How deep can a stream really be?
This morning in church we did a song by Kutless called “All Who are Thirsty”. The song is a beautiful, and does have an encouraging message, but it seem a bit off….
All who are thirsty… All who are weak… Come to the fountain… Dip your heart in the stream of life… Let the pain and the sorrow… be washed away… in the waves of His mercy… As deep cries out to deep
We have several water references here - The fountain becomes a stream that has waves (probably crashing because they are powerful enough to wash away), and then there’s the deep. We could wax poetic on this all day, but recognizing the message, do the lyrics really support it or are they just cleverly assembled cliches?
So two questions -
1) What does deep cries out to deep actually mean? I’ve heard it in an Amy Grant or Gary Chapman song several years ago, and I didn’t know what it meant then? Is that scripture or is that something that someone said one day, and then everyone ran with it, like Rufus.
2) How deep can a stream really be? and if it is deep, then how do two deeps call eachother? would it be considered long distance?
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To answer question number two (because it is too early to look at all the other stuff and think about that), how deep a stream is depends on the person. Something can be really deep to a person that’s 4ft something but to a 6 ft something person it wouldn’t be that deep at all. Also, if two deeps call eachother it wouldn’t be long distance in my opinion. Just replace the deeps with Woodstock or something and you would get, “If two people from Woodstock called to eachother” That wouldn’t be long distance.
~Beth
That’s very deep (pun intended)
So Deep calls to Deep is from Psalm 42:7. I have added a few of the translations below. The message pulls back vs. 6-8. I just put 7 here though. Clearly context is needed with this one. I don’t have time to drop context on this yet, and I took a quick internet glance to see what commentaries there were on this, but there was anything worth noting. I was surprised by The Message translation of deep to chaos.
(NASB) deep calls to deep at the sound of Your waterfalls; all Your waves and breakers have rolled over me.
(NIV) deep calls to deep in the sound of Your waterfalls; all Yours waves and breakers have swept over me.
(The Message) chaos calls to chaos to the tune of whitewater rapids; Your breaking surf, Your thundering breakers crash and crush me.
(New Living) I hear the tumult of the raging seas, as Your waves and surging tides sweep over me.
Psalm 42 starts out with ‘as the deer pants for the water, so my soul pants for Thee, O God.’
The psalmist knows what it ‘tastes’ like to be in God’s presence – ‘These things I remember, and I pour out my soul within me. For I used to go along with the throng and lead them in procession to the house of God with the voice of joy and thanksgiving…’ But now he’s not experiencing that tangible presence of God, and he painfully longs for it.
His soul is struggling between despair and hope. He’s not experiencing the fullness of his relationship with God, doesn’t feel like he ever will again, but there’s a fight to maintain hope and trust that God will restore Him.
I wish I knew the setting for this writing, because it seems like he’s sitting in a very beautiful place complete with waterfalls that he’s drawing comparisons from.
I think that he is recognizing God’s sovereignty and hand in the situation(s) that have crushed him and brought him to this place of despair (Thy waterfalls; Thy breakers; Thy waves)
His ultimate statement is – I will praise, even though…
It is the soul of the believer enamoured by life’s struggles, having every reason to abandon their faith, knowing the abandonment of their faith would be their end, choosing intentionally to trust in God and His promise to be faithful.
Ironically, at the end of all of this, possibly the only words in the song that should not be replaced are the ones that at the beginning brought the most confusion – “as deep cries out to deep”. Despite my life, despite me, I will sing ‘Come, Lord Jesus, Come’