Saturday 30 May 2026

Psalm 42

Background
This passage is very familiar to many Christians – it is the first part of what has become known as the Sermon on the Mount, a collection of the teachings of Jesus brought to us by Matthew. In addition, these first 12 verses are usually referred to as 'the Beatitudes', because each verse begins: "Blessed are the …."

There is a potential misunderstanding in these verses. Jesus is not saying "Try hard to live like this and then you will be blessed." Quite the reverse, he is saying that people who already live like this are already blessed.

We know that those who mourn often go uncomforted, the meek certainly do not inherit the earth and people who long for justice, can do so for a long time and often fail to see what they long for. Here Jesus is announcing that a new world is coming into being. It's a world where the normal is upended, new possibilities are opening up and all this constitutes the good news of the gospel.

Here, in these verses, Jesus gives his followers a foretaste of what is to come. It's an anticipation of what will follow his life, death and resurrection when all who believe and seek to follow him receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit. The poor in spirit will be blessed when the kingdom of heaven comes, not after this life, but here and now as God’s will begins to be done on earth as it is in heaven.

These Beatitudes are a summons to live in the present, in a way that will make sense of God’s promised future.

To Ponder:

• The word ‘blessed’ at the beginning of these Beatitudes has been translated in various ways. You can look at different translations in versions of the Bible to see which way of rendering this word makes most sense to you.
• The theme of this week’s readings is ‘The Gift of the Spirit’. Why do we find receiving a gift from God so difficult and seek to turn these generous verses into exhortations about what we should do?

Prayer
Help us, O Lord, to open our hearts to receive the gift of your Holy Spirit so that it may animate our every minute, in this world and the next. Amen.

Bible notes author: The Revd Jennifer Potter
The Revd Jennifer Potter is a supernumerary minister living in the Croydon Circuit. She works as a part-time chaplain at the local MHA (Methodist Home for the Aged). She was previously a minister at Wesley’s Chapel in London.