These verses, the opening phrases of the Sermon on the Mount, hold some of the Bible’s most beautiful and best-loved poetry. Part of its beauty, though, lies in the fact that the meaning is not quite clear. What does it mean to be “poor in spirit”? What does it mean to “inherit the earth” or to be called “the children of God.” The fact that there are many possibilities causes us to linger over the phrases, pondering them.

Understood in the internal sense, these blessings show the spiritual states of the various people who could be receptive of the Lord and the new church he was launching. On a deeper level it shows that states within ourselves that can lead each of us to the Lord and to a deeper understanding of His truth today.

The “poor in spirit” are those who know little about spiritual things, but want to learn. Those that “mourn” are those who want to be good, but see no desire for good in their church. The “meek” are those who love to care for and serve others. To “hunger and thirst after righteousness” shows a desire to rise up, to learn about what’s good and to come to desire it.

The “merciful” are those who love their fellow people. The “pure in heart” are those who love only what is good. “Peacemakers” are those who are in harmony with the Lord, gaining knowledge from Him and wanting what He wants. And to be “persecuted for righteousness’ sake” means acting out of love and care for others, even though you are condemned by others for it.

There’s something of a progression there, from those who simply want to learn to those who actively want to be good people to those who actually are good and acting out of love for others. None of it, though, describes those who are learned in the Jewish traditions, or even necessarily observant in terms of ritual; they are, rather, those who sense that it is possible to be a good person and are willing to make the effort.

And they are promised their rewards! The “kingdom of heaven” is the understanding the angels have of the Lord; “comfort” represents ideas that lead to the good of life; “inheriting the earth” is a state of loving others and being loved by them in return. The overall message is simple: If we truly wish to be good people, and are willing to let the Lord teach us how to be good people, we will end up filled with love and wisdom from Him. And that’s what we need to focus on: The desire to be good, and openness to ideas from the Lord. It’s not about ritual and intellectual “correctness”; it’s about ideas that lead us to be good.

But what of being reviled and persecuted? This depicts temptation, when the hells attack our newborn good desires and true understanding. They cause us to doubt our ability to be truly good and question the ideas that are leading us. And they can do it in many ways, reminding us of the fun we’ll be missing or reminding us of all the bad things we’ve ever done to render us hopeless. They will even attack the Bible and the ideas that come to us through it from the Lord; that’s represented by the idea that people also attacked the prophets.

These states, however, are blessed in their own way; only by battling these evils, which are rooted inside us, can we finally fully embrace the good life we have been striving for. That’s why it is pictured last, and that's why it leads to the “great reward” in heaven.

876. And adore Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of water, signifies the acknowledgment and confession of Him from whom is the all of heaven and the church, and from whom is the Divine truth or the Word. This is evident from the signification of "adoring," as being to acknowledge in heart, thus to confess and worship (See above, n. 790, 805, 821); also from the signification of "the heaven and the earth," as being the internal and the external of the church (See above, n. 304, 752); it also signifies heaven and the church, because with man the internal of the church is heaven, for it is in conjunction with the angels, even so as to make one with them; for, as has been said above, man's internal is formed to the idea and image of heaven, but his external to the idea and image of the world. So long, however, as man lives in the world the church in him is in his natural, which is his external. Yet the church is in man's natural or external only when the internal has been opened; for the church cannot exist with anyone unless he has heaven within, from which enlightenment and influx from the Lord may pass into the natural or external which is beneath. The above is evident also from the signification of "sea" as being the Divine truth in ultimate things, thus the Word in the letter, for this is Divine truth in ultimates. This is the signification of the "sea" because in the lowest parts of heaven there appear to be seas; for it is the Divine truth proceeding from the Lord that forms the heavens and all things in them; and the higher heavens appear to be in an ethereal atmosphere, the lower in an aerial atmosphere, and the lowest in a misty atmosphere; and this atmosphere appears to the eyes of those who stand afar off like a sea, but not to those who dwell in it. Those who dwell in it are in the ultimates of Divine truth, and that Divine truth is such as the Word is in the sense of the letter. It is from this that the "sea" has this signification. But on this see above (n. 275, 342, 511, 600). The "sea" here signifies the Word in the letter, because it is said "sea and fountains of waters;" and "fountains of waters" signify interior Divine truth such as the Word is in its spiritual sense. That this is the signification of a "fountain of water" can be seen from passages from the Word and their explanation above (n. 483). That "fountains of waters" here signify Divine truths that are from the Word can be seen from this, that "the heaven and the earth" signify the internal and the external of the church; and both are formed by the Divine truth or the Word, as it is said in John (John 1:1, 2, 14), the internal of the church by spiritual Divine truth, and the external by natural Divine truth; and this is why "fountains of waters" are here mentioned among the things made by the Lord.

[2] It can be seen from all this and from many other things how spiritual ideas, which are the ideas of angels, differ from natural ideas which are the ideas of men. To the angels, whose ideas are spiritual, "to adore Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and fountains of waters" means nothing else than the acknowledgment and confession of the Lord, from whom is the all of heaven and the church, and from whom is the Divine truth, or the Word in its natural and spiritual sense. The angels so understand these words because the heavens in which they are, and which appear to the sight altogether like our lands, but full of paradises, flower beds, and shrubberies, are not permanent like the lands on our globe, but come into existence in a moment, in the exact measure of the reception of the Divine truth by the angels; consequently the aspects of all things there change as the state of reception and therefore of their intelligence and wisdom, changes, thus according to the states of the church with them, and this even to the extent that all things spring forth correspondently before their sight according as the church is in them. So when "the heavens and the earth" are mentioned they can have no other idea than an idea of the church, because to them all things are from that. But men, when "the heaven and the earth" are mentioned, can have no such spiritual idea, because they are ignorant of such things; but they have a natural idea, which is according to what they see; for they see a heaven and an earth that are permanent, and that are not changed according to reception of the Divine truth, and thus of the church, as in the angelic heavens; consequently they mean by "heaven" nothing else than the visible heaven, and by "earth" nothing else than the earth inhabited by men.

[3] The state of heaven and earth in accord with the state of the church was represented with the sons of Israel by changes in the aspect of the land of Canaan, where they dwelt, according to the states of the church with them, but only in respect to the products, namely, of the harvest, the oil, the vine, the fruits, and as to the rains. This took place because all things with them were representative of things celestial. This is why it is so often said in the Word that "the land should yield its increase" if they would keep the statutes and do them. But it is otherwise at this day, when the interior things of the church have been laid open by the Lord; and the external things that were representative of the interior things have ceased. All this makes clear what a difference there is between the ideas of the angels and the ideas of men respecting the new heaven and the new earth. For the angels from their ideas understand the destruction of the heavens and the earths in the spiritual world, but men the destruction of the heavens and the earths in the natural world. Moreover, according to the predictions, there has been a destruction of those heavens and earths in the spiritual world upon which were those who had lived a moral life in externals but not at the same time a spiritual life from internals. But of this more may be seen in the small work on The Last Judgment.