Ecclesiastes is the only book [of the Bible] written on a Monday morning.
If you've been to church for any amount of time or read the book of Ecclesiastes for yourself, that will make sense to you. My dad started a sermon series on the book of Ecclesiastes yesterday, and he made clear that it has gotten this reputation as being the Bible's "depressing book."
Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher, vanity of vanities. All is vanity.
That's the second verse of chapter one. Not exactly the most uplifting text in the Bible. I don't think that's going up on office motivational posters any time soon. But the Preacher, the author of the book, King Solomon, wasn't trying to be inspiring. He was trying to be real. Ecclesiastes chronicles his search for life's meaning. This was a man who had every possible pleasure at his fingertips, and he thought life's meaning lay in each of them. He thought it lay in money, in sex, in work, in wisdom. But every time he was disappointed. And so Monday morning rolled around, he was tired, and he sat down to write Ecclesiastes.
Without the end of the book, Ecclesiastes might actually be pretty depressing. Questions without an answer would leave it pervaded with despair. What is the meaning of life? Why am I here? These questions that Solomon wrestled with need an answer. And his Monday morning hopelessness needs a hope. That's why the end of the book brings everything together. At the end of his musings on life, meaning, pleasure, and satisfaction, Solomon wrote in 12:13,
The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
What is the meaning of life? Trust God and obey Him. On Monday morning, and Tuesday morning, and Friday morning, and Saturday morning, and every single day. Life is full of let-downs. We'll live through many Monday mornings. We'll be tired and cranky and step in puddles and spill coffee and hit red lights and want to cry sometimes. This is living in a fallen world. But trusting God transforms our Monday morning outlook from depressed to delighted. Delighted to be alive, to breathe the air, to drive cars, to drink coffee, to be able to see and hear, to be ambassadors of Christ to a dark world. All this delight is fueled in a firm trust in God and a desire to obey Him. We are not honouring Him when we mope. John Piper said,
God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.
So be satisfied in God this Monday morning. For the end of the matter is this, when all is said and done, the meaning of life is to "fear God and keep his commandments." There is no greater duty or delight.