As the Deer Pants
“As the deer pants for streams of water, so pants my soul for You, O God.” (Psalm 42:1). Lovely, poetic, so full of longing. Have you ever wondered why the Psalmist compared his thirst for God with a deer? Why not, say—a camel, there were camels in the region as well.
Yet taking a much closer look, the reason is beautiful. Why NOT the camel: The camel is designed to be self-sustaining; they store all the water they need in fatty tissue, conserving the water by self-regulating their body temperature. With self-sustaining, self-regulation they can last up to not only weeks but MONTHS without drinking water simply by eating green vegetation and without even that they can survive up to 2 weeks. Water is not a daily concern for them.
The Psalmist wrote as the deer. The deer. We would first think, well, the deer is young, they need leading to water, but the word used as deer, (in the Hebrew) is a mature male, not a doe or even a fawn. This isn’t Bambi. This is his dad, the Great Prince of the Forest. The stag (or buck) knows where the water is, and if he doesn’t’—he will find it! According to “Realtree Hunting” a 200-pound buck will typically drink 3 to 5 quarts of water per day and as observed, will go to water before going to food. Water is their prime desired source of survival—every day.
The panting done by the deer is not likened to that of a dog panting. Dogs don’t necessarily sweat, so panting is a form of regulating their body temperature. The panting of this deer is a passionate, life-threatening desperate plea for survival! And most often the panting is a result of having been chased, he’s coming out of a pursuit. The first thing he looks for is water.
Think about it, what is our survival pattern? Do we tend to be more like the camel at times; self-sustaining, self-regulating, thinking we can make it on last month’s water or longer? Or are we (should we) be more like the deer. In his maturity, seeking, longing—PANTING for daily water and going to the water before anything else.
Perhaps you too, are coming out of a predator’s pursuit. Don’t heed to instinct, seeking to outsmart or even blend into the environment. Instead, run. RUN to the brook of survival.
“As the deer pants for streams of water, so pants my soul for You, O God.”
You?
In Him, DeDe (“Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love & good deeds.” – Hebrews 10:24)
Inspired Fountain 