Psalm 42:7 says, “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.” This is a beautiful, poetic piece of Scripture that touches our hearts. It is poetic in nature; however, it is a difficult passage to interpret.
As with any Bible verse, it is important to understand the surrounding context as well as consult other Bible passages to help oneself understand the meaning behind this beautiful yet difficult passage.
Deep Calls to Deep
This passage comes from Psalm 42, and it is written by the Sons of Korah. Throughout this psalm, the psalmists continue to refer to the need for water. This can give us further details on what it means for the deep to call to the deep.
Earlier in this psalm, the psalmist says, “As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When can I go and meet with God?” (Psalm 42:1-2).
As these verses say, there is a connection for one’s soul thirsting after God — the living God. The psalmists connect how a deer pants for water just as his soul pants for God.
Moving on with this passage, we can also see the condition of the psalmists' hearts and souls. Rather than being filled with happiness and celebration, their souls are downcast within them (Psalm 42:5-6).
The Sons of Korah’s souls are downcast within them because they are in exile. They still give praise to God, yet they long for their home (Psalm 42:6). In this way, not many of us can relate to the hearts and souls of the Sons of Korah.
They are in a land not their own — a place where they are exiles. Not many of us can relate to the same feeling the Sons of Korah were experiencing. This reality hit them hard, and they soon became crestfallen because of their situation.
Immediately following the Sons of Korah’s words of their souls remembering God from the land of the Jordan, they say, “Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me” (Psalm 42:7).
The definition and meaning of this phrase are twofold. First, deep calls to deep is referring to their emotional state as well as it is referring to the literal water they could have been seeing in their exile.
Secondly, “the deep calls to deep” is directly connected with the following words, “all your waves and breakers have swept over me.” This is referring to how God’s waves and breakers have swept over them, such as being sent into exile.
The Sons of Korah are very poetic in their language, yet they were not writing this psalm as a way to confuse readers. Rather, they were connecting their emotions and the visual imagery they were seeing into a song for God.
As we know from our own personal experiences, we know how much more vivid our feelings can become when we are crestfallen and hurt.
We might be more attuned to the wind in the trees, the color of the storm clouds, or as was the case for the Sons of Korah, the waters before them. The waves and breakers connect deeply to emotions and how they are feeling.
They feel as though all of the pain and misery of the world is being poured out onto them. Deep calls to deep in the roar of God’s waterfalls, which also connected to their emotional state, their acknowledgment of God’s hand in the situation, and the visual imagery being set before them.
The Sons of Korah were well aware of God’s control of the waters, waves, and breakers, and they knew He was also in control of their lives and their present situation.
The Context of Psalm 42
After they refer to the deep calling to the deep, the Sons of Korah write, “By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me — a prayer to the God of my life” (Psalm 42:8).
The psalmists are reminded of God’s love despite their situation. God’s song remains in their hearts, and they pray to Him.
If we try to see things from the Sons of Korah’s perspective, we can see how much they longed to be freed from their exile and to once again be at home. They knew the Lord ultimately had control, even of their present suffering.
They are not afraid to share their feelings, nor are they afraid to allow it to affect the psalm they are writing. In this way, we can all appreciate the rawness and truth of their writing.
The Sons of Korah are in exile, away from their homeland, and they might have even felt distanced from God.
Not many of us in the West are displaced from our homes or sent into exile in the modern day, yet we can imagine how much this would have affected the Sons of Korah and the other people involved in the exile.
Yes, their hearts and souls were downcast within them, but they still hoped in God. The deep calls to the deep, and they can feel it in their souls. The deep poetic language can confuse us, yet it is referring to the state of their hearts and the deep pit they felt in their hearts.
Being sent into exile — away from their homeland and away from everything that made them comfortable. In fact, they detail being in agony (Psalm 42:10). Despite their circumstances, the deep waves and breakers, and the agony of their bones, they turned to the Lord.
Moreover, they call out to God with an honest heart, “I say to God my Rock, ‘Why have you forgotten me? Why must I go about mourning, oppressed by the enemy?’” (Psalm 42:9). They don’t get a direct answer from God, yet we can see how this psalm is refreshing to our hearts.
It calls us and holds us accountable for not being afraid to be honest with God. We don’t have to be happy all the time or act like we have everything together when we don’t because none of us do.
However, we can all cry out to God with a genuine heart and know that He doesn’t silence our concerns. Each and every concern comes before the ears of God, and He never turns His heart from any of us.
The Sons of Korah ends this psalm by asking their souls why they are so downcast. They need to put their hope in God (Psalm 42:11a). The Sons of Korah challenge their hearts by saying, “Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God” (Psalm 42:11b).
In the same way, we can also challenge ourselves by speaking softly to ourselves and encouraging ourselves as well as others to put hope in God. We might not have to be sent into exile or taken away from our families, but we still have our own deep waters that we will have to face.
Throughout every difficult season, every wave, and every breaker, God is there with us (Psalm 23). We might feel alone, and at times we might even feel like an exile or an outsider. Despite our situations and circumstances, we can always turn to God and trust Him with the outcome.
What Does This Mean?
Thus, the deep calling to the deep is a poetic way of referring to the psalmists’ emotions as well as the visual imagery they would have seen in their exile. It is a beautiful passage of Scripture in addition to the other psalms that were written by the Sons of Korah.
Often, we only believe David wrote the Psalms, and he did write the majority of them; however, there are other writers of the Psalms, including the Sons of Korah.
For further reading:
How to Understand and Internalize God’s Deep Love for Us
3 Words of Hope When in the Depths
How Does Psalm 42 Help Us Overcome Discouragement?
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