"Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves have gone over me."
Psalm 42:7

I love water. I love the serenity of a lake or a stream.  I love the beauty and roar of a waterfall.  I love the power and wild of the ocean.  Inevitably, I feel something around water, and I think of its Creator.

I have no fear of water, but I do respect it.  I am an adequate swimmer, yet a surfer I am not!  A couple of years ago, I went to the ocean with three friends to body surf.  (When it comes to the ocean, I am more the wade and walk along the beach type…if I’m not in a boat!)  I joined in on the body-surfing fun, because “Hey! I’m game!”  But I did not know there was a technique to these things.

The breakers and waves engulfed me and flung me about again and again.  I drank in way too much seawater.  My body slammed into the sandy bottom, more than once hitting against some sharp, pointy sea object!  I felt battered and at the mercy of something far more powerful than me.

Lately, I have felt battered and tossed about by circumstances over which I have no control.  God, in His sovereignty, has ordained the powerful roar of His waterfalls.  He has allowed the breakers and waves to sweep over me.  The strength of His waterfalls reaches deep places.

Are these simultaneously actions of deep pain and deep healing?  The Psalmist of Psalm 42 clings to truths in the middle of this type of turmoil:

“Hope in God, for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God.” (vv. 5b, 11b)

“By day the Lord commands His steadfast love, and at night His song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.” (v. 8)

He may command the waters of turmoil, but He also commands His steadfast love…the unconditional, agape love based on His covenantal promises.  I will not be overcome!  And His Word, His Spirit, His song is with me.  In fact, His song is the prayer back to Himself! 

“Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls.” (v. 7) Deep healing meets deep pain.  Deep love meets deep turmoil.  I am not alone in that waterfall, and there is hope in God.  When I do not know what to pray, His song prays for me! 

Psalm 42

As a deer pants for flowing streams,
    so pants my soul for you, O God.
My soul thirsts for God,
    for the living God.
When shall I come and appear before God?
My tears have been my food
    day and night,
while they say to me all the day long,
    “Where is your God?”
These things I remember,
    as I pour out my soul:
how I would go with the throng
    and lead them in procession to the house of God
with glad shouts and songs of praise,
    a multitude keeping festival.

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation and my God.

My soul is cast down within me;
    therefore I remember you
from the land of Jordan and of Hermon,
    from Mount Mizar.
Deep calls to deep
    at the roar of your waterfalls;
all your breakers and your waves
    have gone over me.
By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
    and at night his song is with me,
    a prayer to the God of my life.
I say to God, my rock:
    “Why have you forgotten me?
Why do I go mourning
    because of the oppression of the enemy?”
As with a deadly wound in my bones,
    my adversaries taunt me,
while they say to me all the day long,
    “Where is your God?”

Why are you cast down, O my soul,
    and why are you in turmoil within me?
Hope in God; for I shall again praise him,
    my salvation and my God.