“Happy is that people, whose God is the LORD” (Ps. 144:15)

If someone asks you if you are happy, how do you respond?  Most of us typically associate being happy with feeling a certain way on a certain day because everything is going our way.  From another perspective, to be happy in the Scriptures is another way of saying you are in a state of being blessed.  While most of us are familiar with the Hebrew word barak which means blessing, there is another word for blessing.  I would like to introduce it to you today. It is the Hebrew word Ashrei.  Strongs Concordance H835, describes the word happy (ashrei) as being level, straight and right; to go forward and to prosper.

Solomon says in Prov. 3:13, that the man that finds wisdom is ashrei.  Seeking God and asking for wisdom will make you ashrei.  The Psalmist begins Psalm 1:1 by saying, Asheri is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the set of mockers.

9 BLESSINGS/ASHERI OF THE MESSIAH

Matthew 5:3-12 contains what we know as the Beatitudes.  As we study the nine blessings in this chapter, according to scholar, Daniel Lancaster, we are faced with a language barrier.  Jesus starts each blessing with the word Ashrei, not Barak.  This concept is foreign to us as there is no exact or even adequate word in English that can be used to translate the word Ashrei.  Jesus began His teaching on the Sermon on the Mount by saying, Ashrei are the poor in spirit; Ashrei are those who mourn; Ashrei are the meek, etc.  That does not make a lot of sense to our Western minds.  We do not associate being blessed with being in a state of mourning or being insulted.  Jesus says you are ashrei when people say false and evil things about you because of Him.

Ashrei (blessed is a picture of a man or woman who has come to a state of deep contentment and inner peace even in contradictory situations.  This is what a true citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven is to look like.  Think of this for a moment.  Deeply contented are those who mourn.  Deeply contented are the poor in spirit.  What a seeming contradiction to our minds!  Yet what a beautiful picture of total trust in our Lord.

The Messiah teaches us the counterpart of asheri in Luke 6:24-26 by saying:  “Woe to the rich, the well-fed, to those who laugh and to those who all men are speaking well of.”  We must receive and teach the full counsel of the Messiah, or we may be guilty of unintended deception.  Have you ever been tempted to think that someone must be missing the mark if they are lacking finances or have health issues?  The list of assumptions like this is endless.  According to the Messiah, you are blessed (even) when you are living in a divine contradiction.

Whatever you are facing today, yours is the Kingdom of Heaven.  As believers, we find our hope in the dominion of the Messiah and His Words.

“The poor, the mourners, the downtrodden, and the persecuted cannot base their happiness or sense of contentment on temporal circumstances.  Instead they must rely on God, and because they rely on God, they find inner peace.” ¹

Blessings,

P/Karen

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1. First Fruits of Zion/Torah Club Vol.4, www.ffoz.org, Daniel Lancaster.