Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.
Parallel Translations
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Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.
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Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
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(42-8) Deep calleth unto deep at the voice of Thy cataracts; all Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me.
Cross-references (9)
Passages linked to Psalms 42:7 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Jonah 2:3 For you threw me into the depths, in the heart of the seas. The flood was all around me. All your waves and your billows passed over me.
- Psalms 69:14-15 Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters. Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me.
- Psalms 88:7 Your wrath lies heavily on me. You have afflicted me with all your waves.
- Lamentations 3:53-55 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and have cast a stone on me. Waters flowed over my head. I said, “I am cut off.” I called on your name, Yahweh, out of the lowest dungeon.
- Job 1:14-19 that there came a messenger to Job, and said, “The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them, and the Sabeans attacked, and took them away. Yes, they have killed the servants with the edge of the sword, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was still speaking, there also came another, and said, “The fire of God has fallen from the sky, and has burned up the sheep and the servants, and consumed them, and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “The Chaldeans made three bands, and swept down on the camels, and have taken them away, yes, and killed the servants with the edge of the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell you.” While he was still speaking, there came also another, and said, “Your sons and your daughters were eating and drinking wine in their oldest brother’s house, and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you.”
- Psalms 88:15-17 I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted. Your fierce wrath has gone over me. Your terrors have cut me off. They came around me like water all day long. They completely engulfed me.
- Jeremiah 4:20 Destruction on destruction is decreed, for the whole land is laid waste. Suddenly my tents are destroyed, and my curtains gone in a moment.
- Ezekiel 7:26 Mischief will come on mischief, and rumor will be on rumor. They will seek a vision of the prophet; but the law will perish from the priest, and counsel from the elders.
- Job 10:17 You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me.
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain 7. Depth calleth unto depth These words express the…
7. Depth calleth unto depth These words express the grievousness, as well as the number and long continuance, of the miseries which he suffered; as if he had said, I am oppressed not only with one kind of misery, but various kinds of distress return one after another, so that there seems to be neither end nor measure to them. In the first place, by the term depth, he shows that the temptations by which he was assailed were such, that they might well be compared to gulfs in the sea; then he complains of their long continuance, which he describes by the very appropriate figure, that his temptations cry out from a distance, and call to one another. In the second part of the verse, he continues the same metaphor, when he says, that all the waves and floods of God have passed over his head By this he means that he had been overwhelmed, and as it were swallowed up by the accumulation of afflictions. It ought, however, to be observed, that he designates the cruelty of Saul, and his other enemies, floods of God, that in all our adversities we may always remember to humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God which afflicts us. But it is of importance to go beyond this, and to consider, that if it should please God to rain with violence upon us, as soon as he shall have opened his sluices or waterspouts, there will be no termination to our miseries till he is appeased; for he has in his power means marvellous and unknown for executing his vengeance against us. Thus, when once his anger is kindled against us, there will be not only one depth to swallow us up, but depth will call unto depth. And as the insensibility of men is such, that they do not stand in awe of the threatenings of God, to the degree in which they ought, whenever mention is made of his vengeance, let us recall this verse to our recollection.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain Afflictions came so thick upon me, that I felt…
Afflictions came so thick upon me, that I felt my self as overwhelmed: whereby he showeth there is no end of our misery till God be pacified and send remedy.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Psa 42:7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise…
Psa 42:7 Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
Ver. 7. Deep calleth unto deep] Vorago voraginem advocat, i.e. one calamity inviteth another, Gurges gurgitem excipit (Beza); Aliud ex alio malure, they come thick and threefold; the clouds return after the rain, Ecc 12:2; as one shower is unburdened another is brewed. One affliction followeth and occasioneth another, without ceasing or intermission; so that they are grown, as it were, to an infiniteness, as Psa 40:12.
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At the noise of thy waterspouts] i.e. Thy clouds pouring down in full force, in a storm at sea especially, by a cataclysm of waters falling at once out of the clouds, sometimes to the overwhelming and breaking of a ship. This mariners call a spout. Psa 18:4, The floods of Belial made me afraid.
All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me] Fluctus fluctum trudit; yet not without the Lord; the enemies and the evils that befell him are called God’s waves or breakings, Propter peccata nostra a te immissa You have been against us on account of our sins. (Kimchi).
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain Deep calleth unto deep, i.e. one affliction comes immediately…
Deep calleth unto deep, i.e. one affliction comes immediately after another, as if it were called for and invited by the former; which he expresseth by a metaphor taken either,
1. From the old flood, when the upper deep, or abyss of waters, (in the clouds,) called the lower deep, or abyss of waters in the sea and rivers, that both might unite their forces together to drown the world. And thus the Chaldee understands it. Or,
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2. From the sea, when its waves rage, and it is full of deep furrows, into which ships and passengers sink down, and then rise and sink again, successively and continually. But these tempests are caused in the sea by God’s mighty winds, rather than by his water-spouts. Or,
3. From violent and successive showers of rain; which frequently come down from heaven, as it were, at the noise or call of God’s water-spouts, to wit, the clouds; which by their rattling noises and terrible thunders do in a manner invite and call forth the showers which are contained in their bowels.
All thy waves and thy billows; thou hast sent one sharp trial or affliction upon me after another.
Are gone over me, i.e. are gone over my head, as this same verb is used, Psa 38:4. They do not lightly sprinkle me, but almost overwhelm me.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of the…
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of the water spouts,.... By which are meant afflictions, comparable to the deep waters of the sea, for their multitude and overwhelming nature; see Psa 69:1; these came pouring down, one after another, upon the psalmist: as soon as one affliction over, another came, as in the case of Job; which is signified by one calling to another, and were clamorous, troublesome, and very grievous and distressing;
all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me: with which he seemed to be covered and overwhelmed, as a ship is at sea. It may be observed, that the psalmist calls afflictions God's water spouts, and "his" waves and "his" billows; because they are appointed, sent, ordered, and overruled by him, and made to work for the good of his people: and now, though these might seem to be a just cause of dejection, yet they were not, as appears from Psa 42:8.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Deep - One affliction comes immediately after another, as…
Deep - One affliction comes immediately after another, as if it were called for by the former. A metaphor taken from violent and successive showers of rain; which frequently come down from heaven, as it were at the noise, or call of God's water spouts.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 7. Deep calleth unto deep] One wave of…
Verse 7. Deep calleth unto deep] One wave of sorrow rolls on me, impelled by another. There is something dismal in the sound of the original; תהום אל תהום קורא tehom el tehom kore; something like "And hollow howlings hung in air." Thompson's Ellenore. Or like Homer's well known verse:-
Βη δ' ακεων παρα θινα πολυφοισβοιο θαλασσης.
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"He went silently along the shore of the vastly-sounding sea." Il. i., ver. 34.
The rolling up of the waves into a swell, and the break of the top of the swell, and its dash upon the shore, are surprisingly represented in the sound of the two last words.
The psalmist seems to represent himself as cast away at sea; and by wave impelling wave, is carried to a rock, around which the surges dash in all directions, forming hollow sounds in the creeks and caverns. At last, several waves breaking over him, tear him away from that rock to which he clung, and where he had a little before found a resting-place, and, apparently, an escape from danger. "All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me;" he is then whelmed in the deep, and God alone can save him.
Waterspouts] A large tube formed of clouds by means of the electric fluid, the base being uppermost, and the point of the tube let down perpendicularly from the clouds. This tube has a particular kind of circular motion at the point; and being hollow within, attracts vast quantities of water, which it pours down in torrents upon the earth. These spouts are frequent on the coast of Syria; and Dr. Shaw has often seen them at Mount Carmel. No doubt the psalmist had often seen them also, and the ravages made by them. I have seen vast gullies cut out of the sides of mountains by the fall of waterspouts, and have seen many of them in their fullest activity.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Psa 42:7. Deep calleth unto deep — One affliction…
Psa 42:7. Deep calleth unto deep — One affliction comes immediately after another, as if it were called for, or invited by the former. This he expresses by a metaphor taken from the old flood, when the upper deep, or collection of waters in the clouds, called for the lower deep, or abyss of waters in the sea and rivers, and in the bowels of the earth; that both might unite their forces to drown the world. Thus the Chaldee understands it. Or the metaphor may be taken from the sea, when its waves rage, and deep furrows are everywhere made in it, into which ships, and the people in them, sink down, and then rise and sink again, successively and continually. At the noise of thy water-spouts — This may be understood of water- spouts, properly so called; which, according to Dr. Shaw, p. 333 of his Travels, are more frequent on the Syrian and Jewish coasts than in any other part of the Mediterranean, and could not be unknown to David and the Israelites. Or he may allude to violent and successive rains, which frequently descend from heaven at the noise or call of God’s water-spouts, the clouds; which, by their terrible thunders, and rattling noises, as it were, incite and call forth the heavy and tempestuous showers which are contained within them. But Bishop Lowth, in his 6th Prelection, translates this clause, Abyss calleth to abyss, thy cataracts roaring around. And he thinks the psalmist’s metaphor is taken from the sudden torrents of water which were wont to descend from the mountains twice in the year, and to burst through the narrow valleys of that hilly country, from the periodical rains, and the melting of the snows of Lebanon and the neighbouring mountains, in the beginning of the summer, and causing the river Jordan to overflow all its banks. All thy waves and billows are gone over me — That is, are gone over my head, as the verb עברו, gnabaru, is used Psa 38:4. They do not lightly sprinkle me, but almost overwhelm me. Thus Bishop Lowth, All thy waves and waters have overwhelmed me. The meaning is, Thou hast sent one sharp trial or affliction upon me after another.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Deep calleth unto deep - The language used here…
Deep calleth unto deep - The language used here would seem to imply that the psalmist was near some floods of water, some rapid river or water-fall, which constituted an appropriate illustration of the waves of sorrow that were rolling over his soul. It is not possible to determine exactly where this was, though, as suggested in the verse above, it would seem most probable that it was in the vicinity of the upper portion of the Jordan; and doubtless the Jordan, if swollen, would suggest all that is conveyed by the language used here. The word rendered deep - תהום tehôm - means properly a wave, billow, surge, and then, a mass of waters; a flood - the deep; the sea. In this latter sense it is used in Deu 8:7; Eze 31:4; Gen 7:11; Job 28:14; Job 38:16, Job 38:30; Psa 36:6. Here it would seem to mean merely a wave or billow, perhaps the waves of a rapid stream dashing on one shore, and then driven to the opposite bank, or the torrents pouring over rocks in the bed of a stream. It is not necessary to suppose that this was the ocean, nor that there was a cataract or water-fall. All that is meant here would be met by the roaring waters of a swollen river. The word “calleth,” here means that one wave seemed to speak to another, or one wave responded to another. See a similar expression in Psa 19:2, “Day unto day uttereth speech.” Compare the notes at that verse.
At the noise of thy water-spouts - literally, “at the voice.” That is, “water-spouts” make a noise, or seem to give forth a voice; and this appears to be as if one part of the “deep” were speaking to another, or as if one wave were calling with a loud voice to another. The word “water-spouts” - צנור tsinnor - occurs only here and in 2Sa 5:8, where it is rendered gutter. It properly means a cataract, or a water-fall, or a water-course, as in 2 Samuel. Any pouring of water - as from the clouds, or in a swollen river, or in a “water spout,” properly so called - would correspond with the use of the word here. It may have been rain pouring down; or it may have been the Jordan pouring its floods over rocks, for it is well known that the descent of the Jordan in that part is rapid, and especially when swollen; or it may have been the phenomena of a “water-spout,” for these are not uncommon in the East. There are two forms in which “waterspouts” occur, or to which the name is given in the east, and the language here would be applicable to either of them.
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One of them is described in the following manner by Dr. Thomson, Land and the Book, vol. i., pp. 498, 499: “A small black cloud traverses the sky in the latter part of summer or the beginning of autumn, and pours down a flood of rain that sweeps all before it. The Arabs call it sale; we, a waterspout, or the bursting of a cloud. In the neighborhood of Hermon I have witnessed it repeatedly, and was caught in one last year, which in five minutes flooded the whole mountain side, washed away the fallen olives - the food of the poor - overthrew stone walls, tore up by the roots large trees, and carried off whatever the tumultuous torrents encountered, as they leaped madly down from terrace to terrace in noisy cascades. Every summer threshing-floor along the line of its march was swept bare of all precious food, cattle were drowned, flocks disappeared, and the mills along the streams were ruined in half an hour by this sudden deluge.”
The other is described in the following language, and the above engraving will furnish an illustration of it. Land and the Book, vol, ii., pp. 256, 257: “Look at those clouds which hang like a heavy pall of sackcloth over the sea along the western horizon. From them, on such windy days as these, are formed waterspouts, and I have already noticed several incipient “spouts” drawn down from the clouds toward the sea, and ... seen to be in violent agitation, whirling round on themselves as they are driven along by the wind. Directly beneath them the surface of the sea is also in commotion by a whirlwind, which travels onward in concert with the spout above. I have often seen the two actually unite in mid air, and rush toward the mountains, writhing, and twisting, and bending like a huge serpent with its head in the clouds, and its tail on the deep.” We cannot now determine to which of these the psalmist refers, but either of them would furnish a striking illustration of the passage before us.
All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me - The waves of sorrow; anguish of soul; of which rolling floods would be an emblem. The rushing, and heaving, and restless waters furnished the psalmist with an illustration of the deep sorrows of his soul. So we speak of “floods of grief ... floods of tears,” “oceans of sorrows,” as if waves and billows swept over us. And so we speak of being “drowned in grief;” or “in tears.” Compare Psa 124:4-5.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain The roar of successive billows, responding to that of…
The roar of successive billows, responding to that of floods of rain, represented the heavy waves of sorrow which overwhelmed him.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 7. Waterspouts—The word naturally refers us to a water…
7. Waterspouts—The word naturally refers us to a water fall, or cataract; the idea is that of noisy, rushing waters, which call or echo to each other. David now lay encamped on the east of Jordan, (2Sa_17:22,) within hearing of some of the rapids of that river, of which there are twenty seven between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea. (Lt. Lynch.) To the nightly roar of these an answer might have been given by some mountain torrents on the side of Gilead, east of the royal tent. Thus was deep calling unto deep, their solemn chiming symphonizing with the sombre feelings of the king. The word rendered “deep,” though ordinarily applicable only to the ocean, may fitly be used here, where the feelings and the imagination hold sway.
Waves and… billows—Probably, breakers and billows, as the word for “waves” comes from a verb signifying to break.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 7. at the noise of thy waterspouts] Better, in…
7. at the noise of thy waterspouts] Better, in the roar of thy cataracts. God is sending upon him one trouble after another. He is overwhelmed with a flood of misfortunes. The metaphorical language is derived from the surrounding scenery. The roar of the cataracts calling to one another from opposite sides of the valley is like the voice of one abyss of waters (Psa_33:7 note) summoning another to break forth and join in overwhelming him. The torrents and eddies of the Jordan suggest the breakers and waves of calamity which have gone over his head. Tristram in describing Banias speaks of “the impetuous stream which has hewn out its channel in the black basalt,” and of the “wild medley of cascades and dashing torrents” everywhere (Land of Israel, p. 573). According to Robinson (Researches, iii. 405) “in the rainy season, and at the time of the melting of the snow on Hermon, an immense volume of water must rush down the chasm” below the ridge on which the castle stands. It might be supposed that the figure of breakers and waves must have been suggested by the sea, but no one who has seen mountain streams in spate will doubt that the words might refer to the Jordan in flood. The winter rainfall in Palestine is enormous. See Tristram’s Nat. Hist. of the Bible, p. 31.
Psa_42:7 b is borrowed in Jonah’s prayer (Jon_2:3).
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (7) Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of…
(7) Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts.—Better, Flood calleth unto flood at the noise of thy cataracts. The exile is describing what was before his eyes, and in his ears. There can, therefore, be little doubt that, as Dean Stanley observed, this image was furnished by the windings and rapids of the Jordan, each hurrying to dash itself with yet fiercer vehemence of sounding water over some opposing ledge of rocks “in cataract after cataract to the sea.” Thus every step taken on that sorrowful journey offered an emblem of the griefs accumulating on the exile’s heart. The word rendered waterspout only occurs besides in 2Sa_5:8, where the Authorised Version has “gutter,” but might translate “watercourse.”
All thy waves and thy billows.—From derivation, breakers and rollers. The poet forgets the source of his image in its intensity, and from the thought of the cataract of woes passes on to the more general one of “a sea of troubles,” the waves of which break upon him or roll over his head. The image is common in all poetry. (Comp. “And as a sea of ills urges on its waves; one falling, another, with huge (literally, third) crest, rising.”—Æsch., Seven against Thebes, 759.)
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy…
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts. Blow follows blow. Misfortunes "come not in single file, but in battalions." The imagery may be taken from the local storms that visit the Trans-Jordanic territory (see Lynch, "Expedition to the Jordan and the Dead Sea;" and Wilson, "Negeb," pp. 26, 27). All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. (comp. Psa_69:1, 2 88:7, 17 144:7)
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Charles H. Spurgeon 1885 · Public Domain Ver. 7. Deep calleth unto deep at the noise…
Ver. 7. Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts. Thy severe dealings with me seem to excite all creation to attack me; heaven, and earth, and hell, call to each other, stirring each other up in dreadful conspiracy against my peace. As in a waterspout, the deeps above and below clasp hands, so it seemed to David that heaven and earth united to create a tempest around him. His woes were incessant and overwhelming. Billow followed billow, one sea echoed the roaring of another; bodily pain aroused mental fear, Satanic suggestions chimed in with mistrustful forebodings, outward tribulation thundered in awful harmony with inward anguish: his soul seemed drowned as in a universal deluge of trouble, over whose waves the providence of the Lord moved as a watery pillar, in dreadful majesty inspiring the utmost terror. As for the afflicted one he was like a lonely bark around which the fury of a storm is bursting, or a mariner floating on a mast, almost every moment submerged. All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me. David thought that every trouble in the world had met in him, but he exaggerated, for all the breaking waves of Jehovah have passed over none but the Lord Jesus; there are griefs to which he makes his children strangers for his love's sake. Sorrow naturally states its case forcibly; the mercy is that the Lord after all hath not dealt with us according to our fears. Yet what a plight to be in! Atlantic rollers sweeping in ceaseless succession over one's head, waterspouts coming nearer and nearer, and all the ocean in uproar around the weary swimmer; most of the heirs of heaven can realise the description, for they have experienced the like. This is a deep experience unknown to babes in grace, but common enough to such as do business on great waters of affliction: to such it is some comfort to remember that the waves and billows are the Lord's, "thy waves and thy billows, "says David, they are all sent, and directed by him, and achieve his designs, and the child of God knowing this, is the more resigned.
Ver. 7. Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts. Here he has conjoined two awful and terrific phenomena of nature. It is a fact well ascertained by the evidence of travellers, that the falling of waterspouts is not uncommon on the coast of Judea. It should seem that they are occasioned by the congregating of great masses of cloud, whose waters concentrating to a point, pour themselves down in a tremendous column, accompanied with a roaring noise. Now, the image conceived in the mind of the psalmist seems to be that of the rushing of this vast waterspout down into the sea, already agitated, and increasing the turbulence and disorder of its waves. And awful picture! Especially if there be added to it the ideas of a black tempestuous sky, and the deafening roar occasioned by the tumult. What would be the situation of a vessel in the midst of such a tempest, the deluge pouring down from above, and all around her the furious ocean heaving its tremendous surgeshow ungovernable, how helpless, how next to impossible that she should escape foundering except by some almost miraculous interference! Yet to such a situation does David here compare the state of his soul when submersed, as it were, under a sea of afflictions; "all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me." How pungent must his sense of grief have been to occasion him to make use of such a comparison, so strongly expressive of the utmost danger and terror! Henry March.
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Ver. 7. Deep calleth unto deep, etc. The abyss above calls on the abyss below, in the voice of the droppings of thy waterspouts. Targum.
Ver. 7. Deep calleth unto deep. So let prayer unto prayer, and faith unto faith, and one grace to the exercise of another. If we cannot prevail with God it may be the first time, yet we may the second; or if not then, the third. Thomas Horton.
Ver. 7. Deep calleth unto deep. What's that? Why, it is expressed in the verse before: "O God, "says he, "my soul is cast down within me." "Down, "that is deep into the jaws of distrust and fear. And, Lord, my soul in this depth of sorrow, calls for help to thy depth of mercy. For though I am sinking and going down, yet not so low but that thy mercy is yet underneath me. Do, of thy compassions, open those everlasting arms, and catch him that has no help or stay in himself. For so it is with one that is falling into a well or a dungeon. John Bunion.
Ver. 7. Here the psalmist feels the spirit of bondage, which is wrath and fear; and he prays for the joy of God's salvation, and to be upheld by God's free spirit, which is the Holy Spirit, the spirit of love and power. He complains of "deep calling unto deep." A soul in the horrible pit hears little else but the calls of law and justice for vengeance, which are always answered again by the accusations of Satan and conscience. The storms of Sinai, like a waterspout at sea, threaten the earthen vessel with a deluge of wrath, which would soon drown it in destruction and perdition. These waves of real, and some imaginary, displeasure (no less terrible than real), rolling over the poor creature, are ready to send the bark to the bottom. This is the terrible way in which some fallen and backsliding souls are purged and reclaimed, and especially such as have brought public scandal upon the gospel, and church of Christ. William Huntington (1744-1813) in "Contemplations of the God of Israel."
Ver. 7. Thy waterspouts. Dr. Boothroyd translates (Kyrwnu), "thy cataracts." In justification of which translation, he observes that the situation of David suggested this forcible image. He saw the torrents falling from the precipices, and heard them resounding, and as if calling to one another for assistance; so, says he, all thy waves, that is, afflictions and troubles, come upon me and overwhelm me. John Morison.
Ver. 7. Waterspouts. Look at those clouds which hang like a heavy pall of sackcloth over the sea, along the western horizon. From them, on such windy days as these, are formed waterspouts, and I have already noticed several incipient "spouts" lengthening downward from their lower edge. These remarkable phenomena occur most frequently in spring, but I have also seen them in autumn. They are not accompanied with much rain; and between the dark stratum above and the sea, the sky is clear and bright. Here and there fragments of black vapour, shaped like long funnels, are drawn down from the clouds towards the sea, and are seen to be in violent agitation, whirling around on themselves as they are driven along by the wind. Directly beneath them, the surface of the sea is also in commotion by a whirlwind, which travels on in concert with the spout above. I have often seen the two actually unite in midair, and rush toward the mountains, writhing, and twisting, and bending, like a huge serpent, with its head in the clouds and its tail on the deep. They make a loud noise, of course, and appear very frightful. Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me, said David, when his soul was cast down within him. But, though formidable in appearance, they do very little injury. I have never heard of more than one instance in which they proved destructive even to boats, though the sailors are extremely afraid of them. As soon as they approach the shore, they dissolve and disappear. That kind of waterspout which bursts on the mountains, generally in the dry months of summer, does immense mischief. In a few minutes the wadies along its track are swollen into furious rivers, which sweep away grain, olives, raisins, and every other produce of the farmer. I have frequently known them to carry off and drown flocks of sheep and goats, and even cows, horses, and their owners alike. W. M. Thomson.
Ver. 7. All thy waves and thy billows.
Deep to deep incessant calling,
Tossed by furious tempests' roll,
Endless waves and billows falling,
Overwhelm my fainting soul.
Yet I see a Power presiding
Mid the tumult of the storm,
Ever ruling, ever guiding,
Love's intentions to perform.
Yes, mid sorrows most distressing,
Faith contemplates thy design,
Humbly bowing, and confessing
All the waves and billows THINE.
Henry March.
Ver. 7. All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
Wide over misfortune's surging tide
Billows succeeding billows spread;
Should one, its fury spent, subside,
Another lifts its boisterous head.
Agschylus in "The Seven Chief's against Thebes."
Ver. 7. Deep calleth unto deep. See Spurgeon's Sermons, No. 865.
Ver. 7. Deep calleth unto deep. One evil inviting another.
1. The variety of evilsone evil to another.
2. The conjunction of evilsone evil with another.
3. The connexion of evils, or dependence and mutual reference one evil upon another. T. Horton.
Ver. 7. The threefold depth which the saints and servants of God are subject to here in this life.
1. The depth of temptation.
2. The depth of desertion.
3. The depth of affliction and human calamities. T. Horton.
Ver. 7,8. In seasons of affliction the servants of God will be distinguished from others by their ready perception and acknowledgment of the hand of God in their trials. H. March.
Psalms 42:8*
Ver. 7,8. In seasons of affliction the servants of God will be distinguished from others by their ready perception and acknowledgment of the hand of God in their trials. H. March.
Charles H. Spurgeon's The Treasury of David (1869–1885) — public domain. Psalms only. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy…
Psa_42:7
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me.
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The call of the universe
I have long wanted some one whose soul hears to write a poem on this subject, the call of the sea. It has for years been a fancy of mine that the great mysterious, multitudinous voice of the sea is just a composite of all the sounds of the world which have been brought down to it by all the rivers in their courses through the lands. You will hear the tinkle and drip of pellucid springs hidden deep in remote hill countries; the rattling laughter of summer streams that have caught up on their way the rustling of leaves and sedges, the piping of birds, the lowing of cattle, the shouts and merry-making of children, the great commingled murmur of manifold labour. All these the vast world-embracing sea has taken in and blended, and harmonized into its own eternal call. It is deep calling unto deep, the soul of the sea to the soul of the man. How wonderful is this interchange, this give and take, in Gods world which binds all things into one common life! We are often tempted to forget that we belong to the universe, that we are part and parcel of its great interchanges, its system of give and take, that the little pulse of our life is quite as essential as the heart-beat of the world or the circulation of the stars. The sea has its countless veins and arteries through all the lands; it is no less true that even our little hidden spring in the lonely old pasture times its small pulse by the heart of the sea. When we leave all these pictures and suggestions of the physical universe and push back into the depths of the unseen and spiritual universe, we may be sure that the same law holds. We will see, first of all, that the spiritual universe is just as vast and complicated in magnitude and structure as is the physical universe. Every smallest, most hidden soul is one with the great central life. It gives and takes with that eternal source. The call of the spiritual universe finds its way into all remotest solitudes.
I. Consider how the soul is called and lured by the universe of thought. I remember well the shock with which I entered the nursery, strewn with toys, and for the first time found its little inmate curled up in the window-seat, lost, absorbed in a book. The same thought came to me as at the spring. What I has this little soul started for the sea? I felt a momentary pang of jealousy that the great invisible powers of thought had sent their irresistible call to the heart of my little child. Then I thought, this young soul is one with that unseen universe. It is only claiming its own. It is simply the deep calling to the deep. After that first call, how we hurry outward, away from things to thoughts. How swiftly are we borne onward into realm after realm in our-unseen universe of thought--poetry, prophecy, vision, religion, science, philosophy, art, government. In our universe of thought we have already entered into life eternal, when time shall be no more and where death is swallowed up in victory.
II. The same deep, irresistible call draws us into the universe of love. We begin life not only immersed in things, but in self-interest. The little child, like the young bird in the nest, is wholly self-centred, expecting, demanding that all things shall be brought to it. But the kingdom of love lives round about the young child as surely as the kingdom of the air lies round about the young bird in the nest. The one utters as sure a call to the soul as the other to the wing, Come, come, here is your destiny, your kingdom! The soul without love in this world is as crippled and helpless as the bird with broken wing. How the kingdom of love opens to us, realm after realm, luring us on! I We say it easily, love is the greatest thing in the world; then in the next breath we declare that selfishness is the mainspring of all the practical affairs of life. No, no. The greatest does not so easily give up its kingdom. Gravitation does not let go its hold upon the planet because the thistledown floats in summer heavens. The self-regarding life is self-centred. Its motion is centripetal, inward upon itself, to loneliness, bitterness, despair. The unselfish life, the love-life, is ever centrifugal, outward, outward into constantly widening circles. The activities of the world are under the vital impulsions and inspirations of good-will, good-fellowship, truth, love. You can no more reverse this Divine order of brotherhood among men than you can reverse the movement of the stars. How old is love? Old as the human heart, old as God; for God is love, and he who loveth is born of God and knoweth God. How common is love? Common as breathing and heart-beat. His kingdom ruleth over all. Consider likewise with what consuming passion men have loved liberty, throwing their lives a willing sacrifice upon her recking altars. How have men loved truth and justice and righteousness! Out of the depths of the human soul has gone a true answer to the deep call of the invisible universe, its destiny and its home.
III. Another call from the spiritual universe is to the realm of sorrow, We are not good for much until our hearts are broken. Sorrow cleanses our vision of misty humours, restores our spiritual myopia, so that we get a clear long-range outlook upon the verities, the imperishable substances of the inner life. He has lived poorly who has come to mature years and has not been touched by world-pain. No debonair, smug, optimistic Christ need come to this world. Unless the deep cry of humanity has found the deeps in His soul, let Him stay in His comfortable heaven.
IV. At last, the voice that sounds the final depth of our being is the call of death. Out of the unseen and eternal the secret message arrives, Come! Come! Away from all things visible. Your hour is at hand. You must be away to your destiny and home. Then you will know what it is to be alone with death; alone, yet not alone, for out of the depths of the spirit goes up the cry, Whom have I in heaven but Thee? and out of t,he eternal depths falls the answer, swift and true, Because I live, ye shall live also. It is not the answer of the universe. For you, in that hour, there is no universe. It is the answer of the eternal Father-heart to the cry of the child-heart, deep to deep, soul to soul. Oh, friends, believe me, we are not the children of houses and streets and shops and markets and offices. We are the children of our Fathers universe. (J. H. Ecob, D. D.)
Deep calling unto deep
Deep calleth unto deep. It is the profound responsiveness of life which those words utter--the responsiveness of the world and the human nature which inhabits it to one another. How clear they are, and how they call and answer to each other--the world and man! It may be in the region of thought or in the region of action; it may be a great problem awakening the profoundest intelligence, and saying, Come, find my solution, or it may be a great task summoning the active powers, and saying, Come, do me; it may be in an excitement and a tumult which shakes the nature through and through, or it may be in a serene and open calmness which means more than any tumult. The form is nothing; the substance of the experience is everything. Deep calleth unto deep. It is a great inspiring spectacle when this is seen taking place in a young mans life. There is a beautiful exhilaration in it. The mysterious world lifts up its voice and asks its old unanswered questions problems which have puzzled all the generations which have come and gone, lo! they are not dead. They are still alive. All that is most serious and earnest in him tells him that their answers must be somewhere. Perhaps he can find what all who have gone before have failed to find. So the best which the young man is leaps to wrestle with the hardest which the world can show; so deep answereth to deep. At the other end of life the same thing comes, only in another way. When the great shadow of the earth lies on the old mans soul, and the light of the life beyond is gathering in the western sky--how often then a patience and a faith, a love and trust and spiritual certainty come forth which all the life has been preparing unconsciously; and in the silent days which wait the end, the soul hears the eternity, and Deep calleth unto deep. This, then, is what we mean by deep calling unto deep. You see what kind of life it makes. There is another kind of life by contrast with which this kind may perhaps best be understood. There is a life to which the world seems easy, and so in which the strongest powers of the human nature are not stirred. I call that the life in which shallow calleth unto shallow. Like little pools lying in the rock, none of them more than an inch deep, all of them rippling and twinkling in the sunshine and the breeze--so lie the small interests of the world and the small powers of man; and they talk with one another, and one perfectly answers the demand which the other makes. Do you not know all that? The world simply as a place of enjoyment summons man simply as a being capable of enjoyment. It is the invitation of the surface to the surface--of the surface of the world to the surface of the man. What shall we say of this? It is real. It is legitimate. In its degree and its proportion it is good; but made the whole of life and cut off from connection with the deeper converse between the world and the soul, it is dreadful, The world does say to us, Enjoy; and it is good for us to hear her invitation. But for the world to say, and for us to hear, nothing better or deeper than Enjoy is to turn the relation between the world and man into something hardly better than which exists between the corn-field and the crows. Only when the deeper communion, rich and full and strong, is going on below, between the depths of life and the depths of man--only then is the surface communion healthy and natural and good. I have spoken of deep calling upon deep, which is great and noble; and of shallow calling upon shallow, which is unsatisfactory and weak. The words of David suggest to me also that there is such a thing as deep calling unto shallow--by which I mean, of course, the profound and sacred interests of life crying out and finding nothing but the slight and foolish and selfish parts of a man ready to reply. There are a host of men who will not leave great themes and tasks alone and be content to live trivially among trivial things. They are too enterprising, too alive for that. They have perception enough to hear the great questions and see the great tasks; but they have not earnestness and self-control enough to answer them with serious thought and strong endeavour; so they sing their answer to the thunder, which is not satisfied or answered. Now let us turn and, with another ear, listen to the shallow calling to the deep. When the mere superficial things of life, which are all legitimate enough in their true places and enlisting their own kind of interest, aspire to lay hold of mans serious anxiety and to enlist his earnest thought, then there is born a sense of disproportion just the opposite of that of which I have been speaking--a disproportion which seems to be rightly described as the shallow calling to the deep. If we are offended when eternity calls to men, and men chatter about it as if it were a trifle, so we also ought to be offended when some trifle speaks to them and they look solemn and burdened and anxious over it, and discuss it as if it were a thing of everlasting import. Have you never stood in the midst of the world of fashion and marvelled how it was possible that men and women should care, as those around you seem to care, about the little conventionalities which made the scenery and problems of its life? There is a noble economy of the deepest life. There is a watchful reserve which keeps guard over the powers of profound anxiety and devoted work, and refuses to give them away to any first applicant who comes and asks. Wealth rolls up to the door and says, Give me your great anxiety; and you look up and answer, No, not for you; here is a little half-indifferent desire which is all that you deserve. Popularity comes and says, Work with all your might for me; and you reply, No; you are not of consequence enough for that. Here is a small fragment of energy which you may have, if you want it; but that is all. Even knowledge comes and says, Give your whole soul to me; and you must answer once more, No; great, good, beautiful as you are, you are not worthy of a mans whole soul. But then at last comes One far more majestic than them all--God comes with His supreme demand for goodness and for character, and then you open the doors of your whole nature and bid your holiest and profoundest devotion to come trooping forth. Oh, at least do this. If you are not ready to give your deepest affections, your most utter loyalty to God and Christ, at least refuse to give them to any other master. None but God is worthy of the total offering of man! (Bishop Phillips Brooks.)
Deep calleth unto deep
In the grandeur of nature there are awful harmonies. When the storm agitates the ocean below, the heavens above hear the tumult and answer to the clamour. Among the Alps, in the day of tempest, the solemnly silent peaks break through their sacred quiet and speak to each other. The psalmists meaning, no doubt, was that the wild ocean of troubles without him when he wrote were answered to by the depth of trouble in his soul. Everything around was like an ocean tossed with tempest: his griefs came wave upon wave. And conscience, as with a lightning flash, lit up the abyss of his own inward evil, made him see the darkness of the sins into which he had fallen, and filled him with despondence and foreboding. But, now, note the truth, that where there is one deep it calls to another, and this everywhere. See this in connection with--
I. The eternal purposes of God and their fulfilment in fact. What a deep these purposes are: that they should have allowed the intrusion of sin; that there should be a Divine decree of election. But all these are answered to by fact. Sin does exist in the world and sorrow also. And all men are not saved. Why is this, when God is good and omnipotent? Are not both the facts and the decrees mysteries, equal mysteries? All that God has ordained has been done; and this not in virtue of His omnipotence, but consistently with mans free will. The deep of predestination answers to the deep of providence, and both glorify God.
II. Deep affliction. All are not tried alike. Some have little, others much of trial. You that have much, remember the depth of the Divine faithfulness. In proportion to your tribulations shall be your consolations. Shallow sorrows receive but shallow graces; but if you have deep afflictions, you shall obtain deeper proofs of the faithfulness of God. And great deeps of trial bring with them great deeps of promises. When the Lord sets His servants to do extraordinary work He always gives them extraordinary strength.
III. Human wretchedness paralleled by divine grace. Never for a moment attempt to make out the abyss of the fall to be less deep than it is--it is bottomless. The miseries of mankind cannot be exaggerated. But there is a deep which answers to the deep of human ruin, and it is the deep of Divine grace.
IV. The depth of divine love to the saints calls for a deep of consecration in their hearts. He loved you from the beginning. Think what you have thence received. The love of God which has been manifested in you is a very heaven of love. Deeps of the Saviours grief, ye call to deeps of spiritual repentance. The agonies of Christ call us to the slaughter of our sins. As for poor sinners, if God saved me, how I ought to lay out my life to try and save them.
V. A depth of divine forbearance answers to another deep, a deep of immeasurable and never-ending wrath in the world to come. The Divine forbearance is certainly very wonderful. Here is a reeking Sodom in the heart of a Christian city. It is a very great mystery that God permits the ungodly to go on as they do. What insults blasphemers perpetrate upon God. But if that forbearance be despised, then as surely as He has shown so great deep thereof, so will He show an equal deep of justice. The deeps of sin are already challenging the deeps of that justice. Turn ye, turn ye, why will ye die?
VI. The blessed deep of holy happiness for the saints in heaven--this calls for our deep joy and thankfulness now. (C. H. Spurgeon.)
De prefundis clamavi
I. The force of the image which is here employed. In Jonah we have almost the same words (chap. 11.). There is nothing that moves with such mighty, majestic sweep as the ocean. But the sea is pitiless. The waves succeed each other with a certain measured, harmonious mot, ion. It is the music of destruction. Unhasting, unresting, they surge on. The strongest things that man can build are tossed as waifs on their crests or flung as wrecks on the strand. Again, the ocean is profoundly melancholy and restless, yet it aims at and accomplishes nothing, thus adding to the aptness of this image of calamity of which David tells.
II. Let us try to estimate the experience which the image portrays.
1. There are two spheres of pain. The one comprehends the common experience of mankind. God loves not monotonies, and there is none so sad as a monotony, because a satiety, of joy. And hence God has ordained that every life should be chequered. The play of the sunlight and the shadows makes on the whole, for most, a tolerably happy experience of life. Indeed joy and sorrow are very relative terms. Make up your mind, says Mr. Carlyle, that you deserve to be hanged, and it will be a happiness only to be shot. Very small pleasures to some are intense joys to others.
2. We mean something quite different from this when we speak of calamity, the anguish through which a soul may be called to pass, and the despair in which it may be lost. Few pass far along the path of life without learning how sorrows differ from calamities; without having to breast a shock which threatens the whole framework of their fortunes. But there are those whose sadder lot it is, like young David, to know little else. Storm after storm, rising and raging with brief intervals of sunlight, till the strength is exhausted, and hope even is ready to expire. It is this wave upon wave which is so exhausting. One shock we can breast and master, and if it leave us drenched and shivering, no matter; the sunlight comes, and in the haven the sense of dangers faced and conquered makes the heart throb, and the eyes flash with a proud and joyful fire. You say--Never was man so tried! Well, be it so. You are here, the living, to pray and to praise; here with life, God, and an eternal future. Why should a living man complain, when he has God, and a future which transcends an archangels destiny, and out-soars the most daring dreams? David was not so faithless. Hardly had the moan crossed his lips, when it was drowned in a burst of glorious joy. Watchman, what of the night? The night is far spent, the day is at hand; the golden flush is already stealing up in the eastern sky. Cease thy moan, faint heart; tune thy lips to praise. See beyond the sullen tempest and the moaning sea a band of golden light in the far distance. A sure pilot steers thy storm-tossed vessel, and He will not leave the helm till He has landed thee on that blessed shore. (J. Baldwin Brown, B. A.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 Deep calls to deep at the noise of your…
Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls
The word "deep" refers to deep waters, which here are likely the streams rushing down Mount Hermon. The writer speaks of them as if they are people calling out to one another as they hear the sound of their own descent from the mountain. (See: Personification)
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all your waves ... have gone over me
The author speaks of his great misfortune and sadness as if they are deep waters that drown him with one wave after another. (See: Metaphor)
your waves and your billows
The word "billows" is another word for "waves." Together the two words emphasize the greatness of the waves. AT: "all of your great waves" (See: Doublet)
Yahweh will command his covenant faithfulness in the daytime
The writer speaks of Yahweh's covenant faithfulness as if it were a person whom he commands to be with him. The abstract noun "faithfulness" can be translated as an adjective. AT: "Yahweh will show me his covenant faithfulness in the daytime" or "Yahweh will show me in the daytime how faithful he is to his covenant" (See: Metaphor)
his song
Possible meanings are 1) "the song that he gives me" or "the song about him"
the God of my life
"the God who gives me life"
translationWords
Yahweh
command
covenant faithfulness
pray
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 42:7 The raging seas, waves, and surging tides conjure…
42:7 The raging seas, waves, and surging tides conjure images of God’s wrath (see 88:7).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.