“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. – Matthew 5:3 NIV
It seems a surprising way to begin talking about happiness by saying, “Blessed are the poor in spirit.” There are two ways in which we can come at the meaning of this word poor.
As we have them the beatitudes are in Greek, and the word that is used for poor is the word ptochos ( Greek #4434 ). In Greek there are two words for poor. There is the word penes ( Greek #3993 ). Penes describes a man who has to work for his living; it is defined by the Greeks as describing the man who is autodiakonos, that is, the man who serves his own needs with his own hands. Penes ( Greek #3993 ) describes the working man, the man who has nothing superfluous, the man who is not rich, but who is not destitute either. But, as we have seen, it is not penes ( Greek #3993 ) that is used in this beatitude, it is ptochos ( Greek #4434 ), which describes absolute and abject poverty. It is connected with the root ptossein ( Greek #4434 ), which means to crouch or to cower; and it describes the poverty which is beaten to its knees. As it has been said, penes ( Greek #3993 ) describes the man who has nothing superfluous; ptochos ( Greek #4434 ) describes the man who has nothing at all. So this beatitude becomes even more surprising. Blessed is the man who is abjectly and completely poverty-stricken. Blessed is the man who is absolutely destitute.
As we have also seen the beatitudes were not originally spoken in Greek, but in Aramaic. Now the Jews had a special way of using the word Poor. In Hebrew the word is ‘aniy ( Hebrew #6041 ) or ‘ebyown ( Hebrew #34 ). These words in Hebrew underwent a four-stage development of meaning. (i) They began by meaning simply poor. (ii) They went on to mean, because poor, therefore having no influence or power, or help, or prestige. (iii) They went on to mean, because having no influence, therefore down-trodden and oppressed by men. (iv) Finally, they came to describe the man who, because he has no earthly resources whatever, puts his whole trust in God.
So in Hebrew the word poor was used to describe the humble and the helpless man who put his whole trust in God. It is thus that the Psalmist uses the word, when he writes, “This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles” ( Psalms 34:6 ). it is in fact true that in the Psalms the poor man, in this sense of the term, is the good man who is dear to God. “The hope of the poor shall not perish for ever” ( Psalms 9:18 ). God delivers the poor ( Psalms 35:10 ). “In thy goodness, O God, thou didst provide for the needy” ( Psalms 68:10 ). “He shall defend the cause of the poor of the people” ( Psalms 72:4 ). “He raises up the needy out of affliction, and makes their families like flocks” ( Psalms 107:41 ). “I will satisfy her poor with bread” ( Psalms 132:15 ). In an these cases the poor man is the humble, helpless man who has put his trust in God.
Let us now take the two sides, the Greek and the Aramaic, and put them together. Ptochos ( Greek #4434 ) describes the man who is absolutely destitute, the man who has nothing at all; ‘aniy ( Hebrew #6041 ) and ‘ebyown ( Hebrew #34 ) describe the poor, and humble, and helpless man who has put his whole trust in God. Therefore, “Blessed are the poor in spirit” means:
Blessed is the man who has realised his own utter helplessness, and who has put his whole trust in God.
If a man has realized his own utter helplessness, and has put his whole trust in God, there will enter into his life two things which are opposite sides of the same thing. He will become completely detached from things, for he will know that things have not got it in them to bring happiness or security; and he will become completely attached to God, for he will know that God alone can bring him help, and hope, and strength. The man who is poor in spirit is the man who has realized that things mean nothing, and that God means everything.
We must be careful not to think that this beatitude calls actual material poverty a good thing. Poverty is not a good thing. Jesus would never have called blessed a state where people live in slums and have not enough to eat, and where health rots because conditions are all against it. That kind of poverty it is the aim of the Christian gospel to remove. The poverty which is blessed is the poverty of spirit, when a man realises his own utter lack of resources to meet life, and finds his help and strength in God.
Jesus says that to such a poverty belongs the Kingdom of Heaven. Why should that be so? If we take the two petitions of the Lord’s Prayer and set them together:
Thy Kingdom come.
Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven,
we get the definition: the Kingdom of God is a society where God’s will is as perfectly done in earth as it is in heaven. That means that only he who does God’s will is a citizen of the Kingdom; and we can only do God’s will when we realize our own utter helplessness, our own utter ignorance, our own utter inability to cope with life, and when we put our whole trust in God. Obedience is always founded on trust. The Kingdom of God is the possession of the poor in spirit, because the poor in spirit have realized their own utter helplessness without God, and have learned to trust and obey.
So then, the first beatitude means:
O the bliss of the man who has realized his own utter helplessness, and who has put his whole trust in God, for thus alone he can render to God that perfect obedience which will make him a citizen of the kingdom of heaven!