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Everyone is seeking happiness – few find it.  Just when it seems in reach, it eludes us, like a mirage.  Yet the quest for happiness continues. 

The book of Ecclesiastes, in the Bible, journals Solomon’s search for happiness.   Happiness seemed to elude Solomon for most of his life, but finally, having discovered the key, he wrote his letter to his son. 

The letter begins with frustration.  One word describes Solomon’s life – empty.  Oh, there was an endless round of people and activity, but in the end it seemed so pointless – so futile – so empty.  Solomon set out on a search.  He tried seven keys to open the door called happiness.  Each attempt seemed so promising, yet each ended in despair, until having come to the end of himself he turned to God. 

First, Solomon tried knowledge and education.  He was the wisest man who ever lived, an expert in many fields.  He wrote 3,000 proverbs and 1,000 songs.  But his life was still empty and he wrote, “I set my heart to know wisdom…but this also is grasping for the wind” (Ecclesiastes 1:17). 

Weary with study, Solomon turned to pleasure.  His philosophy was “if it feels good, do it.”  And as the king he could have – and do – anything he wanted.  There were no restraints and no boundaries to his pleasure.  But he concluded this too was incredibly empty. 

Weary, with study, saturated with pleasure, Solomon turned to wine.  He would drown his sorrows and hopefully satiate his emptiness.  But he concluded, “wine is a mocker, strong drink is raging and whoever is led astray by it is not wise” (Proverbs 20:1). 

Solomon then turned to great buildings and husbandry projects.  He built beautiful gardens and the magnificent temple in Jerusalem.  His palace was a masterpiece of architectural design.  He developed exotic cattle and was famed for his stables of superb horses.  This too proved empty.  Solomon said he “hated life because the work that was done…was distressing to me, for all is vanity and grasping for the wind” (Ecclesiastes 2:17). 

Disappointed with building projects, Solomon indulged in immorality and sensual pleasure.  He had seven hundred wives and thee hundred concubines – beautiful women from all over the world.  They did not provide the happiness he was looking for, and instead led him away from God and into idolatry. 

Another key to happiness Solomon tried was accumulating wealth.  Solomon was rich beyond our wildest imagination.  He had such an abundance of gold that he used it for vessels to eat from.  He sat on a magnificent throne of ivory.  Solomon was the riches of all Israel’s kinds and yet he did not find happiness.  Jesus said, “a man’s life does not consist in the abundance of the things he possesses” (Luke 12:15). 

And finally, Solomon tried to sooth his troubled soul with music and entertainment.  He had money to buy the best musicians and singers in the land.  Music did not make Solomon happy, and he concluded that, “Like one who takes away a garment in cold weather…[so] is one that sings songs to a heavy heart” (Prov. 25:20). 

Solomon summed up his futile search for happiness by saying, “Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them.  I did not withhold my heart from any pleasure…And indeed all was vanity and grasping for the wind” (Ecclesiastes 2: 10-11). 

We hear echoes of Solomon’s discontent all around us today, yet our generation should be the happiest people ever.  We are the most educated, most affluent and most leisure-oriented people ever to have lived.  But we are also the most empty. 

What is the answer to emptiness of heart and life?  Solomon found the true key to happiness, and passed it on to his son and to us: “Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth…” (Ecclesiastes 12:1). 

God made you.  He can fill the empty places in your heart and life.  Turn to your Creator and like Solomon and David before him, you will be able to say, “In your presence is fullness of joy, at Your right hand are pleasures evermore” (Psalms 16:11).  

(Bible references from the New King James Version.)