Sometimes we’ve heard Scriptures so often that we don’t really hear them. We tune out. We think we know it, so we just keep right on going, and the power of the words to transform us gets left in the dust. The Beatitudes are that entirely. “Blessed are the peacemakers, for theirs is the kingdom of God,” we hear but it could just as well have been “Blessed are the cheesemakers,” stealing a line from Monty Python. Some more recent versions of Scripture change it up by using the word “Happy,” for “Blessed,” but that falls completely flat when you read, “Happy are you when you mourn.”
[featured-image single_newwindow=”false”]Photo Credit: Christian Collins Flickr via Compfight cc[/featured-image]
Biblical scholar Earl F. Palmer suggests using Psalm 1 for a lens since it begins with the Hebrew equivalent of being “blessed” when you do not walk in the way of the wicked but center your life on God’s law. Palmer tells us that the Hebrew word for “blessing” ’ashar “means in the literal sense ‘to find the right road’.” To be on the right path. “You’re on the right road when you are poor in spirit, for yours is the kingdom of God.”