In last week’s Messenger I mentioned that I like to divide the Beatitudes into two lists of four each. The first four Beatitudes are the “Humiliating Beatitudes.” These are traits that humble us – being poor, in mourning, meek, and hungry & thirsty. These certainly don’t seem to be great descriptions of what it means to be blessed, yet, that is exactly what Jesus teaches.

The second list are the “Noble Beatitudes.” These we generally see as noble traits, even if they aren’t necessarily things that are celebrated and honored by this world. Mercy, purity, peacemaking, and suffering for doing good. At least in word, to most people they sound like the qualities to be admired, even if, again, we don’t always want to put such traits into practice. The world may pander praise to such people, but mostly celebrates the opposite – revenge, obscenity, fighting, and conforming to the prevailing culture.

When we go through these two lists in order, it is interesting to see how the humiliating beatitudes lead us to the noble beatitudes. When we are willing to humble ourselves, or more accurately, when we are willing to let God humble us, then we see how God, through the Holy Spirit, helps us to grow in the noble traits.

This week, our beatitudes are “Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4), and “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). The harmony of this pair of beatitudes is clearly seen in the testimony of King David, specifically in Psalm 51. This psalm is David’s confession of sin after he was confronted by the prophet Nathan regarding his affair with Bathsheba and the killing of her husband, Uriah.

In Psalm 51 and in the account from 2 Samuel 12, we see David’s weeping on account of his sin. He didn’t make excuses or blame others as his predecessor, Saul, had done. He admits in Psalm 51:4 that the Lord is “right in your verdict and justified when you judge.” In Psalm 51:8, David describes his bones being “crushed” under the weight of his guilt. In his mourning, he begs for the comfort of the Lord, and the Lord forgives his sin (2 Samuel 12:13).

In his confession, David also pleads, “Create in me a pure heart, O God” (Psalm 51:10). He knew that only the Lord can give us a pure heart, and he had come to learn that the gift of a pure heart can only come when we humble ourselves before the Lord and mourn over our sin.

Today, our nation desperately needs this kind of healing as well. But to be healed, we need to humble ourselves before the Lord and confess our sin. We need to mourn for the ways in which we as a nation have desecrated the institution of marriage by practicing and applauding sexual immorality. We need to mourn, truly mourn, over the abomination of abortion that has covered our hands in innocent blood. We need to mourn over our culture’s abandonment of America’s Christian foundation. As intercessors, we need to confess the sin of nation to the Lord and plead for His mercy. If we want to once again experience what it means to be a nation truly “blessed,” we need to mourn, and we need to plead that the Lord would create in us a clean heart, a pure heart.

When we look at David we need to learn another valuable lesson. It is easy to be critical of David wondering how someone described by the Bible as a man after God’s own heart (1 Samuel 13:14) could do something so horrible. Yet, we need to remember that until Nathan’s rebuke no one tried to stop David. Joab just did as he was told. We all need more Nathans in our life and fewer Joabs. It is easy to find people who will go along with or even join in our sin, but it is more difficult to find friends like Nathan.

So, too, our nation desperately needs more Nathans. We need people who are willing to proclaim the hard truths that convict us. This summer, 2 Kingdoms Ministry gave a workshop entitled, “Speaking the Truth to Power.” It focused on our responsibility as servants of the Kingdom of Heaven and citizens of our nation to speak up in the face of evil. For wicked leaders need to be restrained and rebuked, but so do our “good” leaders. Even King David, left unchecked, gave into grievous sins. We need to be willing to stand up to evil wherever we see it – even when it comes from our side of the political aisle.

“Speaking Truth to Power” also requires that we remember to encourage our leaders when they stand up for what is right. This also includes encouraging those who we may otherwise disagree with when they do something commendable. Those who only rebuke are easily tuned out. Nathan’s rebuke of David was so powerful because it came from someone David trusted, someone who had brought David encouragement from the Lord in the past. If our legislators, school board members, mayors, or city councilmembers only hear from us when we are angry, our words will not carry much weight. With this in mind, I’d like to close with a prayer:

Heavenly Father, today we lift our nation up to You. Thank You for the blessings of the past. We humbly acknowledge the many ways in which we have repaid Your blessings with shameful arrogance and pride. Lord, humble our nation to a place of mourning. Help us to feel the full weight of our sin, so that we might be rightly prepared, through tears, to experience the fullness of Your comfort offered to us in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Forgive the sin of our land, and wash us clean through the Holy and Precious Blood of Jesus. We pray for our leaders. Humble them before Your Word. Give them courage to do what is right. Bless them when they act justly, and raise up opposition when they do wrong. Embolden us, Lord, to speak up in the face of evil, and help us to bring encouragement to those who govern well. We ask this all in the precious name of Jesus – King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Amen.