Psalms 42:7 · Bible study
Psalms 42:7 Commentary: Study, Deep Calls to Deep
Hebrew · 11 what the commentators say
Meaning in one sentence
What does 'deep calls to deep' mean? Explore the metaphor of overwhelming affliction and the psalmist's hope in God's waves.
Research Summary
- Meaning: The psalmist depicts overwhelming affliction as a cascade of waves sent by God, yet he anchors his hope in God's lovingkindness.
- Key words: 'Deep' (Hebrew tehom, mass of waters), 'water-spouts' (tsinnor, cataracts/torrents), 'waves' and 'billows', natural forces that picture emotional and spiritual distress.
- Main debate: Whether the setting is literal (near Jordan cataracts) or purely figurative. Most commentators accept a literal geographical backdrop, but all agree the primary meaning is metaphorical for affliction.
- Theological theme: God's sovereignty over suffering, the waves are 'thy' waves, balanced with His promise of steadfast love and the psalmist's call to hope.
- Best use: A pastoral text for those experiencing a chain of trials; allows honest lament while pointing to God's faithful love as the source of endurance.
Translation Comparison
BSB Berean Standard Bible 2020
Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls; all Your breakers and waves have rolled over me.
WEB World English Bible 2000
Deep calls to deep at the noise of your waterfalls. All your waves and your billows have swept over me.
KJV King James Version 1769
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
ASV American Standard Version 1901
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterfalls: All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
YLT Young's Literal Translation 1898
Deep unto deep is calling At the noise of Thy water-spouts, All Thy breakers and Thy billows passed over me.
Darby Darby Bible 1890
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy cataracts; all thy breakers and thy billows are gone over me.
Translations in other languages (9 available)
Un abismo llama á otro á la voz de tus canales: todas tus ondas y tus olas han pasado sobre mí.
Um abismo chama outro abismo, ao ruído de suas cascatas; todos as tuas ondas e vagas têm passado sobre mim.
Mon âme est abattue au-dedans de moi:
Deine Fluten rauschen daher, daß hier eine Tiefe und da eine Tiefe brausen; alle deine Wasserwogen und Wellen gehen über mich.
O mijn God! mijn ziel buigt zich neder in mij, daarom gedenk ik Uwer uit het land van de Jordaan, en Hermon, uit het klein gebergte.
Un abisso chiama un altro abisso al rumore delle tue cascate; tutte le tue onde ed i tuoi flutti mi son passati addosso.
Boże mój! dusza moja tęskni sobie we mnie; przetoż na cię wspominam w ziemi Jordańskiej i Hermońskiej, na górze Mizar.
你的瀑布 發聲，深淵 就與 深淵 響應；你的波浪 洪濤 漫過 我身。
Deep is sounding to deep at the noise of your waterfalls; all your waves have gone rolling over me.
Verse in Context
Scholars' Consensus
Commentators across traditions agree that the image of 'deep calling to deep' depicts a cascade of overwhelming affliction. Adam Clarke describes one wave of sorrow rolling on the psalmist, impelled by another, until he is nearly engulfed. Barnes notes that the word 'deep' (Hebrew tehom) means a mass of waters, and the phrase 'calls' suggests one wave responds to another, like successive blows. Gill and Jamieson-Fausset-Brown see the imagery as a metaphor for troubles pouring down one after another, comparable to Job's relentless losses (Job 1:14, 19). The 'water-spouts' or cataracts produce a roar that seems to summon each new wave. Yet, as the psalmist himself says in verse 5, he commands his soul to hope in God.
The central tension is that these waves are called 'your' waves, God's own. The suffering does not come from chance but from God's hand, which makes grief deeper but also opens the door to trust. Calvin emphasises that David's exile from the sanctuary was his worst torment, and this verse captures the inward conflict between feeling overwhelmed and clinging to God's steadfast love (v. 8). The consensus is that the metaphor is both physically vivid (the roar of Jordan cataracts) and spiritually potent: it names the experience of being swept under while still looking up.
How settled is the interpretation?
Interpretive difficulty: Low
What is clear: The psalmist is overwhelmed by a sequence of severe afflictions, which he attributes to God, yet he continues to express hope in God's steadfast love.
What Scholars Agree and Debate
| Topic | Agreed | Debated |
|---|---|---|
| Authorship and setting | The psalm reflects the experience of someone exiled or fleeing from the sanctuary, longing to worship in Jerusalem. | Some traditions (Calvin) strongly attribute it to David during Saul's persecution; others suggest a later Korahite composition, possibly during the exile. The superscript credits the 'sons of Korah', but Calvin argues David wrote it and they merely preserved it. |
| Literal vs metaphorical interpretation of the waters | All agree the waters represent severe affliction and emotional turmoil. | Some emphasize the literal geography, the roaring Jordan cataracts near Hermon (Barnes, Cambridge), while others (Clarke, with his dramatic 'wave impelling wave' picture) focus almost entirely on the metaphor of successive sorrows. |
| The meaning of 'water-spouts' | The term refers to some form of violent water discharge, cataracts, waterfalls, or waterspouts. | Clarke describes actual water-spouts (clouds) common on the Syrian coast, while Barnes and Cambridge think it means rushing torrents or cataracts in a river gorge. |
| The relationship of Psalm 42 and 43 | Many ancient manuscripts combine them; the refrain (42:5, 11; 43:5) is identical. | Some hold they were originally one psalm (Lange supports organic unity), while others see Psalm 43 as a later but fitting addition. |
Historical & Cultural Context
Psalm 42 is traditionally tied to David's flight from Saul, or possibly to the exilic period when a levitical singer longed for worship in Jerusalem. Verse 6 places the psalmist east of the Jordan, 'the land of Jordan, the heights of Hermon, from the hill Mizar.' This region is known for its dramatic water features. The Jordan River runs between the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea, often swelling with snowmelt from Mount Hermon (over 9,000 feet). The word 'water-spouts' (Hebrew tsinnor) appears only here and in 2 Samuel 5:8 (a gutter or conduit). Barnes and Cambridge Bible observe that it probably refers to cataracts or rushing torrents, the kind that roar through the gorges of the upper Jordan.
Travellers like Tristram describe the 'wild medley of cascades and dashing torrents' at Banias (the ancient Caesarea Philippi), where the river cuts through black basalt rock. The noise would be so loud that one cascade seems to call to another across the gorge. That geographical backdrop gives the metaphor its raw sensory power. The psalmist is not imagining a calm sea; he is standing near a raging mountain stream in flood, feeling as if the very currents of God's judgment are pulling him under.
This setting also explains the sequence: wave upon wave, as in a flash flood. The winter rainfall in Palestine is heavy, and the Jordan can become a treacherous torrent. The poet uses that natural danger to articulate his inner state, exiled, mocked, and desperate for the sanctuary where he once led worship (v. 4). The geography becomes theology: God's creation, in its most awful power, mirrors God's providence in sending sorrow. Yet the same waters that overwhelm also remind him of the God who commands lovingkindness in the daytime (v. 8).
Textual Notes
The supplied commentaries note no significant textual variants for this verse. The Hebrew text is stable across manuscripts. The poetic parallelism (wave calling to wave, deep to deep) is uniformly rendered in ancient versions. The only minor variation is the rendering of 'water-spouts' (Hebrew tsinnor), but this is more a matter of translation choice than textual uncertainty.
Reception History
Psalm 42:7 has been treasured across Christian traditions as a voice for those in deep distress. The metaphor of 'deep calling to deep' has been quoted in hymns of lament and in spiritual writings about the 'dark night of the soul'. In the medieval period, it was often read during Lent, connecting personal sorrow to Christ's suffering. Reformation commentators like Calvin and Luther used it to teach that God may hide His face, yet His covenant love remains. More recently, the verse appears in funeral liturgies and in pastoral prayers for those overwhelmed by grief. It gives biblical language for the experience of being engulfed by waves of trial while still trusting the One who commands the sea.
Preaching This Verse
Three-point outline
- The Cascade of Suffering. One affliction calls to another, like waves in a storm (v. 7a). The psalmist does not minimise pain; he names its cumulative weight.
- God's Hand in the Waves. The waters are 'thy' waves. Suffering does not mean God has abandoned, it may mean He is near in the flood (v. 7b). Compare Psalm 88:7: 'You have afflicted me with all your waves.'
- Hope Anchored in Lovingkindness. Verse 8 pivots: 'Yahweh will command his lovingkindness in the daytime.' The same God who sends the deep also sends mercy, and the soul can still praise.
Five-point outline
- The imagery of 'deep calling to deep' suggests a connected series of trials, not random, but ordered.
- The noise of God's water-spouts (cataracts) overwhelms the psalmist; he cannot hear his own thoughts.
- Yet he does not accuse God of cruelty; he calls the waves 'thy', a possessive of faith.
- Memory of past worship (v. 4) becomes the rock from which hope springs.
- The refrain (v. 5, 11) is a self-addressed command: 'Hope in God.' This is not denial; it is resolve.
Illustration hooks
- A waterfall in spate. You stand at the base of a cataract and feel the spray, the roar, the pull of the current. Each surge seems to call the next. That is what grief can feel like, one crisis triggers another.
- The way a flood rises. After heavy rain, a creek that was shallow becomes a raging river. You cannot cross where you once walked. Trials can suddenly lift the ground from under your feet.
- The riptide that pulls you under. Swimmers caught in a rip feel wave after wave dragging them seaward. The psalmist knows that feeling of being swept beyond his own strength.
Questions your congregation is asking
- Is it okay to feel completely overwhelmed by suffering, even to say God sent it?
- If God is behind the 'waves', does He also provide the rescue? How do I hold both truths?
- Why do sorrows often come in sequence, one after another, rather than one at a time?
Leading a Discussion
This verse uses the raw power of water to describe an overwhelming experience of grief and spiritual distress. The psalmist does not hide his pain, he names it aloud to God. At the same time, he voices hope. This small-group guide helps you explore how faith speaks honestly about suffering while clinging to God's love.
Discussion questions
- Read Psalm 42 aloud. What do you think the psalmist felt when he wrote 'deep calls to deep'? How does the sound of the words contribute to the meaning?
- The term 'deep' refers to a flood of water. What does it mean for one 'deep' to call to another? What does that suggest about how the psalmist experienced his troubles?
- Verse 7 says 'your waterfalls' and 'your waves'. Why is it important that the psalmist attributes the overwhelming waters to God? Does that comfort or disturb you?
- Compare this verse with Psalm 88:7, 'You have afflicted me with all your waves.' How does the Bible allow for such raw honesty with God about suffering?
- How does the psalmist move from feeling overwhelmed (v. 7) to declaring hope in God's lovingkindness (v. 8)? What changes?
- Have you ever felt like you were being swept under by successive hardships? How does this verse give words to that experience?
- What does it look like to 'hope in God' when the waves are still crashing over you? What small steps can your group take to encourage one another in such times?
Cross-References
Source: Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (TSK, public domain)
| Job 1:14 | that a messenger came to Job, and said, “The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them, |
| Job 1:19 | and behold, there came a great wind from the wilderness, and struck the four corners of the house, and it fell on the young men, and they are dead. I alone have escaped to tell you.” |
| Job 10:17 | You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation on me. Changes and warfare are with me. |
| Psalms 69:14 | Deliver me out of the mire, and don’t let me sink. Let me be delivered from those who hate me, and out of the deep waters. |
| Psalms 69:15 | Don’t let the flood waters overwhelm me, neither let the deep swallow me up. Don’t let the pit shut its mouth on me. |
| Psalms 88:7 | Your wrath lies heavily on me. You have afflicted me with all your waves. Selah. |
| Psalms 88:15 | I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up. While I suffer your terrors, I am distracted. |
| Psalms 88:17 | They came around me like water all day long. They completely engulfed me. |
Cross-reference data from OpenBible.info (CC BY 4.0). Commentaries are public domain.
For personal reflection
Read the devotional page — prayer, application, and "for families"
What the Commentators Say
9 public-domain commentaries, condensed into plain language.
Adam Clarke's Commentary Methodist/Wesleyan 1826
Clarke hears the original Hebrew as a vivid sound painting — wave after wave crashing against rocky shores with a hollow roar. He then treats the waterspouts literally, drawing on his own observations in Syria to suggest the psalmist wrote from firsthand experience of such terrifying natural storms.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible Protestant 1832
Barnes interprets "deep calling to deep" as the sound of one wave responding to another, grounded in natural phenomena like a swollen river or eastern water-spout. He argues the imagery comes from the psalmist's proximity to the Jordan's rapid floods, which serve as a vivid emblem for the waves of sorrow sweeping over his soul.
Calvin's Commentaries Reformed 1564
Calvin insists that David himself wrote this psalm, not the sons of Korah. He argues David was God’s chief prophet and composer; the Korahites were merely entrusted as keepers of the psalm, not its authors. Calvin also notes that David’s deepest sorrow in exile was being cut off from the sanctuary, not his personal suffering.
Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges Anglican 1880
The commentator roots the psalmist's imagery of overwhelming floods in the actual landscape of Palestine—the roar of cataracts and the Jordan in full flood. The "deep calling to deep" reflects how mountain streams and waterfalls would thunder across valleys, making the metaphor of crushing waves come directly from observable nature rather than the sea.
Geneva Bible Notes Reformed 1599
One deepe calleth another deepe by the noyse of thy water spoutes: all thy waues and thy floods are gone ouer me.
Gill's Exposition of the Bible Baptist 1748
Gill interprets the deep calling to deep as afflictions pouring down one after another, like Job's trials. He stresses that the psalmist calls them God's water spouts and billows because they are appointed, sent, and overruled by God for his people's good, not just random misfortune.
Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Commentary Protestant 1871
JFB interprets the natural imagery of roaring billows and rain floods as a direct symbol of overwhelming grief. The succession of crashing waves represents the heavy sorrows that pressed down on the psalmist from every side.
Matthew Henry's Commentary Reformed/Presbyterian 1710
Henry notes that David, unable to find relief by communing with his own troubled heart, turns directly to God in prayer instead. The distinctive point is the deliberate shift from self-reflection to divine address: when we cannot calm our inner storms ourselves, we bring them to the One who can.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes Methodist/Wesleyan 1754
Wesley pictures affliction as a relentless downpour: one wave of suffering calls down the next, just as violent rains come at the command of God's water spouts. The image stresses the sense of an unbroken, cascading chain of trials that seem to summon each other from heaven.