Satisfaction

As for me, I will see Your face in righteousness; I shall be satisfied when I awake in Your likeness. - Psalm 17v15

Rock music has never been one of my favourite genres. It had very little to do religious convictions or preaching that I heard, I just didn’t like it. It was easy for me to ‘amen’ when preachers preached against it! I found it loud and noisy and disruptive, I still do. Of course there were a few songs that I liked and there are songs that were such a part of culture that they stick in our heads.

One of these was ‘(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction.’ I had to double check this morning, but it was performed by the Rolling Stones. The song is about discontentment with life. It starts with these words – ‘I can't get no satisfaction. I can't get no satisfaction. 'Cause I try and I try and I try and I try. I can't get no, I can't get no.’

That sentiment from the 60’s was carried on by U2 in the 80s. Again, I don’t like U2, but a refrain from one of their songs rings through my head ‘I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.’

Music often reflects culture. I still don’t ‘like’ most rock music. I do think however that Songs like this are more than just hit songs and money makers. They reflect man’s desire for satisfaction. U2’s song even reflects the knowledge that there is something more to the supposed satisfaction that this life provides. U2 even mention that satisfaction might be found in ‘Kingdom Come’, but it ends with the sad refrain, ‘I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.’

Both of these songs reflect a yearning for satisfaction as to why we are here and what we are doing. Solomon could certainly understand this yearning as reflecting in the book of Ecclesiastes. He tried everything – but still could not find satisfaction. He still could not find what he was looking for.

But there was a difference in Solomon. It was the same difference found by the psalmist. ‘I will be satisfied when I awake in Your righteousness.’

The wonderful truth is that we can have satisfaction. What we are looking for is there. True satisfaction comes in the knowledge that one day we will awake in God’s perfect righteousness. Solomon ‘got it’ when he wrote this – ‘Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.’ This is the only place to find true satisfaction.