Lasting Satisfaction in You

There’s something deeply humbling about revisiting the journals of your younger self. This summer, I began the quiet task of transcribing my handwritten journals from my twenties into digital format. It’s a long process not just in the labor of typing out the words, but in the emotional and spiritual layers unearthed with each entry.

As I sift through old thoughts, prayers, and pleadings, I find a recurring pattern of desperation and joy, struggle and surrender. These entries aren’t masterpieces of devotion. They’re raw, uneven, often confused, and deeply human. Yet what rises from the ink-stained pages is a profound reminder of God's extraordinary faithfulness toward one ordinary young man, stumbling forward in search of Him.

Looking back now, I understand more clearly the truth of Moses's prayer in Psalm 90: “The days of our life pass away quickly, and we fly away” (verse 10). Decades have slipped by like sand through my fingers. The once-blazing questions of my youth have given way to deeper reflections: Have I been satisfied in God? Have I seen His work unfold in my life?

These are the desires that echo loudest through my journals and resonate most with the closing words of Psalm 90: “Satisfy us in the morning with your steadfast love... Let your work be shown to your servants” (verses 14, 16).

The Desire That Defines Us

Psalm 90 opens with awe God is eternal, from everlasting to everlasting and contrasts this with our fleeting human lives. We wither like grass, swept away by time and toil. Moses, the psalm’s author, doesn’t sugarcoat the effects of sin, suffering, or divine judgment. But then something changes. The final third of the psalm turns to petition, to longing, to hope.

At the heart of Moses’s prayer are two desires that every follower of God shares: “Satisfy us with You” and “Show us Your work.” These aren’t selfish cravings. They are the very essence of what it means to walk with God in a fallen world. Moses, who spoke with God face to face, still yearned for more. He wanted joy rooted not in fleeting moments, but in the steadfast love of God. He desired satisfaction in something deeper than comfort in God's very presence.

This hunger isn't unique to ancient saints. According to a 2023 Lifeway Research study, 71% of Protestant churchgoers say they still feel distant from God at times, even while remaining active in their faith. It shows us that no amount of religious activity can substitute for the soul's longing for divine intimacy.

Joy in the Midst of Trouble

What’s remarkable about Moses’s prayer is its placement. He doesn’t ask to be satisfied after the trouble is over he asks for it in the morning, right in the thick of life’s affliction. “Make us glad for as many days as you have afflicted us,” he pleads (verse 15). It’s not a request to erase the past, but to meet God’s steadfast love amid it.

This is a powerful corrective to modern expectations. Many of us chase peace after pain, success after failure, fulfillment after the storm has passed. But Moses points to a deeper reality: joy can exist simultaneously with affliction, because joy isn’t circumstantial it’s rooted in the character of God.

Interestingly, research from Harvard’s Study of Adult Development one of the longest-running studies on human happiness found that close relationships, more than wealth or success, were key predictors of long-term satisfaction. Spiritually speaking, our ultimate “close relationship” is with God, and this divine intimacy is what Moses yearned for above all else.

Show Us Your Glory

Alongside the longing for satisfaction is another petition: “Let your work be shown to your servants, and your glorious power to their children” (verse 16). This is more than a cry for miracles it’s a desire to see God’s fingerprints on the canvas of our lives. We want to know that our labor matters, that our lives reflect the work of His hands.

This desire echoes through generations. It’s why we pray for our children, why we build churches, why we serve and create and endure. We want God to “establish the work of our hands” (verse 17) to weave our fleeting efforts into His eternal purposes.

Psalm 90 doesn’t just teach us to live well; it teaches us to long well. To long for God's presence, His favor, His purpose. And it reminds us that God delights to answer such prayers.

Wisdom in Numbering Our Days

As I reflect on my own journey now likely beyond its halfway point the words of Psalm 90:12 ring clearer than ever “Teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom.” This is not about fear or regret. It’s about awareness. Awareness that our days are gifts, not guarantees. Awareness that only in God's wisdom can we spend them well.

Wisdom isn’t something we possess automatically with age. It’s cultivated through reflection, through repentance, through intimacy with God. And most importantly, it's grounded in the fear of the Lord (Psalm 111:10). True wisdom teaches us that satisfaction is not found in achievements or accolades, but in the enduring love of our Creator.

A Psalm for Every Season

Psalm 90 has become a touchstone for me. I return to it not because I’ve mastered its lessons, but because I need them more with each passing year. Its words guide me when I’m overwhelmed by life’s brevity, when I’m disillusioned by toil, or when I’m yearning for meaning.

And I commend it to you. Whether you're in your twenties or your eighties, whether your journals are full or unwritten, this psalm speaks directly to the ache we all carry the longing to be satisfied in God and to see His work in and through our lives.

The good news? God promises to fulfill these desires. One day, when the earth is filled with the knowledge of His glory as the waters cover the sea (Habakkuk 2:14), all our longings will be met in full.

Until then, let us keep praying with Moses: Satisfy us. Show us Your work. Teach us to number our days. And may the God of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing (Romans 15:13).

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