The foundation of blessing

When Jesus spoke the beatitudes, he proclaimed the blessing of God. On what does the hope of our blessing rest? What is the basis for the blessings?

Some blessings are grounded in God's compassion. God sees our mourning and honors our tears.

Some blessings are based on God's delight in the good. He takes note of the merciful. He remembers the pure in heart. He singles out the peacemakers for a special honor, and plans good for those who have honored his name. It follows that God is seeking out the good, searching for it carefully. We have learned that the kingdom of heaven is like a man who found a treasure in a field, or like a merchant who found a pearl of great price, and in this we see God as our treasure. But in a moment like this, contemplating the God who seeks us, we may remember the day that he saw us as the treasure in the field and no price was too great for him to pay. We may well be surprised at this, since he could have bought us at a discount in the condition we were in. The blessing of God does not only delight in what is already good, but he sees more in us than we have yet become.

Some blessings leave me wondering. Do the meek inherit the earth because God has compassion for the meek as he has compassion for the mourning? Or do the meek inherit the earth because God delights in the meek as he delights in the merciful and the pure of heart? And those who mourn -- are they only objects of compassion to be pitied, or does God also delight in them for the love they have shown?