Bible Strands
Psalms 42:7
Deep calls to deep in the roar of Your waterfalls; all Your breakers and waves have rolled over me.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The psalmist addresses God while in acute distress, immediately after recalling his former worship from the Jordan valley and the peaks of Hermon. He speaks as one feeling completely overwhelmed by external forces.
The words — The Hebrew תְּהוֹם (tehom) means "deep" or "abyss," and its repetition in "deep calls to deep" establishes a layered image of crushing depth. The word מִשְׁבָּרֶיךָ (mishbarekha) translates literally to "your breakers," referring to the violent waves that have rolled over him.
The thread — This same water imagery appears in Jonah 2:3 where the prophet describes being cast into the heart of the seas, and in Psalms 69:14 and 88:7 where the writers plead to be rescued from submerged waves.
Why it lands — The text requires the reader to recognize that God's authority extends over chaotic forces, not merely over calm circumstances. It demands that prayer continue even when the experience of divine presence feels like being submerged.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
Cross-references
- Jonah 2:3 For You cast me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the current swirled about me; all Your breakers and waves swept over me.
- Psalms 69:14 Rescue me from the mire and do not let me sink; deliver me from my foes and out of the deep waters.
- Psalms 88:7 Your wrath weighs heavily upon me; all Your waves have submerged me. Selah
- Lamentations 3:53 They dropped me alive into a pit and cast stones upon me.
- Job 1:14 a messenger came and reported to Job: “While the oxen were plowing and the donkeys were grazing nearby,
- Psalms 88:15 From my youth I was afflicted and near death. I have borne Your terrors; I am in despair.
- Jeremiah 4:20 Disaster after disaster is proclaimed, for the whole land is laid waste. My tents are destroyed in an instant, my curtains in a moment.
- Ezekiel 7:26 Disaster upon disaster will come, and rumor after rumor. Then they will seek a vision from a prophet, but instruction from the priests will perish, as will counsel from the elders.
- Job 10:17 You produce new witnesses against me and multiply Your anger toward me. Hardships assault me in wave after wave.