Deep calls to deep...

We sang the song "All Who Are Thirsty" last night in service. Tuesday night after we had practiced our set list I began to think and pray about the service, coming to the convicting realization that I really don't even know what the phrase "as deep cries out to deep" means. It's an old familiar song and until that moment I had not thought about what it meant. Do you know what it means? How can I believe that my worship is from my heart when I don't even know the meaning of the words that I'm singing to God. We're all guilty of this. So I began to ask God to reveal it to me. The phrase comes from Psalm 42 where (the author is not known...so fill in the blank) is crying out to God in a place of spiritual thirst and great suffering. I began to study verse 7, "As deep calls to deep". I came to this realization: God is a God of depth. Paul talks in Romans about suffering, how it is actually a good thing and that it is absolutely necessary for Christians to suffer. But why? Paul explains that it produces perseverance, character and hope. Have you ever met a shallow person? In times of heartache that we go through in this life, when we are cut deep from the pain in this world, is it a shallow person you want to comfort you? They may put their arm around you and say "I know what you're going through", but their words are just words.
Now, have you ever met a deep person? Someone who has literally been bruised and beaten by the circumstances that they have been through in their life. When you go through storms, these people are the ones who connect and comfort you better than anyone else. This is why God needs us to go through trials. God is a God of depth. Everything He is and everything He did had depth in it. His love, His suffering, His mercy. It's all so rich and deep and wonderful. You see sometimes God puts us in a place where we are cut deep, where our deep can cry out to His deep. He does this because He wants us to know Him on a deeper level. He wants to reveal to us the depth in Him. That is why Paul teaches us to rejoice in our sufferings. So as I began to understand this more I was so stirred by the thought. Here's something God spoke to me, I hope it reveals to you on a deeper level what this actually means...

Since the fall we've been in repair
All we knew was joy and now it's despair
Fellowship with God was destroyed
Now we must seek for Your presence to enjoy
Only because of the plan He made
His son willingly came and obeyed
So separation from God would fade...

He left us with a simple choice
Now we can hear His voice
But it's not the end yet
We still deal with sin and fret
Our thirsty souls often become dry
We look up to the sky and ask why
Why must we go through storms
When it was You we loved and adored
But God says "come"
All the bad happening to me
And the good happening to the thief
It makes no sense you see
But God says "come"
I sit on my high horse
And stop running the course
But God says "come"
Tears have been my food
And every battle I lose
But God says "come"
I close my eyes and remember His name
He suffered the worst torment and pain
He came and gave with nothing to gain
The people He came to save punched holes in His soul
Because we were powerless He paid the toll
Just so we may know the depth of His love
And that it alone is enough
I open my eyes and now I know
As deep cries to deep
My deep cries to His deep
His love showers me and I weep
How could He be so good to me?
He says to me...
"Come and learn the deep that's in me
Reach to me
Look to me
Find life in me
The holes of your soul can hold more of me
So let your deep call to My deep
So you may know Me
Your soul will no longer be thirsty
I see trials and I smile
Because you just don't understand my child
That this is all part of the plan
So lift up your eyes and stand
Call to me
Say to me come
I await your praises so fill your lungs
And I will come..."



"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. Why are you downcast, O my soul? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God." Psalm 42:7-11