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"He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
Nor sworn deceitfully."
(Psalm 24:4)
The medical doctor turned pastor, Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, says this about the 6th Beatitude: "We come now to what is undoubtedly one of the greatest utterances to be found anywhere in the whole realm of Holy Scripture. . . . We are face-to-face with one of the most magnificent and yet one of the most solemnizing and searching statements which can be found anywhere in Scripture." (Source: Studies in the Sermon on the Mount, p. 91-92)
When you hear the phrase "pure in heart," who comes to your mind? I think of Jesus first of all who was pure in the greatest sense of the word. He lived a life of oneness with God the Father in purity, sincerity, and no hypocrisy. I also think of a man in the Bible that Jesus commended for being pure, a man who had no deceit. That person was Nathanael in John 1:47. Jesus said, "Behold, an Israelite indeed, in whom is no deceit!"
I also think of my maternal grandmother whom we affectionately called Granny. She lived into her eighties and was such a humble, meek, and pure woman of God. She was well acquainted with grief and sorrow, but she maintained a pure heart until she died. She and her family experienced many tragedies. Her brother Henry was burned badly in a fire at the steel plant where he worked, and he died as a result. Before he died however, he shared the Gospel with those around him and led his nurse to Christ. Granny's sister and two children died in a tornado, and another brother died drowning trying to help someone. Her husband, my grandfather, was in a very difficult train wreck, and he eventually died at the age of 55 from cancer. But Granny kept pressing forward and loving her six children. In her later years, she suffered badly from scoliosis and also lost her sense of smell, but she did not complain. She loved God and her family and lived to serve others. Our family misses her terribly because she lived to be missed. When the pure in heart are among us, we know it, and when they depart, we feel the emptiness and vacuum of them no longer being with us.
Psalm 24:3-5 states,
"Who may ascend into the hill of the LORD?
Or who may stand in His holy place?
He who has clean hands and a pure heart,
Who has not lifted up his soul to an idol,
Nor sworn deceitfully.
He shall receive blessing from the LORD,
And righteousness from the God of his salvation."
This week, as we look at this beatitude of Jesus, are you a pure-in-heart person? If you are like me, at times you are, and at other times you are not. May God help us all live continually with clean hands and a pure heart.
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