The Lord Is My Shepherd. I Shall Not Fret.

Ms Brenda Explains the (somewhat archaic) Hymns
This morning the worship leader led me to wonder what kind of words would be fraught with heavenly comfort.  So I came home and inquired of my old friend dictionary.com

And I discovered that 'fraught" is not the past tense of 'fret' as I had imagined.  In fact it is not a verb at all, but rather an adjective.

fraught   /frɔt/

–adjective
1. Archaic . filled or laden (with): ships fraught with precious wares.
 
Synonyms include: abounding, attended, bristling, charged, filled, heavy, laden, replete, stuffed, as well as haggard, harassed, harrowed, peaked, pinched, sapped, starved, strained, stressed, taut, tired, worn
 
So the same word can mean either stuffed or starved.  Go figure.
Let's check out the World English Dictionary to see if we can further muddle clarify this.


fraught (frɔːt)
— adjective (and foll by with )
1. filled or charged; attended: a venture fraught with peril
2. informal showing or producing tension or anxiety: she looks rather fraught ; a fraught situation

So my previous understanding of fraught was more in line with the informal, and the hymn writer's more in line with the archaic. Of course it was probably much less archaic in 1862.  When I'm sure the hymn was fraught with meaning.
 

He leads me beside quiet waters, 

He restores my soul.

There is still comfort in those words.  Which reminds me of something else the worship leader said today:  God is good. 

All the time. 

When David wrote the 23rd Psalm. 
In 1862 when Joseph Gilmore wrote He Leadeth Me. 
In 2010 when Ms Brenda doodled the word 'fraught' on her church bulletin.