I remember being asked this question when growing up, on occasions when I had been warned I was involved in risky behavior - say bouncing a ball in the house - and consequences were inevitable. If one such consequence actually occurred - like knocking something on the floor and breaking it - the question would come: Are you satisfied? The question was really an indictment: you got what you deserved.
The question serves quite well as an existential one, and philosophers have been exploring it for ages. Musicians have often tapped into the angst of cultures who search everything for satisfaction, but conclude summarily what the Rolling Stones did in 1965, "I can't get no satisfaction." But ironically, the solution to satisfaction has more to do with NOT getting what we deserve.
Satisfaction might be viewed as a double-sided coin. We Christians often take an academic approach to one side, but then disconnect and let ourselves be dragged off by our fallen and deceptive hearts on the other side.
The first side is the biblical idea that Christ satisfies God's wrath with his perfect and measureless substitutionary offering for the sins of mankind (see Rm 5; Heb 9-10). For those who identify with Christ's death and trust him for eternal life, it can be said that God, viewing us with Christ as righteous, is satisfied with US. That's good theology! We will sign that line all day - Amen, brother!
But the other side of the coin is about OUR satisfaction. It should follow that as a result of receiving the incomprehensible gift of salvation through Christ, we should be fully and forever satisfied with HIM. But because of our nagging, fallen nature, we are, like the old song Come Thou Fount says, "prone to wander." We end up pursuing all kinds of other things in search of satisfaction. The world advertises many options. Many are immoral (e.g., substance abuse, sexual exploitation, etc.), others may be morally neutral (e.g., material possessions or following a particular sports team), and many may even be morally good (e.g., hard work or proper relationships). But across the board, anything we elevate above Christ in our desire for satisfaction is an idol.
Why do we Christians struggle with this? I think it is because being satisfied in Christ is a spiritual discipline, and we do not always discipline ourselves in this way. We are like the natural man described in Ec 6:7: "All the toil of man is for his mouth, yet his appetite is not satisfied." The purpose of any spiritual discipline is to lift our eyes beyond this current temporal state into the transforming presence and awareness of the Eternal God.
King David, in Ps 17, shows brilliantly the contrast between the perspectives as they relate to satisfaction. He contrasts the "men of the world whose portion is in this life" (v.14) to himself (v.15). The others find only brief satisfaction in what they accumulate and then leave to their children, but David looks to the Lord for satisfaction, recognizing that it will be fully realized when he "awake(s) [from death, and is] satisfied with [God's] likeness." What a beautiful explanation of the Christian's satisfaction in Christ, that will be fully realized when we are finally and eternally united with him face-to-face! David speaks again of this idea in Ps 145, saying of the Lord, "You satisfy the desire of every living thing" (v.16).
Psalm 90 reflects a similar perspective from Moses, who cried out, "Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days." This theme is offered from God's perspective in Ps 91, where he states, "With long life I will satisfy him [who holds fast to me in love] and show him my salvation” (v.16).
Paul reflects not only the practical application of this idea, but also the reality that satisfaction involves discipline, in Phi 4. He has "learned...to be content" in God's provision. It is not about the circumstance, but about his relationship with the God who provides and satisfies.
So, let us make it part of our spiritual discipline to routinely challenge ourselves with this question, and may the Spirit draw us consistently to a right response. Are you satisfied?
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