My Soul Magnifies the Lord

In Luke 1:46-47, Mary says, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior.” This is the beginning of her song of praise to God, often called the Magnificat, and where the lyrics for the beautiful four-part harmony hymn come from. This song reflects Mary’s attitude toward God, and her humbleness, after being told that she was chosen to give birth to Jesus Christ, the Savior of the world. She magnified God in the way that she lived, and so can we today.

According to Strong’s Concordance, magnify means to “make or declare great; enlarge; extol.” This is a spot-on description of what we are to do as Christians. Psalm 34:3 says, “Oh, magnify the Lord with me, and let us exalt His name together.” The psalm then continues to praise God for all the things He did for David, the psalmist. We need to magnify Christ in all that we do. But how do we do this?

We magnify Him when we live faithfully and follow His commands. When we are around non-Christians, we should be setting an example by the way we live our lives, showing that we are different from them and that we belong to Christ. It can be tempting to try to blend in, and act like our friends do, but Christ will not be magnified if we do this.

Another way to magnify Christ is through evangelism. Christians are commanded to spread the gospel and help others become Christians. Jesus was the ultimate sacrifice for all of mankind. He should be magnified for that. There is no reason why we should choose not to magnify God. Everyone should strive to be like Mary and magnify Him and praise Him for all He has done.