Deep Calls to Deep

Life can be disorienting sometimes. Events like the global pandemic or perhaps a more personal loss in your life can exacerbate our frustrations with life and we can be disenchanted with God, life and ourselves. We can feel disconnection and dissonance and we wonder whether things will ever turn around. These are difficult times and often we can wonder as people of faith whether we can be honest with ourselves and God. Is there place for brutal honesty, telling God things as it is and being raw with our anger, doubts, grief and sorrow? How do we re-orient ourselves back to God and faith when all we see and feel is turmoil?

Thankfully, our Bible gives us examples of being honest and real with God. God does not want to withdraw but to engage Him in therapeutic dialogue and conversation in these times with authenticity and candor. The Psalms is a beautiful book that help us say things to God that are otherwise “unsayable”. Deep calls to deep in the roar of all the turmoil and turbulence that we face. Nothing is hidden from God and so we can be real. He sees it all, our pain and joys, our secrets and the visible and He loves and accepts us through it all.
Psalm 42:7
⁷ Deep calls to deep in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers have swept over me.

The Psalms capture all the highs and lows and all the in between ranges of emotion and life experiences. Walter Brueggemann, an Old Testament scholar says that the psalms can be classified as orientation psalms, disorientation psalms and re-orientation psalms depending on the faith life situations we find ourselves in. I personally find these helpful to understand difficult situations, be real with God, re-orient myself towards God and come to a new place of faith and relationship based on being authentic and vulnerable before God. So let’s unpack this.

Orientation psalms are psalms that are in awe, wonder and worship towards God. All is well in the psalmist and our lives with absence of any tension and we are reflecting on the coherence and beauty of life and God’s hand in sustaining us and we cannot praise Him enough!
Psalm 8:1-4
¹ Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth!
You have set your glory  in the heavens.
² Through the praise of children and infants
    you have established a stronghold against your enemies,
    to silence the foe and the avenger.
³ When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,
the moon and the stars, which you have set in place,
⁴ what is mankind that you are mindful of them,
    human beings that you care for them?

Disorientation psalms speak to the situations when life does not make sense. Tragedy. Loss. Grief. Doubt. We know in the far reaches of our being that God is good and faithful but our experience is anything but. We plod on, somehow, step by step, more by walking in faith than by sight through the fog. We vent and we cry how long and for God to answer us.
Psalm 13:1-4
¹ How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever?
    How long will you hide your face from me?
² How long must I wrestle with my thoughts
    and day after day have sorrow in my heart?
    How long will my enemy triumph over me?
³ Look on me and answer, Lord my God.
    Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death,
⁴ and my enemy will say, “I have overcome him,”
    and my foes will rejoice when I fall.

Thankfully, re-orientation psalms show us that our lives don’t need to remain in the state of desperate discontent and dissonance. We can trust God to come through for us in new and unexpected ways, restoring and re-orienting us back to God and life. We find fresh grace from God, discover new truths about God and our ability to face life with the new realities we find ourselves in and we see God’s goodness and light shining through for us and providing clarity. This experience of re-orientation back towards God is found in many psalms and encourages us to move forward to a new level of faith and understanding of God and ourselves.
Psalm 73:21-26
²¹ When my heart was grieved  and my spirit embittered,
²² I was senseless and ignorant; I was a brute beast before you.
²³ Yet I am always with you; you hold me by my right hand.
²⁴ You guide me with your counsel, and afterward you will take me into glory.
²⁵ Whom have I in heaven but you? And earth has nothing I desire besides you.
²⁶ My flesh and my heart may fail,
    but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.

What life of faith stage are you in right now – completely oriented towards God or experiencing disorientation, dissonance and frustration? You can be real and authentic before God. No need to fake it. Vent, cry and render your heart before Him. He would rather you engage with Him in your struggle than not talk to Him at all. Deep calls to the deep. Say the “unsayable” using the psalms and pray the psalms. After all, He knows exactly what you are going through. As you engage, you will will find new grace for your life, new strength returning to your heart and feeling re-oriented with God, life and faith. May God be your portion forever!