Discontentment: Never Enough - June 9

Read Psalm 16:1-2, 5-6, 9-11

Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge. I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord; I have no good apart from you.” The LORD is my chosen portion and my cup; you hold my lot. The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance…Therefore my heart is glad, and my whole being rejoices; my flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, or let your holy one see corruption. You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Reflect

How content are you with your current life? If you are longing for more of something, when do you think you’ll have enough of what you desire to be fully satisfied?

Our culture is experiencing an unhappiness epidemic that some authors and researchers refer to as “the abundance paradox.” One researcher summed up the paradox like this: “the more comfortable you get, the less meaning you tend to find.” Here in the US, we see this paradox on full display. As a society, we have so much wealth, so much excess. There has never been a generation who has more access to more convenience, more technology, more information, more options, more leisure, more entertainment. We have also never lived in a time in which we have been freer to do whatever we want, whenever we want. Individualism and autonomy are celebrated at an unprecedented level. So surely, we all must be perfectly satisfied, deeply content, and giddy with happiness.

But the research has actually found the opposite. In 2024, Gallup released new research in the World Happiness Report which found that the United States has dropped out of the top 20 happiest countries in the world. And while self-reported happiness has decreased among all age groups, it is lowest among young adults who cited loneliness and low quality relationships as reasons for their discontent. Even more tragically, the CDC reported that 49,000 people died by suicide and 13.2 million people seriously considered committing suicide in 2022. Clearly, unhappiness and discontent is a serious problem in our society and everything we have is not enough to satisfy the longings of our hearts and souls.

But what do we think the solution is? What do we think will make us happy? When will everything that we have be enough?

In today’s psalm, David expressed his trust and contentment in the Lord. Because he asked the Lord to preserve him, we can assume that David wrote this psalm when he was in some kind of trouble—which he often found himself in! And yet, David did not seem worried or distressed. Rather, he seemed to be at peace, totally confident that God will take care of him, and completely content with what God had already given him.

It’s worth noting that instead of exercising autonomy, David submitted to God as His Lord and acknowledged that He was the source of all goodness. David was satisfied with his lot in life, seeing his boundaries as God ordained and for his own good.

In his Enduring Word commentary, David Guzik wrote: “David’s words here speak of contentment. He is content with what God has given him. A mark of our age…is discontentment, boredom, and restlessness. The generation with short attention spans, the constant need for excitement and adrenaline rushes, and 24-hour-a-day entertainment, needs to know by experience what David knew.”

What did David know? That contentment can only be found in the Lord.

It’s easy to see the application to our own lives. Apart from the Lord, nothing we have will ever be enough for us. We keep accumulating more and more only to come up empty. More fame, more money, more power, more sex, more stuff…we all come to realize that none of it is capable of filling the hole in our souls.

So what can we do? Well, we can stop trying to fill up our emptiness with worldly things and seek the Lord Himself. We can take a page from David’s book and submit to God’s will for our lives. We can embrace our lot in life and look at all of the good and the beautiful that He’s blessed us with and we can choose to be grateful. If we do that, we’ll come to realize the simple and profound joy that can be found in His presence alone. Nothing else will ever, ever be enough.

Respond

Lord, I confess that at times, I look in all the wrong places for joy and contentment. I want to be happy but no matter how much I have, it’s never enough. But, in Your presence, there is fullness of joy. You are my Lord. I submit to You, depend on You, and trust You. Only You can satisfy. Amen.

Reveal

Like David, find a way to express your gratitude to God for the life that He has given you in the presence of someone else today. As Christians, our contentment should be a powerful testimony that we have something the rest of the world longs to have even if they don’t know what they’re searching for—the Lord Himself.