Self-Containedness
‘A good man shall be satisfied from himself.’
Proverbs xiv. 14.
’77 GOOD man shall be satisfied from himself, Then there can be a noble kind of self-satisfaction. There is a self-satisfaction which is repellent, an offensive form of conceit. This species of self-satisfaction must be altogether removed from our minds when we seek the interpretation of our text. ‘A good man shall be satisfied from himself, How else could the good man be satisfied, if not from himself? He could seek satisfaction in the applause which his goodness secures, in the honour of his kindred, in the admiration of a people. But sometimes the honour is not given, the expected gratitude is not forthcoming, the only crown secured is a crown of thorns. Then the good man is driven to seek satisfaction where he should have looked for it before, not in the external rewards of
goodness, but in the goodness itself. He must search for crowns and riches where God would have him find them, in rectitude, in calm conscientiousness, in courageous discharge of duty, and not in any form of public recognition or reward. ‘A good man shall be satisfied from himself/
1. It is a very natural expectation that kindness should meet with the return of gratitude. We say there is some satisfaction in doing kindnesses if they are received by grateful hearts. But oftentimes the gratitude is withheld, and we are profoundly dissatisfied. The absence of any warm-hearted response chills the very spirit of kindliness and freezes all the genial currents of the soul. Let us take the counsel of the text, and when gratitude is lacking, let us retire into our own hearts, and find satisfaction in the kindness itself. I keep a flower garden, and my neighbour over the way keeps bees. Every day his bees visit my flowers, drinking up their finest nectar, and retreating, heavily laden, to increase my neighbour’s wealth. My neighbour sends me no supply of honey in return for what his bees obtain from me. The only return I get is an occasional sting 1 Well, shall I give up the flower garden? Surely, even if I receive no honey, there are
stores of delight in the flowers themselves. Let us seek our satisfaction in the flowers we grow. An act is more and finer than its consequences. God ’ is kind to the unthankful.’ 2. It seems to be a most fitting thing that duty should culminate in comfort. But we are confronted with the fact that comfort is not always the crown of duty. There arc many people who are scrupulous and conscientious, but their sky is overcast. Their way abounds in thorns. They wonder how it is that duty is not rewarded, that the angels have not charge concerning them, that the moral forces of the world do not league together to procure their material success. What is the meaning of it all? Is it not intended to throw us back upon the true wealth, to urge us to seek our satisfaction not in the comfort that duty may bring, but in the duty itself? That is a very elevated word of the psalmist — ‘I delight to do Thy will.’ It is a word which indicates great range and wealth of devotion. He found his delight in the obedience itself. He had little or no external comfort or peace. He was compassed about by innumerable ills. External reward for duty done there was little or none, but he gets away back into his own soul, and in the great reality of obedience he found his delight.
‘A good man shall be satisfied from him- I self/
3. The great principle has other applications. Let this one suffice. If there be any of my readers who are workers for the Lord, and who are cast down and disquieted because of apparently fruitless toil, let me give them this counsel — get back into the consciousness of honest work honestly done, and you shall find the brightness there. ‘Light is sown for the righteous, ‘A good man shall be satisfied from himself/