Psalm 42:7

Psalm 42:7

The roar of Your waterfalls

The writer here sounds like he has been to Niagara! Waterfalls are not common in Israel but there are places where the melting snow pours down off Mount Hermon in spring, and there is a beautiful waterfall at Ein Gedi in the south. Heavy rains, even in Judea and the southern wilderness, can produce flash floods, so the language here is not at all fanciful. However, the expression “deep calls to deep” alludes to a much grander scenario, maybe to Genesis 1:2 where “darkness was over the surface of the deep” and “the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” Thus, the waters of the clouds above and the waters of the oceans and seas below echo the majestic voice of Almighty God amid their mysterious thundering torrents and currents. These phenomena were not understood by the Psalmist and even today we cannot explain fully how this beautiful planet operates so perfectly. If we could, we would not be ruining it! 

Somewhere in this picture our songwriter finds himself swept away under the power and force of his circumstances and his suffering; it feels as if great oceanic breakers have crashed over him and left him helpless and lost. My heart goes out to this man and I wonder if these words are yet another insight into the suffering of the Lord Jesus who must have felt deluged and cut off by the mighty tide of suffering that battered Him on Golgotha’s hill. What a comfort to remember His words to us that when the waves rise up against us and the breakers seem to sweep us up in their relentless roaring, “I will never leave you nor forsake you!”

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