Borrowed Songs and the Hope of Reversal

How Mary, Hannah, and the Hallel Teach Us to Sing Again

When we're desperate for change,

or when we've given up,

How do we find hope that the world will change,

or that that we can change!?

When the world feels stuck.

When injustice seems permanent.

When we’ve given up on the idea that things—or we—could actually be different.

Reversal mostly doesn’t begin with optimism.

Generally it begins with exhaustion!

But when hope finds us again, it rarely comes as a "new idea."

Hope mostly shows up an old song.

The Songs Mary Already Knew

Long before an angel spoke to her,

before fear and wonder tangled in her chest,

before her life tilted forever,

Mary had been singing.

Every year, at Passover, she would have joined her family and community in the Hallel arc

(the ancient songs of liberation found in Psalms 113–118).

They began with "Hallelu Yah": Shine Back to Yahweh

They are songs that remember deliverance from enslavement.

Songs that rehearse God’s habit of reversal.

Songs that hold open the promise that the world does not belong to empire forever.

These were not abstract hymns.

They were survival songs.

And Psalm 113—the opening of the Hallel—begins by echoing an even older voice.

Hannah.

Hannah: When Reversal Begins in the Body

Hannah’s story is not polite.

She is scorned.

She is depressed.

She carries the felt failure of an entire people in her body.

And yet, into that barrenness comes a child.

A prophet.

The one who will anoint kings and begin the long unraveling of destructive power.

Hannah sings of a God who:

• scatters the proud,

• feeds the hungry,

• raises the poor from dust,

• and seats the lowly among nobles.

Her song becomes Scripture.

Her song becomes memory.

Her song becomes the beginning of the Hallel!

So when Luke tells us that Mary sings, he is not inventing something new.

He is showing us a young woman who knows exactly which song to borrow.

Mary’s Song: Borrowed Words, New Light

When the light of promise begins to swirl around Mary,

she doesn’t improvise theology.

She reaches for what has already carried hope through generations.

“My soul magnifies the Lord.” (like a clear glass)

“My spirit rejoices in God my Savior.” (like a being that knows thirst!)

She sings Hannah.

She sings the Hallel.

She sings Israel’s long memory of reversal.

Luke makes sure we hear it to,

so that we can sing along:)

Whose Story Can You Step Into?

Not everyone grows up in a home that sings ancient songs.

Not everyone has a community that remembers hope out loud.

Not everyone knows which heroine of faith to quote when the world cracks open.

That’s okay.

We can all start with Mary.

She teaches us that faith is not always original,

mostly it is just faithful.

[I'm not trying to be cute with words here, this is just my experience, and a long pattern I've seen]

Sometimes the bravest thing we can do is borrow words until they become our own.

Three Songs of Reversal to Pray

Below are three texts—offered not for analysis, but for prayer.

Sing along with the sound of hope.

Psalm 113

[beginning of the Hallel Arc (to Psalm 118)]

Shine back to God!

Shine back, you servants of YAHWEH!

 shine back to the Name of YAHWEH.

Let the Name of YAHWEH be blessed

 from now

  and to the Eternity.

From the rising of the sun

 to its setting,

the Name of YAHWEH

 is shined back.

YAHWEH is Exalted over all nations;

 above the heavens is His Glory.

Who is like YAHWEH our God?

 the One who Raises Himself to Settle on high,

yet Lowers Himself to look

 in the heavens

   and in the earth

He Raises the poor from the dust;

  from the ash-heap

He Lifts the needy,

to Settle them with nobles,

  with the nobles of His people.

He Settles the barren woman of the House

  as a joyful mother of children.

Shine back to God!

1 Samuel 2:1–10

[Hannah’s Song of Reversal]

My heart Exults in YAHWEH;

my power is Raised in YAHWEH.

My mouth opens wide against my destroyers,

for I rejoice in Your Rescue!

There is none Holy like YAHWEH,

there is none besides You!

there is no Rock like our God.

Do not multiply proud speech,

do not let arrogance come from your mouth,

for YAHWEH is a God of Knowledge,

and by Him deeds are Weighed.

The weapons of the mighty are shattered,

but the stumbling are readied with Strength.

Those who were full

hire themselves out for bread,

but the hungry cease striving!

even the barren has borne seven:

but she who had many sons withers.

YAHWEH puts to death

and Gives Life;

God brings down to Death’s Demand

and Raises up.

YAHWEH makes poor

and makes rich;

God humbles

and God Raises.

God Raises the poor from the dust!

God Lifts the needy from the ash-heap,

to Settle them with nobles

and grant them a seat of Glory.

For the pillars of the earth belong to YAHWEH,

and upon them God has Established the world.

He Keeps the feet of His Faithful ones,

but the Twisted are silenced in darkness,

for not by strength

shall a human prevail.

The Oppressors of YAHWEH shall be shattered;

against them He will thunder from the heavens.

YAHWEH will bring Justice to the ends of the earth;

He will give strength to His king

and Raise the power of His Anointed.

Luke 1: 46-55

[The "Magnificat"]

And Their-Rebellion [Mary] said:

“My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,

for he has looked with favor on the lowliness of his servant.

Surely, from now on all generations will call me blessed;

for the Mighty One has done great things for me,

and holy is his Name.

His mercy is for those who fear him

from generation to generation.

He has shown strength with his arm;

he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.

He has brought down the powerful from their thrones,

and lifted up the lowly;

he has filled the hungry with good things,

and sent the rich away empty.

He has helped his servant Struggles-with-God [Israel],

in remembrance of his mercy,

according to the promise he made to our ancestors,

to Father-of-Multitudes [Abraham] and to his descendants forever.”