Psalm 36 "Acquiring Satisfaction"

Since the sixties, our culture has been proclaiming, “I can’t get no satisfaction!” The reality of this proclamation by our culture is made clear by our love for stuff, our obsession with technology, sex, and drug usage. This Psalm is much like Psalm 1 in its structure and content. At first, it may not be apparent, but quickly we will see that “satisfaction” is the essential issue in Psalm 36. The question that is being put before the reader is “What satisfies us?” Is it sin and self or do we delight in God? The reader is placed in the position to choose joy, to choose satisfaction in God or to reject Him for the search for “satisfaction without Him. The world says, “I can’t get no satisfaction.” God’s people “sing of the mercies of the Lord forever!” The world soaks their life with hedonism and addiction but God’s people delight in the glorious God. 

Psalm 36 forces us to see that there is a difference. Either we join the culture around us who is a constant search for the next pleasure or we join the joyful community of those who find their soul’s pleasure and joy in the majestic person of God through Jesus Christ His Son. As we consider this Psalm tonight, ask yourself, “Am I self-absorbed or am I God-intoxicated?”