Church Bulletin – March 25, 2018

“Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.” Matthew 5:5

The meek are happy. They are those who quietly submit themselves to God, to his word, and to his rod. They follow his directions and comply with his designs, and are gentle toward all men (Tit. 3:2). The meek can bear provocation without being inflamed by it; they are either silent or return a soft answer. They can show their displeasure when there is occasion for it without being transported into any indecencies. They can be cool when others are hot, and in their patience keep possession of their own souls when they can scarcely keep possession of anything else. They are the meek who are rarely and hardly provoked but quickly and easily pacified; who would rather forgive twenty injuries than revenge one, having the rule of their own spirits.

These meek ones are here represented as happy, even in this world. They are like the blessed God himself who is Lord of his anger and in whom fury is not. They are blessed for they have the most comfortable, undisturbed enjoyment of themselves, their friends, their God. They are fit for any relation, any condition, and company; fit to live and fit to die.

They shall inherit the earth. It is quoted from Psalm 37:11, and it is almost the only express temporal promise in all the New Testament. Not that they shall always have much of the earth, much less that they shall be put off with that only; but this branch of godliness has, in a special manner, the promise of the life that now is. Meekness, however ridiculed and run down, has a real tendency to promote our health, wealth, comfort, and safety, even in this world. The meek and quiet are observed to live the most easy lives, compared with the froward and turbulent. Some read it, They shall inherit the land of Canaan, a type of heaven. So that all the blessedness of heaven above and all the blessings of earth beneath are the portion of the meek. – Matthew Henry