Sermon Tone Analysis

While at Elizabeth's house, Mary praised the Lord.

Her song of praise rises from the Lord and rises to the Lord.

At the heart of this song of praise, there is the "Saviour" - "my soul rejoices in God my Saviour" (Luke 1:47).

Mary's song of praise is both a joyful testimony and a call to worship.

* Mary's song could be summed up in the words of Psalm 35:9 - "My soul will rejoice in the Lord and delight in His salvation."

This is Mary's joyful testimony.

She rejoices in the Lord.

She takes delight in His salvation.

At the heart of her joyful testimony, there is the "Saviour" - "my soul rejoices in God my Saviour" (Luke 1:47).

* Mary's song of praise comes to us as a call to worship, an invitation to join with her in praising the Lord.

In her words of praise, we hear an echo of the call to worship, found in Psalm 34:3 - "O magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His Name together."

Mary praised the Lord.

She rejoiced in the Saviour.

What about us?

Will we praise the Lord?

Will we rejoice in the Saviour?

* When we read the Word of God, we must not read it only as an account of things that happened a long time ago.

We must also ask, "What is the Lord saying to me here-and-now?

This is what we must do as we read Mary's song of praise to her Lord and Saviour.

* In Mary's song of praise, there are many echoes of the Psalms.

by looking at one of the Psalms, Psalm 138, in connection with Mary's song of praise, we can learn to worship Godlike Mary did - worshipping Him with our whole heart, with faith in Him, with deep appreciation of His love.

* Taking the first and last verses of Psalm 138, we can look at Mary's song of praise, we will learn (a) how she worshipped God and how we are to worship God; (b) why she worshipped God and why we must worship God; (c) about the great theme of Mary's worship and the great theme of our worship.

(a) How Mary worshipped God and how we are to worship God

Psalm 138:1 - "I will praise You, o Lord, with all my heart."

"With all my heart" - This is how Mary worshipped God.

This is how we are to worship God.

Let us worship God with our whole heart.

(b) Why Mary worshipped God and why we are to worship God

Psalm 138:8a - "The Lord will fulfil His purpose for me."

This was Mary's joyful testimony.

Her song of praise came immediately after Elizabeth's words: "Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished" (Luke 1:45).

Mary rejoices in the God of perfect faithfulness.

This is what we must do.

We must sing from the heart: "Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me" (Lamentations 3:23).

(c) The great theme of Mary's worship and the great theme of our worship

Like the Psalmist before her, Mary rejoices in "God's steadfast love which endures for ever" (Psalm 138:8).

Before the Psalmist and after us, the great theme of all true worshippers will be, "God has loved us and we are glad."

Mary looked back to God's promise to Abraham (Luke 1:54-55).

She looked ahead to us and beyond us - all generations" - "His mercy is on those who fear Him from generation to generation."

Here, we see love at every point, love for all time, love for all of eternity.