Deep calls to deep
    at the thunder of your cataracts;
all your waves and your billows
    have gone over me.
 By day the Lord commands his steadfast love,
    and at night his song is with me,
    a prayer to the God of my life. – Psalm 42:7-8

Friday afternoon I drove over to North Carolina’s Outer Banks, arriving in time to make this (Saturday) morning’s meeting of the Presbytery of New Hope.

Kill Devil Hills is a bit of a tourist trap; but it’s beautiful out here, a thin strip of land in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, all sea, surf, sun, and sand. It just feels good to walk through the dunes, place two feet on the beach, and breathe deeply of the fresh air.

I stood there, looking out into the waters, across the widest stretch of the North Atlantic, due west to the mouth of the Mediterranean Sea; and I thought about the words of Psalm 42: “Deep calls to deep…” and, “By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me…“

His song is with me. I didn’t just breathe deeply, I drank deeply. The ocean calls, the Outer Banks are a kind of sanctuary. But it’s God who fills me; that’s the song that is with me.

God does not want us to remain shallow; God invites us to go deep. Deep is where the song resonates; deep is the place from where the song can call back.

First listening. Then opening. Eventually knowing; knowing this song is with me. Breathing – not shallow breaths, but being filled. Finally, singing.

– Derek