Matthew 5:5; Psalm 37:11
Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
The meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
C. H. SPURGEON (1834-1892): How and in what sense can they be said to inherit the earth?
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES (1899-1981): We can summarize it very briefly. The meek already inherit the earth in this life, in this way: A man who is truly meek is a man who is always satisfied, he is a man who is already content.
A. W. PINK (1886-1952): First, spiritually: they “shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.”
THOMAS WATSON (1620-1686): He inherits the blessing of the earth. The wicked man has the earth, but not as a fruit of God’s favour. He has it as a dog has poisoned bread. It does him more hurt than good―the fat of the earth will but make him fry and blaze the more in hell. So that a wicked man may be said not to have what he has, because he has not the blessing; but the meek saint enjoys the earth as a pledge of God’s love.
AUGUSTINE (354-430): Wicked men may delight themselves in the abundance of cattle and riches, but the meek man delights himself in the abundance of peace. What he has, he possesses with inward serenity and quietness.
MATTHEW HENRY (1662-1714): Perhaps they have not abundance of wealth; but they have that which is better, an “abundance of peace”―inward peace and tranquility of mind, peace with God, and then peace in God―that great peace which those have that love God’s law, whom “nothing shall offend,” Psalm 119:165―that abundance of peace which is in the kingdom of Christ, Psalm 72:7―that peace which the world cannot give, John 14:27; and which the wicked cannot have, Isaiah 57:21. This they shall delight themselves in, and in it they shall have a continual feast; while those that have abundance of wealth do but cumber and perplex themselves with it and have little delight in it.
A. W. PINK: The spirit of meekness is what enables its possessor to get so much enjoyment out of his earthly portion, be it small or large. Delivered from a greedy, grasping disposition he is satisfied with such things as he has: “A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked,” Psalm 37:16. Contentment of mind is one of the fruits of meekness. The haughty and covetous do not inherit the earth, though they may own many acres of it. The humble Christian is far happier in a cottage than the wicked in a palace: “Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure and trouble therewith,” Proverbs 15:16.
C. H. SPURGEON: They are like the man we have heard of in China, who met a mandarin covered with jewels, and, bowing to him, said, “Thank you for those jewels.” Doing this many times, at last the mandarin asked the cause of his gratitude. “Well,” said the poor but wise man, “I thank you that you have those jewels, for I have as good a sight of them as you have; but I have not the trouble of wearing them, putting them on in the morning, taking them off at night, and having a watchman keeping guard over them when I am asleep. I thank you for them; they are as much use to me as they are to you.” This meek man can walk along the broad acres of a rich man’s farm, he can see his noble oaks and other forest trees, and he can say, “Thank God for them all! I have as much enjoyment from these as the rich man himself has, for they are mine to enjoy as truly as they are his.”
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: The apostle Paul has put it still better, for he says, “as having nothing, and yet possessing all things,” 2 Corinthians 6:2.
C. H. SPURGEON: His motto is “God’s Providence is my inheritance.” He has his ups and his downs, but he is content with what he has and he says, “Enough is as good as a feast.” Whatever happens to him, seeing that his times are in God’s hand, it is with him well in the best and most emphatic sense.
A. W. PINK: Second, the meek inherit the earth literally, in regard of right, as being the members of Christ, who is Lord of all.
JOHN GILL (1697-1771): “The earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof,” 1 Corinthians 10:26―which words are taken out of Psalm 24:1 and to be understood of Christ, who by creation and preservation is Lord of the whole earth, and as Mediator has all in His possession.
AMBORSE (340-397): The word “inherit” denotes the saints “title to the earth.”
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: In Romans 8:17, Paul puts it this way: We are children, “and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ.” Notice, too, the striking way in which Paul expresses the same thought in 1 Corinthians 3:21-23―he says, “For all things are yours; whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; and ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.”
JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564): The meek will be the lords and heirs of the earth―and this is no imaginary possession; for they know that the earth, which they inhabit, has been granted to them by God.
THOMAS WATSON: Adam not only lost his title to heaven when he fell, but to the earth too; and till we are incorporated into Christ, we do not fully recover our title. When it is said “the meek shall inherit the earth,” it does not intimate that they shall not inherit more than the earth. They shall inherit heaven too―the meek have the earth only for their sojourning-house: they have heaven for their mansion-house.
MARTYN LLOYD-JONES: Obviously it has a future reference also. “Do ye not know,” says Paul, “that the saints shall judge the world?” You are going “to judge angels,” 1 Corinthians 6:2,3.
A. W. PINK: No doubt there is also reference to the fact that the meek shall ultimately inherit the “new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,” 2 Peter 3:13.
C. H. SPURGEON: The apostle Peter has told us that this world also will be destroyed by fire, but it will afterwards be renewed, and a new sky and a new earth will appear after the first firmament and the first earth shall have become extinct. God means that this planet should continue to exist after it has had a new creation, and renewed its youth. The regeneration of His people, their new birth, is a foretaste of what is yet to happen to this whole world of ours. We have the first-fruits of the Spirit, and we groan within ourselves while we wait for the fullness of that new creation…The end of this world will be the beginning of a new and better one.
JOHN CALVIN: They have already a foretaste, at least, of this grace of God; and that is enough for them, till they enter, at the last day, into the possession of the inheritance of the world.
