March 17, 2025 - 1 Samuel 8-10

We humans seem always to be dissatisfied and discontented.  How does the old saying caution us?  “The grass is not always greener on the other side.”  Oh my, how many times have all of us, dissatisfied with this or that, gone over to the other side only to discover that it is not more satisfying; indeed, it can be much worse.  Well, Israel had this problem.  Dissatisfied with God’s provision and protection, the people cried, “Give us a king to judge us” 8:6).  And, though Samuel warned them – “These will be the ways of the king who will reign over you” (8:11); i.e., he will press your sons into military service, he will force your daughters into service, he will take the best of your produce, and he will tax you. – still, the people demanded, “No! But there shall be a king over us, that we also may be like all the nations” (8:19-20).  How foolish.  And so, they got Saul.  How much wiser to be like Paul:  “I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances.  I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want.  I can do all this through him who gives me strength” (Philippians 4:11-13).

I am satisfied with Jesus,

He has done so much for me:

He has suffered to redeem me,

He has died to set me free.

When my work on earth is ended,

And I cross the mystic sea,

Oh, that I could hear Him saying,

“I am satisfied with thee.”  ---B. B. McKinney (1926)