Matthew 5:6

Matthew 5:6 (The Message)
You're blessed when you've worked up a good appetite for God. He's food and drink in the best meal you'll ever eat.

Whenever I'm looking at the word I like to 1) compare scripture to other scriptures and I like to 2) read or listen to other people's thoughts.

1. Other scriptures on this same topic

A. Isaiah 51:1-3 instead of hunger and thirst, or worked up a good appetite, it's translated as those of you who are serious
1-3 "Listen to me, all you who are serious about right living and committed to seeking God. Ponder the rock from which you were cut, the quarry from which you were dug. Yes, ponder Abraham, your father, and Sarah, who bore you. Think of it! One solitary man when I called him, but once I blessed him, he multiplied. Likewise I, God, will comfort Zion, comfort all her mounds of ruins. I'll transform her dead ground into Eden, her moonscape into the garden of God, A place filled with exuberance and laughter, thankful voices and melodic songs.

So the blessing here is to be comforted, have our disastrous mistakes transformed into wonderful, full, beautiful lives, to become filled with laughter and thankfulness. The prerequisite is to get serious about "right living" and be committed to seeking God. I have so many mounds of ruins in my life; so many things through the years that I've messed up. I have seen God transform then into a new garden. But even in that new place I see my need to seek him and live in his ways or I'll end up messing up that too. Sometimes things don't go the way I want them to or seem to make sense and I need to just trust him and choose to have an attitude of gratitude and choose to be exuberant.

B. Psalm 119:17-24 instead of hunger and thirst, or worked up a good appetite, it's translated my soul is starved and hungry, ravenous - insatiable
Be generous with me and I'll live a full life; not for a minute will I take my eyes off your road. Open my eyes so I can see what you show me of your miracle-wonders. I'm a stranger in these parts; give me clear directions. My soul is starved and hungry, ravenous!— insatiable for your nourishing commands. And those who think they know so much, ignoring everything you tell them—let them have it! Don't let them mock and humiliate me; I've been careful to do just what you said. While bad neighbors maliciously gossip about me, I'm absorbed in pondering your wise counsel. Yes, your sayings on life are what give me delight; I listen to them as to good neighbors!

I'm struck here by the passion and intensity of the seeking after God. I laughed when I read aloud the part about "I'm a stranger in these parts; give me clear directions" - that's me! May God grant me the ability to see His wonders; I'm convinced that they're all around me in every day but that my eyes are off somewhere else and I miss them. I am a stranger to this lifestyle of intensely seeking Him above all else. His word, His precepts - they are nourishing. May I stop "eating" of other things that never satisfy and choose to "eat" of Him instead

C. Genesis 49:18 instead of hunger and thirst, or worked up a good appetite, it's translated as wait in hope
I wait in hope for your salvation, God.

These words were uttered by Jacob before he died. This guy had struggled with God in his life, he'd sinned big time over and over again. Yet I'm so struck here by the simplicity of his hope in God, his recognition that God was his only hope. God is my only hope also. I'm a person who has made commitments to myself to live life in a new and better way only to see myself sometimes keep them and sometimes fail. My heart despairs at my weakness, my propensity toward doing some of the very things that I know are not in my own, or anyone else's, best interests. May I hope in God, wholly.

2. Other people's thoughts

A. John Gill I really like what John Gill had to say about Matthew 5:6:
"Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst,.... Not after the riches, honours, and pleasures of this world, but after righteousness; by which is meant, not justice and equity, as persons oppressed and injured; nor a moral, legal righteousness, which the generality of the Jewish nation were eagerly pursuing; but the justifying righteousness of Christ, which is imputed by God the Father, and received by faith. To "hunger and thirst" after this, supposes a want of righteousness, which is the case of all men; a sense of want of it, which is only perceived by persons spiritually enlightened; a discovery of the righteousness of Christ to them, which is made in the Gospel, and by the Spirit of God; a value for it, and a preference of it to all other righteousness; and an earnest desire after it, to be possessed of it, and found in it; and that nothing can be more grateful than that, because of its perfection, purity, suitableness, and use: happy souls are these,for they shall be filled: with that righteousness, and with all other good things, in consequence of it; and particularly with joy and peace, which are the certain effects of it: or, "they shall be satisfied," that they have an interest in it; and so satisfied with it, that they shall never seek for any other righteousness, as a justifying one, in the sight of God; this being full, perfect, sufficient, and entirely complete."

It's interesting that I've been here thinking about what a schmuck I am, how I keep blowing it, and concluding that I'm not seeking wholeheartedly after God. Then I read the words of this man who died in 1771 and it hits me - it's not about my right living and my righteousness but about the righteousness of Christ! It is only when I am steadfastly convinced of my own unrighteousness that I look to the savior and the righteousness imputed to me there. As Gill puts it, "earnest desire after it, to be possessed of it, and found in it" (it being Christ's righteousness). May I be possessed of the desire for Christ's righteousness! Of course the question comes to me - how does that look in real every day life?

B. Matthew Henry
Righteousness is here put for all spiritual blessings. See Ps. 24:5; ch. 6:33. They are purchased for us by the righteousness of Christ; conveyed and secured by the imputation of that righteousness to us; and confirmed by the faithfulness of God. To have Christ made of God to us righteousness, and to be made the righteousness of God in him; to have the whole man renewed in righteousness, so as to become a new man, and to bear the image of God; to have an interest in Christ and the promises—this is righteousness. 2. These we must hunger and thirst after. We must truly and really desire them, as one who is hungry and thirsty desires meat and drink, who cannot be satisfied with any thing but meat and drink, and will be satisfied with them, though other things be wanting. Our desires of spiritual blessings must be earnest and importunate; "Give me these, or else I die; every thing else is dross and chaff, unsatisfying; give me these, and I have enough, though I had nothing else." Hunger and thirst are appetites that return frequently, and call for fresh satisfactions; so these holy desires rest not in any thing attained, but are carried out toward renewed pardons, and daily fresh supplies of grace. The quickened soul calls for constant meals of righteousness, grace to do the work of every day in its day, as duly as the living body calls for food. Those who hunger and thirst will labour for supplies; so we must not only desire spiritual blessings, but take pains for them in the use of the appointed means. Dr. Hammond, in his practical Catechism, distinguishes between hunger and thirst. Hunger is a desire of food to sustain, such as sanctifying righteousness. Thirst is the desire of drink to refresh, such as justifying righteousness, and the sense of our pardon.Those who hunger and thirst after spiritual blessings, are blessed in those desires, and shall be filled with those blessings. (1.) They are blessed in those desires. Though all desires of grace are not grace (feigned, faint desires are not), yet such a desire as this is; it is an evidence of something good, and an earnest of something better. It is a desire of God's own raising, and he will not forsake the work of his own hands. Something or other the soul will be hungering and thirsting after; therefore they are blessed who fasten upon the right object, which is satisfying, and not deceiving; and do not pant after the dust of the earth, Amos 2:7; Isa. 55:2. (2.) They shall be filled with those blessings. God will give them what they desire to complete their satisfaction. It is God only who can fill a soul, whose grace and favour are adequate to its just desires; and he will fill those with grace for grace, who, in a sense of their own emptiness, have recourse to his fulness. He fills the hungry (Lu. 1:53), satiates them, Jer. 31:25. The happiness of heaven will certainly fill the soul; their righteousness shall be complete, the favour of God and his image, both in their full perfection.

Matthew Henry also underscores that it is CHRIST's righteousness, but he makes a point when he says "these holy desires rest not in any thing attained, but are carried out toward renewed pardons, and daily fresh supplies of grace". He is pointing out that we can't just say that we've prayed and received Christ's forgiveness so now we're done. I also like how he says "who, in a sense of their own emptiness, have recourse to his fulness." Even though, by God's grace, I'm a follower of Jesus I sometimes have such an aching sense of emptiness in my very soul. Perhaps it is caused by not filling my thirst daily with His grace and keeping my focus toward him but rather straying into wanting to be oh so perfect by this world's standards or wanting to fulfill whatever desire my flesh has at that moment.