Matthew 5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit.
R.C. Sproul Ligonier Ministries' "Tabletalk Magazine"
Understanding the Beatitudes in Matthew 5:1-12 requires us to comprehend the meaning of the term blessed. Many people think the word means “happy,” but that view is inadequate. Happiness, in an ultimate sense, is certainly a part of being blessed by God, but divine blessing goes far beyond mere happiness. It involves God’s favor, His willingness to come near and dwell among His people. The hope of Israel was that God would shine His face on the people, that there would be close, intimate fellowship between the Creator and His creatures. The New Testament expands on this, revealing that our ultimate hope is the Beatific Vision — face-to-face communion with God and His glory in eternity (1 Cor. 13:12; 1 John 3:2).
How do we enjoy the Lord’s favor and experience a taste of His presence now, and for all eternity, the fullness of His glory? The answer is found in the very first beatitude. Jesus tells us that only the “poor in Spirit” will receive the kingdom of heaven. Poverty in spirit is an emptying of our self-reliance and any claim we (falsely) believe to have on God. It is a recognition that we are utterly dependent on divine grace and undeserving of His favor. It is repentance for setting ourselves up as “gods” and then a resting in the Lord’s promise of salvation.
Thomas à Kempis
God gives His blessing when He finds an empty vessel.
Bernard of Cluny
In Thee is all my glory; in me is all my woe.
Thomas Watson The Beatitudes
A man never comes to himself until he comes out of himself. And no man can come out, until first Christ comes in.
He that is poor in spirit is lowly in heart. Rich men are commonly proud and scornful, but the poor are submissive. The poor in spirit roll themselves in the dust in the sense of their unworthiness. 'I abhor myself in dust' (Job 42:6). He that is poor in spirit looks at another's excellencies and his own infirmities. He denies not only his sins but his duties. The more grace he has, the more humble he is, because he now sees himself a greater debtor to God. If he can do any duty, he acknowledges it is Christ's strength more than his own. As the ship gets to the haven more by the benefit of the wind than the sail, so when a Christian makes swift progress, it is more by wind of God's Spirit than the sail of his own endeavour. The poor in spirit, when he acts most like a saint, confesses himself to be 'the chief of sinners' (1 Timothy 1:15). He blushes more at the defect of his graces than others do at the excess of their sins. He dares not say he has prayed or wept. He lives, yet not he, but Christ lives in him. He labours, yet not he, but the grace of God.
God first empties man of himself, before he pours in the precious wine of his grace. Until we see our own poverty, we will never see Christ's value.
John Newton Cardiphonia: Letters to a Nobleman
Psalm 51:17 “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.”
A broken and contrite spirit is pleasing to the Lord, he has promised to dwell with those who have it: and experience shows, that the exercise of all our graces is in proportion to the humbling sense we have of the depravity of our nature. But that we are so totally depraved, is a truth which no one ever truly learned by being only told it. Indeed, if we could receive, and habitually maintain, a right judgment of ourselves, by what is plainly declared in Scripture, it would probably save us many a mournful hour; but experience is the Lord’s school, and they who are taught by him usually learn that they have no wisdom, by the mistakes they make; and that they have no strength, by the slips and falls they meet with… Thus by degrees they are weaned from leaning to any supposed wisdom, power, or goodness in themselves; they feel the truth of our Lord’s words, ‘without me ye can do nothing' (John 15:5b) ; and the necessity of crying with David, ‘O lead me and guide me for thy name’s sake.’ (Psalm 31:3)
Jeremiah Burroughes The Saints' Happiness in Voices From The Past - Puritan Devotional Readings
What are the marks of the poor in spirit?
1. They are humble at the sight of their graces. Carnal hearts are puffed up, but a gracious heart sees enough (lacking) in its graces to make it humble.
2. The poor in spirit think it a small thing if others receive more respect and honour. They have no cause for envy or to be troubled. It is rather a wonder what they do have. They trust God's providence.
3. They admire every little good they receive, considering it much. They wonder at every affliction that it is not more, and are thankful for every mercy. The poor in spirit do not murmur and repine, but wonder that God lays his hand so tenderly upon them as he does.
4. The poor in spirit are praying men. They cannot live without prayer, and must go day after day to seek God.
5. They are admirers and great extollers of free grace. Whatever they have, they look upon as undeserved.
6. The poor in spirit are emptied of self. Whatever they have in themselves, or whatever they do, they do not rest upon it for their eternal good; they are sensible of their own poverty.
7. They are willing for God to choose their condition. Their comforts, abilities, worth, and wages can be safely left wholly to God: 'Here I am, let God do with me as he wills. I lie at this mercy.'
8. They do not look upon the rich and honourable as the most excellent, but those who have the highest grace: 'O how happy would I be if I could so walk with God and overcome my (sins)!'
9. The poor in spirit are willing to wait. Though God does not come according to their desires, they are content to wait upon God.
10. They are struck with reverence for the greatness of God and the authority of his Word, and they yield their spirit to it.
A.B Simpson
The first step to the righteousness of the kingdom is poor in spirit.
The next is a little deeper, they that mourn. Because now we must become pliable, we must be broken, we must be like the metal in the fire which the Master can mold. It is not enough to see our unrighteousness, but deeply to feel it, deeply to regret it, deeply to mourn over it, to consider it no little thing that sin has come into our lives.
And so God leads us into His righteousness. He usually leads us through testings and trials. I do not think it necessary for us to have deep and great suffering before we are saved. He will put us into the fire when He knows we are saved, when we realize we are accepted, when we are not afraid of the discipline, when we know it is not the hand of wrath but the hand of love. Then God can take us down and make us poor in spirit, and make us mourn until we come to the third step, which is to be meek, broken, yielded, submissive, willing, surrendered and laid low at His feet crying, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" (Acts 9:6)
D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Studies in the Sermon on the Mount
If one feels anything in the presence of God save an utter poverty of spirit, it ultimately means that you have never faced Him.