Day 76 with David: Seeking satisfaction outside of the Lord leads to endless longing.

“They wander up and down for food, And howl if they are not satisfied. But I will sing of Your power; Yes, I will sing aloud of Your mercy in the morning; For You have been my defense And refuge in the day of my trouble.”

‭‭Psalms‬ ‭59:15-16‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

I’m always amazed when I hear stories of people who have closets full of clothes, shoes, accessories, and so on, many things still with the tags on them. Yet, they are always buying more and more things. I’ll digress for a moment…

I remember a time when I was a little girl that my sister and mother shared one skirt between them. I think it was a black skirt. When my sister had something she needed to do, warranting the skirt, she would wear it; when my mother needed the skirt, she would wear it. Additionally, I remember that we were happy to have one pair of shoes, and generally were able to get a new pair of shoes one time a year. You see, my parents were starting a church and we didn’t have very much money. Being a young child, I wasn’t aware of this dynamic because we were always happy.

I also remember that there was a kind butcher who worked at the local grocery store who also happened to come to our church. When he would grind ground meat for my father to buy, he would throw some “good pieces” in there so that it wasn’t so fatty. I also remember the kindness of a family who came to our church during this time who owned a little diner type of restaurant. Every once in a while—after a church service—they would have us come there and they would fill up brown paper bags with big burgers and fries and things from out of the candy display. Being a little girl who very much enjoyed her food, I thought we had gone to Heaven as we ate those greasy burgers, finishing off with bags of M&Ms. What I’m telling you here is not a sad story; what I’m telling you here is a story of Joy.

Now I know that my parents had stressors on them of which I was not aware; but our lack was never the focus. Rather, the focus was on what we did have.

I remember—after service on Sundays—sometimes my father would drive to the Miss Georgia ice cream place and get some strawberry or butter pecan ice cream. He used to laugh, saying that the only strawberries in the strawberry ice cream, were under the cellophane window on top of the half gallon. That ice cream was a big deal. We ate a lot of eggs; we ate a lot of beans; but we ate; and we were satisfied.

My mother liked to shop as much as any other person might like to shop; but she never showed dissatisfaction with what she had. Needless to say, my father was not a “things” oriented person either.

Now, let’s go back to that person I started off with who has several closets full of clothes they will never wear and never needed.

I’m not a judge of how people spend their money. If you’ve got it, it’s yours to decide how you want to spend it (of course, we will all give an account to the Lord as to whether we were good stewards of what we were given). Also, my point is not that I covet these people who never seem to have enough. Actually, as aggravating as they can be, as obnoxious as they can present themselves, I pity them. They have set their sights on what will never satisfy them.

Many years ago we used to sing a song called, “Only Jesus can Satisfy Your Soul,”and it is so very true.

In the Bible, we find many occasions where the Lord was pointing out the futility of the desires of His people; and with that, the fact that they seemed to turn to everything other than Him for their satisfaction.

“You also played the harlot with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable; indeed you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied. Moreover you multiplied your acts of harlotry as far as the land of the trader, Chaldea; and even then you were not satisfied. “How degenerate is your heart!” says the Lord God, “seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot.”

‭‭Ezekiel‬ ‭16:28-30‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

These were His own people, the Lord was referencing. And still today, even many Christians look everywhere else other than the Lord for satisfaction. The proverbial writer succinctly describes the phenomenon of endless dissatisfaction:

“Hell and Destruction are never full; So the eyes of man are never satisfied.”

‭‭Proverbs‬ ‭27:20‬ ‭NKJV

You might wonder whether I’m referencing evil people or good people with misplaced desires. Well, I don’t really make the distinction because the end of each is often the same: miserable lives, having never found satisfaction for their soul.

In our portion from Psalms today we see David referencing evil people who have endless cravings, roaming around like dogs, looking to find something else to eat, but never being satisfied. He then draws a stark distinction between those people and the direction of his longing. He had found that his soul could only be satisfied by the Shepherd of his soul. So, on this particular occasion, as in so many other cases, he turned to the Lord for his help and soul satisfaction; and, he found it.

If you are always feeling dissatisfied, you must come to terms with whether or not you’re seeking satisfaction outside of the Lord. If that is the case, please understand, you will never find true satisfaction. It’s like trying to get rid of a hole in your yard by digging it out; it only gets deeper and deeper. You see, our Father made us in such a way that we are only truly satisfied when in fellowship with Him. And—when it comes right down to it—why would you want anything more than He Who is All in All!

For today let us know and understand what David knew:

Seeking satisfaction outside of the Lord leads to endless longing.

#100dayswithdavid