Life's Magnificat
Let such as love Thy salvation say continually, Let God be magnified.” — Psatm lxx. 4.
THE spiritual greatness of these psalmists is seen in the impressive fact that God’s statutes have become their songs. They have passed out of the bleak wilderness of statutory obedience into the bright and cheery realm of freedom. They do not wear God’s commandments as a strait-jacket which imprisons them in galling restrictions, but rather as a comfortable garment which inspires healthy movement. They are not slaves on the road. They are minstrels. They are not growling God’s will. They are singing it, and it transforms the heavy walk into a nimble dance. They love God’s salvation. The noblest emotion is wedded to their obedience. Their homage is an enthusiasm. Their religion is a passion. And how does such a glowing religion express itself? Has it any striking characteristics? It reveals itself in manifold forms and fashions, but there is one thing in which its expression is constant. It says continually, Let God be magnified. Its conception of sanctity is a vesture that is without seam. Its conception of praise is a song that hath no ending. And what a vision is this, to be held by a Jew who had never seen the Christ! He had got away from the local altar, which had been erected for worship at some particular place along the road, and he now regarded the entire road as an altar. He could worship without ceasing. That would be wonderful at any time, whether in the dimmer days of the early dawn of revelation, or in the fulness of the days when the Sun of Righteousness arose with healing in His wings. It is a marvellous thing in any life when the altar is seen to be as long as the road, and when the. Magnificat is an anthem, that has no. ending. But to find this word in the Old Testament greatly enhances the wonder. We could take the word of the psalmist and lift it into one of the letters of the Apostle Paul, and it would not be dimmed by the encircling glory.
How can we magnify God continually? We can do it by making everything God-like. We can take every circumstance which comes to us, every task, every duty, every joy, every sorrow, every victory, every defeat, and in loving God’s salvation we can make it wear something of the holiness and loveliness of God. And this means that life’s commonplaces can be made to shine with the light of God’s countenance. It means that God’s Spirit can possess and pervade small events. It means that all our moments can be made calm and bright. By God’s grace our hearts can sing the Magnificat through everything. The music of sanctity can be heard in the slenderest reeds.
We magnify God when we do everything magnanimously. Things which are done in a great way magnify God. “Great is the Lord and greatly to be praised.” We magnify God. when we are. truly big, even.
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140 Iife’s Magnificat
when we are doing little things. Never to be small and mean! To think magnanimously! To speak magnanimously! To act magnanimously! To love God’s salvation in these things is to sing the Magnificat all the day long.