Matthew 5:5

‘Blessed ones, the meek (lowly of heart), for they will inherit the earth.'

The ‘meek' are those who take the buffetings of life and do not rebel against them overmuch. They accept them from the hand of God. They do not get riled up at them. They are not always seeking revenge. They accept what life brings. They do not allow themselves to be upset over things that they can do nothing about. They do not throw their weight about. They concentrate on what does matter. They are ‘meek and lowly in heart' like Jesus was (Matthew 11:29). Thus the word could be used to describe an animal which responded to its reins.

And yet like Him ‘the meek' are strong for what is right. For they are bold in testimony. When necessary they speak out against sin. But even in boldness of testimony they remember Whose they are (1 Peter 3:15). They respond to His reins. That is why in 1 Peter 3:4 Peter speaks of, ‘the hidden man of the heart in the envelope/clothing of a meek and quiet spirit which is in the sight of God of great price'.

In Psalms 69:32 ‘the meek' are paralleled with those ‘who seek after God'. Their ‘meekness' (Godlike humility) does not mean that they let people walk all over them. But it does indicate they are not always thinking of themselves and their own rights. Rather they think more about others and about God. They are exemplified in Matthew 5:44.

The words here are actually cited from Psalms 37:11, where we are told that such people will ‘inherit the earth', in contrast with those who ‘will be no more' (Psalms 37:10). In the context in the Psalm the idea behind this is of a wholesome and prosperous life, enjoying the earth's benefits, in contrast with the sudden doom of ‘the wicked' (the ungodly). The latter may not happen immediately but God sees that the day of the wicked is coming (Psalms 37:13), while the righteous know that their heritage will abide for ever (Psalms 37:18). So the meek, the godly, those who are responsive to God, will find that they prosper in their life on earth and that things on earth will be good to them, at least spiritually (Matthew 19:28; Mark 10:29). And in the end they will finally inherit the new earth in which dwells righteousness (2 Peter 3:13; Isaiah 65:17), the new earth in which is based the eternal Kingdom.

But this could not possibly have been said of all meek people. For it is totally untrue to say that all who are meek will ‘inherit the earth'. Many of them will in fact be ground into it, even though it may sometimes be true that very often the meek will survive when the strong have destroyed each other. But the Psalmist is rather speaking of those who are like this because of their response to God. God has blessed them and made them meek, and it is because they are the blessed ones of God that they will ‘inherit the earth', both in terms of enjoyment in this earth, and, in the final consummation, in the new earth.

A very good example of true meekness was Moses. He was ‘meek above all men who were on the face of the earth' (Numbers 12:3). But that did not mean that he was a soft option. What it meant was that he never fought his own cause or considered his own interests. He was wholly out for the Lord. When people attacked his own interests he left it in the Lord's hands. But how different it was when people attacked the Lord's interests. Then his stregth was supreme, but always in obedience to what the Lord told him to do. And indeed the one time when he did give way to his own urgings he forfeited the right to enter the promised land with his people, because he had disgraced the Lord in front of them (Numbers 20:12).