True Contentment

Contentment is an elusive thing. Just when you have what you want you’re looking for something else—material possessions, life situations, relationships, etc. It often seems like we can have dreams, ambitions, and goals or rest and contentment, but never both. Of course, the pathways to discontentment are incredibly easy to find: you can want but not have or have but not want. Discontentment is what happens when your desires and your reality conflict. This makes discontentment a matter not merely of materialism but idealism. Each of us has a vision of how things should be in our lives, our jobs, our relationships, and the broader world. Enter Psalm 131, a very brief song written by King David, which shows us how to solve the problem of discontentment by looking at the reality of discontentment, a picture of contentment, and the source of true contentment.

The Reality of Discontentment

Verse 1 describes discontentment as “lifted hearts” and “raised eyes,” looking to things beyond our capacity to enact or imagine. Elsewhere in Scripture, this language is used to describe the pride of kings who set themselves against the Lord (2 Chron 32:24–26; Ezek 28:2). We often minimize discontentment with words like “ambition,” but the root of it is often self-glorification. This has been mankind’s chief problem since Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve rejected God’s word and the world he made in favor of their own skewed vision. Demanding more, they questioned God’s wisdom and power and believed the lie that God was holding back knowledge, gifts, and provision. Ultimately, they attempted to take God’s place through preoccupation with things beyond their control and comprehension.

The book of James talks a good deal about this (see 4:1–10). He tells us that quarrels and fights are generally the result of warring passions—desiring without having. The solution he presents? Humility before God. In other words, pride before God yields disordered desires which in turn produce relational and personal strife. You could say that discontentment often reveals where our desires exceed our love for the Lord, and we call this idolatry. We see this happen whenever otherwise good goals and ambitions  (starting a career, getting married, having a family) become reasons people turn from the Lord when they don’t get what they want. Idolatry always leads to slavery, and the consequences of discontentment go hand in hand. Those who have given themselves over to discontentment are frequently harried, harassed, exhausted, often succumbing to disillusionment with God and the Christian life.

A Picture of Contentment

But, as verse 2 points out, this is not so with contentment. David describes himself as a “weaned child,” content in his mother’s presence without any demands or concerns. If discontentment is stormy and loud, contentment is calm and quiet. And this doesn’t just happen but is the result of a carefully curated inner life. He says, “I have calmed and quieted my soul.” The deliberate nature of David’s contentment reminds us that if we don’t set the course for our hearts, then our hearts will set the course for us.

So, how can you personally cultivate contentment? Consider what informs your vision of the “good life.” What voices regularly shape your worldview? What values prevail in the context around you? Very often these are the things that are being preached to our souls more consistently than the truth of God’s word, so we need vigilance to ensure they don’t have the loudest or final say.

Does this pit ambition against apathy, industry against laziness? Perhaps you have seen instances of people claiming to follow Christ who seem to lack any goals or sense of purpose, just aimlessly sleepwalking through life. The Bible doesn’t present this as the goal. In fact, Scripture is filled with stories of men and women who accomplished great and lasting things for God’s glory. They were ambitious, eager, and even restless—for God! And they were content, calm, and quiet—in God. We all lean toward one or the other, restlessness or rest, but the truth is that neither is good for its own sake. Rather, both are meant to find fulfillment in walking with the Lord.

The Source of True Contentment

What is the solution then? How do we have ambition without idolatry, contentment without apathy? David tells us in verse 3 to “hope in the Lord.” In a paradoxical twist, we discover that true, lasting, life-defining contentment comes from hoping in the Lord, because hope in the Lord transforms the heart and its desires. Desire is unavoidable, but contentment is fueled by desire that produces delight in Christ. In fact, discontentment reveals that our sights are not set high enough. So let discontentment drive you to the Lord. If discontentment sees what the Lord has for us or gives to us and says, “no more” or “not enough,” contentment sees what the Lord has or gives and says, “I want more of you, Lord.”

How can our hearts be rewired for this kind of hope? By looking to the most content Man who ever lived. In fact, Christ is the only one who has ever fully, truly hoped in the Lord like David directs us to. Consider the temptation of Jesus in Matthew 4:1–11. Presented with numerous ways to seek his own ambition and secure power and comfort for himself, Jesus repeatedly turns to the Lord for contentment. Not only that, but Christ even subjected his will and wisdom to that of his Father, even at the cost of his life. In the Garden before his betrayal, Jesus agonized over his looming crucifixion but never failed to yield to the Lord, because his contentment was found in doing his Father’s will above all (Matt 26:36–46).

All of this, of course, reveals to us the power of the Gospel. Jesus’ obedience and faithfulness is the foundation of our salvation, bought through his death and resurrection in our place. The Gospel tells us that our discontentment is done because:

• Jesus lowered himself to lift our hearts heavenward.

• Jesus hung on the Cross so that our eyes would see him above all.

• Jesus’ hope was deferred so that ours could be redefined.

• Jesus set aside power and personal ambition to bring us to God.

Only through Christ can you have true hope in the Lord and true contentment, because discontentment dissolves when our hope is in the right thing. Ultimately, all the deepest longings we have are fulfilled in Christ and his kingdom.