Blessed - Spurgeon makes an excellent point explaining that this man is...

blessed because in the presence of this hunger many meaner hungers die out. One master passion, like Aaron's rod, swallows up all the rest. He hungers and thirsts after righteousness, and therefore he is done with the craving of lust, the greed of avarice, the passion of hate, and pining of ambition

Pining to be holy, longing to serve God, anxious to spread every righteous principle,-blessed are they.

The psalmist spoke to the passion called for in this beatitude when he wrote...

My soul is crushed with longing after Thine ordinances at all times. (Psalm 119:20)

Spurgeon - True godliness lies very much in desires. As we are not what we shall be, so also we are not what we would be. The desires of gracious men after holiness are intense, -- they cause a wear of heart, a straining of the mind, till it feels ready to snap with the heavenly pull. A high value of the Lord's commandment leads to a pressing desire to know and to do it, and this so weighs upon the soul that it is ready to break in pieces under the crush of its own longings. What a blessing it is when all our desires are after the things of God. We may well long for such longings....

David had such reverence for the word, and such a desire to know it, and to be conformed to it, that his longings caused him a sort of heart break, which he here pleads before God. Longing is the soul of praying, and when the soul longs till it breaks, it cannot be long before the blessing will be granted. The most intimate communion between the soul and its God is carried on by the process described in the text. God reveals his will, and our heart longs to be conformed thereto. God judges, and our heart rejoices in the verdict. This is fellowship of heart most real and thorough.

Note well that our desire after the mind of God should be constant; we should feel holy longings "at all times." Desires which can be put off and on like our garments are at best but mere wishes, and possibly they are hardly true enough to be called by that name, -- they are temporary emotions born of excitement, and doomed to die when the heat which created them has cooled down. He who always longs to know and do the right is the truly right man. His judgment is sound, for he loves all God's judgments, and follows them with constancy. His times shall be good, since he longs to be good and to do good at all times.

I opened my mouth wide and panted, for I longed for Thy commandments. (Psalm 119:131)

Spurgeon - So animated was his desire that he looked into the animal world to find a picture of it. He was filled with an intense longing, and was not ashamed to describe it by a most expressive, natural, and yet singular symbol. Like a stag that has been hunted in the chase, and is hard pressed, and therefore pants for breath, so did the Psalmist pant for the entrance of God's word into his soul. Nothing else could content him. All that the world could yield him left him still panting with open mouth.

For I longed for thy commandments. Longed to know them, longed to obey them, longed to be conformed to their spirit, longed to teach them to others. He was a servant of God, and his industrious mind longed to receive orders; he was a learner in the school of grace, and his eager spirit longed to be taught of the Lord.

Behold, I long for Thy precepts. Revive me through Thy righteousness. (Psalm 119:40)

Spurgeon - Behold, I have longed after thy precepts. He can at least claim sincerity. He is deeply bowed down by a sense of his weakness and need of grace; but he does desire to be in all things conformed to the divine will. Where our longings are, there are we in the sight of God. If we have not attained perfection, it is something to have hungered after it. He who has given us to desire, will also grant us to obtain. The precepts are grievous to the ungodly, and therefore when we are so changed as to long for them we have clear evidence of conversion, and we may safely conclude that he who has begun the good work will carry it on.

Quicken me in thy righteousness. Give me more life wherewith to follow thy righteous law; or give me more life because thou hast promised to hear prayer, and it is according to thy righteousness to keep thy word. How often does David plead for quickening! But never once too often. We need quickening every hour of the day, for we are so sadly apt to become slow and languid in the ways of God. It is the Holy Spirit who can pour new life into us; let us not cease crying to him. Let the life we already possess show itself by longing for more.

Peter echoed a similar thought writing that after choosing to put aside a number of "negative" attitudes (see notes on 1 Peter 2:1)...

like newborn babes, long for the pure milk of the word, that by it you may grow in respect to salvation (see note 1 Peter 2:2)

Job whose soul was being severely tested found his strength and sustenance in the proper nutrition...

"I have not departed from the command of His lips; I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food. (Job 23:12)

Isaac Watts has put the beatitudes to hymn...

         I Hunger and I Thirst

Blest are the humble souls that see
Their emptiness and poverty;
Treasures of grace to them are giv’n,
And crowns of joy laid up in Heav’n.

Blest are the men of broken heart,
Who mourn for sin with inward smart;
The blood of Christ divinely flows,
A healing balm for all their woes.

Blest are the meek, who stand afar
From rage and passion, noise and war;
God will secure their happy state,
And plead their cause against the great.

Blest are the souls that thirst for grace
Hunger and long for righteousness;
They shall be well supplied, and fed
With living streams and living bread.

Blest are the men whose bowels move
And melt with sympathy and love;
From Christ the Lord they shall obtain
Like sympathy and love again.

Blest are the pure, whose hearts are clean
From the defiling powers of sin;
With endless pleasure they shall see
A God of spotless purity.

Blest are the men of peaceful life,
Who quench the coals of growing strife;
They shall be called the heirs of bliss,
The sons of God, the God of peace.

Blest are the suff’rers who partake
Of pain and shame for Jesus’ sake;
Their souls shall triumph in the Lord;
Glory and joy are their reward. (Play hymn)

Blessed is the one who continually longs know Christ's righteousness and walk steadfastly conformed to His will as a starving man longs for food and a man perishing of thirst longs for water, for that one will be truly satisfied, fully filled.

Blessed (see makarios) means spiritually prosperous, independent of one's circumstances because it is a state bestowed by God and not a feeling felt.  Fortunate, approved of God, happy independent of happenings.

Notice that beginning with this beatitude we begin to turn away from an examination of self (as seen in Mt 5:3-5) and to God. Some feel this is one of the key Beatitudes for in a sense the practice of it is key to all the others. Unless we hunger and thirst after God's righteousness, we shall never know the fullness of all He has promised to bless us with.

D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones in his classic treatise in fact feels that...

this Beatitude is of exceptional value because it provides us with a perfect test which we can apply to ourselves, a test not only of our condition at any given time, but also of our whole position...we must surely ask ourselves questions such as these: Are we filled? Have we got this satisfaction? Are we aware of this dealing of God with us? Is the fruit of the Spirit being manifested in our lives? Are we concerned about that? Are we experiencing love to God and to other people, joy and peace? Are we manifesting long-suffering, goodness, gentleness, meekness, faith and temperance? They that do hunger and thirst after righteousness shall be filled. They are filled, and they are being filled. Are we, therefore, I ask, enjoying these things? Do we know that we have received the life of God? Are we enjoying the life of God in our souls? Are we aware of the Holy Spirit and all His mighty working within, forming Christ in us more and more? If we claim to be Christian, then we should be able to say yes to all these questions. Those who are truly Christian are filled in this sense. Are we thus filled? Are we enjoying our Christian life and experience? Do we know that our sins are forgiven? Are we rejoicing in that fact, or are we still trying to make ourselves Christian, trying somehow to make ourselves righteous? Is it all a vain effort? Are we enjoying peace with God? Do we rejoice in the Lord always? Those are the tests that we must apply. If we are not enjoying these things, the only explanation of that fact is that we are not truly hungering and thirsting after righteousness. For if we do hunger and thirst we shall be filled. There is no qualification at all, it is an absolute statement, it is an absolute promise — 'Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.' (Lloyd-Jones, D. M. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount)

Hunger (3983) (peinao from peín = hunger) means to be in a state of hunger without any implications of particular contributing circumstances. The figurative use as in this beatitude signifies to have strong desire to attain some goal with the implication of an existing lack.

Hunger and thirst are bodily cravings that must be satisfied if life, both physical and spiritual, is to be sustained! Do you believe this? Therefore, this statement by Jesus is a key to partaking of the fullness of the righteous lifestyle (that surpasses that of the Scribes and Pharisees, Mt 5:20) that Jesus outlines in His remainder of the sermon.

Note that both hunger and thirst are in the present tense which calls for these pursuits to be our lifestyle. Think for a moment - if you eat only one meal, does it satisfy you for the rest of the week? Of course not. Even though that meal might have satiated you for the moment, your body naturally grows hungry again as time passes. In the same way, as genuine believers we will continually hunger and thirst for God's righteousness. One day we will see Him and we shall be like Him in glory (1John 3:2) but until that day we are all "works in progress" (Phil 1:6). Think of the prophet Isaiah, probably the "best man (the most righteous) in the land of Israel" in his day. What happened when he saw perfect righteousness (Isaiah 6:1-8)? He was undone and after cleansing of his lips with coal (cf Isaiah 64:6), he responded to the Lord's query of "Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?" by saying "Here am I. Send me!"  (Isaiah 6:8) We will never reach the breadth and length and height and depth of God's perfect righteousness in this life and so as aliens and strangers (1Peter 2:11) our goal and our quest is continual pursuit of His righteousness manifest in and through us as we live our lives in the power of His Spirit for His glory (Mt 5:16). "For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. " (Romans 11:36) (Hint: download InstaVerse to quickly pop up the cross references in context)

Spurgeon writes...

They are not full of their own righteousness, but long for more and more of that which comes from above. They pine to be right themselves both with God and man, and they long to see righteousness have the upper hand all the world over. Such is their longing for goodness, that it would seem as if both the appetites of "hunger and thirst" were concentrated in their one passion for righteousness. Where God works such an insatiable desire, we may be quite sure that he will satisfy it; yea, fill it to the brim. In contemplating the righteousness of God, the righteousness of Christ, and the victory of righteousness in the latter days, we are more than filled. In the world to come the satisfaction of the "man of desires" will be complete. Nothing here below can fill an immortal soul; and since it is written, "They shall be filled" we look forward with joyful confidence to a heaven of holiness with which we shall be satisfied eternally. (A Popular Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew)

The Puritan Thomas Watson writes that...

Hunger is put for desire ("At night my soul longs for Thee, Indeed, my spirit within me seeks Thee diligently; For when the earth experiences Thy judgments The inhabitants of the world learn righteousness." Isaiah 26:9). Spiritual hunger is the rational appetite whereby the soul pants after that which it apprehends most suitable and proportional to itself. Whence is this hunger? Hunger is from the sense of want. He who spiritually hungers, has a real sense of his own indigence (cf Mt 5:3). He wants righteousness...This a pious soul hungers after. This is a blessed hunger. Bodily hunger cannot make a man so miserable as spiritual hunger makes him blessed. This evidences life. A dead man cannot hunger. Hunger proceeds from life. The first thing the child does when it is born, is to hunger after the breast. Spiritual hunger follows upon the new birth (1 Peter 2:2). Saint Bernard in one of his Soliloquies comforts himself with this, that sure he had the truth of grace in him, because he had in his heart a strong desire after God. It is happy when, though we have not what we should, we desire what we have not. The appetite is as well from God as the food.

We need the attitude of the psalmist Asaph in Psalm 73 who cried...

25 Whom have I in heaven but Thee?
     And besides Thee, I desire nothing on earth. (hungering, thirsting)
26 My flesh and my heart may fail,
     But God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. (fully satisfied)

Kent Hughes reminds us that

"The fourth Beatitude is a call to pursue conformity to God's will stated in the most extreme of terms. The intensity of the expression is difficult for us to feel because if we are thirsty today, all we need to do is turn on the tap for cold, refreshing water; or if we are hungry, we just open the refrigerator. However, to the ancient Palestinian the expression was terribly alive because he was never far from the possibility of dehydration or starvation. It is not a comfortable picture. Jesus is far from recommending a genteel desire for spiritual nourishment, but rather a starvation for righteousness, a desperate hungering to be conformed to God's will." (Hughes, R. K. Sermon on the Mount: The Message of the Kingdom. Crossway Books)

Jesus' words call for a desperation in one's heart and soul that will not be satisfied with a trifling knowledge of God or a minimal improvement in moral conduct. Jesus' call is radical, just as in the other Beatitudes.

The Puritan Thomas Watson writes that Jesus' words...

reprove such as have none of this spiritual hunger. They have no winged desires. The edge of their affections is blunted. Honey is not sweet to them that are sick of a fever and have their tongues embittered with choler.’ So those who are soul-sick and ‘in the gall of bitterness’, find no sweetness in God... Sin tastes sweeter to them; they have no spiritual hunger....They evidence little hunger after righteousness that prefer other things before it, namely, their profits and recreations...So when men prefer ‘vain things which cannot profit’ before the blood of Christ and the grace of the Spirit, it is a sign they have no palate or stomach to heavenly things...The Word reproves them who, instead of hungering and thirsting after righteousness, thirst after riches. This is the thirst of covetous men. They desire mammon not manna. ‘They pant after the dust of the earth’ (Amos 2:7). This is the disease most are afflicted with, an immoderate appetite after the world, but these things will no more satiate than drink will quench the thirst of a man with the dropsy. Covetousness is idolatry (Colossians 3:5). Too many Protestants set up the idol of gold in the temple of their hearts. This sin of covetousness is the most hard to root out. Commonly, when other sins leave men, this sin abides. Wantonness is the sin of youth; worldliness the sin of old age...But some may object: My hunger after righteousness is so weak, that I fear it is not true. I answer: Though the pulse beats but weak it shows there is life. And that weak desires should not be discouraged, there is a promise made to them. ‘A bruised reed he will not break’ (Matthew 12:20). A reed is a weak thing, but especially when it is bruised, yet this ‘bruised reed’ shall not be broken, but like Aaron’s dry rod, ‘bud and blossom’. In case of weakness look to Christ your High Priest. He is merciful, therefore will bear with your infirmities; he is mighty, therefore will help them.

But, says a child of God, that which much eclipses my comfort is, I have not that hunger which I once had. Time was when I did hunger after a Sabbath because then the manna fell. ‘I called the Sabbath a delight’. I remember the time when I hungered after the body and blood of the Lord. I came to a sacrament as an hungry man to a feast, but now it is otherwise with me. I do not have those hungerings as formerly. I answer: It is indeed an ill sign for a man to lose his stomach, but, though it be a sign of the decay of grace to lose the spiritual appetite, yet it is a sign of the truth of grace to bewail the loss. It is sad to lose our first love, but it is happy when we mourn for the loss of our first love.If you do not have that appetite after heavenly things as formerly, yet do not be discouraged, for in the use of means you may recover your appetite. The ordinances are for the recovering of the appetite when it is lost. In other cases feeding takes away the stomach, but here, feeding on an ordinance begets a stomach.

The text exhorts us all to labour after this spiritual hunger. Novarinus says, ‘It is too small a thing merely to wish for righteousness; but we must hunger for it on account of a vast longing making itself felt.’ Hunger less after the world and more after righteousness. Say concerning spiritual things, ‘Lord, evermore give us this bread. Feed me with this angels’ food’. That manna is most to be hungered after which will not only preserve life but prevent death (John 6:50). That is most desirable which is most durable. Riches are not for ever (Proverbs 27:24) but righteousness is for ever (Proverbs 8:18). ‘The beauty of holiness, never fades (Psalm 110:3). ‘The robe of righteousness’ (Isaiah 61:10) never waxes old! Oh hunger after that righteousness which ‘delivereth from death’ (Proverbs 10:12). This is the righteousness which God himself is in love with. ‘He loveth him that followeth after righteousness’ (Proverbs 15:9). All men are ambitious of the king’s favour. Alas, what is a prince’s smile but a transient beatitude? This sunshine of his royal countenance soon masks itself with a cloud of displeasure, but those who are endued with righteousness are God’s favourites, and how sweet is his smile! ‘Thy loving-kindness is better than life’ (Psalm 63:3).

To persuade men to hunger after this righteousness, consider two things.

1 Unless we hunger after righteousness we cannot obtain it.

God will never throw away his blessings upon them that do not desire them. A king may say to a rebel, Do but desire a pardon and you shall have it; but if through pride and stubbornness he disdains to sue out his pardon, he deserves justly to die. God has set spiritual blessings at a low rate. Do but hunger and you shall have righteousness; but if we refuse to come up to these terms there is no righteousness to be had for us. God will stop the current of his mercy and set open the sluice of his indignation.

2 If we do not thirst here we shall thirst when it is too late.

If we do not thirst as David did ‘My soul thirsteth for God’ (Psalm 42:2) we shall thirst as Dives did for a drop of water (Luke 16:24). They who do not thirst for righteousness shall be in perpetual hunger and thirst. They shall thirst for mercy, but no mercy to be had. Heat increases thirst. When men shall burn in hell and be scorched with the flames of God’s wrath, this heat will increase their thirst for mercy but there will be nothing to allay their thirst. O is it not better to thirst for righteousness while it is to be had, than to thirst for mercy when there is none to be had? Sinners, the time is shortly coming when the drawbridge of mercy will be quite pulled up.

I shall next briefly describe some helps to spiritual hunger.

1 Avoid those things which will hinder your appetite:

As ‘windy things’. When the stomach is full of wind a man has little appetite to his food. So when one is filled with a windy opinion of his own righteousness, he will not hunger after Christ’s righteousness. He who, being puffed up with pride, thinks he has grace enough already will not hunger after more. These windy vapours spoil the stomach. ‘Sweet things’ destroy the appetite. So by feeding immoderately upon the sweet luscious delights of the world, we lose our appetite to Christ and grace. You never knew a man surfeit himself upon the world, and at the same time be ’sick of love’ to Christ. While Israel fed with delight upon garlic and onions, they never hungered after manna. The soul cannot be carried to two extremes at once. As the eye cannot look intent on heaven and earth at once, so a man cannot at the same instant hunger excessively after the world, and after righteousness! The earth puts out the fire. The love of earthly things will quench the desire of spiritual. ‘Love not the world’ (1 John 2:15). The sin is not in the having, but in the loving.

2 Do all that may provoke spiritual appetite.

There are two things that provoke appetite.

Exercise: a man by walking and stirring gets a stomach to his meat. So by the exercise of holy duties the spiritual appetite is increased. ‘Exercise thyself unto godliness’ (1 Timothy 4:7). Many have left off closet prayer. They hear the Word but seldom, and for want of exercise they have lost their stomach to religion. Sauce: sauce whets and sharpens the appetite. There is a twofold sauce provokes holy appetite: first, the ‘bitter herbs’ of repentance. He that tastes gall and vinegar in sin hungers after the body and blood of the Lord.

Second, affliction. God often gives us this sauce to sharpen our hunger after grace. ‘Reuben found mandrakes in the field’ (Genesis 30:14). The mandrakes are an herb of a very strong savour, and among other virtues they have, they are chiefly medicinal for those who have weak and bad stomachs. Afflictions may be compared to these mandrakes, which sharpen men’s desires after that spiritual food which in time of prosperity they began to loathe and nauseate. Penury (cramping and oppressive lack of resources) is the sauce which cures the surfeit (overabundant supply) of plenty. In sickness people hunger more after righteousness than in health. ‘The full soul loathes the honeycomb’ (Proverbs 27:7, Psalm 119:67, 71). Christians, when full fed, despise the rich cordials of the gospel. I wish we did not slight those truths now which would taste sweet in a prison. How precarious was a leaf of the Bible in Queen Mary’s days! The wise God sees it good sometimes to give us the sharp sauce of affliction, to make us feed more hungrily upon the bread of life. And so much for the first part of the text, ‘Blessed are they that hunger.(Watson, Thomas: The Beatitudes: An Exposition of Matthew 5:1-12, 1660) (Bolding added)

This beatitude begs the question "Do I truly hunger and thirst" for righteousness as manifest in a Spirit empowered righteous lifestyle? Pastor Phil Newton addresses this most important question as follows...

There is deep soul-searching in this Beatitude. We must be honest with ourselves. Forget the fact of what you profess. Forget for the moment that you attend church regularly and that you have Christian friends. What is it that means more to you than anything else? What is it that you must have—it drives your life, consumes your thoughts, directs your impulses? Is it for money or sex or fame or popularity or revenge? Then you are an idolater, for those things have become your god. (cf Col 3:5, Eph 5:5, 1Cor 6:10)

Do you remember the rich young ruler? (read Luke 18:18-27) He came to Jesus asking what he could do to inherit eternal life. He wanted eternal life, no doubt about it. But he did not want it as his chief joy and delight. Jesus’ instructions revealed that the rich young ruler's life was wrapped up in things. He hungered and thirsted for more and more things! He was at heart, an idolater that did not know Christ and eternal life. He wanted the eternal life, but he did not want the holy life that accompanies it. And so he had neither. Does that describe you?

Thomas Watson (biographies) explained, “Desire is the best discovery of a Christian” [129]. What you desire explains your heart. I dare say that there is no one here that desires to go to hell. All want to go to heaven. But that is not the issue. The issue is do you desire to be like Christ? For that is a Christian—not simply someone going to heaven, but a person in whom Jesus Christ has revealed His own righteous life. The spiritual appetite that Jesus Christ calls for is the desire to be like Christ, not simply have the benefits of Christ. It is the desire to have Christ above all that the world offers. It is the desire for Christ that does not give up or abate because of difficulties or demands. It is the desire for Christ that does not faint at the cost of true discipleship. It is the desire for Christ that cannot be put off for lesser things, or procrastinated over while one ventures after the world [cf. Watson 124-126]. (Matthew 5:6 The Blessing of Hungering & Thirsting) (Bolding added)

Think about the apostle Paul's spiritual growth. From the following descriptions of himself it appears as he grows in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (2Peter 3:18), he grows more aware of his need for God's righteousness...

We see Paul's continual hungering and thirsting (see phrases in bold that correspond to Paul's hungering and thirsting) for God's righteous life to flow through him more and more in his letter to the Philippians...

7 But whatever things were gain to me, those things I have counted as loss for the sake of Christ.
8 More than that, I (keep on continually) count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and (keep on continually) count them but rubbish in order that I may gain Christ,
9 and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,
10 that I may know Him, and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;  (Paul knew Him but his passionate craving drove him to desire more of Jesus, a perfect parallel to this beatitude Mt 5:6)
11 in order that I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained it, or have already become perfect, but I press on in order that I may lay hold of that for which also I was laid hold of by Christ Jesus.
13 Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,
14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.  (Philippians 3:7-14 see notes Philippians 3:7-8, Philippians 3:9-11, Philippians 3:12-13, Philippians 3:14) This great apostle continually recognized his need for more of Christ-likeness in his life. Each step in growth satisfied yes, but also created a greater hunger and thirst for more. And so it should be in our lives, beloved.

What does the object of one's hunger reveal? Phil Newton answers it this way...

What you hunger for reveals the character of your heart. You can mask your outward performance. You can churn out Christian lingo, and put on a happy face, but you know what you really desire. Multitudes flock into churches each week with “Christian masks” that hide the reality that their appetite is not for Jesus Christ but for the things of the world. But Jesus tells us that only those who have the spiritual appetite to hunger and thirst for righteousness will find satisfaction. (Matthew 5:6 The Blessing of Hungering & Thirsting)

A W Tozer has a note entitled "God Hunger"...

These words are addressed to those of God's children who have been pierced with the arrow of infinite desire, who yearn for God with a yearning that has overcome them, who long with a longing that has become pain.

"Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled" (Matthew 5:6). Hunger is a pain. It is God's merciful provision, a divinely sent stimulus to propel us in the direction of food. If food-hunger is a pain, thirst, which is water-hunger, is a hundredfold worse, and the more critical the need becomes within the living organism the more acute the pain. It is nature's last drastic effort to rouse the imperiled life to seek to renew itself. A dead body feels no hunger and the dead soul knows not the pangs of holy desire. "If you want God," said the old saint, "you have already found Him." Our desire for fuller life is proof that some life must be there already. Our very dissatisfactions should encourage us, our yet unfulfilled aspirations should give us hope. "What I aspired to be, and was not, comforts me," wrote Browning with true spiritual insight. The dead heart cannot aspire.

Thirst (1372) (dipsao from dipsos = thirst) (present tense) describes literal or figurative (as in this verse) thirst and pictures one who desires ardently for a drink.

The prophet Isaiah spoke of this thirst some 700 years before Jesus' sermon recording Jehovah's invitation...

"Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come (we are all spiritually bankrupt, Mt 5:3), buy (with what? we have no "spiritual currency" - the answer of course is that He supplies grace, unmerited favor) and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost. 2 Why do you spend money for what is not bread, and your wages for what does not satisfy (Wealthy, materialistic America desperately needs to hear and heed this call)? Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good, and delight yourself in abundance (cf "will be filled" Mt 5:6) (Isaiah 55:1-2) (See Spurgeon's sermon Isaiah 55:1 A Free Salvation, commentary by Dave Guzik on Isaiah 55, devotionals Isaiah 55 Making Things Square, Isaiah 55  The Price Of Food, Isaiah 55:1-3  The Toy Search, Isaiah 55:1-9 It's Free!)

In some of the last words of Scripture we read God's great invitation repeated...

And the Spirit and the bride say, "Come." And let the one who hears say, "Come." And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost. (Revelation 22:17)

Have you ever thirsted for righteousness? If that desire is not in you and has never been in your soul, perhaps you need to "Come and Drink" for the first time, receiving God's free gift of salvation offered above in both the Old and the New Testaments. Don't be like the religious people of Jeremiah's day of whom God said...

"My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water." (Jeremiah 2:13)

Gamaliel Bradford wrote, that they are those who have

“a thirst no earthly stream can satisfy, a hunger that must feed on Christ or die.”

The starving person has a single minded, all-consuming passion for food and water. All other desires pale in comparison. Nothing else has the slightest attraction or appeal and nothing else can even get the desperately starving, thirsting man's attention. You want it so strongly you feel the pangs for it. It is a matter of life and death. Your very existence depends on that one-cup of water, or that one loaf of bread. Jesus uses the metaphor of "hunger and thirst" to teach that just as man cannot live physically without bread and water, so too one cannot live spiritually without righteousness. Righteousness is not an optional "spiritual vitamin" but is a vital necessity for a believer's spiritual life.

Lloyd-Jones reminds us that

“This beatitude follows logically from the previous ones; it is a statement to which all the others lead. It is the logical conclusion to which they come and it is something for which we should all be profoundly thank­ful and grateful to God. I do not know of a better test that anyone can apply to himself or herself in this whole matter of the Christian profession than a verse like this. If this verse is to you one of the most blessed statements of the whole of Scripture you can be quite sure you are a Christian; if it is not, then you had better examine the foundations again...We are not hungering and thirsting after righteousness as long as we are holding with any sense of self-satisfaction to anything that is in us, or to anything that we have ever done” (Lloyd-Jones, D. M. Studies in the Sermon on the Mount)

Jesus is not describing genteel (cultivated, aristocratic, formal, fashionable, refined, stylish) urgings but a desperate hungering and thirsting. He describes those who keep on acknowledging their spiritual poverty (Mt 5:3),  keep on seeking to live out God's righteousness as a starving man longs for food or a man perishing from thirst longs for water. Are you hungry? Are you thirsty? What are you hungering and thirsting for? Remember there is the world's way (it is passing away) and the King's way (endures forever).

John S. B. Monsell wrote I Hunger and I Thirst putting the essence of this beatitude to music...

I hunger and I thirst,
Jesu, my manna be;
Ye living waters, burst
Out of the rock for me.

Thou bruised and broken Bread,
My life-long wants supply;
As living souls are fed,
O feed me, or I die.

Thou true life-giving Vine,
Let me Thy sweetness prove;
Renew my life with Thine,
Refresh my soul with love.

Rough paths my feet have trod
Since first their course began;
Feed me, Thou Bread of God;
Help me, Thou Son of Man.

For still the desert lies
My thirsting soul before;
O living waters, rise
Within me evermore. (Play hymn)

Are you like the man in Jesus' parable about the "pearl of great price"? (Mt 13:45-46). He sold everything upon finding one pearl of great value.

What is Jesus implying? Does the natural man hunger and thirst for righteousness? (cf 1Cor 2:14). In our fallen state there is none righteous and none seek to live according to His righteous standards (Ro 3:10-11). This is the state of the natural man (Ro 5:12).  And so Jesus' implies that if you have absolutely no hunger and thirst for righteousness, you need to examine the state of your soul. So let me ask again...are you hungry and thirsty for God's righteousness? If not, then perhaps dear reader, you have never by faith accepted Christ's perfect righteousness (Read Ro 1:16-17, Acts 4:12, 16:30-31, Ro 10:9-10, Eph 2:8-9, 2Cor 5:17). Today could be the day you into into the Kingdom of heaven.

Righteousness (1343) (dikaiosune from dikaios = just, rigtheous) rightness of character before God and rightness of actions before men.  Righteousness of God could be succinctly stated as all that God is, all that He commands, all that He demands, all that He approves, all that He provides through Christ. Some have interpreted righteousness Jesus refers to here as that which God reckons to the believer's account when he or she is justified by faith. This righteousness is sometimes called imputed righteousness and represents the believer's state now because of their faith in Christ. (see Ro 1:17; 3:21, 22; cf. Philippians 3:9). The righteousness Jesus is referring to in the fourth beatitude is an inner righteousness that works itself out in one's living in conformity to God's will. In short we are He is referring to righteous living. (Click here to read Ray Pritchard's interesting analysis of righteousness).

Jesus is clearly not speaking of self-righteousness which is us living by what we think God requires of us. We need be careful not to think that Jesus is saying that we can become righteousness by our efforts of hungering and thirsting for it (cf Ro 3:11). You can't make a strong enough effort to achieve perfect righteousness (cf Mt 5:48), which is God's requirement, one which is met by the only perfect God-Man, Christ Jesus, and which is freely made available to all by grace through faith (cf 2Cor 5:21, past tense salvation = justification = once for all declaration by God). Once a sinner becomes a saint, Jesus says their character is such that they begin to display an intense desire to live a life of righteousness, to be pleasing to God with their daily life, this process equating with the doctrine of progressive sanctification. (= present tense salvation = working out of one's salvation with fear and trembling, Phil 2:12-13; see diagram and discussion of the "Three Tenses of Salvation")

Kay Arthur adds that

Self-righteousness is always man's interpretation or addition to the clear-cut teaching of God's Word. It's a process of tacking on extra laws, requirements, and expectations, and then saying that if you are really going to be righteous, you must keep all these rules. It is judging others by your standards rather than God's. How deceptive this is, Beloved! What a terrible trap it becomes! Those who chase after these external requirements become blinded to the true, heart-transforming righteousness based on faith alone...Self-righteousness is living by your version of what you think is required by God and then imposing that standard on others, judging their righteousness by whether or not they march to the same drumbeat as you. (Arthur, K: Lord, Only You Can Change Me: A Devotional Study on Growing in Character from the Beatitudes covering Mt 5:1-16, Lord, I'm Torn Between Two Masters: A Devotional Study on Genuine Faith from the Sermon on the Mount)

This righteousness surpasses that of the "scribes and Pharisees" (Mt 5:20). Believer's are to hunger and thirst not for the Pharisaical perversion of righteousness Jesus described in Mt 5:21-48 ("you have heard...") but Jesus' correct interpretation thereof ("but I say..."). The believer is also to hunger and thirst for the practical righteousness Jesus described in Matthew 6 (giving, praying, fasting). And then in Matthew 7 Jesus warns his hearers not to judge for He knows that one the dangers of righteousness (whether it is "false" Pharisaical self-righteousness or genuine God given righteousness) is that the one who is living righteously (whether real or sham) will have a tendency to judge others.

King David testified to his thirsting for Jehovah in the following psalm (note carefully the context - are you figuratively in the "wilderness of Judah"? Try David's prescription for relief)...

(A Psalm of David, when he was in the wilderness of Judah.)
O God, Thou art my God; I shall seek Thee earnestly;
My soul thirsts for Thee, my flesh yearns for Thee,
In a dry and weary land where there is no water. (Psalm 63:1)

Spurgeon nicely sums up David's opening words

“Nothing but thyself can content me; everything else, or everyone else falls short of my desire. There is no water that can slake such a thirst as mine unless I drink from thee, thou overflowing well.” (Spurgeon exhorts us to) "Long after the old times over again — for those times of heaven upon earth — those special seasons when the Lord made the veil between us and heaven to be very thin indeed, and allowed us almost to see his face.“...Shall we praise God in the garden and not praise him in the wilderness? No; we will sing a new song when we come into the desert; for, even if we are in a desert, that is no reason why there should be a desert in us, so let us praise God even in our wilderness experience.

Robert Murray M’Cheyne (The impact of Robert Murray McCheyne) expressed this desperate hungering for righteousness, crying out...

“Oh God, make me as holy as a pardoned sinner can be!”

Where or how does one obtain this appetite and hunger for a God pleasing righteousness lifestyle? Jesus gives us the answer in his proclamation on the last day of the feast of Tabernacles (Booths). During this great feast the people went to the pool of Siloam each day for seven days, filling pitchers with water. Then, as they walked to the temple, they sang Psalms 103-118. Arriving at the temple, they would pour the water on the altar, symbolizing both the early and latter rains and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit promised in the Old Testament.

37 Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, "If any man is thirsty, let him come (command to keep on coming =