This morning my girls and I during r Saturday morning breakfast and bible study took a look into Psalm 42 before resuming our reading and discussions of Pilgrim's Progress.
Psalm 42
To increase our comprehension, before we began with a serious reading, I thought it good to ask a few questions:
Q1. What is a hart?
A1. We know the song, as the deer panteth for the waters.... I was pretty sure the girls would hear "hart" and think "heart." Other than that - I thought they probably would have no idea what is a "hart."
E-Sword tells us also: a "hart" is a stag, a deer, a male deer.
Q2. What are water brooks?
A2. Eleven year old said "small running streams of water." Good enough, I thought. This might be easy.
Q3. What is panting?
A3. This was harder for them to grasp. We thought of a movie we saw, a comedy, actually, but in this movies closing scene there were two men approaching the hero demanding said here give up his most prized position. The hero thought they meant the gold, which he tossed in their direction. The men just took the gold and threw it away. "We don't want your gold we want your water." You see they were in the middle of the desert dying of thirst. Gold was nothing - water was everything. "Have you ever been so thirsty that you yearned after a glass of cold refreshing water?" I asked.
Q4. What is it to be "cast down?"
A4. To be very sad, to be really depressed, down in spirits.
Q5. What is it to be disquieted?
A5. One answered, "to be really quiet." NO, quite the opposite, there is "QUIET" and then there is "DIS -- QUIETED." There is noise, a ruckus going on. Instead of peace there is clamor. Your soul is loudly complaining.
Q6. What is "countenance?"
A6. Another tough question. Thinking in terms of the appearance of one's countenance, I tried to explain by giving various appearances to my facial expressions. Serious, stern, happy, loving and caring -- see how my countenance changes as my appearance shows forth differently. Also, how so much happiness relies on their mother's first reception of me as I return home every day. Is it Joyful or sad, does she run and greet me with a hug? Or does she look up with a big smile and that every friendly "Hey your home!" - as her countenance is first towards me upon my daily return my own mood is affected. And so also is she affected by my first countenance towards her. Literally countenance: "his face or presence."
Continued tomorrow
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