Matthew 5:8, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”
While preparing for this picture, I was pointed to Psalm 24:4-6, which is the primary OT context that Jesus seems to be drawing from in this Beatitude. There the concept of a “pure heart” seems to be unfolded in v.4b, namely, “who does not lift up his soul to what is false.”
To “lift up the soul” in this sense means to long for, look to, hope in, etc….Basically what we “lift up our soul” to is the focus of our affections and Is, therefore, our god. The “pure in heart” do not lift up their soul to what is false, rather they “seek the face of the God of Jacob” (v.6). In other words, a central element of the pure heart is that it is driven by an all consuming desire to know and enjoy YHWH.
With this in mind, Jesus’ words come as the greatest blessing that can be conceived….the pure of heart—those who long and strive and hunger and seek to know the One True God—are blessed because they will see Him!
What a hope this is to the people of God! We see now, by faith, the beauty of our God in the face of the crucified and risen Son through the Spirit-illumened pages of scripture……but the day is coming when we will be brought into His presence and will see the one for whom our soul’s were made…see Him as He is, and so be made like Him (1 John 3:2)….this is a blessedness that nothing in this life can snatch away….it is invincibly secure and out of the reach of loss and sorrow and cancer and pain and fear and tragedy….it cannot be touched and it will be poured out on those who—by grace—press on to know the Lord (Hosea 6:3)
