Psalms 42:7 Meaning: When Trouble Follows Trouble
Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterfalls: All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
Deep unto deep is calling At the noise of Thy water-spouts, All Thy breakers and Thy billows passed over me.
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy cataracts; all thy breakers and thy billows are gone over me.
Meaning in one sentence
What does 'deep calls to deep' mean? This verse pictures overwhelming trouble like waves, and the psalmist's honest cry to God in the midst of it.
Context
The writer of Psalm 42 is far from the temple in Jerusalem, forced to live in exile near the headwaters of the Jordan. He remembers the festivals he used to lead, the crowds, the joyful noise of worship. Now he faces a different noise: taunts from his enemies who ask, "Where is your God?" Tears are his food. Into this ache comes verse 7, a picture of being swept under by one wave of trouble after another. But notice: he calls them "Your waves", God's waves. The same God who commands the deep is present in the deep.
Key Words
The word translated "deep" in English carries the sense of an abyss, a mass of water, a roaring flood. The commentators describe it as one wave calling to another, trouble that piles on trouble. The psalmist also uses "waterfalls" or "cataracts" to paint the noise of his afflictions: not a quiet stream but a roar that drowns out everything else. And "waves and billows" suggest the full force of an ocean or a river in flood. These are not distant metaphors. They are the felt experience of being overwhelmed. What makes this honest and hopeful is that the psalmist calls them "Your" waves. He does not pretend they are not there. He names them as coming from God's hand, which means the same God who sends them can also still them.
How Christians Read This Verse
Many Protestant commentators see this verse as describing a cascade of afflictions, each one summoning the next, like Job's messengers arriving one after another. Calvin and Matthew Henry read it as David's exile from the sanctuary, his soul sinking under the weight of separation from worship. The Reformed tradition emphasises that even these waves are under God's sovereign command. Catholic and Orthodox readers often find here a cry of spiritual desolation that can be offered to God as honest prayer. Across traditions, the verse is understood not as a complaint against God but as a cry to God, spoken by someone who still believes the deep belongs to the One who made it.
A common misunderstanding
Some read "deep calls to deep" as a mystical idea, that some part of your soul calls out to some part of God's nature. But in its original setting, the phrase pictures one trouble calling out to the next, a chain of overwhelming events. In fact, the psalmist uses flood language deliberately: he feels drowned by successive sorrows, not elevated by spiritual depth. He is honest about being swept under, which makes his turn toward hope in verse 8 all the more powerful.
Living This Out
This week you may face a moment when a second hard thing lands before you have recovered from the first. A difficult conversation comes on the heels of a sleepless night. Another bill arrives after an unexpected expense. In that moment, you can borrow the psalmist's words. Name the waves. Tell God exactly how you feel, overwhelmed, carried under. But call them His waves. Not because He caused every detail, but because nothing lies outside His reach. Then, like the psalmist, you can say to your own soul: Hope in God. I will praise Him again. The wave that sweeps over you is not the last word.
Main takeaway: Even when trouble piles on trouble like wave after wave, you can cry out to God and still choose to hope in Him.
For Families
For ages 5, 8
Sometimes sad things happen one after another, like big waves at the beach. The person who wrote this verse felt that way. But he still talked to God about it.
For ages 9, 12
When you feel like everything is going wrong at once, you might feel like the psalmist did. He felt like huge waves were crashing over him. But he didn't stop talking to God. He remembered that even the waves belong to God, and he told himself to hope in God. You can do the same when you feel overwhelmed.
Questions People Ask
What does 'deep calls to deep' mean in Psalm 42:7?
It is a vivid picture of one wave of trouble calling out to the next. The psalmist describes his suffering as a cascade of afflictions, each one following the other like crashing waves. The image comes from being near a river or waterfall, where the roar of the water sounds like one deep calling to another.
Who wrote Psalm 42?
The title attributes it to the sons of Korah, a guild of temple musicians. Some commentators, like Calvin, believed it was written by David because of the personal voice and the references to exile. In either case, it reflects the experience of someone cut off from the worship of God's house.
Is this verse about depression?
Many readers connect the psalmist's language to deep sadness or despair. He speaks of tears as his food (verse 3), a downcast soul (verse 5), and feeling overwhelmed (verse 7). The psalm is often used in Christian tradition as an honest model for bringing lament and grief to God while still holding onto hope.
What are 'water-spouts' in the older translations?
The King James Version uses 'water-spouts' for what newer translations call 'waterfalls' or 'cataracts.' It refers to rushing water pouring over rocks, like a mountain stream in flood. The noise is overwhelming, matching the psalmist's sense of being engulfed by trouble.
For pastors & researchers
Hebrew interlinear, 8 commentaries & word study