From the Depths

Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls;
All Your waves and billows have gone over me.
The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime,
And in the night His song shall be with me—
A prayer to the God of my life.

Psalm 42:7

Serving God has its seasons of discouragement. We’re so thankful that it isn’t always like that, but it certainly is discouraging from time to time. In such a season we can find real encouragement from Psalm 42. The whole psalm is amazing but look at just verse 7.

When the psalmist sang, “Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls” he wasn’t thinking about the depths of glory, but the depths of discouragement. Perhaps the psalmist saw or thought of a waterfall in this high country. He saw how the water plunged down into a deep pool at the base of the waterfall and thought, “I feel that deeply buried under my misery.” It was as if all Your waves and billows have gone over me and he was buried under.

It is a powerful and poetic description of despair:

• I hear the constant noise of the waterfalls; it never stops.
• I fell from a previous height.
• I plunged down quickly, and was taken down deep.
• I feel buried under all of this.
• I feel like I’m drowning.

Yet even in this, there are points of light, giving hope:

• I am deep; but God is also – so His depths call unto me in my depths.
• The waterfalls are God’s; if I am plunged under, then He are with me.
• The waves and billows are His; God has measured all this.

From the depths, the psalmist understood “The LORD will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night His song shall be with me.” The psalmist came to a place of greater confidence, secure in God’s goodness to him in the daytime or at night. In the more frightening night, he would have the gracious comfort of His song to be with him.

That’s why he could dedicate this song as “A prayer to the God of my life.” This was another statement of confidence. The song from God will be a prayer, but not unto the God of his death, but to the God of my life.

Feel like you’re going under? God is with you even in the depths, and He will command His lovingkindness to you!

Blessings to You in Jesus’ Name – David Guzik

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