Deep Calls to Deep
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Psalm 42:1-8
1. As a hart longs for flowing streams, so longs my soul for thee, O God. 2. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God. When shall I come and behold the face of God? 3. My tears have been my food day and night, while men say to me continually, "Where is your God?" 4. These things I remember, as I pour out my soul: how I went with the throng, and led them in procession to the house of God, with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving, a multitude keeping festival. 5. Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help 6. and my God. My soul is cast down within me, therefore I remember thee from the land of Jordan and of Hermon, from Mount Mizar. 7. Deep calls to deep at the thunder of thy cataracts; all thy waves and thy billows have gone over me. 8. By day the Lord commands his steadfast love; and at night his song is with me, a prayer to the God of my life.
My husband and I recently agreed that this past winter has certainly been one like Shakespeare referred to as his “Winter of My Discontent.” Don’t get me wrong . . . we are so tremendously blessed and aware of that fact with gratitude and thanksgiving! Our discontent has been one of our souls. What we have not realized – well, let me speak only for myself – what I had been aware of only peripherally, is that God was doing some major renovations in us.
I’m not going to share all the in’s and out’s, and belabor every detail of the journey of the past several months. Suffice it to say we have been “worked over” pretty thoroughly by the world, in just about any way you can think of. We have come through it though, even more determined to do more than survive. We intend to thrive!
Our challenges have involved health issues – our own and those of family and close friends, job challenges – loss, dissatisfaction, spiritual toxicity, and just about every other area of our lives you can think of. None of it has been terrible or horrific. It has just been challenging, energy-zapping, heart-wrenching, soul-searchingly tough. The one constant for us both though, has been our reliance upon God’s mercy and grace, and the divinely-inspired written word of Scripture.
I cannot count on two hands the number of times I’ve had a conversation similar to the one in verse 5. “Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you disquieted within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise him, my help and my God.” This has been a winter of calling out, “God – remember me? I really need you right now!” It has been a season of biding time and waiting for the spring. I have spent my time thirsting after God and His answers and His direction and holding on for dear life, hoping like crazy He really did hear my call.
Spring is now here and I am beginning to see the promise of God’s laboring within me throughout this past bleak winter. I am feeling hopeful and expectant. I am expecting God’s grace to continue to sustain and uplift me no matter what life sends my way. I am hopeful and expectant as I emerge from my spiritual hibernation and begin to bloom as God has imagined in his mind’s eye.
All the same issues abound for us and for everyone. Life doesn’t stand still; the earth doesn’t stop spinning in order for us to regain a foothold. But God does offer a shoulder upon which we can lean, though. He stretches out his hand for us to take hold of when were in the deep of isolation and loneliness. God waits for us on the journey, ready and able to lead the way, because He made the path in the first place.
My prayer today is that you awaken from the sleep of winter’s deep dreariness and dread trusting and believing that God was been through it all with you. And that you call out with glad shouts and songs of thanksgiving for the season of spring that is upon us.
Mary
