I Can't Get No...Satisfaction

Ok…I’ll admit it…I love listening to the Rolling Stones! Their lives might be a mess, but they’ve made some sweet music. Who can’t get into their classic hit, “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction”? It seems that even Charles Spurgeon might have liked to blog on that one…

In his Evening Devotion for today, Spurgeon uses one verse from the Flood account. As the waters were receding, Noah sent out, first a raven…if flew around, found some trash in the world that could satisfy it’s hunger for garbage, and stayed away from the Ark, never to return.

Then, Noah sent out a dove…a bird with higher standards apparently, and because it could NOT find a suitable place to rest in the broken and judged world, it returned to the Ark. Seven days later, Noah set it loose again…this time after flying around it found an olive tree…yet it returned to the Ark and rested there once more, having brought a newly plucked olive leaf in its mouth. Finally, after waiting another seven days, Noah released the dove once more…and this time the dove did not return.

Spurgeon uses the Ark as a symbol of Christ and salvation from the wrath to be unleashed upon the world. Spurgeon reminds us this morning that the world is a place of destruction and brokenness and trash and garbage (though this is the point of the devotional, we also know that in many ways, though, the world is a glorious ruin, still revealing much of the goodness of God). So….here’s the deal…are you more like a raven or a dove?...

Can your soul find delight in the ruins and trash of this world? Or, are you dissatisfied with anything the world can offer and recognize you possess as soul that is only ever ultimately possessed by the joy and hope of being in Jesus…the Ark of your life?!

Spurgeon says that we will be known by our delights…ravens can feed on things of which the dove simply will not partake. The dove does not find any place to rest in the broken world. The dove realizes that the only pleasures in life are to be found in the Ark!

As Spurgeon writes, if you feel you can stretch out and rest comfortably in the world, it is not a good sign of the condition of your soul. But if you find yourself singing along with Mick Jagger, applying it to this world, and are crying out, “I Can’t Get NO…Satisfaction” then the condition of your soul is rather healthy indeed.

If you find your own estimation of your spiritual life is one of struggling, yet realize you find no rest in sin, no real joy in the things of the world, no satisfaction in “the lust of the eyes and the lust of the flesh and the boastful pride of life,” be encouraged…there is the sign of true spiritual life within you.

The Christian simply can find no rest in the muck and the mire, the runny soot of this world. The Christian recognizes that only the lush green of True Life will satisfy. The True Christian will keep flying until it finds The One Who is Life Indeed. The True Christian understands that it is only at God’s Right Hand there are pleasures forever more.

The True Believer in Christ knows, sometimes more clearly than others for sure, that this World of Muck is, as Spurgeon writes, “Meaningless, Meaningless, Everything is Meaningless” divorced from an intimate, saving, Spirit-filled relationship with Christ.

So…what are you this morning…a raven…or a dove? Will you fly back to the Ark…to your Savior…and ask that He might continue the work of transformation? Will you ask Him this morning to rid you of your raven-like characteristics and to form you into the dove…according to the Nature of His Own Spirit?

When it comes to the things of the world, may the song of our soul be: “I Can’t Get No…Satisfaction!”

May your song be that of the Psalmist: My soul…find REST in God alone! Ps 62:1, 5