There are a number of things about Luke that make him stand out as very special among the four Gospel writers. He is traditionally believed to be the only Gentile author of a New Testament book. He was a partner with Paul on the latter missionary journeys, as indicated in Acts 16:10, where the narrative shifts to the first-person plural “we,” signifying Luke’s presence with Paul at that point. More than any other, Luke stands out as a historian in the way he was so precise in connecting the narrative to contemporary events and in providing the precise, accurate titles for government officials. That carefulness is also evident in the fact that he tells us in the opening paragraph that he has researched these matters to be able to record them accurately, which explains how he knew what Mary said, having almost certainly interviewed her. We talk about Luke as “the beloved physician,” which is interesting to see that among the reports of the woman healed from her 12-year hemorrhage, he is the one who doesn’t mention that she had spent all she had on doctors who didn’t help, but only made her worse, perhaps in deference to his fellow physicians!
For the purpose of this study, however, the additional factor in Luke’s life that makes him quite special is that he is the only one who includes what we’ve come to refer to as “the four nativity songs” or “canticles:” those of Mary (1:46-55), Zechariah (1:68-79), the angels (2:14), and Simeon (2:29-32). These have each come to be known by the opening Latin words in the 5th century Vulgate: Mary’s “Magnificat,” Zechariah’s “Benedictus,” the angels’ “Gloria,” and Simeon’s “Nunc Dimittis.” Of course, the Bible doesn’t actually call these “songs.” In fact, it describes the words as having been spoken. But each is so “poetic” and lyrical, that to describe them as songs does not seem at all out of character.
Mary’s “Magnificat” has been set to music numerous times by composers, especially British, including John Stainer, Hubert Parry, Charles Stanford, Ralph Vaughan Williams, John Ireland, Herbert Howells, and John Rutter. One of the classics is that by Johann Sebastian Bach, written while serving as the musician at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig, composed first in 1723, and then revised in 1733, changing it from E-flat to D Major. This short cantata in 12 movements goes through the entire text in Luke 1:46-55, with a concluding doxology. It is a very festive setting for five part choir, soloists, and baroque orchestra, including two trumpets. In addition to being a frequent selection for church Christmas concerts, it has often been an excellent teaching resource for students in college choirs.
Many hymnals today include the 1961 setting “Tell Out, My Soul, the Greatness of the Lord,” by Timothy Dudley-Smith. There is a quite recent hymn setting of Mary’s Magnificat written in 2015 by Lou Ann Shafer (1960-2024), wife of Timothy Paul Shafer, who served as musicologist for the 2018 “Trinity Psalter Hymnal.” Lou Ann had a lifelong love for hymns and psalms, and in 2008 was asked by the Orthodox Presbyterian Church to serve as the Music Editor for the “Trinity Psalter Hymnal.” Her work for the “Psalter Hymnal” included researching and recommending tunes and harmonizations, fitting the psalm texts to the tunes, and entry of all music and lyrics for printing. Four of her works, “Consider Well,” “Up to the Mountain Went the Lord,” “How Great the Bright Angelic Host,” and “Song of Mary”are included in the hymnal. This publication includes metrical settings of all 150 Psalms along with several hundred hymns. It was produced as a joint venture of the United Reformed Churches in North America and the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The following information is from her obituary.
Lou Ann was born on October 18, 1960 in Burgettstown, Pennsylvania, the only child of Whitey and Mary Zahransky. A gifted scholar, she excelled in school and was valedictorian of her class at Burgettstown High School. In 1978 she attended Oberlin Conservatory where she met her husband, Tim; they were married in 1983 at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in Burgettstown. Lou Ann and Tim began their married life in Bloomington, Indiana, and then moved to State College, Pennsylvania in 1986 where their three daughters Sarah, Elisabeth, and Grace, were born and raised. Lou Ann was a loving and dedicated daughter, tirelessly caring for her parents into their last years. She was utterly devoted to her family as a wife, mother, and more recently, as a grandmother to Lilly and Alice.
Lou Ann earned her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Music Education at Oberlin. She taught piano, voice and guitar at St. Charles Catholic School in Bloomington, Indiana from 1983-1986. When she and Tim moved to State College, she became the Director of Music at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church, where she continued from 1987-2004. Lou Ann worked for seventeen years at Penn State University as Instructor of Music Education. She also taught music and served as choir director in the State College Area School District, at various times for Ferguson Township Elementary, Corl Street Elementary, Gray’s Woods Elementary, and State College Area High School. She also maintained a small private piano studio for the past 20 years.
In 1997, noticing a need in her community, and desiring to create memorable musical experiences for her daughters, she founded the Nittany Valley Children’s Choir, beginning with 25 students, and growing to more than 100, in three separate choirs. Her auditioned group, the Concordia Singers, gained recognition at state, regional, and national choral conventions, including performing at three American Choral Directors Association National Conferences in 2007, 2011, and 2015. She was also a composer of music for the church, with several published sacred choral anthems.
In addition to her love for music and choir, she enjoyed playing tennis, and riding her electric bicycle. Lou Ann was an avid and prolific baker, like her mother before her – specializing in pies, cupcakes, and cookies of all varieties. She loved shopping for her family, taking great delight in picking out clothes and gifts for her husband, children, and granddaughters. She was an excellent cook, known among her family for her fried chicken, beef roast, and vegetable soup. She also loved word puzzles and Sudoku. Her favorite hobby more recently was babysitting and visiting with her granddaughters – she loved playing, reading to them, singing with them, and enjoying every moment with them.
Lou Ann had a strong and unshakeable faith, having become a believer in Christ as a teenager. She was always active in her church; as a high school student she was the organist and a member of the folk group at Our Lady of Lourdes; later, choir director at Fairview UMC in Bloomington; Director of Music at St. Paul’s UMC in State College; faithful attender and eventually a leader of Branching Out Women’s Bible Study at Oakwood Presbyterian Church. She also led the Oakwood Church Choir. Years later, she served as one of the founding members of Resurrection Orthodox Presbyterian Church, hosting regular Bible studies in her home, serving as one of its pianists, and leading children’s music for Sunday School. She embodied Christ’s selfless and sacrificial love, never seeking recognition but quietly and consistently serving others.
When we read in Luke’s Gospel about “the virgin Mary,” we can’t help but wonder at what an amazing thing that must have been for her to be confronted by Gabriel with that astonishing announcement, recorded in Luke 1:30ff.
Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a Son, and you shall call His name Jesus. He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. And the Lord God will give to Him the throne of His father David, and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.
After asking, “How will this be, since I am a virgin?” the angel answered her.
The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be called holy – the Son of God.
Then after hearing of the miraculous conception for her relative Elizabeth, Mary responded with model humility and submission.
Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.
It is no surprise to us, then, that when she and Elizabeth shared their mutually marvelous news, that Elizabeth said,
Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!
While Roman Catholics have made too much of Mary, some in our time even giving her the title “Co-Redeemer,” Protestants have made too little of her. There needs to be a balance, so that we all appropriately honor her (as Elizabeth did), but make the main focus of our attention and devotion the substance of what she said in her “Magnificat.” Her humility in responding to the “annunciation” should be the model for our appreciation of what she said (or sang!). We ought also to recognize how Jesus honored her, submitting to her parental role during His earthly years, and tenderly committing her care to the Apostle John from the cross.
The focus of her song was the character of God and what God was in the process of doing. Realizing that Mary was probably a young teenager (the typical age in those days for a young woman to be engaged and married), it is all the more amazing that she knew so much about the Lord and the Old Testament that she was able, apparently spontaneously, to compose such an extraordinary song of praise. It bears such similarity to the song of Hannah, the mother of Samuel (1 Samuel 2:1-10) that was certainly not a coincidence. Mary knew that part of the Bible so well that it shaped her outburst of joy.
Stanza 1 is an exuberant outburst of joy that speaks of the amazing grace of God, as He had regarded her humble state and honored her with this extraordinary privilege of being the mother of the Messiah. We should especially notice that she recognized this as grace. It was not that God had commissioned Gabriel to make a search to find the most saintly woman on earth who would deserve this honor. No, she knew it was not because of anything in her, but only because of God’s sovereign good pleasure that she had been chosen, just as in our own election to eternal life. We should also notice, in these first words of her song, that, contrary to the Roman Catholic teaching of Mary, she recognized that she was a sinner like everyone else, and needed the Lord to be “my Savior.”
My soul doth magnify the Lord;
my spirit doth rejoice in God,
for He, my Savior, did in grace
His servant’s humble state regard.
Stanza 2 indicates that Mary, like most Jews of the first century, had hopeful expectations of the Messianic promises of the Old Testament being fulfilled. And so she recognized that as a result of what her Son would accomplish, all generations would proclaim her blessedness. This would be a much better understanding, though, than many of her contemporaries who failed to see that God’s plan was not just for Israel, but for all nations. That’s what was sung in the synagogues form Psalm 67, “May God bless us and make His face to shine upon us, that Your way may be known on earth, Your saving power among all nations. Let the peoples praise You, O God; let all the peoples praise You.” And this is the end of her speaking about herself, as she transitions in the end of these verses on through the rest of her song to sing exclusively of how “The Mighty One hath done great things for me, and holy is His name.”
Behold, all generations hence
my blessedness will e’er proclaim.
The Mighty One hath done great things
for me, and holy is His name.
Stanza 3 is where her Magnificat begins to so closely resemble Hannah’s song in its attention to the dramatic reversals, in the ways God has done the opposite of what worldly thinking would have expected. Hannah spoke how “the bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on strength,” how “the barren has borne seven, but she who has many children is forlorn.” Similarly, Mary sang how God’s mercy would cause generations to fear Him, as “He scatters those who dwell in pride.” This is where we find the hope in our own salvation, as we who are unrighteous in ourselves are declared righteous in Christ in our justification, as our filthy robes are taken away and Jesus’ spotless robes are placed upon us” (Zechariah 3).
For generations, fearing Him,
His mercy will on them abide.
His mighty arm displays His strength;
He scatters those who dwell in pride.
Stanza 4 continues those dramatic contrasts. The nighty are cast from their thrones, and those of low estate are lifted up. Isn’t that exactly what happens in our salvation? Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 1:26-29, “For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble births. But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world tom shame the strong; God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.” In that same pattern, Mary here sang of “the hungry He hath filled with food; the rich He empty sent away.”
He cast the mighty from their thrones,
and lifted those of low estate.
The hungry He hath filled with food;
the rich He empty sent away.
Stanza 5 concludes by setting all this in the theological framework of God’s gracious covenant with Abraham, that through Him all nations of the earth would be blessed. Mary was well informed about the covenant promises to Israel through Abraham. But under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit she sang of Abraham’s seed, the Savior whom she had just learned would soon begin moving in her virgin womb.
He helped His servant Israel,
in mem’ry of His mercy sure,
as told our father Abraham,
and to his seed forevermore.
© 2015 Lou Ann Shafer, admin. Trinity Psalter Hymnal Joint Venture
And so, yes, what an amazing young woman was Mary. But we must follow her example by singing not of her, but of what an amazing God we have!
The tune PUER NOBIS NASCITUR has been used with several different texts, especially for Christmas and Easter. The music comes from Michael Praetorius (1571-1621). Born into a staunchly Lutheran family in Creuzburg, Germany, he was educated at the University of Frankfort-an-der-Oder. In 1595 he began a long association with Duke Heinrich Julius of Brunswick, when he was appointed court organist and later music director and secretary. The duke resided in Wolfenbüttel, and Praetorius spent much of his time at the court there, eventually establishing his own residence in Wolfenbüttel as well. When the duke died, Praetorius officially retained his position, but he spent long periods of time engaged in various musical appointments in Dresden, Magdeburg, and Halle. Praetorius produced a prodigious amount of music and music theory. His church music consists of over one thousand titles, including the sixteen-volume “Musae Sionae” (1605-1612), which contains Lutheran hymns in settings ranging from two voices to multiple choirs. His “Syntagma Musicum” (1614-1619) is a veritable encyclopedia of music and includes valuable information about the musical instruments of his time.
For those looking to find this hymn in pint, it is number 301 in the “Trinity Psalter Hymnal.”
Here is a link to the music for this tune.