The psalmist laments,
"Deep calls to deep
in the
roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me”
(Psalm 42:7).
In typically beautiful poetry, Psalm 42 expresses a cry from
the heart of God’s people during a time of trouble.
What exactly does it mean that
“deep calls to deep?”
There is some question as to the setting of
Psalm 42.
The author seems to have been outside of
Jerusalem and unable to return.
He mentions how he
used to go to the house of God . . . with shouts of joy
he speaks as if he is east of the
Jordan River
(verse 6),
and he hears the taunting of an enemy (verse 10).
Most likely, the setting is this: the sons of Korah—the leaders
of tabernacle worship to whom the psalm is attributed--
were accompanying
King David
as he was driven from Jerusalem by his rebellious son
Absalom
(2 Samuel 15).
As David and those faithful to him
fled for their lives,
they looked back in sadness at their
home of Jerusalem.
Psalm 42 is a record of their thoughts in that time of exile.
In the verses leading up to the statement that
“deep calls to deep,”
the songwriter says he has been thirsting for
the presence of God like a deer panting for
streams of water
(Psalm 42:1).
The exiles were longing for their Savior in tears while
their enemies taunted them.
Cut off from Jerusalem, the sons of Korah could only remember
what it was like to take part in worship with
shouts of joy in the festive processionals.
In the reminiscing, the songwriter attempts to
encourage himself
in the Lord and place his
hope in God.
The songwriter waffles between confidence that he would
soon be able to praise the Lord as he had in the past,
and despair over his present affliction.
The language of Psalm 42 is
poetic and metaphorical.
"Deep calls unto deep at the noise of
Your waterfalls;
All Your waves and billows have gone over me”
(Psalm 42:7, NKJV).
The songwriter portrays his distress figuratively:
it’s as if
waves and breakers are sweeping over him.
Trouble was surging,
with one overwhelming swell coming after another.
The “deep” trials
he faced kept coming, wave-like--deep after deep.
The Hebrew word translated here as “deep” refers to the deepest
depths of the sea.
The sons of Korah exiled with David had lost all footing,
and they felt as if recurring waves of trouble had plunged
their souls into a bottomless ocean of sorrow and despair.
The prophet Jonah used similar language to describe his
predicament after God’s discipline in his life:
“You hurled me into the depths,
into the very heart of the seas,
and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers swept over me”
(Jonah 2:3).
There’s another interpretation of the word deep in Psalm 42, viz.,
that the songwriter is expressing the fact that
his soul was in deep need of God.
The psalmist calls out from his place of
profound need for the
unfathomable greatness of God.
A deep need calls for a deep remedy.
James Smith and Robert Lee beautifully elaborate on this
meaning of deep calls to deep in their
multi-volume work Handfuls on Purpose for Christian Workers and
Bible Students:
"The deep of man’s need calleth unto the
deep of God’s fulness;
and the deep of God’s fulness calleth unto
the deep of man’s need.
Between our emptiness and His all-sufficiency
there is a great gulf. . . .
Deep calleth unto deep.
The deep mercy of God needs our emptiness,
into which it might pour itself. . . .
Nothing can fully meet the depth of our need but the depth of
His Almighty fulness”
We hit upon the meaning of deep calls to deep
when
we recognize that human needs are great,
but the riches of God
are greater.
Our wisdom is shallow, but His knowledge
and judgments are unsearchable
(Romans 11:33–34).
God’s thoughts are deep
(Psalm 92:5).
His love is as deep as
His immense heart
(Ephesians 3:18–19),
as He proved when He gave
His only begotten Son to die for us (John 3:16).
The height, breadth, and depth of God’s resources are without measure.
From the depth of his despair, the psalmist found help
in the depth of God’s goodness,
and he was able to say in conclusion,
I will put my hope in God! I will praise him again--
my Savior and my God!”
(Psalm 42:11, NLT).
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