Perfect Love casts out all fear… 

“DEEP CALLS TO DEEP”

Psalm 42

If you’re anything like me, you’re getting ready to skim! Your physical eyes will quickly go searching with the hopes of landing on a word that is personal and relevant to your current situation.

I am aware that a lot of information is coming your way yet, I also know (from experience) that God’s Word, every word and every line IS eternal treasure.  We read it and often times, unknowingly it gets supernaturally deposited into our heart’s spiritual savings account. One day, you just may find yourself sitting by a stream, spiritually dehydrated and the Holy Spirit prompts you to take a withdrawal from this Psalm and this story.

So, may I encourage you to begin by taking a moment to take 3 deep breaths before you even begin reading—after all this is titled:  “Deep calls to Deep.”

Romans 10:17 says, “Now faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God.”

You will be blessed to read Psalm 42 aloud.

Psalm 42

¹ As the deer pants for streams of water,
    so my soul pants for you, my God.
² My soul thirsts for God, for the living God.
    When can I go and meet with God?
³ My tears have been my food
    day and night,
while people say to me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”
⁴ These things I remember
    as I pour out my soul:
how I used to go to the house of God
    under the protection of the Mighty One^[d]
with shouts of joy and praise
    among the festive throng.

⁵ Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

⁶ My soul is downcast within me;
    therefore I will remember you
from the land of the Jordan,
    the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar.
⁷ Deep calls to deep
    in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
    have swept over me.

⁸ By day the Lord directs his love,
    at night his song is with me—
    a prayer to the God of my life.

⁹ I say to God my Rock,
    “Why have you forgotten me?
Why must I go about mourning,
    oppressed by the enemy?”
¹⁰ My bones suffer mortal agony
    as my foes taunt me,
saying to me all day long,
    “Where is your God?”

¹¹ Why, my soul, are you downcast?
    Why so disturbed within me?
Put your hope in God,
    for I will yet praise him,
    my Savior and my God.

With Psalm 42 stored in your heart, let me just give you a window glimpse into my own heart.  Four years ago the LORD called me out of full-time women’s ministry.  I had served Him there for 20 years and I can honestly say that I loved my job!  There was no greater JOY than to be free, healthy and able to boldly declare the good news of Jesus Christ week after week.  I had a front row seat-  seeing the gospel transform hearts, marriages and families!  In 2016, I began being spiritually led by the LORD to pass the baton.  I remember skipping down the aisle of the church, believing with my whole heart, that the LORD and I were heading into even greener pastures.  Three weeks later, I was in the Dallas airport face down.  Suddenly, I didn’t know up from down.  My world was spinning on what can only be described as a merry-go-round from hell.  I was broken down, facedown and lying in my own vomit.

I recently heard that when someone needs rescuing  you don’t hand them a book on how they can save themselves.  You reach out your hand and pull them up and out.  That is what Jesus did for us.  The people of Israel had the Torah but it couldn’t save them.  Jesus put on flesh and bone and came down to seek and save the lost.  He extended His beautiful arms as far as the east is from the west in order to rescue us from sin and death.

That day in the airport my Mom arrived.  She picked me up out of that awful scene and carried me in her arms.  That was not the first or last time I would need rescuing.

These episodes continued increasing and shortly thereafter I was diagnosed with Menieres Disease – a disease that effects the inner ear resulting in hearing loss, imbalance and vertigo.

Please take a look at the picture at the top.    I took it last summer while on vacation with my family in Vail, Colorado.  One morning, I got up early to head down to this beautiful stream.  I had my coffee in one hand, my Bible and my journal in the other.  I was beyond desperate to climb into the presence of GOD.  I needed a Word from the LORD to sustain me for that day, so I sat down by this beautiful stream.  I was hopeful.  However, within a few minutes, the motion of the stream began to make me feel extremely imbalanced and sick.  My heart sank.  I was so battle weary.  I was tired of being tired.  Have you been there?  I closed my eyes, placed my face in my hands and I began to cry.  Out of the overflow of my weary heart, I said, “LORD.  As the deer pants for water, so my soul pants for you.”  Seconds went by and the next thing I heard being spoken back to me was treasure:  “Jill.  Deep calls to deep.”

I didn’t know the exchange the LORD and I were having was Psalm 42!  At some point (in my years spent in the Word) I had deposited this verse into my spiritual savings account—one the LORD knew I would need to make a withdrawal from on this very day.

When I opened my eyes, I could SEE with my “spiritual eyes” a revelation as crystal clear as the stream in front of me.

Look at the picture again–I believe you will be able to capture the spiritual revealed through the physical.

The RUSHING WATER:   represents His Love.    His love for YOU is ferocious!  It is powerful!  It is unstoppable!  It is covering you at all times!  It flows over you!   Jesus is ALL ABOUT LOVING YOU!   Jesus loves you when you are unlovely.  He loves you at your worst.  He loves you when you don’t pray and you don’t have quiet time.  He loves you when you skim.  He is ALL about loving you.  He never stops.  His love covers you!    His goodness and His mercy shall follow YOU all the days of your life!

The rocks:  They represent your problems.

Sickness.  Depression.  Addiction.  Failure.  Financial loss.  Heartache.  Shame.  A Wayward Child.  Death of a loved one.  Divorce.

Jesus could speak to your rocks/aka problems.  He could even remove them with a single word.  He didn’t putt them there.  The broken world /sin/other people’s sin put them there but Jesus can and will use the rocks.

Think about the rocks in the picture.  Over time, due to a process known as erosion, the water WILL overcome those rocks!  Over time, with the water rushing over them, they will one day be whittled down to sand.  Right now, His love, is eroding your problems, breaking them down—with His love!  Our role is to trust the One who is and will forever be the WATER, the ROCK and the Author of LOVE!  He’s not only got this!  He’s got you!

Mission for today:

• Learn to GAZE at His love and just try…in His presence–to glance at your problems. Feelings have to be acknowledged but it does not make them facts.  I have wrestled with fear, a lack of faith in the storm and I have cone through it realizing deep wounds call for a Deep Love! Whatever problems you face right now, Jesus love IS the anecdote.  His love is the cure.  His love for you is the fix—physicians can’t offer this.  Loved ones cannot offer this.  Just Jesus.
• See His Love, His grace, His mercy, His forgiveness, His power if flowing over you right now and align with and acknowledge that “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.”

Treasure for today:

Psalm 47:2 “Deep calls to deep.”

• Your “problems” have purpose!
• Your problems are (as much as you hate it) preparing you! We don’t want refining–it goes against every fiber of our being, however in hindsight we see that those problems are peeling us back—layer after layer—deeper—deeper.  He wants us deep.  Why?  Because no one is going to receive the perfect.  And the deep pain is taking you deeper in your knowing and understanding of the person Jesus Christ was/is/ will forever be.  Perfect Love casts out—way into the deep—and drowns out ALL fear.  Reach for Him, grope for Him even—and find that He is not so far away.

Prayer:

Father, I come before you now in the mighty name of Jesus.  I ask that whatever problem we face today, would pale in comparison to your glorious Son!  I pray we would get a glimpse in the physical of what you are doing  in the spiritual.  Increase our faith!  Continue to peel us back, layer after layer.  Deep love calls us to a deeper faith.  We trust you to use our problems as preparation that lead us out into deeper waters.  We know from your Word where the big catch lies—beneath the deepest waters.  We love you.  We need you.  In Jesus name.  Amen.