Luke 1:67

We have here the song wherewith Zacharias praised God when his mouth was opened; in it he is said to prophesy (Luk 1:67), and so he did in the strictest sense of prophesying; for he foretold things to come concerning the kingdom of the Messiah, to which all the prophets bear witness. Observe,

I. How he was qualified for this: He was filled with the Holy Ghost, was endued with more than ordinary measures and degrees of it, for this purpose; he was divinely inspired. God not only forgave him his unbelief and distrust (which was signified by discharging him from the punishment of it), but, as a specimen of the abounding of grace towards believers, he filled him with the Holy Ghost, and put this honour upon him, to employ him for his honour.

II. What the matter of his song was. Here is nothing said of the private concerns of his own family, the rolling away of the reproach from it and putting of a reputation upon it, by the birth of this child, though, no doubt, he found a time to give thanks to God for this, with his family; but in this song he is wholly taken up with the kingdom of the Messiah, and the public blessings to be introduced by it. He could have little pleasure in this fruitfulness of his vine, and the hopefulness of his olive-plant, if herein he had not foreseen the good of Jerusalem, peace upon Israel, and blessings on both out of Zion, Psa 128:3, Psa 128:5, Psa 128:6. The Old Testament prophesies are often expressed in praises and new songs, so is the beginning of New Testament prophecy: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel. The God of the whole earth shall he be called; yet Zacharias, speaking of the work of redemption, called him the Lord God of Israel, because to Israel the prophecies, promises, and types, of the redemption had hitherto been given, and to them the first proffers and proposals of it were now to be made. Israel, as a chosen people, was a type of the elect of God out of all nations, whom God had a particular eye to, in sending the Saviour; and therefore he is therein called the Lord God of Israel.

Now Zacharias here blesses God,

1. For the work of salvation that was to be wrought out by the Messiah himself, Luk 1:68-75. This it is that fills him, when he is filled with the Holy Ghost, and it is that which all who have the Spirit of Christ are full of.

(1.) In sending the Messiah, God has made a gracious visit to his people, whom for many ages he had seemed to neglect, and to be estranged from; he hath visited them as a friend, to take cognizance of their case. God is said to have visited his people in bondage when he delivered them (Exo 3:16; Exo 4:31), to have visited his people in famine when he gave them bread, Rut 1:6. He had often sent to them by his prophets, and had still kept up a correspondence with them; but now he himself made them a visit.

(2.) He has wrought out redemption for them: He has redeemed his people. This was the errand on which Christ came into the world, to redeem those that were sold for sin, and sold under sin; even God's own people, his Israel, his son, his first-born, his free-born, need to be redeemed, and are undone if they be not. Christ redeems them by price out of the hands of God's justice, and redeems them by power out of the hands of Satan's tyranny, as Israel out of Egypt.

(3.) He has fulfilled the covenant of royalty made with the most famous Old Testament prince, that is, David. Glorious things had been said of his family, that on him, as a mighty one, help should be laid, that his horn should be exalted, and his seed perpetuated, Psa 89:19, Psa 89:20, Psa 89:24, Psa 89:29. But that family had been long in a manner cast off and abhorred, Psa 89:38. Now here it is glorified in, that, according to the promise, the horn of David should again be made to bud; for, Psa 132:17, he hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (Luk 1:69), there, where it was promised and expected to arise. David is called God's servant, not only as a good man, but as a king that ruled for God; and he was an instrument of the salvation of Israel, by being employed in the government of Israel; so Christ is the author of eternal redemption to those only that obey him. There is in Christ, and in him only, salvation for us, and it is a horn of salvation; for, [1.] It is an honourable salvation. It is raised up above all other salvations, none of which are to be compared with it: in it the glory both of the Redeemer and of the redeemed are advanced, and their horn exalted with honour. [2.] It is a plentiful salvation. It is a cornucopia - a horn of plenty, a salvation in which we are blessed with spiritual blessings, in heavenly things, abundantly. [3.] It is a powerful salvation: the strength of the beast is in his horn. He has raised up such a salvation as shall pull down our spiritual enemies, and protect us from them. In the chariots of this salvation the Redeemer shall go forth, and go on, conquering and to conquer.

(4.) He has fulfilled all the precious promises made to the church by the most famous Old Testament prophets (Luk 1:70): As he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets. His doctrine of salvation by the Messiah is confirmed by an appeal to the prophets, and the greatness and importance of that salvation thereby evidenced and magnified; it is the same that they spoke of, which therefore ought to be expected and welcomed; it is what they enquired and searched diligently after (Pe1 1:10, Pe1 1:11), which therefore ought not to be slighted or thought meanly of. God is now doing that which he has long ago spoken of; and therefore be silent, O all flesh, before him, and attend to him. See, [1.] How sacred the prophecies of this salvation were. The prophets who delivered them were holy prophets, who durst not deceive and who aimed at promoting holiness among men; and it was the holy God himself that spoke by them. [2.] How ancient they were: ever since the world began. God having promised, when the world began, that the Seed of the woman should break the serpent's head, that promise was echoed to when Adam called his wife's name Eve - Life, for the sake of that Seed of hers; when Eve called her first son Cain, saying, I have gotten a man from the Lord, and another son, Seth, settled; when Noah was called rest, and foretold that God should dwell in the tents of Shem. And it was not long after the new world began in Noah that the promise was made to Abraham that in his Seed the nations of the earth should be blessed. [3.] What a wonderful harmony and concert we perceive among them. God spoke the same thing by them all, and therefore it is said to be dia stomatos, not by the mouths, but by the mouth, of the prophets, for they all speak of Christ as it were with one mouth.

Now what is this salvation which was prophesied of?

First, It is a rescue from the malice of our enemies; it is sōtērian ex echthrōn hēmōn - a salvation out of our enemies, from among them, and out of the power of them that hate us (Luk 1:71); it is a salvation from sin, and the dominion of Satan over us, both by corruptions within and temptations without. The carnal Jews expected to be delivered from under the Roman yoke, but intimation was betimes given that it should be a redemption of another nature. He shall save his people from their sins, that they may not have dominion over them, Mat 1:21.

Secondly, It is a restoration to the favour of God; it is to perform the mercy promised to our forefathers, Luk 1:72. The Redeemer shall not only break the head of the serpent that was the author of our ruin, but he shall re-instate us in the mercy of God and re-establish us in his covenant; he shall bring us as it were into a paradise again, which was signified by the promises made to the patriarchs, and the holy covenant made with them, the oath which he sware to our father Abraham, Luk 1:73. Observe, 1. That which was promised to the fathers, and is performed to us, is mercy, pure mercy; nothing in it is owing to our merit (we deserve wrath and the curse), but all to the mercy of God, which designed us grace and life: ex mero motu - of his own good pleasure, he loved us because he would love us. 2. God herein had an eye to his covenant, his holy covenant, that covenant with Abraham: I will be a God to thee and thy seed. This his seed had really forfeited by their transgressions; this he seemed to have forgotten in the calamities brought upon them; but he will now remember it, will make it appear that he remembers it, for upon that are grounded all his returns of mercy: Lev 26:42, Then will I remember my covenant.

Thirdly, It is a qualification for, and an encouragement to, the service of God. Thus was the oath he sware to our Father Abraham, That he would give us power and grace to serve him, in an acceptable manner to him and a comfortable manner to ourselves, Luk 1:74, Luk 1:75. Here seems to be an allusion to the deliverance of Israel out of Egypt, which, God tells Moses, was in pursuance of the covenant he made with Abraham (Exo 3:6-8), and that this was the design of his bringing them out of Egypt, that they might serve God upon this mountain, Exo 3:12. Note, The great design of gospel grace is not to discharge us fRom. but to engage us to, and encourage us in, the service of God. Under this notion Christianity was always to be looked upon, as intended to make us truly religious, to admit us into the service of God, to bind us to it, and to quicken us in it. We are therefore delivered from the iron yoke of sin, that our necks may be put under the sweet and easy yoke of the Lord Jesus. The very bonds which he has loosed do bind us faster unto him, Psa 116:16. We are hereby enabled, 1. To serve God without fear - aphobōs. We are therefore put into a state of holy safety that we might serve God with a holy security and serenity of mind, as those that are quiet from the fears of evil. God must be served with a filial fear, a reverent obedient fear, an awakening quickening fear, but not with a slavish fear, like that of the slothful servant, who represented him to himself as a hard master, and unreasonable; not with that fear that has torment and amazement in it; not with the fear of a legal spirit; a spirit of bondage, but with the boldness of an evangelical spirit, a spirit of adoption. 2. To serve him in holiness and righteousness, which includes the whole duty of man towards God and our neighbour. It is both the intention and the direct tendency of the gospel to renew upon us that image of God in which man was at first made, which consisted in righteousness and true holiness, Psa 50:14. 3. To serve him, before him, in the duties of his immediate worship, wherein we present ourselves before the Lord, to serve him as those that have an eye always upon him, and see his eye always upon us, upon our inward man, that is serving him before him. 4. To serve him all the days of our life. The design of the gospel is to engage us in constancy and perseverance in the service of God, by showing us how much depends upon our not drawing back, and by showing us how Christ loved us to the end, and thereby engaged us to love him to the end.

2. He blessed God for the work of preparation for this salvation, which was to be done by John Baptist (Luk 1:76): Thou child, though now but a child of eight days' old, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest. Jesus Christ is the Highest, for he is God over all, blessed for evermore (Rom 9:5), equal with the Father. John Baptist was his prophet, as Aaron was Moses's prophet (Exo 7:1); what he said was as his mouth, what he did was as his harbinger. Prophecy had now long ceased, but in John it revived, as it had done in Samuel, who was born of an aged mother, as John was, after a long cessation. John's business was,

(1.) To prepare people for the salvation, by preaching repentance and reformation as great gospel duties: Thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, and but a little before him, to prepare his ways, to call people to make room for him, and get ready for his entertainment. Let every thing that may obstruct his progress, or embarrass it, or hinder people from coming to him, be taken away: see Isa 40:3, Isa 40:4. Let valleys be filled, and hills be brought low.

(2.) To give people a general idea of the salvation, that they might know, not only what to do, but what to expect; for the doctrine he preached was that the kingdom of heaven is at hand. There are two things in which you must know that this salvation consists: -

[1.] The forgiveness of what we have done amiss. It is salvation by the remission of sins, those sins which stand in the way of the salvation, and by which we are all become liable to ruin and condemnation, Luk 1:77. John Baptist gave people to understand that, though their case was sad, by reason of sin, it was not desperate, for pardon might be obtained through the tender mercy of our God (the bowels of mercy, so the word is): there was nothing in us but a piteous case to recommend us to the divine compassion.

[2.] Direction to do better for the time to come. The gospel salvation not only encourages us to hope that the works of darkness shall be forgiven us, but sets up a clear and true light, by which we may order our steps aright. In it the day-spring hath visited us from on high (Luk 1:78); and this also is owing to the tender mercy of our God. Christ is anatolē - the morning Light, the rising Sun, Mal 4:2. The gospel brings light with it (Joh 3:19), leaves us not to wander in the darkness of Pagan ignorance, or in the moonlight of the Old Testament types or figures, but in it the day dawns; in John Baptist it began to break, but increased apace, and shone more and more to the perfect day. We have as much reason to welcome the gospel day who enjoy it as those have to welcome the morning who had long waited for it. First, The gospel is discovering; it shows us that which before we were utterly in the dark about (Luk 1:79); it is to give light to them that sit in darkness, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ; the day-spring visited this dark world to lighten the Gentiles, Act 26:18. Secondly, It is reviving; it brings light to them that sit in the shadow of death, as condemned prisoners in the dungeon, to bring them the tidings of a pardon, at least of a reprieve and opportunity of procuring a pardon; it proclaims the opening of the prison (Isa 61:1), brings the light of life. How pleasant is that light! Thirdly, It is directing; it is to guide our feet in the way of peace, into that way which will bring us to peace at last. It is not only a light to our eyes, but a light to our feet (Psa 119:105); it guides us into the way of making our peace with God, of keeping up a comfortable communion; that way of peace which as sinners we have wandered from and have not known (Rom 3:17), nor could ever have known of ourselves.

In the last verse, we have short account of the younger years of John Baptist. Though he was the son of a priest, he did not, like Samuel, go up, when he was a child, to minister before the Lord; for he was to prepare the way for a better priesthood. But we are here told,

1. Of his eminence as to the inward man: The child grew in the capacities of his mind, much more than other children; so that he waxed strong in the spirit; had a strong judgment and strong resolution. Reason and conscience (both which are the candle of the Lord) were so strong in him that he had the inferior faculties of appetite and passion in complete subjection betimes. By this it appeared that he was betimes filled with the Holy Ghost; for those that are strong in the Lord are strong in spirit.

2. Of his obscurity as to the outward man: He was in the deserts; not that he lived a hermit; cut off from the society of men. No, we have reason to think that he went up to Jerusalem at the feasts, and frequented the synagogues on the sabbath day, but his constant residence was in some of those scattered houses that were in the wilderness of Zuph or Maon, which we read of in the story of David. There he spent most of his time, in contemplation and devotion, and had not his education in the schools, or at the feet of the rabbin. Note, Many a one is qualified for great usefulness, who yet is buried alive; and many are so long buried who are designed, and are thereby in the fitting, for so much greater usefulness at last; as John Baptist, who was in the desert only till the day of his showing to Israel, when he was in the thirtieth year of his age. Note, There is a time fixed for the showing of those favours to Israel which are reserved; the vision of them is for an appointed time, and at the end it shall speak, and shall not lie.

Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk_1:67-79

And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost

The song of Zacharias

I.

Preliminary questions. In the opening portion of St. Lukes Gospel, there is a definiteness of time, place, and circumstance, which makes us feel that we are not breathing in the air or looking through the deceptive light of legend. We are not travelling in dreamland, for we can measure distances. The objections which have been made in modern times to this statement are derived from two elements in the narrative--

(1) from the account of various angelic appearances;

(2) from the recorded bursts of ecstatic or prophetic song.

1. As to the angelic appearance in these opening chapters. Unquestionably here, as elsewhere, throughout, and to its very close, St. Lukes is the Gospel of the holy angels. The existence o! angels rests upon the same witness as the whole supernatural life. There must be something of fitness in the times of their manifestation, and in the persons to whom they make themselves known. In a material age they cease to appear. There must be a certain saintly second-sight--a something angelic in the angel seen. All depends upon the initial point of view. From ours it is not incredible, but rather probable, that Gabriel should have come to Zacharias and Mary; that songs of acclamation should have rung out over Bethlehem. We are come to an innumerable company of angels. Well, too, may we be impressed by the gravity and reserve of the scriptural account of angelic appearances. Man receives no random invitation to a heedless intimacy on the one hand; to a Socinian heresy of angel cultus on the other. Of all the countless hosts of heaven, Scripture condescends to make but two known to us by name--Gabriel and Michael.

2. But, in reference to these opening scenes of St. Lukes Gospel, it has further been objected that these sacred songs, these bursts of Hebraic poetry, are unmistakably like art, or legend; that the critic is irresistibly impelled to see them in a piece of fancy work, like the songs in Tennysons Queen Mary. There are a few considerations which remove this obstinate prejudice of modern criticism. If labour and genius are the only possible creators of any form of literature, these songs, of course, can scarcely be genuine. But if, as a matter of fact, prophecy exists; if Jesus Christ be its chief and central subject, it is only natural that, after an interval of 400 years, it should awaken again, just as he was about to visit the earth; that the father of Gods chosen servant, who was to go as a messenger before Messiahs face, should be filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesy.

(1) The Benedictus was, no doubt, formed in the heart of Zacharias during the long months of enforced muteness, when he was dumb, and not able to speak. After nine months of silence it came streaming out like the molten metal when issue is given to it.

(2) The pious Hebrew would have no such material difficulties as those which have been suggested above. For Hebrew poetry was not fettered by the laws of an inexorable prosody. It did not exact the exquisite and severe modulation of classical scansion. Psalm like strains rushed spontaneously to the lips of those who lived in the circle of the Old Testament writings, and spake its language. Moreover--and this is most important of all--the whole substance and tenor of the Benedictus shows that it was not moulded by art; that it does not bear the same relation to the gospel history as the speeches of Pericles or Hannibal to the narratives of Thucydides and Livy. From what point of view must Zaeharias have spoken? The sight of Christ which he enjoyed was far beyond that of any of the psalmists in clearness. Yet the picture which he drew must have been painted in Hebrew colours, and set in a Jewish framework. A later writer, in an age pre-eminently without critical tact and subtlety, would never have contented himself with putting these oracular utterances into the lips of Zacharias. No doubt the Christian Church has, almost from the beginning, used these songs in daily worship. By doing so she interprets them of Jesus. But the question is not, in the slightest degree, how the Christian Church understands this and the other songs, when they have been permanently committed to writing. The question is whether, after the cross and resurrection, after all things were fulfilled, she could, by any conceivable self-restraint, have managed to write them in such a strain? These songs would rather have been like the Apocalyptic strains, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain. The mind which wrote the Benedietus, under the condition of a full historical knowledge of the gospel, must either have been an earnest or a deceptive mind. For an earnest mind, such reserve upon the subjects which were in the front rank of its affections, would have been unnatural; for a deceptive mind it would have been, ex hypothesi, impossible. Thus, the Benedictus is impossible at a date either earlier or later than that to which it is assigned by the third evangelist. Such visions of the light just dawning, such a conception of the general character of the approaching redemption, with such reserve--rather such silence--as to the mode in which it was to be carried out in detail; such silver brightness on the edge of the mist, such dimness in its heart; such strange eloquence and reserve--could only have come from one who stood on the thin border-line between the two dispensations--on the infinitesimal space between the two vast ranges before and behind. A little more, and the song would have been purely Christian; a little less, and it would have been purely Jewish.

II. We proceed to draw some lessons from the song itself.

1. It is well to remember who and what Zacharias was. Zacharias was a holy and religious priest. The employment of Zacharias was that of a minister of a Divinely ordained ritual. Now true revelation does not deal with the spirit of man mechanically. The thought and utterance take the mould and colour of the mind, which the spirit freely uses. The form of the revelation is adapted to the natural tendencies and whole condition of him who is the Holy Ghosts voice or pen. The prophet priest Ezekiel views the Church under the image which would naturally occur to one who had been trained in such an element--the image of a temple. The priest prophet Zacharias views the life of all the emancipated children of God as one continuous worship, one endless priestly service--That we, fearlessly, having been once for all delivered from hand of enemies, should continually do Him worship. In holiness and righteousness before Him all the days that we have. This is the essence and use of all the true ritualism of God. One word summed up the whole meaning and purpose of the priestly life of Zacharias--to do God service, to be worshipping Him. This word, this Ich Dien of the faithful priesthood, he makes the Ich Dien of every child of God. The one true priest, whose coming is so near, shall enable all the redeemed people to perform the true service of priests, to celebrate Gods worship in the long festivity of a perpetual freedom. The motto of Christs kingdom of priests comes fitly from the lips of an inspired priest. The meaning of the Old Testament ritual is given, as best became the fitness of things, by one who was of the order of Abia. These words are sung in hundreds of churches. It is well that singers should be taught to sing gracefully, as well as heartily, to the Lord. But both choirs and congregations should keep the words of Zacharias ever before them, Without fear to do Him the worship and service of a life.

2. The place which is occupied by the Benedictus in the reformed Prayer Book is significant and interesting. It is placed immediately after the second lesson at morning service, which is always from one of the Gospels, Epistles, or the Apocalypse. Zacharias was the first New Testament prophet; and this is almost the first gospel hymn. The voice and song of such a one may fitly be heard immediately after our first reading from the New Testament. It does not, perhaps, seem a mere fancy to see in the contents of the Benedictus a reference to the work of the Christian ministry. Zacharias was a father as well as a priest. He turns, with a burst of joy, which was not merely natural, to his babe, and places him among the goodly company of the prophets-- And thou too, child, shalt be called prophet of the Highest. For onward thou shalt go, on, in front of the Lord, to prepare His ways; To give knowledge of salvation to His people. But what was to be done by the child of Zacharias is to be done by Christs ministers, who prepare and make ready a people for His second coming. And the simple reading of the simple gospel in the second lesson is a specimen, as it were, and epitome of all this work.

III. This utterance of Zacharias is something more than a song or poem. It is a treatise on salvation.

1. Its Author--Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, For He hath raised up a strong salvation for us.

2. Its cause--On account of the tender mercy of our God.

3. Its essence-- Salvation, consisting in remisssion of sins.

4. Its blessedness and privileges--Being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, to serve Him without fear.

5. Its consequence--In holiness and righteousness before Him all our days. All who have ever understood the Psalmists deeply pathetic cry, Make the reproach which I am afraid of to pass over, will also understand the preciousness of the privilege. We conclude by citing the image with which the song concludes. It is derived from a caravan which has lost its way, when the wayfarers sit down in the darkness, which is like the shadow of death, to perish in their helplessness. Then, in the high heavens, a glorious star makes its Epiphany. So often as we sing this hymn with true spiritual worship, with hearts full of the sense of that salvation which consists in remission of sins, the old song may be as full of life and joy as any new hymn. The Hymn of Zacharias is the strain of the Pilgrims of the Night. (Bishop Willliam Alexander.)

Zachariahs canticle

1. Observe that no sooner was Zachary recovered and restored to his speech, but he sings the praises of his Redeemer, and offers up a thanksgiving to God. The best return we can make to God for the use of our tongue, for the giving or restoring of our speech, is to publish our Creators praise, to plead His cause, and vindicate His honour.

2. The subject matter of Zacharys song. What is the particular and special mercy which He praises and blesses God for? It is not for his own particular and private mercy, namely, the recovery of his speech, though undoubtedly he was very thankful to God for that mercy; but he blesses and praises God for catholic and universal mercies bestowed upon His Church and people.

3. In this evangelical hymn there is a prophetic prediction, both concerning Christ and concerning John.

(1) Concerning Christ, he declares that God the Father had sent Him of His free mercy and rich grace, yet in performance of His truth and faithfulness, and according to His promise and oath which He had made to Abraham and the fathers of the Old Testament. Where note--

(a) He blesses God for the comprehensive blessing of the Messiah--visited, i.e., in the incarnation of Jesus.

(b) The special fruit and benefit of this gracious and merciful visitation--the redemption of a lost world.

(c) The character given of this Saviour and Redeemer--horn of salvation, i.e., a royal and glorious, strong and powerful, Saviour to His Church and people. The horn in Scripture signifies glory and dignity, strength and power; as the beauty, so the strength of the beast lies in his horn; now Christ being styled a horn of salvation intimates that He Himself is a royal and princely Saviour, and that the salvation which He brings is great and plentiful, glorious and powerful.

(d) The nature and quality of that salvation and deliverance which the Son of God came to accomplish for us. Not a temporal deliverance, as the Jews expected, from the power of the Romans; but spiritual, from the hands of sin and Satan, death and hell; His design was to purchase a spiritual freedom and liberty for us, that we might be enabled to serve Him without fear, i.e., without the servile and offending fear of a slave, but with the dutiful and ingenuous fear of a child. Learn hence, that believers, who were slaves of Satan, are by Christ made Gods freemen; and, as such, they owe God a willing, cheerful, and delightful service without fear, and a constant, persevering service all the days of their life.

(e) The source and fountain from which this glorious Saviour and gracious salvation arose and sprang, viz., from the mercy and faithfulness of God.

(2) Concerning John, he prophesies--

(a) The nature of His office.

(b) The quality of his work. He was to be a herald and harbinger to the Most High; as the morning star, foretelling the glorious arising of the Sun of Righteousness.

4. Zachary, having spoken a few words concerning his son, returns instantly to celebrate the praises of the Saviour, comparing Him to the rising sun, which shone forth in the brightness of the gospel to enlighten the dark corners of the world. (W. Burkitt, M. A.)

Deliverance at hand

When an English garrison, during the Indian Mutiny, was besieged at Lucknow, and was almost momentarily expecting the fall of the city, a sick woman started up from her slumber, crying, Were saved! Dont you hear the music? Theyre coming! Theyre coming! No one else could hear that music; yet, in a few hours, a relieving force arrived, and the garrison was saved. This prophecy of Zacharias is like the far-off music of the coming salvation. Compare in Motleys Dutch Republic the account of the relief of Leyden. The state of the world before the coming of Christ may be compared to that of shipwrecked men clinging to a rock in the midst of the sea. There is no safety for them where they are, and no safety in themselves. With what joyous eyes is it that they behold a boat coming to their rescue from the distant land! So in the case of lost humanity, salvation had to be brought. A man crossing a heath one dark night fell into a pit. He tried in vain to get out, calling loudly for assistance all the while. Soon people gathered to his assistance, and a rope was lowered to him. He grasped it, and was drawn up into the light. So mankind cannot be uplifted from the pit of sin, except by salvation brought from above. (Sunday School Times.)

Gods faithfulness

Like the song of Mary, this prophecy of Zacharias tells of Gods faithfulness in His promises. In ancient times there was a beautiful rite of hospitality. Friends residing in different countries gave each other emblems, on the presentation of which each could claim the hospitality of the other. And when they both were dead, the son of one could call upon the son of the other for the same hospitality by presenting his emblem. The promises made to the father were fulfilled to the son. So down through the ages the Jews waited for the fulfilment of the promises made to Abraham. But to us it is given to see in clearer light their complete fulfilment, and how that came neither too late nor too soon. (Sunday School Times.)

The song of Zacharias

I. Let us join Zacharias in his song of praise for that great deliverance of which John was the harbinger. The blessings here celebrated were not confined to Jews, but are common to all Gods people. Salvation is ever the same in substance, and much the same in its form and means.

II. It becomes us to be thankful that the light of the gospel has visited our own land in particular. Through Gods mercy we have been lifted out of idolatry, impurity, and misery, into the knowledge of the truth. Let us see that the light is shining into our hearts, and that we are walking in it.

III. Deliverance from enemies through the gospel. Saved from sin; taken out of the power of our spiritual foes.

IV. Serving God without fear.

1. External peace and security.

2. Internal state of mind produced by religion. At peace with God; delighting in Him as a Father and Friend. (James Foote, M. A.)

The parental relationship

There are men and women known in history chiefly by their relation to their children. They were godly men and women; men and women of ability and usefulness in their day; but their pre-eminent place in the world is as parents. This fact should be a stimulus and a source of hope to every parent. Whatever a father or a mother may have done or have failed to do up to the present hour, there is that child to be looked after, to be loved and cared for, to be trained and prayed over, to have faith in behalf of. In that child there may lie the hope and the joy of multitudes, and the hope and the joy of the parents as well. How this ought to nerve us and give us cheer as we toil and pray for the child of our hearts. That child may rise up to call us blessed, and, for his sake, all generations may call us blessed. It is for us to do our duty by our children. It may be for us to have a reward in them beyond all other rewards we have in and for our earthly course. You are the father, or the mother, of that child. How much of good does that portend to him? How much of good it may portend to you! (H. C.Trumbull.)

The source of true power

Filled with the Holy Ghost--that was fitness for praising God acceptably, and for proclaiming His truth acceptably, in the days of Zacharias. It was not that Zacharias was filled with enthusiasm, filled with earnestness, filled with knowledge, filled with poetic fervour; but that he was filled with the Holy Ghost. That gave his words power, and, because of that fact, his words are in our ears and on our lips to-day. There is no other source of true power in Gods service in this age, or in any age. To be a good parent, a good teacher, a good preacher, a good Bible student, a good man, or a good woman, one needs to be filled with the Holy Ghost; there is no substitute for this. (H. C.Trumbull.)

Songs composed under stress of deep feeling

On the night before her execution, Mary Queen of Scots composed a short prayer, and sang it over by herself because she could not sleep. The words are very musical in the Latin which she used, expressing the passionate wish of a captive to escape:

O Lord God Almighty! my hope is in Thee!

O Jesus beloved, now liberate me!

In durance the drearest, in bonds the severest--

My desire is to Thee!

In sighing and crying, on bended knees lying,

I adore--I implore Thou wouldst liberate me!

When Madame Guyon and her faithful maid were imprisoned, she composed songs for her comfort. And then, says she, we sang them together, praises unto Thee, O our God! It sometimes seemed to me as if I were a little bird, whom the Lord had placed in a cage, and that I had nothing to do now but sing!

Religious value of song

Bishop Jewel, writing to Peter Martyr, March, 1560, says: Religion is now somewhat more established than it was. The people are everywhere exceedingly inclined to the better part. Ecclesiastical and popular music has much conduced to this result. For as soon as they had once commenced to sing publicly in only one little church in London, immediately not only the other neighbouring churches, but even the towns far distant, began to vie with each other in the same practice. At times you may see at Pauls Cross, after sermon, six thousand persons, old and young, of both sexes, singing together and praising God. This sadly annoys the priests and the devil, for they see that by these means the sacred discourses sink more deeply into mens minds, and that their kingdom is shaken and shattered at almost every note.

The song of Zacharias

It is emphatically the song of a man whose tongue is unloosed; who for the first time has entered into the meaning of the books which he has been reading since his childhood, of the services in which he has been engaged ever since he became a priest. A speech may be invented with tolerable success for a general on the eve of a battle, though such as have really come down to us stir the blood far more; but the mimicry of this kind of feeling must have been odious and contemptible. I know not where you could find the stamp of fraud more clear and ineffaceable than on a document which attempted it. If the words of Zacharias have lasted to our day, and have been accepted by men of different races as vital and true words--as words which speak to and speak forth the human heart within them--I cannot persuade myself that they bear that stamp of insincerity. (F. D. Maurice, M. A.)

Spontaneous spiritual song

One cant help thinking that the mind and heart of Zacharias during all those nine months had been filling with this song. And now it bursts forth at once--as a flower suddenly bursts out where there was but a green-sheathed bull yesterday. This song is as spontaneous as that of a lark, and as lyrical. As David found a prayer in his 2Sa_7:27), so Zacharias found a song in his. (A. B.Grosart, D. D.)

It is a wonderful scene in the house of the old priest Zacharias that we are permitted to witness. The priests lips had long been sealed. In silence he had awaited the fulfilment of the Divine promise. His tongue was not to be loosed till the word of the Lord had been fulfilled, that his first utterance might be praise to God for His wonderful works. It was manifest that a new era was beginning--the era of the long-expected redemption of Israel. This is the strain of Zacharias hymn of praise. Just as a mountain stream, which, after being long hemmed in, finds at last an outlet, leaps along in tumultuous gladness, so does the long pent-up emotion of Zacharias heart flow forth in a rapture of praise, Blessed be the Lord, &c. We feel that this is not the expression simply of his own personal, fatherly gladness. It is the rejoicing song of all who looked for redemption in Israel, thus finding utterance through him. We observe that it was--

I. A Tree OF FULFILMENT (verses 67-70), and--

II. A TIME OF SALVATION (verses 71-79). (Professor Luthardt.)

Emotion breaking out into speech

A vivid emotion of love and gratitude is very apt to break out into speech, either in the form of a public testimony for Christ, or in the voice of song. I have known a prayer meeting, at a time of awakening, to become like an aviary, for God had put a new song into scores of mouths. (T. L. Cuyler.)

Changed by the Spirit

No man or woman amongst you knows what he might be if he were filled with the Spirit. What is that rough Luther? He is only fit to have been a killer of bullocks, or a feller of oaks in the forest; but fill Luther with the Holy Spirit and what is he? He takes the bull of Rome by the horns, slays wild beasts of error in the great arena of the gospel, and is more than a conqueror through the might which dwelleth in him! Take John Calvin--fit naturally to be a cunning lawyer, cutting and dividing nice points, judging this precedent and that, frittering away his time over immaterial niceties; but fill him with the Holy Ghost and John Calvin becomes the mighty master of grace, the reflection of the wisdom of all past ages, and a great light to shed a brilliant ray even till the Millennium shall dawn I Chief, and prince, and king of all uninspired teachers, the mighty seer of Geneva, filled with the Spirit of God is no more John Calvin, but a God-sent angel of the Churches! (C. H.Spurgeon.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 1:67. And Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost — Was endued with a more than ordinary measure of the Spirit of God, supernaturally enlightening his mind in the knowledge of divine things: and even of future events. God not only forgave him his unbelief and distrust, which was signified by discharging him from the punishment of it, but, as a specimen of his abounding grace and mercy toward believers, he filled him with the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, that he might speak to his praise, and the instruction and edification of mankind of that and every future age and nation. And he prophesied — Of things immediately to follow, which proved the accomplishment of God’s promises made to Abraham, and the other patriarchs and prophets, concerning the redemption and salvation of God’s people by the Messiah. By prophesying, no more is sometimes meant in the Scriptures than celebrating the praises of God with great elevation and affection of soul, as 1Ch 25:1, Where Asaph and Jeduthun are said to prophesy with the harp and cymbal, which, Luk 1:3, is explained by their giving praise and thanks to God. But as Zacharias is said, on this occasion, to have uttered predictions concerning the kingdom and salvation of the Messiah, and the office and ministry of his own son, the ordinary sense of the word prophesy may be here very properly admitted.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luke

ZACHARIAS’S HYMN

Luk 1:67 - Luk 1:80.

Zacharias was dumb when he disbelieved. His lips were opened when he believed. He is the last of the Old Testament prophets, [Footnote: In the strictest sense, John the Baptist was a prophet of the Old dispensation, even though he came to usher in the New. {See Mat 11:9 - Mat 11:11.} In the same sense, Zacharias was the last prophet of the Old dispensation, before the coming of his son to link the Old with the New.] and as standing nearest to the Messiah, his song takes up the echoes of all the past, and melts them into a new outpouring of exultant hope. The strain is more impassioned than Mary’s, and throbs with triumph over ‘our enemies,’ but rises above the mere patriotic glow into a more spiritual region. The complete subordination of the personal element is very remarkable, as shown by the slight and almost parenthetical reference to John. The father is forgotten in the devout Israelite. We may take the song as divided into three portions: the first {Luk 1:68 - Luk 1:75} celebrating the coming of Messiah, with special reference to its effect in freeing Israel from its foes; the second {Luk 1:76 - Luk 1:77}, the highly dramatic address to his unconscious ‘child’; the third {Luk 1:78 - Luk 1:79} returns to the absorbing thought of the Messiah, but now touches on higher aspects of His coming as the Light to all who sit in darkness.

I. If we remember that four hundred dreary years, for the most part of which Israel had been groaning under a foreign yoke, had passed since the last of the prophets, and that during all that time devout eyes had looked wearily for the promised Messiah, we shall be able to form some faint conception of the surprise and rapture which filled Zacharias’s spirit, and leaps in his hymn at the thought that now, at last, the hour had struck, and that the child would soon be born who was to fulfil the divine promises and satisfy fainting hopes. No wonder that its first words are a burst of blessing of ‘the God of Israel.’ The best expression of joy, when long-cherished desires are at last on the eve of accomplishment, is thanks to God. How short the time of waiting seems when it is past, and how needless the impatience which marred the waiting! Zacharias speaks of the fact as already realised. He must have known that the Incarnation was accomplished; for we can scarcely suppose that the emphatic tenses ‘hath visited, hath redeemed, hath raised’ are prophetic, and merely imply the certainty of a future event. He must have known, too, Mary’s royal descent; for he speaks of ‘the house of David.’

‘A horn’ of salvation is an emblem taken from animals, and implies strength. Here it recalls several prophecies, and as a designation of the Messiah, shadows forth His conquering might, all to be used for deliverance to His people. The vision before Zacharias is that of a victor king of Davidic race, long foretold by prophets, who will set Israel free from its foreign oppressors, whether Roman or Idumean, and in whom God Himself ‘visits and redeems His people.’ There are two kinds of divine visitations-one for mercy and one for judgment. What an unconscious witness it is of men’s evil consciences that the use of the phrase has almost exclusively settled down upon the latter meaning! In Luk 1:71 - Luk 1:75, the idea of the Messianic salvation is expanded and raised. The word ‘salvation’ is best construed, as in the Revised Version, as in apposition with and explanatory of ‘horn of salvation.’ This salvation has issues, which may also be regarded as God’s purposes in sending it. These are threefold: first, to show mercy to the dead fathers of the race. That is a striking idea, and pictures the departed as, in their solemn rest, sharing in the joy of Messiah’s coming, and perhaps in the blessings which He brings. We may not too closely press the phrase, but it is more than poetry or imagination. The next issue is God’s remembrance of His promises, or in other words, His fulfilment of these. The last is that the nation, being set free, should serve God. The external deliverance was in the eyes of devout men like Zacharias precious as a means to an end. Political freedom was needful for God’s service, and was valuable mainly as leading to that. The hymn rises far above the mere impatience of a foreign yoke. ‘Freedom to worship God,’ and God worshipped by a ransomed nation, are Zacharias’s ideal of the Messianic times.

Note his use of the word for priestly ‘service.’ He, a priest, has not forgotten that by original constitution all Israel was a nation of priests; and he looks forward to the fulfilment at last of the ideal which so soon became impracticable, and possibly to the abrogation of his own order in the universal priesthood. He knew not what deep truths he sang. The end of Christ’s coming, and of the deliverance which He works for us from the hand of our enemies, cannot be better stated than in these words. We are redeemed that we may be priests unto God. Our priestly service must be rendered in ‘holiness and righteousness,’ in consecration to God and discharge of all obligations; and it is to be no interrupted or occasional service, like Zacharias’s, which occupied but two short weeks in the year, and might never again lead him within the sanctuary, but is to fill with reverent activity and thankful sacrifice all our days. However this hymn may have begun with the mere external conception of Messianic deliverance, it rises high above that here, and will still further soar beyond it. We may learn from this priest-prophet, who anticipated the wise men and brought his offerings to the unborn Christ, what Christian salvation is, and for what it is given us.

II. There is something very vivid and striking in the abrupt address to the infant, who lay, all unknowing, in his mother’s arms. The contrast between him as he was then and the work which waited him, the paternal wonder and joy which yet can scarcely pause on the child, and hurries on to fancy him in the years to come, going herald-like before the face of the Lord, the profound prophetic insight into John’s work, are all noteworthy. The Baptist did ‘prepare the way’ by teaching that the true ‘salvation’ was not to be found in mere deliverance from the Roman yoke, but in ‘remission of sin.’ He thus not only gave ‘knowledge of salvation,’ in the sense that he announced the fact that it would be given, but also in the sense that he clearly taught in what it consisted. John was no preacher of revolt, as the turbulent and impure patriots of the day would have liked him to be, but of repentance. His work was to awake the consciousness of sin, and so to kindle desires for a salvation which was deliverance from sin, the only yoke which really enslaves. Zacharias the ‘blameless’ saw what the true bondage of the nation was, and what the work both of the Deliverer and of His herald must be. We need to be perpetually reminded of the truth that the only salvation and deliverance which can do us any good consist in getting rid, by pardon and by holiness, of the cords of our sins.

III. The thoughts of the Forerunner and his office melt into that of the Messianic blessings from which the singer cannot long turn away. In these closing words, we have the source, the essential nature, and the blessed results of the gift of Christ set forth in a noble figure, and freed from the national limitations of the earlier part of the hymn. All comes from the ‘bowels of mercy of our God,’ as Zacharias, in accordance with Old Testament metaphor, speaks, allocating the seat of the emotions which we attribute to the heart. Conventional notions of delicacy think the Hebrew idea coarse, but the one allocation is just as delicate as the other. We can get no deeper down or farther back into the secret springs of things than this-that the root cause of all, and most especially of the mission of Christ, is the pitying love of God’s heart. If we hold fast by that, the pain of the riddle of the world is past, and the riddle itself more than half solved. Jesus Christ is the greatest gift of that love, in which all its tenderness and all its power are gathered up for our blessing.

The modern civilised world owes most of its activity to the quickening influence of Christianity. The dayspring visits us that it may shine on us, and it shines that it may guide us into ‘the way of peace.’ There can be no wider and more accurate description of the end of Christ’s mission than this-that all His visitation and enlightenment are meant to lead us into the path where we shall find peace with God, and therefore with ourselves and with all mankind. The word ‘peace,’ in the Old Testament, is used to include the sum of all that men require for their conscious well-being. We are at rest only when all our relations with God and the outer world are right, and when our inner being is harmonised with itself, and supplied with appropriate objects. To know God for our friend, to have our being fixed on and satisfied in Him, and so to be reconciled to all circumstances, and a friend of all men-this is peace; and the path to such a blessed condition is shown us only by that Sun of Righteousness whom the loving heart of God has sent into the darkness and torpor of the benighted wanderers in the desert. The national reference has faded from the song, and though it still speaks of ‘us’ and ‘our,’ we cannot doubt that Zacharias both saw more deeply into the salvation which Christ would bring than to limit it to breaking an earthly yoke, and deemed more worthily and widely of its sweep, than to confine it within narrower bounds than the whole extent of the dreary darkness which it came to banish from all the world.

Alexander MacLaren, Expositions of Holy Scripture (1904–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

1:67-79 This second hymn of the birth narrative is called the Benedictus (“Blessed” or “Praise”), from the first word of the Latin translation. The hymn expects God’s Messiah to deliver the Israelites from their enemies. Salvation entails physical deliverance and forgiveness of sins (1:77).

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Luk 1:67. Προεφήτευσε, prophesied) concerning the events which were immediately about to be. These prophesyings were spoken by Zacharias, either on the very day of John’s circumcision, or after that the fact had become widely circulated.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk_1:67. After the historical episode of Luk_1:65 there now follows, in reference to εὐλογῶν τ. Θεόν, Luk_1:64, the hymn itself (the so-called Benedictus) into which Zacharias broke forth, and that on the spot (Kuinoel erroneously suggests that it was only composed subsequently by Zacharias). At the same time the remark ἐπλήσθη πνεύμ. ἁγ. is repeated, and the hymn is in respect of its nature more precisely designated as prophecy. It is, like that of Mary, Luk_1:46 ff. constructed in strophes, containing five strophes, each of three verses. See Ewald.

προεφήτευσε] denotes not merely prediction, but the utterance of revelation generally stimulated and sustained by the Spirit, which includes in it prediction proper. See on 1Co_12:10.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Luk 1:67-79 . The song of Zechariah , called from the first word of it in the Vulgate the Benedictus . It is usually divided into five strophes, but it is more obviously divisible into two main parts, Luk 1:67-75 , Luk 1:76-79 . (Briggs, The Messiah of the Gospels , calls these divisions strophes, thus recognising only two.) Hillmann ( Jahrb. f. prot. Theol. , 1891) regards the first part as a purely Jewish Psalm, having no reference to the birth of the Baptist; furnished with a preface, Luk 1:67 , and an epilogue referring to the Baptist as the forerunner of Jesus by the evangelist. J. Weiss (in Meyer) seems to accept this conclusion, only suggesting that the second part (Luk 1:76-79 ) might be in the source used by Lk., appended to the Psalm by the Jewish-Christian redactor.

Luk 1:67 . ἐπροφήτευσεν , prophesied, when? At the circumcision, one naturally assumes. Hahn, however, connects the prophesying with the immediately preceding words concerning the hand of the Lord being with the boy. That is, Zechariah prophesied when it began to appear that his son was to have a remarkable career.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3. The song of Zacharias: Luk 1:67-80.

It might be supposed that Zacharias composed this song in view of the religious and moral progress of the child, or on the occasion of some special event in which the divine power within him was displayed during the course of his childhood. We are led, however, to another supposition by the connection between the first words of the song, Blessed be the Lord, and the expression which the evangelist has employed in Luk 1:64, “he spake, blessing God.” This song, which was composed in the priest’s mind during the time of his silence, broke solemnly from his lips the moment speech was restored to him, as the metal flows from the crucible in which it has been melted the moment that an outlet is made for it. At Luk 1:64, Luke is contented to indicate the place of the song, in order not to interrupt the narrative, and he has appended the song itself to his narrative, as possessing a value independent of the time when it was uttered.

We observe in the hymn of Zacharias the same order as in the salutation of Elizabeth. The theocratic sentiment breaks forth first: Zacharias gives thanks for the arrival of the times of the Messiah (Luk 1:68-75). Then his paternal feeling comes out, as it were, in a parenthesis: the father expresses his joy at the glorious part assigned to his son in this great work (Luk 1:76-77); lastly, thanksgiving for the Messianic salvation overflows and closes the song (Luk 1:78-79).

The spiritual character of this passage appears even from this exposition. It is the work of the Holy Spirit alone to subordinate even the legitimate emotions of paternal affection to the theocratic sentiment.

1 st. vers. 67-75.

Zacharias gives thanks, first of all, for the coming of the Messiah (Luk 1:67-70); then for the deliverance which His presence is about to procure for Israel (Luk 1:71-75).

Vers. 67-75. “And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying, 68. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people, 69. And hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David; 70. As He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began; 71. That we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us; 72. To perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant, 73. The oath which He sware to our father Abraham, 74. That He would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear, 75. In holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life.”

The aorists, hath raised up, hath delivered, imply a knowledge on Zacharias’ part of the fact of the incarnation. The term visited refers to the absence of God during the four centuries in which the prophetic voice had been silent and heaven shut. The abstract expressions of the sixty-eighth verse are followed in Luk 1:69 by one more concrete. Zacharias is emboldened to designate the Messiah Himself. He calls Him a horn of salvation. This image of a horn is frequent in the Old Testament, where it had been already applied to the Messiah: I will raise up a horn to David (Psa 132:16). The explanation must be found neither in the horns of the altar on which criminals sought to lay hold, nor in the horns with which they ornamented their helmets; the figure is taken from the horns of the bull, in which the power of this animal resides. It is a natural image among an agricultural people. The term ἤγειρε, hath raised up, is properly applied to an organic growth, like a horn. Just as the strength of the animal is concentrated in its horn, so all the delivering power granted to the family of David for the advantage of the people will be concentrated in the Messiah. This verse implies that Zacharias regarded Mary as a descendant of David.

In Luk 1:70, Zacharias sets forth the greatness of this appearing by referring to the numerous and ancient promises of which it is the subject. Whether with or without the article τῶν, ἁγίων (holy) must in any case be taken as an adjective; and it is unnecessary to translate, of His saints of every age who have been prophets, which would imply that all the saints have prophesied. If τῶν is retained, the word simply serves as a point of support to the definitive term ἀπ᾿ αἰῶνος. The epithet holy characterizes the prophets as organs, not of a human and consequently profane word, but of a divine revelation. Holiness is the distinctive feature of all that emanates from God. We may judge, by the impression which the certain approach of Christ’s advent would make on us, of the feeling which must have been produced in the hearts of these people by the thought, The Messiah is there; history, long suspended, resumes its march, and touches its goal.

In vers. 71-75, Zacharias describes the work of this Messiah.

The most natural explanation of σωτηρίαν, salvation, is to regard this word as in apposition with the term horn of salvation (Luk 1:69). The notion of salvation is easily substituted for that of a Saviour.

The idea of salvation, brought out in this first word, is exhibited in its full meaning in Luk 1:74. The two terms, our enemies, and them that hate us, cannot be altogether synonymous. The former denotes the foreign heathen oppressors; the latter would embrace also the native tyrants, Herod and his party, so odious to true Israelites.

In granting this deliverance, God shows mercy (Luk 1:72) not only to the living, but to the dead, who were waiting with the heartsickness of deferred hope for the accomplishment of the promises, and especially of the oaths of God. On this idea, see Luk 1:17; for the infinitive μνησθῆναι, Luk 1:54; for the turn of expression ποιεῖν μετά, Luk 1:58.— ῞Ορκον (Luk 1:73) is in apposition with διαθήκης. The accusative is occasioned by the pronoun ὅν. This attraction is the more easily accounted for, that μνᾶσθαι is construed in the LXX. with the accusative and the genitive indifferently.

The infinitive to grant expresses the long-expected end of the development of prophecy, a development which seems designed to typify this long period.

The article τοῦ characterizes the infinitive δοῦναι as the end desired and determined from the beginning. Grammatically, it depends on ὅρκον; logically, on all that precedes.

In the following phrase, the relation of ῥυσθέντας to λατρεύειν should be observed: after having been delivered, to serve God: the end is perfect religious service; political deliverance is only a means to it. Perfect worship requires outward security. The Messiah is about to reign; no Antiochus Epiphanes or Pompey shall any more profane the sanctuary! We find here in all its purity the ideal salvation as it is described in the Old Testament, and as the son of Zacharias himself understood it to the very last. Its leading feature is the indissoluble union of the two deliverances, the religious and the political; it was a glorious theocracy founded on national holiness. This programme prevented John the Baptist from identifying himself with the course of the ministry of Jesus. How, after the unbelief of Israel had created a gulf between the expectation and the facts, could a later writer, attributing to Zacharias just what words he pleased, put into his mouth these fond hopes of earlier days?

῾Οσιότης, purity, and δικαιοσύνη, righteousness (Luk 1:75), have been distinguished in several ways. Bleek and others refer the former of these terms to the inward disposition, the latter to the outward conduct. But righteousness, in the Scriptures, comprehends more than the outward act. Others apply the former to relations with God, the latter to relations with men. But righteousness also comprehends man’s relations with God. It appears to us rather that purity, ὁσιότης, is a negative quality, the absence of stain; and righteousness, δικαιοσύνη, a positive quality, the presence of all those religious and moral virtues which render worship acceptable to God. Comp. Eph 4:24.

The authorities decide in favour of the excision of the words τῆς ζωῆς, although the French translation cannot dispense with them.

At the time of the captivity, the prophet-priest Ezekiel contemplated, under the image of a temple of perfect dimensions, the perfected theocracy (Ezekiel 40-48). Here the priest-prophet Zacharias contemplates the same ideal under the image of an uninterrupted and undefiled worship. The Holy Spirit adapts the form of His revelations to the habitual prepossessions of those who are to be the organs of them.

Frédéric Louis Godet — Commentaries on Luke, John, Romans, and 1 Corinthians — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1870s–1890s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

John scarce born, by the authority of the holy Ghost, is appointed to his office.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

Verse 67. Zacharias - prophesied] The word prophesy is to be taken here in its proper acceptation, for the predicting or foretelling future events. Zacharias speaks, not only of what God had already done, but also of what he was about to do, in order to save a lost world.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

(67) Was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied.—The latter word appears to be used in its wider sense of an inspired utterance of praise (as, e.g., in 1Sa_19:20; 1Co_14:24-25). The hymn that follows appears as the report, written, probably, by Zachariah himself, of the praises that had been uttered in the first moments of his recovered gift of speech. As such, we may think of it as expressing the pent-up thoughts of the months of silence. The fire had long been kindling, and at last he spake with his tongue.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost,.... With a spirit of prophecy, as his wife Elisabeth had been before, Luk 1:41.

and prophesied saying; the following things, relating to the Messiah, his incarnation and redemption by him; to the accomplishing of the covenant, oath, promise and mercy of God to his people; and to his son, the forerunner of Christ; and to his work and office, in the various parts and branches of it, which he should perform. Whence it appears, that the following song is of divine inspiration; and that Zacharias spake it as he was moved by the Holy Ghost, as the prophets of old did.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

67 And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying,

Ver. 67. Was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied] This was a plentiful amends for the late loss of his speech. See here the goodness of God to all his. Quibus non solum ablata restituit, sed insperata concedit (saith Ambrose). Ille dudum mutus prophetat. God is better to his than their hopes.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Filled with the Holy Ghost - See Luk 1:15.

And prophesied - The word “prophesy” means:

To foretell future events. To celebrate the praises of God (see 1Sa 10:5-6; 1Ki 18:29); then to, Teach or preach the gospel, etc. See the notes at Rom 12:6.

This song of Zechariah partakes of all. It is principally employed in the praises of God, but it also predicts the future character and preaching of John.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

We must not think that Zacharias was before this time destitute of the Holy Ghost, we heard the contrary before, Luk 1:6, but the Holy Ghost at this time came upon him by a particular and more especial impulse; as it did upon the prophets, whom the Spirit moved but at some special times to prophesy, though it at all times dwelt and wrought in them, as a holy, sanctifying Spirit. This is made good by the next words, which tell us he

prophesied; which word signifieth any speaking for or instead of another, and is not only applicable to such speakings as are foretellings of things which shall afterward come to pass, but unto any speaking for or instead of God, in the revelation of his will made known unto us. In this prophecy there is both predictions of what should come to pass concerning John and concerning Christ, and also applications of what was before spoken of them by the prophets; and it is observed by some, that it is an epitome of all those ancient prophecies, and that there is in it a compendium of the whole doctrine of the gospel.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

67. Prophesied—All inspired utterances are called prophesying, but in the present case there was clearly inspired prediction. In the Old Testament spirit the kingdom of Christ in the future is described in general terms, but vaguely understood by the prophet himself. It is prophetic description rather than prophetic history. The traits of the description are to be found in the Christian dispensation as a future whole, not to be fully verified until the world is gathered into the Church, and the Church shall rise to the predicted ideal. The prophetic hymn consists of two parts. Part first (68-75) predicts, under Jewish images, the power and safety of Messiah’s kingdom. Part second, (76-79,) in an address to the infant John, predicts his preparatory office as herald of the Messiah’s manifestation and his glorious kingdom of human salvation on earth and in heaven.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

His father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost, and prophesied, saying. The inspired hymn which follows thought out, no doubt, with the Holy Spirit"s help in the course of the long enforced seclusion which his first want of faith had brought upon him holds a prominent place in all Western liturgics. Like the Magnificat, it is believed to have been first introduced into the public worship of the Church about the middle of the sixth century by St. Csesarius of Aries. It may be briefly summarized as a thanksgiving for the arrival of the times of Messiah.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And Zacharias prophesied - Of things immediately to follow. But it is observable, he speaks of Christ chiefly; of John only, as it were, incidentally.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

A hymn of praise:

v. 67 And his father Zacharias was filled with the Holy Ghost and prophesied, saying,

v. 68. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for He hath visited and redeemed His people

,

v. 69. and hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of His servant David;

v. 70. as He spake by the mouth of His holy prophets, which have been since the world began:

v. 71. that we should be saved from our enemies, and from the hand of all that hate us;

v. 72. to perform the mercy promised to our fathers, and to remember His holy covenant;

v. 73. the oath which He sware to our father Abraham

v. 74. that He would grant unto us, that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, might serve Him without fear,

v. 75. in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life.

We have here another wonderful hymn of praise and prophecy couched, for the most part, in terms of the Old Testament songs of praise. The Holy Ghost Himself, speaking through the mouth of Zacharias, was its author. Luther has written comments on many sections of it in various parts of his books. From the start, all praise, honor, and glory is given to God. The entire plan and work of salvation is a monument of His grace, to the praise of His glory. He is the God of Israel, originally of the Israel of the flesh; but since these children have rejected Him, the term now applies to spiritual Israel only, to His Church. Upon these He has looked with a view of helping them, of giving them the assistance which they needed above all, the redemption from sins. For this His people He has prepared a salvation, brought it about in the Messiah, the Redeemer. It was the redemption from a burden whose heaviness and damnableness they had not realized. "To visit is nothing else than to come to us, to lay before us and proclaim to us the wholesome Word, whereby we are saved. " In order to prepare this salvation for us, the Lord has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of David, His servant. As in Psa 18:2, the word horn signifies a strong, firm, unwavering help. Our Lord is a strong, powerful Defender, the Redeemer out of the race of David that brought us full salvation. " ’Horn’ in the Hebrew language means power, defiance, rule, whereon one may rely... But He adds: A horn of saving or salvation. Other kingdoms have their names and goods from which they are called. Some kingdoms are large, have much goods, many people, great honor, but only temporal goods; but this Kingdom is called a kingdom of salvation, a kingdom of grace, a kingdom of life, a kingdom of righteousness, a kingdom of truth, and whatever serves unto salvation... God has here established a principality and kingdom, in which there is nothing but welfare and salvation. " These great blessings are the result of the promises which the Lord made through the mouths of His holy prophets, from the beginning of the world. The culmination of all the prophecies is always the same theme, salvation through the Messiah, liberation from the enemies and from the hands of all those that are filled with hatred toward us, the believers in Him. The spiritual enemies have been unceasing in their plans and attacks against the children of God, but God has carried out the plans of His mercy toward us, as to the fathers of old that trusted in Him. For He remembered His holy covenant and the oath which He swore to Abraham, that in him and his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. As a result of these promises God has given to the believers to serve Him without fear, since they are torn out of the hands of all their enemies. Such service may now be performed in holiness, in personal cleanness and sinlessness, and in righteousness, in the right relationship toward God, a perfect description of a New Testament Christian, Eph 1:23. "That he says He would deliver us from all our enemies must again be understood that this Kingdom is in battle and in the midst of the enemies; but they shall not win, but lose; and this deliverance and salvation shall serve that we serve Him eternally without fear. The word ’without fear’ includes that we are sure of the goods of this life and of that yonder. For a Christian is sure and certain that his sins are forgiven, though he still feels them; he is also sure that death cannot harm him, the devil cannot vanquish him, the world cannot prevail against him."

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Here observe, 1. That no sooner was Zacharias recovered and restored to his speech, but he sings the praises of his Redeemer, and offers up a thanksgiving to God; the best return we can make to God for the use of our tongues, for the giving or restoring of our speech, is to publish our Creator’s praise, to plead his cause, and vindicate his honour.

Observe, 2. What it is that Zacharias makes the subject-matter of his song: what is the particular and special mercy which he praises and and blesses God for. It is not for his own particular and private mercy; namely, the recovery of his speech, though undoubtedly he was very thankful to God for that mercy; but he blesses and praises God for catholic and universal mercies bestowed upon his church and people: he doth not say, Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, that hath visited me in mercy, that hath once more loosed my tongue, and restored my speech: but, "Blessed be the Lord that hath visited and redeemed his people."

Whence learn, that it is both the duty and disposition of a gracious soul, to abound in praise and thankfulness to God, more for catholic and universal mercies towards the church of God, than for any particular and private mercies how great soever towards himself; "Blessed be God for visiting and redeeming his people."

Observe, 3. In this evangelical hymn there is a prophetical prediction, both concerning Christ, and concerning John. Concerning Christ, he declares, that God the Father had sent him of his free mercy and rich grace, yet in performance of his truth and faithfulness; and according to his promise and oath which he had made to Abraham, and the fathers of the Old Testament.

Where note, 1. He blesses God for the comprehensive blessing of the Messiah; "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, who hath visited his people:" namely, in his Son’s incarnation. The Lord Jesus Christ, in the fulness of time, made such a visit to this sinful world, as men and angels admired at, and will admire to all eternity.

Note, 2. The special fruit and benefit of this gracious and merciful visitation, and that was the redemption of a lost world, he hath visited and redeemed his people. This implies that miserable thraldom and bondage, which we were under to sin and Satan, and expresses the stupendous love of Christ, in buying our lives with his dearest blood; and both by price and power rescuing us out of the hands of our spiritual enemies.

Note, 3. The character given of this Saviour and Redeemer; he is a horn of salvation; that is, a royal and glorious, a strong and powerful Saviour to his church and people. The horn, in scripture, signifies glory and dignity, strength and power; as the beauty, so the strength of the beast lies in its horn: now Christ being styled a horn of salvation, intimates, that he himself is a royal and princely Saviour, and that the salvation which he brings, is great and plentiful, glorious and powerful; "God hath raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David."

Note, 4. The nature and quality of that salvation and deliverance, which the Son of God came to accomplish for us; not a temporal deliverance, as the Jews expected, from the power of the Romans; but spiritual, from the hands of sin and Satan, death and hell: his design was to purchase a spiritual freedom and liberty for us, "that we might be enabled to serve him without fear;" that is, without the servile and offending fear of a slave, but with the dutiful and ingenuous fear of a child: and this in "holiness and righteousness;" that is, in the duties of the first and second table, "all the days of our life."

Learn hence, that believers, who were slaves of Satan, are by Christ made God’s free men.

Secondly, that as such, they owe God a service, a willing, cheerful, and delightful service, without fear; and a constant, persevering service all the days of their life, that "we being delivered out of the hands, &c."

Note, 5. The source and fountain from whence this glorious Saviour and gracious salvation did arise and spring; namely, from the mercy and faithfulness of God; "To perform the mercy promised to our forefathers, and to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he sware to our father Abraham."

Learn hence, that the Lord Jesus Christ, the mercy of mercies, was graciously promised, and faithfully performed, by God to his church and people. Christ was a free and full mercy; a suitable, unsearchable, and everlasting mercy; which God graciously promised in the beginning of time, and faithfully performed in the fulness of time. Thus far this hymn of Zacharias respects the Messiah.

Observe, 4. How he next turns himself to his child, and prophesies concerning him: "And thou, child, shalt be called the prophet of the Highest, &c."

Where note, 1. The nature of his office, "thou shalt be a prophet;" not a common and ordinary one, but a prophet of the highest rank; the messenger of the Lord of Hosts. A prophet thou shalt be, annd more than a prophet.

Note, 2. As the nature of his office, so the quality of his work: "Thou shalt go before the face of the Lord, to prepare his way:" thou shalt be an herald and harbinger to the Most High; thou shalt go before the face of the Messias, and by thy severe reproofs, and powerful exhortations, shalt prepare his way before him, and make men fit and ready to receive this mighty Saviour. Thou, child, shalt be as the morning star, to foretell the glorious arising of this Sun of Righteousness.

Learn hence, 1. That it is the highest honour and dignity to serve Christ in the quality and relation of a prophet.

2. That it is the office and duty of the prophets of Christ, to prepare and make fit the hearts of men, to receive and embrace him.

Observe, 5. That Zacharias having spoken a few words concerning his son, he returns instantly to celebrate the praises of our Saviour, comparing him to the rising sun, which shined forth in the brightness of his gospel, to enlighten the dark corners of the world: "Through the tender mercies of our God, whereby the day-spring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness."

Learn hence, 1. That Jesus Christ is that true Sun of Righteousness, which in the fulness of time did spring from on high to visit a lost and undone world.

2. That the great errand of Christ’s coming into the world, and the particular end of his appearing in the flesh, was "to give light to them that sit in darkness."

3. That it was nothing less than infinite mercy, and bowels of compassion in God and Christ, which inclined him to come from on high, to visit them that sit in darkness: "Through the tender bowels of mercy in our God, whereby his own and only son sprung from on high to visit us here below, who sat in darkness and the shadow of death; and to guide our feet unto the way that leads to everlasting peace."

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

67. Zacharias … prophesied. As soon as his tongue was loosed it was employed to praise the Lord. All inspired utterances are called prophesying, but in the present case there was clearly inspired prediction. In the Old Testament spirit the kingdom of Christ in the future is described in general terms.

B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.

Connecting Statement:

Zechariah tells what will happen with his son John.

His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied

This can be stated in active form. AT: "The Holy Spirit filled his father Zechariah, and Zachariah prophesied" (See: Active or Passive)

His father

John's father

prophesied, saying

Consider natural ways of introducing direct quotes in your language. AT: "prophesied and said" or "prophesied, and this is what he said" (See: Direct and Indirect Quotations)

the God of Israel

"Israel" here refers to the nation of Israel. The relationship between God and Israel could be stated more directly. AT: "the God who reigns over Israel" or "the God whom Israel worships" (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information)

his people

"God's people"

translationWords

Zechariah (NT)

filled with the Holy Spirit

prophet

Israel

redeem

people of God

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

67-79. The Benedictus or Song of Zacharias may be the εὐλογία mentioned in ver. 64.1 To omit it there, in order to continue the narrative without interruption, and to give it as a solemn conclusion, would be a natural arrangement. As the Magnificat is modelled on the psalms, so the Benedictus is modelled on the prophecies, and it has been called “the last prophecy of the Old Dispensation and the first in the New.” And while the tone of the Magnificat is regal, that of the Benedictus is sacerdotal. The one is as appropriate to the daughter of David as the other to the son of Aaron. The relation between new and old may again be seen in a table.

The Benedictus. The Old Testament.

Εὐλογητὸς Κύριος ὁ θεὸς τοῦ Ἰσραήλ, 1Εὐλογητὸς Κύριος ὁ θεὸς Ἰσραήλ.

ὅτι ἐπεσκέψατο καὶ ἐποίησεν λύτρωσιν 2λύτρωσιν ἀπέστειλεν

τῷ λαῷ αὐτοῦ, τῷ λαῷ αὐτον͂.

καὶ ἤγειρεν κέρας σωτηρίας ἡμῖν 3ἐκεῖ ἐξανατελῶ κέρας τῷ Δαυείδ.

ἐν οἴκῳ Δαυεὶδ παιδὸς αὐτοῦ, 4ἀνατελεῖ κέρας παντὶ τῷ οἴκῳ Ἰσραήλ.

5ὑψώσει κέρας Χριστοῦ αὐτοῦ.

καθὼς ἐλάλησεν διὰ στόματος τῶν ἁγίων

ἀπʼ αἰῶνος προφητῶν αὐτοῦ 6ἔσωσεν αὐτοὺς ἐκ χειρῶν μισούντων καὶ

σωτηρίαν ἐξ ἐχθρῶν ἡμῶν καὶ ἐκ ἐλυτρώσατο αὐτοὺς ἐκ χειρὸς ἐχθροῦ.

χειρὸς πάντων τῶν μισούντων ἡμᾶς, 7δώσει εἰς ἀλήθειαν τῷ Ἰακώβ,

ποιῆσαι ἔλεος μετὰ τῶν πατέρων ἡμῶν ἔλεον τῷ Ἀβραάμ, καθότι ὤμοσας

καὶ μνησθῆναι διαθήκης ἁγίας αὐτοῦ, τοῖς πατράσιν ἡμῶν.

8ἐμνήσθη τῆς διαθήκης αὐτοῦ.

ὄρκον ὃν ὤμοσεν πρὸς Ἀβραὰμ 9ἐμνήσθη ὁ Θεὸς τῆς διαθήκης αὐτοῦ τῆς

τὸν πατέρα ἡμῶν, πρὸς Ἀβραάμ, καὶ Ἰσαάκ, καὶ Ἰακώβ.

τοῦ δοῦναι ἡμῖν ἀφόβως ἐκ χειρὸς 10ὅπως στήσω τὸν ὅρκον μου, ὃν

ἐχθρῶν ῥυσθέντας ὤμοσα τοῖς πατράσιν ὑμῶν, τοῦ δοῦναι

λατρεύειν αὐτῷ ἐν ὁσιότητι αὐτοῖς γῆν ῥέουσαν γάλα καὶ μέλι.

καὶ δικαιοσύνῃ 11ἐμνήσθη εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα διαθήκης αὐτοῦ

ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ πάσαις ταῖς λόγου οὗ ἐνετείλατο εἰς χιλίας γενεάς,

ἡμέραις ἡμῶν. ὃν διέθετο τῷ Ἀβραάμ,

καὶ τοῦ ὅρκοῦ αὐτοῦ τῷ Ἰσαάκ.

Καὶ σὺ δέ, παιδίον, προφήτης

Ὑψίστου κληθήσῃ, 12Ἐγὼ ἐξαποστέλλω τὸν ἄγγελόν μου

προπορεύσῃ γὰρ ἐνώπιον Κυρίου καὶ ἐπιβλέψεται ὁδὸν πρὸ προσώπου

μου.

ἐτοιμάσαι ὁδοὺς αὐτοῦ, 13ἑτοιμάσατε τὴν ὁδὸν Κυρίου.

τοῦ δοῦναι γνῶσιν σωτηρίας

τῷ λαῷ αὐτοῦ

ἐν ἀφέσει ἁμαρτιῶν αὐτῶν

διὰ σπλάγχνα ἐλέους Θεοῦ ἡμῶν,

ἐν οἷς ἐπισκέψεται ἡμᾶς

ἀνατολὴ ἐξ ὔψους, 14καθημένους ἐν σκότει.

ἐπιφᾶναι τοῖς ἐν σκότει καὶ σκιᾷ 15οἱ κατοικοῦντες ἐν χώρᾳ καὶ σκίᾳ

θανάτου καθημένοις θανάτου φῶς λάμψει ἐφʼ ὑμᾶς.

τοῦ κατευθῦναι τοὺς πόδας ἡμῶν 16καθημένους ἐν σκότει καὶ σκίᾳ

εἰς ὁδὸν εἰρήνης. θανάτου.

There is a manifest break at the end of ver. 75. The first of these two portions thus separated may be divided into three strophes (68, 69; 70-72; 73-75), and the second into two (76, 77; 78, 79).

67. ἐπλήσθη πνεύματος ἁγίου καὶ ἐποφήτευσεν. See on ver. 15. The prophesying must not be confined to the prediction of the future; it is the delivery of the Divine message; speaking under God’s influence, and in His Name. Zacharias sees in his son the earnest and guarantee of the deliverance of Israel.

In some texts ἐπροφήτευσεν has been altered into the more regular προεφήτευσεν, but everywhere in N.T. (even Jud 1:14) the augment should precede the prep. in this compound. This is intelligible, seeing that there is no simple verb φητεύω. Comp. Num 11:25, Num 11:26; Ecclus. 48:13, and the similar forms ἤφιεν and ἤνοιξεν. Win. xii. 5, p. 84.

International Critical Commentary — older volumes (1896–1929), various authors — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.