“Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.”
My Notes
What Does Psalms 42:7 Mean?
This is one of the most visceral images of suffering in the Psalms. "Deep calleth unto deep" — the Hebrew tehom el tehom, abyss calling to abyss. The word tehom is the same used in Genesis 1:2 for the primordial deep before creation — the formless, chaotic waters. David feels like the pre-creation ocean is swallowing him. One depth summons another. The suffering has layers, and each layer calls the next one down.
"At the noise of thy waterspouts" — tsinnor, a waterfall or cataract — describes the overwhelming volume of what's crashing over him. And then the devastating possessive: "all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me." Thy waves. Thy billows. David attributes the drowning to God. These aren't random forces. They belong to the God David is crying out to. The one he's praying to is the one he's drowning under.
Jonah quotes this exact verse from inside the belly of the fish (Jonah 2:3), applying David's image to his own experience of being submerged by God's judgment. The verse has become the biblical language for any season where the suffering isn't just deep but deepening — where one wave hasn't finished before the next arrives, and the source of the drowning seems to be the God you're reaching for.
Reflection Questions
- 1.When have you experienced 'deep calling unto deep' — suffering that cascaded, each layer summoning the next?
- 2.How do you pray to a God you feel is the one drowning you? Is that honest faith or contradiction?
- 3.David says 'thy waves' — he attributes the suffering to God. Does that comfort or disturb you?
- 4.Where do you need to hear that the drowning has a limit — that even the abyss has boundaries God has set?
Devotional
Deep calls to deep. If you've ever been in a season where the suffering didn't just hit you once but kept coming — where grief triggered anxiety, which triggered insomnia, which triggered despair, which triggered isolation, each depth summoning the next — you know this verse from the inside. It's not a single wave. It's a cascade. One abyss calls another, and you can't find the surface.
The hardest part of this verse is the possessive: thy waves, thy billows. David doesn't say "the enemy's waves" or "random waves." He says God's waves. The person he's reaching for is the person he feels is drowning him. That's the rawest form of faith — the kind that says "You're doing this to me" and still addresses God directly. David doesn't turn away from God in the drowning. He turns toward Him. That's not contradiction. That's the only kind of prayer that survives the abyss.
If you're underwater right now — if the depths keep calling and the waves keep coming and you can't tell which direction is up — know two things. First, David survived this psalm. Verse 11 says "I shall yet praise him." The drowning is real, but it's not the final word. Second, the waves belong to God. That's terrifying, but it also means they're not random. They have an owner. And the owner of the waves is also the God who set the boundaries of the sea. Even the abyss has a limit that God has set, even if you can't see it from where you are.
Commentary
Trusted original commentary from respected historical Bible scholars and theologians.
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of the water spouts,.... By which are meant afflictions, comparable to the deep…
Deep calleth unto deep - The language used here would seem to imply that the psalmist was near some floods of water,…
Complaints and comforts here, as before, take their turn, like day and night in the course of nature.
I. He complains of…
at the noise of thy waterspouts Better, in the roar of thy cataracts. God is sending upon him one trouble after another.…
Cross References
Related passages throughout Scripture