Satisfied
Psalm 63:1-8[1]
We live in
a culture defined by dissatisfaction. In fact, we live in a world defined by
dissatisfaction. I’m not talking about our “little world” around here. I’m
talking about the great big world of all 8 billion people! In 2022, Gallup
concluded a 15-year survey of people from all over the world measuring their
sense of “happiness.”[2] They did over 5 million interviews, and they determined that “happiness” or
“wellbeing” was based on five metrics: fulfilling work, little financial
stress, great communities, good physical health, and loved ones to turn to in
crisis. And their survey concluded that, in 2022 people felt “more anger,
sadness, pain, worry and stress than ever before.” I don’t think that’s changed
for the better. One of the reasons they offer for this situation is that most
world leaders have been preoccupied with measuring income inequality. Of
course, that’s important. But what the survey suggests is that the world’s
leaders need to be paying much more attention to “wellbeing inequality,” or
this global rise in dissatisfaction. I would say it’s all interconnected.
We don’t
have to look around the world to see this for ourselves. It plays out in our
lives and in our families’ lives every day. As a people we’re driven to do
more, to have more, and to be more. We’re obsessed with perfection. All we have
to do to verify that is open any of our social media accounts. We tend to want
to put on the façade of “perfection” in the version of ourselves we present on
Facebook or Instagram. But what all the pictures are hiding is the fundamental
sense of inadequacy we feel. Not everyone posts out of insecurity, but the
constant stream of “perfection” we scroll through can convince us we’re not
“enough.” When that happens, it’s likely that we’re stuck in the rut of
measuring our worth solely by external means. Living in the “right”
neighborhood. Having all the “right” friends. Driving the “right” car. But all
too often, what all this “striving” leads to is growing depression, anxiety, and
substance abuse. And it leaves us incapable of any real contentment with what
we have, where we are in life, or who we have become. But the wisdom of the
ages has taught us time and again that it is precisely through that kind of
contentment that we find lasting happiness.
Our Psalm
lesson addresses this issue of where happiness is to be found. In fact, it’s
one of the fundamental themes in the Psalms. We find it in the psalm-singers’
use of the language of “blessing.” It’s the first word of the first Psalm, and
the idea of a life that is “blessed” resonates throughout the Psalms, echoing
some 26 times. And the gist of what the psalm-singers have to say about
“blessing” or happiness is that it “derives from living in complete dependence
upon God.”[3] As we discussed in a different light last week, the Psalms clearly emphasize
that this “blessing” or happiness is something we experience in the present. It
happens right here and right now, even and especially in the midst of hard
times. The reason for the ability to find “blessing” or happiness in the
present is because of the confidence we have that it is the LORD who reigns
over all things with “unfailing love,” and with justice that promotes peace and
freedom for all peoples everywhere.
We find
this general perspective reflected in our Psalm for today, even though it doesn’t
begin in a way that sounds “blessed” or happy. Rather, the psalm-singer is so
weary with longing for God’s help that he can liken his present experience to
living in a “parched and weary land where there is no water” (Ps 63:1, NLT)!
Even though he had worn himself out with looking for God’s deliverance, the
psalm-singer had a resource in the past experiences of deliverance not only in
the life of the people of Israel, but also in his own life. As he looks back
over that history, he says, “I have seen you in your sanctuary and gazed upon
your power and glory” (Ps 63:2). And the display of “power and glory” that he
recalls, the reminder that despite it all God does indeed “reign,” is defined
by remembering that God has always been true to his promise to show “unfailing
love” (Ps 63:3).
The way in
which the Hebrew Bible presents this kind of “blessedness,” this promise of
happiness, is with the language of being “satisfied” as if one had just
finished a fabulous feast (Ps 63:4). In fact, the idea that God’s “blessing,”
or even God’s “deliverance” is to be found precisely in being satisfied with
more than enough food echoes throughout the Psalms and the Hebrew Bible itself.[4] We heard it in our lesson from the book of the Prophet Isaiah as well: “Come,
all you who are thirsty. Come and drink the water I offer to you. You who do
not have any money, come. Buy and eat the grain I give you. Come and buy wine
and milk. You will not have to pay anything for it. Why spend money on what is
not food? Why work for what does not satisfy you? Listen carefully to me. Then
you will eat what is good. You will enjoy the richest food there is” (Isa
55:1-2 NIRV). Joyful feasting is a recurring image in the Bible for the
way God satisfies us with his love.
The key to
finding this kind of satisfaction in life, come what may, is to learn to trust
God’s unfailing love. As I mentioned earlier, the way the psalm-singer saw
God’s “power and glory” was through God’s faithful exercise of unfailing love.
So much so that he can say, “Your unfailing love is better than life itself”
(Ps 63:3, NLT). I think this is the point of the psalm: we find
satisfaction in life by trusting God to be faithful to show us his “unfailing
love” right here and right now, through it all. To see that, however, we have
to do what the psalm-singer did. We have to look back over the course of our
lives and recall all the ways that God has done that in the past.
It may take
some doing to adjust our focus to see that, especially when we’re going through
hard times. In those times our experience may be like that of the psalm-singer.
We may search for God and feel only silence. And we may continue the search so
long that we feel worn out. But like the psalm-singer, when we continue to seek
out the God we have known as our deliverer before, we find God’s unfailing love
at work even in the midst of the pain. This kind of faith isn’t a “quick fix.” The
psalm-singers knew what it was to suffer and to wonder where God was. But they
kept looking back over the course of their lives. And as they did so they saw
again all the ways God had been faithful to keep his promise of unfailing love.[5] That invitation is open to us as well. When we continue that search in our
lives, in my experience we usually find ourselves at some point able to say
with the psalm-singer, “You satisfy me more than the richest feast” (Psalm
63:5, NLT). People can find joy in many ways, as it should be, but this
psalm invites us to a deeper joy that’s rooted in the God whose love for us is
better than life itself. We can be satisfied when we remember that God has been
our help in ages past, and that same God will be our hope for years to come.[6]
We live in
a world defined by dissatisfaction. In our culture, I wonder whether the
narrative that fuels that dissatisfaction isn’t the myth of the “American
Dream.” We should be able to do better and have more than our parents, and our
children should be able to do better and have more than us. But the realities
of our economy and our society make it clear that narrative may actually drive
us to be deeply dissatisfied with our lives as they are. What if we turned the
narrative around and learned to be truly content with what we have? Can you
imagine a world in which we were more concerned about communities thriving
together than we were with outdoing our neighbors? Can you imagine a world in
which we’re more interested in lifting up all those who are broken, or hurting,
or displaced, and offering them what they need rather than being so obsessed
with getting everything we want. I think that would be a world filled with
people who are happier, more content, and truly blessed. I think that would be
a world full of people who know what it means to be satisfied. That vision of
the world, one where we seek to lift one another up rather than beating others
down, might sound like fantasy. But through God’s unfailing love, the dream
becomes reality right here and right now.
[1] © 2025 Alan Brehm. A sermon delivered by
Rev. Alan Brehm PhD on 3/23/2025 for Hickman Presbyterian Church, Hickman, NE.
[2] Jon Clifton, “The Global Rise of Unhappiness,” Sept 15, 2022, accessed at https://news.gallup.com/opinion/gallup/401216/global-rise-unhappiness.aspx
on 20 Mar 2025.
[3] J. Clinton McCann, Jr. “The Book of Psalms,” New Interpreters Bible
IV:666.
[4] In the Psalms: Ps 22:27; 37:19; 81:17; 103:5; 104:28; 107:9; 132:15; 145:16
(“every living thing”!); 147:14.
[5] Cf. Shirley C. Guthrie, Christian Doctrine, rev. ed., 183: “the
Christian doctrine of providence is not based on what we can figure out for
ourselves from our own experience or observation of the world, balancing
evidence for and against faith in God. It is a Christian doctrine based
on what scripture tells us about the presence and work of God in the story of
ancient Israel and above all in Jesus Christ” (emphasis original).
[6] McCann, “Psalms,” NIB IV:667: “To be happy is to entrust one’s whole
self, existence, and future to God.” Cf. also Guthrie, Christian Doctrine,
184: “Remembering the past gives hope for the future. Again and again the psalmist
expresses his confidence that the God who has been present to help, protect,
liberate, and save will do it again. The memory of the powerful love and justice
of God in the past brings hope for the powerful love and justice of God
in the future” (emphasis original).
