Day 6

“Then I applied myself to the understanding of wisdom, and also of madness and folly, but I learned that this, too, is a chasing after the wind.” Ecclesiastes 1:17

Once King Solomon had lost his relationship with God, everything else became to him just, “a chasing after the wind”. When we don’t know what satisfies, we spend an extraordinary amount of time chasing after the wind. In the last century, Sigmund Freud introduced what he called the 'pleasure principle' which is the driving force of the ego that seeks satisfaction of its urges, including hunger, thirst, emotion and sex. When these needs are not met, the result is a state of anxiety and tension. The 'pleasure principle' is modified by what Freud called the 'reality principle'. We realize we cannot have all pleasure, nor can we avoid all pain, so we work out which pleasures are worth deferring and what pain is worth enduring. The skill of living, therefore, is balancing desired pleasure with perceived reality. If the ‘pleasure principle’ can be made to be greater than the ‘reality principle’, then we are in a good place. If the ‘reality principle’ wins out, life is tough.

It was this balancing act Solomon pursued, loading himself with pleasure after pleasure because he had the position and resources to do so. But the ‘reality’ he was facing was not material disadvantages or loss, but the inner emptiness of his soul. ‘Meaning’ in the way Solomon uses the word is not material and tangible but spiritual and intangible. Meaning resides in our inner beings. Material things may serve our good, and are to be enjoyed, but they will never satisfy our hearts.

Solomon's impressive pursuits of the ‘pleasure principle’ kept leading him to the same place. ‘Meaningless, meaningless, says the teacher, everything is meaningless’ (Ecclesiastes 1.1 etc). It didn’t and couldn’t touch him where he needed it to. The ‘Ah ha’ moment of his book is when he says of God, “He has also set eternity in the hearts of men” (Ecclesiastes 3.11). Material things may serve us, but never satisfy us. David writes in Psalm 16:11, "You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand." These are the things Solomon was searching for. They are found only in God