The Depths

Laura Digan September 15, 2026 5 1

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Psalm 42 (NIV-UK)

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
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 Saviour 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 Saviour and my God.

Sometimes faith does not sing.

Sometimes it weeps.

Psalm 42 takes us into that lonely place where God feels distant and tears have become our only food. 

There is no pretending here. No easy answer. Just a soul desperately thirsty for the God who once felt so near.

And perhaps that is what makes these words so beautiful.

The Bible does not ask us to hide the darkness. It enters it with us.

In this space sorrow and hope somehow share the same breath. 

“Why are you downcast, O my soul?” becomes both lament and prayer.

The writer remembers better days, yet refuses to believe that yesterday was the last time God will be near.

Deep calls to deep.

Perhaps our deepest sorrow can awaken our deepest longing.

And when we cannot find the strength to sing, our tears themselves become prayer — each one whispering:

I still thirst for you, God.

I still hope in you.

Prayer:

God, meet us in the deep, where our tears become our prayers.

When we cannot sing, hold our hope for us. 

Amen.