“Blessed is the man…“ — Psalm 1:1a; (Mat. 5:3-11)
Our envisioned plan for the next several weeks is to consider the Beatitudes. With that in mind, however, it seems appropriate to consider first the significance of the word “blessed.” In the most familiar version, and in many of the more recent translations “happy” is used as a synonym. It is also widely used by the commentators. In my judgment that is an unfortunate choice, despite the fact that our English dictionaries and many greek dictionaries offer the same option as a primary alternative for “blessed.”
“Happy,” is related to happiness and is dependent upon circumstances. If our circumstances are favorable to our state of being, we are happy; if not, we are unhappy. Blessedness, as the term is generally employed in scripture, is a condition that prevails whether we are in “happy” circumstances or not. Happiness is feeling oriented; blessedness is a divine bestowment. At least one dictionary consulted offers, well down its list of options, “enjoying the favor of heaven.” That, I believe, is the best choice, especially as the word is used in Psalm 1 and in the beatitudes. “Favored of God” would be my personal paraphrase.
So we would read the opening of Psalm 1, “Favored of God is the man who walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.” Here the blessing of God is drawn in terms of what a man does not do. Contrary to the opinion of some in this day of shallow thinking and spiritual superficiality, there are some negatives in a valid spiritual experience. Though we are not under the law of Moses, the New Testament scriptures make it abundantly evident that there are some things believers cannot do and still enjoy the favor of God. There is still a great divide between righteousness and ungodliness, and grace has not erased that divide. There is a “walk” that is “worthy of the Lord,” and there is a walk that disgraces His Name and grieves the Holy Spirit without Whom the individual is “none of His.” (See Rom. 8:1-9)
The Beatitudes “fill in the blanks,” as it were left by the Psalmist, defining certain characteristics of the soul that enjoys not merely God’s forgiveness, but His approbation. These are not natural traits, but qualities imparted and cultivated by the Holy Spirit in those who have yielded to His Lordship in their lives. Reflected upon, they are distinguishing marks of a people for whom “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life” have become alien territory. Together they constitute a badge of distinction in those who are so abiding in Christ that they “walk, even as He walked” (Cf. I John 2:6). “Blessed is the man that walketh…”
Through grace God grants salvation from sin to all who call upon the name of Christ in sincerity and truth. But He bestows His favor on those thus converted who are abiding in Christ; whose character and conduct are being “conformed to His image.” Some of those elements are highlighted in the Beatitudes.
It is not by accident that when in Psalm 1 the Psalmist moves from the negative to the positive he touches upon the great resource by which the soul is informed and fashioned in likeness to Christ. “His delight is in the law of the Lord; and in His law doth he meditate day and night.” As protracted exposure to sunlight changes the color of a man’s skin, so continued exposure to the light of the word of God changes a man’s appearance before the “watching world,” and that not only in terms of what a man is not, and hence does not do, but in reference to what a man is and how, in consequence, he behaves. The difference between sunlight and Sonlight is that the former changes only the external appearance. The light of the word of God, on the other hand, effects a change from the inside out. The blessed man not only appears to be different, he is different!
The question, then, that the earnest believer ought to ask when meditating on this significant term is, “Do I qualify as “blessed?” Its answer cannot be found in terms of “happiness,” as even a casual survey of the beatitudes will make evident, but rather, does my life reflect the character and disposition of the Savior which is, after all, the real significance of this short, sharp discourse in the “Sermon on the Mount.” That does not major in “happiness,” but in holiness!
For His glory and our good,
"Pastor" Frasier
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