Tears, Thirst, Waterfalls & Waves

SCRIPTURE:  Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me. By day the Lord directs his love, at night his song is with me—a prayer to the God of my life. Psalm 42:7 NIV

QUOTE: The Christian gets his songs from God…. So, then, poor Christian, you need not go pumping up your poor heart to make it glad. Go to your Maker, and ask Him to give you a song in the night, for you are a poor dry well. – Charles Spurgeon, “Songs in the Night,” 1898

THOUGHT: We are poor, dry wells, even when we don’t want to think of ourselves in that manner.

In the opening of Psalm 42, we read that the writer pants for God as a deer pants for streams of water. We read of the thirst of the soul. We read of tears that have become the only food the writer can eat, a dreadful midnight meal when the soul is most vulnerable to fear. We read of how the soul is poured out (like water) in those times.

And then, in the midst of our cries, we get verse 7: Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls; all your waves and breakers have swept over me.

I’ve been on a writing retreat this week, and my cabin is stationed right under a little dam that creates a roaring waterfall. It’s actually quite noisy for a writer who desires silence and stillness – but its lessons are obvious. We leak and long; God roars and sings.

I’ve been in the ocean when a wave broke right on my head because I didn’t jump when I should have. It swept over and tumbled me like a seashell, leaving my head ringing from the hit. Again, the lesson shouts – this is why we fear our Maker. His deep is so deep, and he calls out to such depths we simply cannot comprehend. His ways are not our ways.

I find myself grateful that such a big God still reaches down to us at all; in the roaring of his waterfalls, we can still hear a still, small voice. In our thirst and tears, we are offered a sip from an ocean so big, it can never run dry. In our darkest night, he brings a song for us to sing.

PRAYER: Oh God, I thirst for you, I cry out for your justice, for the earth to be “filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea (Is. 11:9).” I also respect the roar of your waterfalls and the sweeping of your breakers, and ask that you would help me trust you more, even when I can’t navigate the deep. Sing me a song I can sing to others.