Week 10
Deep Calls unto Deep
Psalm 42
“Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls.”
Psalm 42 (NKJV)
The psalmist thirsts for God as a deer pants for water. This is not casual interest but a bodily image of need—the whole person longing for the living God.
His longing unfolds amid absence, tears, memory, and taunting questions. Spiritual desire does not prove circumstances are peaceful; sometimes deprivation reveals how deeply the heart knows its true home.
He remembers worship with the multitude, yet memory alone cannot sustain him. Past encounters are gifts, not reservoirs from which today’s soul can drink indefinitely.
Deep calls unto deep amid the roar of waterfalls. The psalmist feels overwhelmed by wave after wave, but even the waters that engulf him are called ‘Your’ waves. Pain has not passed beyond God’s rule.
He speaks to his own soul: ‘Why are you cast down? Hope in God.’ Faith does not silence lament; it addresses despair from within it and keeps opening the future toward praise.
By day the Lord commands steadfast love, and by night His song remains. Divine faithfulness accompanies both visible light and the darkness in which belief must sing without sight.
Christ knew the thirst, taunt, isolation, and apparent abandonment of the righteous sufferer. In Him, our deepest ache is received by One who entered it and opened resurrection hope beyond it.
Do not be ashamed of holy longing. Bring thirst, memory, and sorrow honestly before God. The depth of His life is greater than the depth of your need.
In Conversation with A. W. Tozer
Tozer described the pursuit of God as desire awakened by God’s prior grace. The soul follows because it has already been found and stirred by divine love.
Psalm 42 keeps that pursuit honest. Longing can coexist with sorrow and unanswered questions; its faithfulness lies in continuing to address God and hope in Him.
A Prayer
Holy God,
Living God, my soul thirsts for You beneath all the lesser things I seek.
Receive my grief, memories, and questions. Command Your steadfast love by day and keep Your song with me through the night.
Call the depths of my heart toward the greater depth of Your life, and teach me again to hope in You. Amen.
Dwell This Week with God
Awaken to His presence.
Return often to Psalm 42. Read without hurry, and allow the truth of who God is to become larger than every lesser concern.