Blessed are They that Hunger and Thirst

The fourth Beatitude, “Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled,” teaches that true blessedness requires a holy discontent not with the world, but with ourselves. Scripture calls us to contentment in our station, yet here our Lord blesses those who are dissatisfied with their own sinfulness and who long, above all else, to be righteous before God. This hunger is not a desire for a better society, honest neighbors, or moral reform in others such wishes can exist even in unrighteous men but a deep awareness of our own rebellion, laziness, and misplaced desires, and a longing for God’s righteousness in our own lives. To hunger and thirst after righteousness is to see that we naturally crave everything except what we most need, and to cry out to God for both the desire and its fulfillment. The promise is sure: those who come empty-handed, confessing their lack, will not be filled with their own counterfeit goodness but with the righteousness of God Himself, freely given in grace, completing the upward movement of the Beatitudes toward a life shaped and satisfied by Him alone.