The chorus of the 1969 Peggy Lee song, “Is That All There Is?” says:
Is that all there is, is that all there is
If that’s all there is my friends, then let’s keep dancing
Let’s break out the booze and have a ball
If that’s all there is
At first blush, Peggy Lee and the writer of Ecclesiastes seem to be singing from the same songbook. “Is That All There Is?” expresses a cynical, jaded view of human existence. Ecclesiastes on the whole expresses similar sentiments, beginning with the opening declaration that “everything is meaningless.” Chapter 3 begins with a monotonous litany of the ins and outs of life. There is a time to be born and a time to die; and in between, life is just a meaningless procession of trivial details. There is planting and uprooting and killing and healing and tearing down and building…and toil. Is that all there is?
Is this really the same sentiment? I would have to say no. The writer of Ecclesiastes diverged from the philosophy of “Is That All There Is?” by asserting two realities Peggy Lee (and lyricist Jerry Leiber) apparently overlooked. First, he asserted a theological reason that humans are prone to long for more than they experience. God has set eternity in their hearts (3:11). God, who alone is eternal, has made human beings in his image. We have a spiritual dimension to our existence that merely earthly pleasures cannot satisfy. This is our glory, but apart from God it is also our “burden.”
Second, the writer affirmed that life itself is a gift from God and should be enjoyed for all it is worth, even amid the toil (3:12-13). Qohelet sought after happiness and admitted it was sometimes hard to come by. Even a hard life, however, can be filled with joy when approached with the right attitude.
Without God, “all there is” is sometimes bleak and never ultimately satisfying. Believers like Qohelet may struggle with the meaning of existence, but with God in the picture there are always reasons for hope and joy.
