Blessed are the Meek

“Blessed are the meek,”

-Meek means being done with ourselves.

Prisons come in all shapes and sizes. Prisons of our own making usually are padded with faded dreams, expectations and heart breaks. Oh, don’t get me wrong, most of them are all good things. A friendship gone wrong, expectation of life, loves, children, husbands, God-All begun with hope that would lead to peace, contentment, and happiness. A prison of our own making starts out with wonderful things with all sorts of promises. The bars are made of the steel of dreams gone bad. It happens slowly at first. Picking yourself up by the bootstraps, trusting in you own way of dealing with dreams gone bad, visions that don’t fit with your expectations of what life is supposed to send your way. The prison bars are constructed slowly-you begin with a little, but before long you are caught in a prison that has such a hold on your heart you can’t see God in your life at all. The prison bars have been sheet-rocked solid, tight. God is there. He is always with us. He is with us in the prison as He was with Daniel in his prison, and in the prison of our own making that He has allowed. If we took a hack saw and begin sawing the sheet rock, and cutting through the steel bars-will that free us? When and if we ever get free what does true freedom feel like? If you have lived in a prison long enough you don’t really want to be free-its scary-

What does this have to do with being meek? Go back to our definition –Meekness is being done with ourselves. The only reason we are in our prisons is because self is possessing us.

Turn to Psalm 73 Read all

Sigh-“Surely God is good to Israel, to those who are pure in heart.” But maybe not to me! Only those other guys.

My kids are not perfect, my husband can be so very human, I have problems with my time, my house, my schedule, my mother, my friends (oh yea, I forgot this week I have no friends because so and so didn’t say anything to me at church-they must not “really” be my friend)-

Try to follow along in your outline-The consequences of envy are very destructive. Envy cuts through to our contentment, our joy, because it makes self prominent. That’s why this passage is so very relevant to being meek. We begin to believe God is good to everyone-but us; because we didn’t get what we wanted. The wicked, according to Asaph, have prosperity, health, and are completely burden free. God’s goodness, because of envy, is despised, not believed, and “our” truth becomes irrational. I don’t honestly think (as opposed to feel) that anyone is burden free. Another consequence to envy is our theology (what we know about God, becomes unknowable. God is good, but not in this situation. Maybe, I don’t really know God at all (v. 11). We begin to believe that God is no longer trustworthy or reliable. This leads us to those prison bars being erected all around us; not just around our hearts, but our minds as well. We then begin to believe and act like it all depends on me. Look at verses 13-16; READ

God I have been so good, I have given to my church, my family-I have gone the extra mile and given my cloak-But it was all for naught-It was in vain-for nothing, because YOU didn’t do what I wanted or expected you to do-esp. for all my sacrifices. Trials are for my good-but I can see no good from this, and if I tell or if I’m honest with somebody about this it might mar your reputation (v. 16). Are we more worried about what others think of God, or what others are thinking of us? Have you ever felt like that? If I’m known-if people really knew me, my situation, or what was really going on in my heart-they too would stop trusting you. Oh, that is the height of pride (v. 16). “It was oppressive to me.” “God opposes or oppresses the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6

The consequences of being dependent on your self are myriad. Let’s look at the few in this passage. In verses 13-17 the word “I”is used 10 times in 5 verses. You become self absorbed. You don’t possess what others have, so you are live in a pity-party of selfishness. The illusion here is suicide-life is no longer worth living. We believe that God is good to everyone, but us… Our heart becomes grieved and embittered (v. 21) and I have become a brute beast (v. 22). We no longer see reality.

Let me take off on a Rabbit Trail-The Psalmist here is very upset because he envies the possessions of others-specifically the wicked. Verse 9 says, “There mouths lay claim to heaven, and their tongues take possession of the earth." This is a complete anti-thesis of our verse in Matthew. about being Meek. The meek-those that are done with themselves-will inherit the earth. Let’s contrast this with possessing the earth.

Look at Luke 9:23-25

“Then he said to them all: ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very soul?”

Meek means to be done with self-loose your life-gain your soul.

Let me tell you a very hard truth that these passages reveal to us-Freedom, from our prisons, only comes as we possess nothing. Put another way; in order to be free we must possess nothing, but Christ. When we possess we hold on to. Meek means to be done with whatever the self is holding on to-Christ said we are to lose your life-and you will gain your soul-inherit the earth means we have it all!

Back to Psalm 73:17-This is how Reality is Restored-it’s restored through God’s perspective (v. 18) We begin to see life as it really is, people for who they really are, and we begin to replace our envy with compassion. People last for eternity, and God’s justice will be accomplished. Our reality is not only restored concerning life and people, but ourselves as well verse 23-I am always surrounded by God’s presence-It never left me-even in the prison cell. Finally reality is restored about God Himself. Verse 24-26 No one on earth do I desire besides you-I have you-I possess nothing and have it all at the same time. Verse 28 but as for me this is repeated from before-“it is good to be near God” God is good to me-and He always will be. When I trust in His goodness He makes me done with myself which makes me humble, grateful, and trusting. And this in turn gives me a love for the lost-“I will tell of your deeds.”

Isn’t it interesting as we consider the verse on meek, that meek means an open hand not possessing anything, and yet the second half of the verse has to do with having all things. This is one of the grand paradox’s of the Christian life, like being in the world and yet not of the world. You see Christians going to both extremes-hiding in their Christian ghettos never touching the world and therefore being irrelevant or to the opposite extreme-adopting everything concerning, yearning so for the world that they also are completely irrelevant. The Christian life is to be lived somewhere in the middle, in the trenches, in the battle, by faith. The paradox between having no possessions yet possessing all has two extremes as well. The monastics lived in monasteries possessing no worldly goods, having no family, having no trade, and they ended up, as a whole, being irrelevant to transforming culture. On the other extreme you have those who hoard away their possession, protecting their things (people, children, possessions) because they can’t trust God for them. We sometimes say, “My daughter/son can’t marry or be a missionary and travel across the world taking my grandchildren. I can’t get involved with people or get too close-they might move away, I might get hurt…” Let me warn you this only leads to prison cells. The Christian life is to be lived radically somewhere in the middle-by faith trusting God to always be good and to actually believe that He is Lord and we are to radically live for His kingdom-on the job, in our homes, everywhere-that’s what we are called to do-our focus is to be living and working for the advancement of His kingdom. What I mentioned before about being in a battle-The battle doesn’t happen on either side of these extremes. The battle occurs in the middle when you are walking by faith.

Our Psalm ends with being free from our prison of envy that we are truly meek, trusting so radically in the sovereign Lord that He is our refuge-and we tell others of His deeds.