"O LORD, You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup" (Ps. 16:5).
If you remember nothing else from our study of Ecclesiastes, remember this: you will never find peace and satisfaction in this life until you are at peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ. Matthew Henry wisely observed that “The fundamental error of the children of men, and that which is at the bottom of all their departures from God, is the same with that of our first parents, hoping to be as gods by entertaining themselves with that which seems good for food, pleasant to the eyes, and desirable to make one wise. Now the scope of this book is to show that this is a great mistake, that our happiness consists not in being as gods to ourselves, to have what we will and do what we will, but in having Him that made us to be a God to us.”
God created us to be in fellowship with Him. We are made in His image, and without Him we are lost, incomplete, unfulfilled, and unsatisfied. This being the case for all human beings, there are still those who refuse to humble themselves before their Maker; they will try to find completion, fulfillment, and satisfaction in something else. The tragedy is that no matter what they try, they will always come up empty and longing. You will not be truly happy until you remove yourself from the center of your life, until you clear away all the distractions of the world and submit your whole life to God. This is why Augustine said, “Our hearts are restless until we rest in Thee.”
We find no better example in the Scriptures of one who found God to be his portion than David. God meant more to him than anything else in the world. He understood, maybe better than any other of his day, what it meant to forsake the things of the world and find happiness in the Lord. We find this evident in Psalm 73: “Whom have I in heaven but You? And there is none upon earth that I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart fail; but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever. For indeed, those who are far from You shall perish; You have destroyed all those who desert You for harlotry. But it is good for me to draw near to God; I have put my trust in the Lord God, that I may declare all Your works.”
What does the statement “It is good for me to draw near to God” mean to you? How do you draw near to God? Are you looking for things in the world to give your life meaning? Be honest. Every time you sense yourself turning to something in the world for fulfillment, pray to God, read His Word, and find peace in Him.
