Luke 1:67 - Meaning and Application

Here we have the song with which Zechariah praised God after his mouth was opened. In it, Luke says he prophesied (Luke 1:67), and he did so in the fullest sense. He foretold what would happen with the kingdom of the Messiah, and all the prophets bear witness to that kingdom.

Notice, first, how he was fitted for this. He was filled with the Holy Spirit, given more than ordinary measure for this task. God had not only forgiven his unbelief, which was shown by ending his punishment, but, as a sign of grace toward believers, he filled him with the Holy Spirit and gave him this honor of serving him.

Notice, second, what his song was about. He does not speak here of his own family concerns, or of the shame removed from his house by this child’s birth, though surely he later thanked God for that with his family. In this song, he is wholly taken up with the Messiah’s kingdom and the public blessings it would bring. He could not have found much joy in the fruitfulness of his vine or the hope of his olive plant unless he saw the good of Jerusalem, peace for Israel, and blessings from Zion (Psalm 128:3, Psalm 128:5, Psalm 128:6). Old Testament prophecy often comes in the form of praise and new songs, and so does the beginning of New Testament prophecy: “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel.”

God will one day be called the Lord God of the whole earth. Yet Zechariah speaks of him here as the Lord God of Israel because the prophecies, promises, and signs of redemption had been given to Israel first. The first offers of salvation were now being made to them. Israel, as God’s chosen people, pointed ahead to all the chosen people of God from every nation. For that reason, Zechariah calls him the Lord God of Israel.

Zechariah blesses God, first, for the salvation that would be accomplished by the Messiah himself (Luke 1:68-75). This is what fills him while he is filled with the Holy Spirit, and it is what all who have Christ’s Spirit are full of as well.

By sending the Messiah, God has visited his people in mercy. For many ages he had seemed distant, as if he had forgotten them, but now he came as a friend to look into their need. God is said to have visited his people in bondage when he delivered them (Exodus 3:16; Exodus 4:31), and to have visited them in famine when he gave them bread (Ruth 1:6). He had often sent prophets to them and kept up his care for them, but now he himself came to visit them.

He has also brought redemption for them. “He has redeemed his people.” This was why Christ came into the world, to redeem people who were sold under sin and sold because of sin. Even God’s own people, his Israel, his son, his firstborn, and his freeborn people, still need redemption, and they are lost if they do not have it. Christ redeems them by paying the price to satisfy God’s justice, and he redeems them by power, freeing them from Satan’s rule, as Israel was freed from Egypt.

He has also kept the covenant of kingship made with David, Israel’s most famous Old Testament king. Great things had been spoken of David’s family, that help would be given to him as a mighty one, that his horn, his royal strength and dignity, would be lifted up, and that his line would continue (Psalm 89:19, Psalm 89:20, Psalm 89:24, Psalm 89:29). Yet that family had long seemed cast off and despised (Psalm 89:38). Now it is honored again, because, according to the promise, the horn of David is made to grow again. God has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (Luke 1:69), right where it had been promised and expected.

David is called God’s servant, not only because he was a good man, but because he was a king who ruled for God. He was an instrument of Israel’s salvation through the government he carried out. In the same way, Christ is the giver of eternal redemption only to those who obey him. In Christ, and in him alone, there is salvation for us, and it is a horn of salvation.

It is an honorable salvation. It stands above every other kind of rescue, and none can compare with it. In it, the glory of both the Redeemer and the redeemed is lifted up.

It is a full salvation. Like a horn of plenty, it gives spiritual blessings in heavenly things in rich abundance.

It is a powerful salvation. A beast’s strength lies in its horn. Christ has raised up such a salvation that it will bring down our spiritual enemies and protect us from them. In the chariots of this salvation, the Redeemer will go out and keep going, conquering and to conquer.

He has also fulfilled all the precious promises made to the church by the great Old Testament prophets (Luke 1:70): “as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets.” His teaching about salvation through the Messiah is confirmed by the prophets, which also shows how great and important that salvation is. It is the same salvation they spoke about, so it should be expected and welcomed. It is what they searched for carefully and eagerly (1 Peter 1:10, 1 Peter 1:11), so it should not be treated lightly or thought of as small.

God is now doing what he spoke of long ago, and therefore all people should be silent before him and listen. See how holy these prophecies were. The prophets who gave them were holy prophets, who would not deceive people and aimed to lead them into holiness. It was the holy God himself who spoke through them.

See also how old these prophecies are, reaching back to the beginning of the world. When God first promised that the seed of the woman would crush the serpent’s head, that promise was echoed again and again. It was seen when Eve named her son Cain, saying, “I have gotten a man from the Lord,” and again with Seth, whose name means settled. It was echoed when Noah was named, pointing to rest, and when he foretold that God would dwell in the tents of Shem. Not long after the new world began after the flood, God made the promise to Abraham that in his seed all nations of the earth would be blessed.

See finally the wonderful harmony among the prophets. God spoke the same message through them all, which is why Scripture says it was by one mouth, not by many mouths, that the prophets spoke. They all spoke of Christ as though they had one voice.

What is this salvation that was foretold? First, it is rescue from the malice of our enemies, a salvation from our enemies and from the power of those who hate us (Luke 1:71). It is a salvation from sin, and from Satan’s rule over us, both through the corruptions within us and the temptations that come from outside.

The worldly Jews expected rescue from Roman rule, but they were given an early hint of a different kind of rescue. He would save his people from their sins, so sin would no longer rule over them (Matthew 1:21). This is a restoration to God’s favor, to carry out the mercy promised to our fathers (Luke 1:72).

The Redeemer would not only crush the serpent, the one who caused our ruin, but would also bring us back into God’s mercy. He would restore us to God’s covenant and, as it were, bring us into paradise again. This was signified by the promises made to the patriarchs, the early fathers of Israel, and by the holy covenant made with them, the oath he swore to our father Abraham (Luke 1:73). What was promised to the fathers and fulfilled for us is mercy, pure mercy. Nothing in it comes from our own merit. We deserve wrath and the curse, but all comes from God’s mercy, which planned grace and life for us. He loved us of his own good pleasure, because he chose to love us.

God also had his covenant in view, his holy covenant with Abraham: “I will be a God to you and to your seed.” Abraham’s descendants had truly broken that covenant by their sins. In their troubles, it seemed as if God had forgotten it. But now he would remember it, and show that he remembered it, because all his merciful acts rest on that covenant (Leviticus 26:42). He had said, “Then I will remember my covenant.”

This salvation also prepares us for the service of God and encourages us in it. That was the oath he swore to our father Abraham, that he would give us power and grace to serve him in a way that pleases him and brings peace to ourselves (Luke 1:74-75). This may point back to Israel’s deliverance from Egypt, which God said came from his covenant with Abraham (Exodus 3:6-8). It was also the purpose of bringing them out, that they might serve God on that mountain (Exodus 3:12). The great purpose of gospel grace is not to free us from service, but to bring us into God’s service and strengthen us in it.

Christian faith should always be seen this way. It is meant to make us truly godly, to admit us into God’s service, to bind us to it, and to stir us up in it. We are delivered from sin’s iron yoke so our necks may come under the gentle and easy yoke of the Lord Jesus. The very bonds he has loosened bind us more firmly to him (Psalm 116:16).

By this grace, we are enabled, first, to serve God without fear, with calm confidence of mind. We are brought into holy safety so we may serve God with peace, free from anxious dread. God must be served with reverent, obedient fear, and with a fear that wakes us up to duty. But he is not to be served with slavish fear, like a servant who wrongly thinks his master is harsh and unfair. We are not to serve him with tormenting fear, or with the fear that belongs to a legal spirit, a spirit of bondage. Instead, we serve with the boldness of an evangelical spirit, that is, the spirit of adoption.

Second, we are enabled to serve him in holiness and righteousness, which covers our whole duty toward God and toward our neighbor. This is both the purpose and the direct effect of the gospel, to renew in us the image of God, in which man was first made, an image marked by righteousness and true holiness (Psalm 50:14). Third, we serve him before him, in the duties of his direct worship, where we come into his presence as people who always keep his eye in view and know that he sees us. That is serving him before him.

Fourth, we are enabled to serve him all the days of our life. The gospel aims to give us steady perseverance in God’s service. It shows us how much depends on not drawing back, and it shows us how Christ loved us to the end, which calls us to love him to the end.

He then blessed God for the work of preparation that would be done by John the Baptist, Zechariah’s child, who was only eight days old at this point (Luke 1:76). “You, child, will be called the prophet of the Highest.” Jesus Christ is the Highest, for he is God over all, blessed forever (Romans 9:5), equal with the Father. John was his prophet, as Aaron was Moses’s prophet (Exodus 7:1). What John said was as if it came from Christ’s mouth, and what he did was to go before him as his messenger.

Prophecy had long been silent, but in John it began again, as it had in Samuel, who also was born to an aged mother after a long delay. John’s work was, first, to prepare people for salvation by preaching repentance and reform as great gospel duties. He was to go before the Lord, but only a little before him, to prepare his way, to call people to make room for him, and to be ready to receive him. Everything that blocked his progress, made it difficult, or kept people from coming to him, was to be removed. Fill the valleys, and bring down the hills (Isaiah 40:3-4).

Second, John was to give people a general understanding of salvation, so they would know not only what to do, but what to expect. His message was that the kingdom of heaven was near. There are two things that must be known about this salvation. First, it includes the forgiveness of what we have done wrong. It is salvation through the forgiveness of sins, the sins that block salvation and make us liable to ruin and condemnation (Luke 1:77). John helped people see that, although sin made their condition sad, it was not hopeless, because pardon could be received through the tender mercy of our God. The phrase means the deep compassion, the inward mercy of God. There was nothing in us but a miserable condition to recommend us to his mercy.

Second, this salvation includes direction for living better in the future. The gospel does not only encourage us to hope that the deeds of darkness will be forgiven. It also sets before us a clear and true light, so we may order our steps rightly. In it, the day spring from on high has visited us (Luke 1:78), and this too comes from the tender mercy of our God. Christ is the rising light, the morning sun (Malachi 4:2). The gospel brings light with it (John 3:19). It does not leave us wandering in the darkness of pagan ignorance, or in the weaker light of Old Testament types and figures. In the gospel, day begins to dawn. In John the Baptist it started to break, then it grew quickly, shining more and more until the perfect day.

We have as much reason to welcome the gospel day as those who had long waited for morning. First, the gospel reveals what before was completely hidden from us (Luke 1:79). It gives light to those who sit in darkness, the light of knowing the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The day spring visited this dark world to bring light to the Gentiles (Acts 26:18).

Second, this light is life-giving. It brings light to those who sit in the shadow of death, like condemned prisoners in a dungeon, when they hear news of a pardon, or at least a delay and a chance to obtain one. It announces the opening of the prison (Isaiah 61:1) and brings the light of life. How welcome that light is!

Third, it is a guiding light. It leads our feet into the way of peace, the path that ends in true peace. It is not only a light for our eyes, but a light for our feet (Psalm 119:105). It shows us the way to make peace with God and to keep up a calm, joyful fellowship with him. As sinners, we have left that way of peace and do not know it on our own (Romans 3:17).

In the last verse, we get a brief account of the early years of John the Baptist. Though he was the son of a priest, he did not, like Samuel, go up as a child to serve before the Lord, because he was to prepare the way for a greater priesthood. We are told, first, of his greatness in inward things: the child grew in mind and understanding far beyond other children, so that he became strong in spirit. He had a sound judgment and a firm will. Reason and conscience, both called the Lord’s candle, were so strong in him that his lower desires and passions were brought under control early.

This showed that he was filled with the Holy Spirit from an early age. Those who are strong in the Lord are strong in spirit. We are also told of his hidden life outwardly: he was in the deserts. This does not mean he lived like a hermit, cut off from people. We have reason to think he went up to Jerusalem at the feasts and attended the synagogues on the Sabbath, but he lived most of the time in one of the scattered houses in the wilderness of Zuph or Maon, places mentioned in the story of David. There he spent most of his time in prayer and reflection, and he did not get his training in the schools or at the feet of the rabbis.

Many people are fit for great service, yet they seem buried from view. Others are hidden for a long time because they are being prepared for even greater usefulness later. So it was with John the Baptist, who remained in the desert until the day he appeared to Israel, in the thirtieth year of his life. There is also a set time for God to show the help he has reserved for Israel. The vision is for an appointed time, and at the end it will speak, and it will not lie.