{Bible Journal, Jan. 28, 2026}

Lord, The Deep of Genesis 1:2 keeps calling me. I wish to understand all I can of Your creation in verse 2. Then there is the psalmist’ prayers to You mentioning, Deep Calls Unto Deep. Is that one and the same?

In Psalm 42, he prays, As the deer pants for the water brooks, So pants my soul for You, O God. My soul thirsts for God, for the living God…O my God, my soul is cast down within me, Therefore, I will remember You…Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls, All Your waves and billows have gone over me. Why are you cast down, O my soul? And why are You disquieted within me? Hope in God; For I shall yet praise Him, The help of my countenance and my God (Psalm 42:1-2a, 6a, 7, 11).

In crying out to You in heartbreak, the psalmist is seeking You, searching for You, and finding hope in You.

In his anxiety, what exactly does the psalmist mean by, “Deep calls unto deep…?” What is the comparison, metaphorically? Poetically, he seems to be comparing the deep to his feelings of helplessness. For us, the deep (the deepest depths of the waters) is frightening as we cannot survive in the depths of the sea. But for You, Lord, it is not.

The Deep remains a mystery in so many ways and my studies are certainly flawed. Someday all will be revealed. But what insight have You already revealed in Your Word concerning The Deep?

Lord, whether this has any correlation, I do not know, but the psalmist’s descriptive words of, “Deep calls unto deep at the noise of Your waterfalls” (Psalm 42:7), gives me pause to consider whether this is a metaphor to the actual deep of Genesis 1:2?

DEEP TO DEEP | SEPARATION OF WATERS

Darkness was on the face of the deep (tehôm). And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters (Gen. 1:2a).

With tehôm meaning an abyss, a surging mass of water, the Spirit of God seems to be hovering over this watery abyss, The Deep.

Then God said, Let there be a firmament (râqîya) in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven (šâmayim). So the evening and the morning were the second day (Gen. 1:6-8).

Here, Genesis describes a division of waters from waters, with waters above the firmament and waters below the firmament. Does this have any connection with the metaphor when deep calls unto deep? Do these separated waters represent two deeps?

The firmament separating the waters; or Râqîya for firmament, refers to an expanse, the sky. You named this expanse, Heaven (šâmayim), understood to allude to the visible arch in which the clouds move, as well as to the higher ether where the celestial bodies revolve. This makes sense, since “The heavens (šâmayim) declare the glory of God and the firmament (râqîya) shows His handiwork” (Psalm 19:1).

I am intrigued by the point of view of the Institute of Creation Research, that,

God separated the primeval deep into two deeps with great space between. The waters below the deep retained the elemental earth materials to be utilized to create land. The waters above apparently transformed into a vapor state in order to be separated from the heaven materials and elevated above the atmosphere, like a vapor canopy, invisible allowing the stars to be seen through it (ICR.org).

In this way, the deep, that is easier to understand, would be the water below the firmament (sky) that remained in liquid form with the earth materials suspended within, from which came the land and seas (one deep). “Then God said, ‘Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering together of the waters, He called Seas. And God saw that it was good (Genesis 9-10).

Then the deep, that is more difficult to understand, would be the waters above the firmament (sky) that may have been transformed into a different state of water or vapor, from which may have come the great vast outer space and galaxies (second deep).

It is awe inspiring to contemplate. As the psalmist says, “How awesome are Your works, Through the greatness of Your power…” (Psalm 66:3). And David’s psalm, “When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the son of man that you care for him?” (Psalm 8:3-4).

How I would love to know so much more, but You have revealed what You have revealed. As we learn from Daniel, it is You who reveals the deep and hidden things (Daniel 2:22).

One thing I know, Lord Jesus, You were there. The Apostle John described that, You were “in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him [You], and without Him [You] nothing was made that was made” (John 1:1-18). You did many things, “which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:25).

The Deep seems to be one of those things for which we have limited knowledge. Thank you though for this time of meditating on how wonderful Your Creation is as well as the all mysterious Deep.

I am mindful of how You chose to create this world in Your sovereignty, in a step-by-step process, a true example of the creativity that You also designed within us. Lord, help me to tap into that creative potential where producing brings so much more satisfaction than consuming.

The more I contemplate Your greatness, the more I am so thankful that You are mindful of us.