Matthew 5:7
The Message translates this beatitude as “You’re blessed when you care. At the moment of being care-full, you find yourselves cared for”. I see this beatitude as being far deeper than that.
The Amplified Bible is “Blessed (happy, to be envied and spiritually prosperous – with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favour and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”
This Beatitude links to James 2:13 which reads “for to him who has shown no mercy the judgement [will be] merciless, but mercy [full of glad confidence] exults victoriously over judgement.
I see this as being similar to Jesus’ words in Matthew 6:12 that we will be forgiven to the extent that we forgive.
In his commentary, William Barclay agrees with this. He also discusses the Hebrew word for mercy, which means to experience together with the other person. This is very closely aligned with the way the Message translates this verse.
Barclay argues that truly empathises with a person, prevents us from meeting the other person’s needs and often deciding what the person needs without listening to what he or she actually wants.
Interestingly, Barclay also comments that the type of mercy described in the Hebrew would make forgiveness and tolerance of others much easier. He is referring to the conscious effort to seek to understand the way another person is thinking and the reasons for the his or her actions. When we understand that people have explainable reasons for their actions, it is much easier to accept and forgive. Barclay likens this to a French proverb that says “to know all is to forgive all”. To do this, we must choose to make the effort to understand the other person and suspend judgement until we have achieved that.
So being merciful is about forgiveness and choosing to not judge others, but to seek to understand the reasons for a person’s actions. It could be argued that Jesus did just that in coming to live in a man’s body and live as a man. He was seeking to understand us and the reasons for our actions. This is the supreme act of mercy as described here in this beatitude.
Once again, I really like Barclay’s interpretation of this beatitude. It is:
“O the Bliss of the man who gets right inside other people, until he can see with their eyes, think with their thoughts, feel with their feelings, for he who does that will find others do the same for him, and will know that that is what God in Jesus Christ has done!”

Matthew 5:6
The Message translates the fourth beatitude as “You’re blessed when you’ve worked up a good appetite for God. He’s food and drink in the best meal you’ll ever eat.”
The Amplified Bible translates it as “Blessed and fortunate and happy and spiritually prosperous (in that state in which the born-again child of God enjoys His favour and salvation) are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness (uprightness and right standing with God), for they shall be completely satisfied!”
This verse refers to Isaiah 55:1-2. If you can, I suggest you read those verses, because they will give you great insight into this beatitude.
In the time of Jesus, the average working person knew great hunger, due the fact they lived on a starvation income so rarely were able to get more than enough food to just sustain life, and always lived very close to death from starvation. Likewise, people did not have ready access to drinking water and knew what it was like to be really thirsty. In our world, where our every expanding waistlines are testimony to how rarely we actually fact true starvation and where a bottle of water is readily available and there is no shortage of taps to find water from, it is hard to truly comprehend how desperate hunger and thirst can be. Barclay suggests that in this beatitude, Jesus is asking the listeners how much they want goodness. Does he or she want it as much as the starving man or the man dying of thirst? He is asking people if the goodness they desire is a deeply intense need or a gentle longing.
In the ancient Greek, these words meant “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for the whole of righteousness, for complete righteousness” (Barclay). How many of us actually hunger and thirst for the “whole of righteousness”? How many of us are prepared to give up that much for the “whole of righteousness”? In reality, most of us are happy with a little bit. We do not want to give the time or effort to the “whole of righteousness”.
So Barclay contends that the fourth beatitude should read:
“O the bliss of the man who longs for total righteousness as a starving man longs for food, and a man perishing of thirst longs for water, for that man will be truly satisfied!”
This is a challenge to all of us to consider how much we are prepared to seek total righteousness. This is such a difficult beatitude to follow.

Matthew 5:5
“You’re blessed when you’re content with just who you are – no more, no less. That’s the moment you find yourselves proud owners of everything that can’t be bought.” The Message
“Blessed (happy, blithesome, joyous, spiritually prosperous – with life-joy and satisfaction in God’s favour and salvation, regardless of their outward conditions) are the meek (the mild, patient, long-suffering), for they shall inherit the earth!” The Amplified Bible.
This beatitude is referenced to Psalm 37 especially v 11. Romans 4:13 is also related to this beatitude.
It is a hard beatitude to understand. After much prayerful reflection, reading of the Bible and several commentaries, this is what I understand of this Beatitude.
In the present world, meek is often seen as a negative trait, as the displaying of weakness and timidity. Someone seen as meek is more likely to be sent to learn assertiveness and build up their self-esteem than be seen as the one who will inherit the earth. In Ancient Greek the word held a different meaning. It was seen as an important ethical word. Aristotle saw life as being one of extremes with the ideal way of being as the middle ground. Meekness was defined by him as being the middle ground between excessive anger and excessive angerlessness. In this world, where managing anger appropriately is a rare commodity, meekness is beginning to look like a good place to be! Strange that is has transformed from the time of Aristotle when it seems to be closer to how we perceive assertiveness to being seen as the excessive angerlessness of Aristotle’s definition.  From Aristotle’s perspective, this beatitude would best be read as
“blessed is the man who is always angry at the right time, and never angry at the wrong time.”
Jesus is the guide of being angry at the right time. His anger was never selfish anger. John 2:13-17 is a great example of meekness according to Aristotle’s definition.
There was however another Greek definition of the word for meekness. It was one that described being able to accept control and was often used of animals. In a human application, it can be seen as promoting the ethical virtue of self-control. From this perspective, the beatitude would best be read as
“Blessed is the man who has every instinct, every impulse, every passion under control. Blessed is the man who is entirely self-controlled.”
In Galatians 5:23 we read that one of the fruits of the spirit is self-control. It speaks the truth that the person without Jesus is not able to exercise a good level of self-control. This can only be done in Jesus. This lends weight to seeing this beatitude as being one about the one who allows him or herself to be in Jesus. After all, this is what the beatitudes are all about, our relationship with Jesus.
Another way some commentators translate the Greek word for meekness is humility. This form of humility is one that has as its basis the sense of unworthiness. It is described as the unworthiness necessary to truly embrace God because it recognises our own weakness and need for God. Therefore, this meekness is the acceptance that we are unworthy, need to be forgiven and need to learn. This is the proper attitude to God. From this perspective, the beatitude could be seen as
“Blessed is the man who has the humility to know his own ignorance, his own weakness, and his own need.”
The Bible portrays the above definition in the life of men such as Moses.
After considering all the commentaries and bible references I think William Barclay best writes this beatitude:
“O the bliss of the man who is always angry at the right time and never angry at the wrong time, who has every instinct, and impulse, and passion under control because he himself is God-controlled, who has the humility to realise his own ignorance and his own weakness, for such a man is a king among men!”