No Satisfaction

Introduction – When “More” Is Never Enough

It was the six-year-old boy’s first day of school. He had only one goal in life—to have as much fun as possible. Excited but nervous, he marched through the gate determined to squeeze every drop of joy from the day.

At noon there was a knock at the door. It was the boy, backpack dangling, eyes wide with indignation.

“Why are you home?” his mother asked.

“I quit,” he declared. “It’s too hard, too long, and too boring.”

His mother smiled with the wisdom of years. “Well, son, you’re going back to school—because you’ve just described life.”

Another story.

A lonely man longed for companionship without heavy responsibility. He went to a pet shop and asked for something simple—something to welcome him home at night.

“I have just the thing,” the shop owner said. He sold him a canary, guaranteed to sing.

The next evening the man rushed home, greeted by the sweetest music he’d ever heard. But when he opened the cage to feed the bird, he saw that the canary had only one leg. Angry, he marched back to the store.

“You sold me a defective bird,” he complained.

The owner calmly replied, “Sir, what did you want—a singer or a dancer?”

We smile, but those vignettes expose something in all of us: we are rarely satisfied.

God gives us a singer and we wish for a dancer. He gives us a child with a unique personality, and we try to remold her into someone else. He gives us a healthy body, and we push it beyond its limits or dull it with indulgence. He gives us a beautiful world, and we scar it with greed. He gives us gifts tailored for us, and we covet the gifts of others.

Underneath it all lies the cry of the human heart: There must be more. I can’t get no satisfaction.

That phrase isn’t new. In 1965 Keith Richards awoke with a hangover and a riff running through his mind. Mick Jagger added words, and soon the Rolling Stones were thundering across the airwaves:

“I can’t get no satisfaction, ’Cause I try and I try and I try and I try…”

The world called it rock-and-roll rebellion. But long before Jagger and Richards, another man had already sung that tune— King Solomon, the wisest and wealthiest ruler of his age. Three thousand years ago he penned a journal called Ecclesiastes, and its refrain could be summarized in the same words: “I can’t get no satisfaction.”

Solomon’s Testimony

Solomon wasn’t speculating. He had lived the experiment. He had power, palaces, vineyards, music, wealth beyond imagination, and a reputation that drew queens from distant lands. Yet as he looked back he wrote words that echo with ache:

“Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities! All is vanity.” (Eccl. 1:2)

In chapters 1 and 2 he invites us into his search. He chronicles the pursuit of satisfaction on three main roads: wisdom, work, and wealth.

Let’s walk with him down the first of those roads.

I. The Pursuit of Satisfaction

A. Satisfaction Pursued in Wisdom

Solomon begins with the life of the mind.

>“I, the Preacher, was king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven… I communed with my own heart, saying, Lo, I have gotten great wisdom more than all they that have been before me… And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.” (Ecclesiastes 1:12-17)

Here was the man who wrote thousands of proverbs, who could speak with insight about plants and animals, commerce and government. His intellect was legendary; foreign dignitaries traveled weeks just to hear his counsel.

If anyone could find satisfaction in study, exploration, and knowledge, surely it was Solomon.

Yet his conclusion lands like a hammer:

>“For in much wisdom is much grief, and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.” (Ecclesiastes 1:18)

Think about our own day. Human knowledge now doubles every few months. We send probes to the edge of the solar system, splice genes, and carry supercomputers in our pockets.

But has all this learning delivered contentment? We are better informed and more anxious, more connected and more lonely.

We fly higher, travel faster, and communicate instantly, but terrorism, famine, war, and despair still stalk the earth. Suicide rates rise. Depression surges.

The heart remains empty.

Solomon shakes his head across the centuries and says,

“I’ve been there. I mastered wisdom. And it did not satisfy.”

B. Satisfaction Pursued in Work

When wisdom left him empty, Solomon turned to accomplishment.

>“I said in my heart, ‘Come now, I will test you with pleasure; enjoy yourself.’ But behold, this also was vanity. I searched with my heart how to cheer my body with wine… I made great works; I built houses and planted vineyards for myself; I made myself gardens and parks, and planted in them all kinds of fruit trees. I made myself pools from which to water the forest of growing trees.” (Ecclesiastes 2:1–6)