Deep calls to deep at the sound of your waterfalls; All Your breakers and Your waves have rolled over me. The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime; His song will be with me in the night, A prayer to the God of my life. (Psalm 42:7-8)

Introduction

I am reflecting on the tragedies that have fallen on countless families in the Hill Country of Texas, the many losses of life, numerous being children who were attending a Christian camp called Camp Mystic. In no way will I seek to stand in the shoes of those family members who have lost loved ones. I do believe that such experiences are inexplicable to the human mind. Rather than being distant during those hard-hitting moments, we have a heavenly Father who is never far from us. Our feelings, however, can get the best of us, and the questions of why can be never ending. However, this is not a time to question or stifle one’s emotions. Pronounce them and cast them before God because He cares for us. (1 Peter 5:6-7).

Psalm 42: Waiting on God

David’s psalm speaks to the experience of going through difficult times and his yearning for God’s nearness. Psalm 42 opens with the intense description of David’s longing for God: As a deer pants for the water brooks/So my soul pants for You, O God (v. 1). Another rendering of the word pants is longs for. Throughout the psalm, David describes his soul as being in despair and having become disturbed within me (vv. 5, 6, & 11). Like all human beings, he asks why this is the case. His response to his despair is to hope in God, for I shall again praise Him (vv. 5 & 11). But David’s reply to his despair is not perfunctory or wishful thinking. Another rendering of the word hope in God is wait on God. Although we see the resolve in this short psalm, David, like all of us had to place his faith and hope in God and wait out what God would do for him. The psalm provides no idea how long David had to wade the troubled waters that engulfed him. This is not easy, for faith is not about life being easy. 

Poetic Longings for God

The psalms are Hebraic poetry; therefore, they use metaphors and symbols. Deep calls to deep is possibly a metaphor for David’s deep despair calling on God’s deep understanding and lovingkindness. The breakers and waves are the troubles that have flooded David’s life. Yet he also states that these breakers and waves are Your breakers and Your waves. This is not a declaration that God is actively punishing David or arbitrarily flooding him with difficult times. It does mean, however, that God is sovereign. No matter what we experience, God is sovereign and near as we navigate troubled times in our lives. 

Then follows the statement: The Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime (v. 8). The word command can simply mean what it says, the Lord commands us in certain ways. Yet the Hebrew word used here, tsavah, can also mean that God establishes His lovingkindness in the daytime. God appoints His lovingkindness to be with the psalmist; He establishes His lovingkindness to be actively present with David. The thought is then completed by the statement: And His song will be with me in the night. Symbolically, the daytime speaks to things that we can readily see, while the night places us in the dark where we must cling to the promises of who God is. But there is not a time that God’s care ever forsakes us. God’s presence and lovingkindness will be with us in the day and through the night. 

Conclusion

As we remember our brothers and sisters in Christ in the Hill Country of Texas who are presently going through some devastating times, may we take solace that God has established His lovingkindness and presence to be with them as the flooding rains there are hard-hitting symbols of the reality that they are truly facing.

God’s presence and lovingkindness is and will continually be with them in the day and through the night.

John V. Jones, Jr., Ph.D./July 14th, 2025

CHRISTIAN THOUGHT