Luke 1:53

Filled the hungry - the rich he hath sent empty away - God is here represented under the notion of a person of unbounded benevolence, who is daily feeding multitudes at his gates. The poor and the rich are equally dependent upon him; to the one he gives his affluence for a season, and to the other his daily bread. The poor man comes through a sense of his want to get his daily support, and God feeds him; the rich man comes through the lust of gain, to get more added to his abundance, and, God sends him empty away - not only gives him nothing more, but often deprives him of that which he has, because he has not improved it to the honor of the giver. There is an allusion here, as in several other parts of this song, to the case of Hannah and Peninah, as related 1 Samuel 1:2, etc.; 1 Samuel 2:1-10.

He hath filled the hungry with good things - This is a celebration of the general mercy of God. He hath daily fed the poor, the needy, and those who came to Him with humble hearts.

The rich he hath sent ... - While the poor come to him for a supply of their daily wants, the rich come not that their necessities should be supplied, but come with lofty hearts, and insatiable desires that their riches may be increased. When this is the case, God not unfrequently not only "withholds" what they ask, but he takes their riches away by fire, or flood, or disappointments, and sends them away empty, Proverbs 23:5. It is better to be poor and go to God for our daily bread, than to be rich and forget our dependence on Him, and to seek only a great increase of our property.