that the Lord has done great things for all of us, whereof we are glad. So, in this opening stanza, Mary engages in two activities, she lists three mercies, and, in conclusion, she gives us four names for God. In this very verse we've just read, she ends her sentence saying: Holy is his name.

Whenever I try to think about the holiness of God, I think of A. W. Tozer's quote that none of us can appreciate the holiness of God. We know nothing like it. It stands apart, unique, unapproachable, incomprehensible, and unattainable. We may fear God's power and admire his wisdom, but his holiness we can not even imagine. All we can do, says Tozer, is to hide our unholiness in the wounds of Christ as Moses hid himself in the cleft of the rock while the glory of God passed by.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty,

who was, and is, and is to come.

The second name that Mary ascribes to the Lord, working backward, is the Mighty One. Verse 49 says: ...for the Mighty One has done great things for me-holy is his name.

He is the mighty one. Impossibility does not deter him. Satan cannot stop him. Circumstances never defeat him. He is the Almighty King whose name is above every name.

The third name that Mary gives to God is the title Lord. In verse 46 she begins her prayer saying: My soul doth magnify the Lord. The word "Lord" is a translation of the Greek word kyrios. The Hebrew counterpart is adonai. It is a title for God rather than a personal name, and it has to do with his supreme headship, rulership, sovereignty over all creation.

The fourth name is the word "God." Verse 47 says, "My spirit rejoices in God." The word God means "the ultimate reality, the being who is perfect in wisdom, power, and goodness, the creator, the one above all others, the ruler of the universe."

But notice that Mary doesn't just call him God, but God my Savior. Why did Mary choose that title? Perhaps because she was at that very moment bearing in her womb the tiny one who would become the Savior of the world. Nine months later, the angels would announce her son's birth with these words: Behold I bring you tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior who is Christ the Lord.

Earlier in this message I referred to Solomon Ginsburg, the Polish Jew who was born into the family of a Jewish Rabbi. How was he saved from his guilt and sins? It was like this. His father wanted him to follow in his footsteps, becoming a rabbi among the Polish Jews, and, as a teenager, Solomon studied the Old Testament. During the Feast of Tabernacles one year, as they were staying in a tent or booth near their home, he became intrigued by the 53rd chapter of Isaiah. In that chapter, written 700 years before Christ, the prophet Isaiah predicts the coming of a suffering Savior.

He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,

nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

He was despised and rejected by men,

a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering.

Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows.

Yet we considered him stricken by God,

smitten by him and afflicted.

But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to his own way;

and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.

Young Solomon Ginsburg asked his father the same question the Ethiopian asked Philip in Acts 8: To whom does the prophet refer in this chapter. Not being able to answer, the father sat there in profound, uncomfortable silence. Solomon repeated the question, and his father snatched the book from his son's hand and slapped him in the face.

Some years later, Solomon was walking down the street when a converted Jew accosted him and said, "I wish to invite you to go with me to a service at Mildmay Mission. I am going to speak on the 53rd chapter of Isaiah." Instantly Solomon recalled the incident years before, and he determined to go and see if his friend had a better explanation than the one his father had given.

That night, the preacher read Isaiah 53 and showed how every detail of it was exactly and remarkably fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Solomon Ginsburg acquired a copy of the New Testament, and as he read it he became convinced that Jesus Christ was, indeed, the predicted Messiah of the Old Testament. But he also knew that if he were to become a Christian, he would be rejected by his family, driven from home, and excommunicated from his own people. For three months, he agonized over his decision. He could hardly eat or sleep. And then, one afternoon at the mission, he heard a sermon on the verse: He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me." Solomon returned to his home and paced the floor until past midnight. In the tiny hours of the night, he knelt and received Jesus Christ as his Savior by faith. He said, "I knew that I was forgiven and accepted. I felt my load was lifted. I knew that my sins were washed away by the precious blood of Jesus."

And perhaps someone here is in need of the same experience. Your past hovers over your head like a dark cloud, and you are regularly struck by bolts of guilt and shame and regret. You're worried about the future, and you don't know what lies beyond death. You aren't ready for eternity. But during this Christmas season, you would like to meet God your Savior.

Don't put it off another day. Come to Jesus Christ.

And you'll discover that the song of Mary can echo in your own heart:

My soul doth magnify the Lord

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant.

From now on all generations will call me blessed,

for the Mighty One has done great things for me-

Holy is his name.