Psalm 107:23-24 (NIV) Some went out on the sea in ships; they were merchants on the mighty waters. They saw the works of the Lord, his wonderful deeds in the deep.

Psalm 107 begins by giving thanks to the Lord and then encouraging the redeemed of the Lord to tell their story (verses 1 ands 2). It then speaks about all the different situations that those redeemed people of the Lord experienced. Then it comes to the passage of scripture above and in order to be able to understand it completely, it is good to know something about the deep, mighty waters.

Being someone whose favorite pastime is fishing, I have been out in deep water many times. I have been out in the depths of the sea by day and by night. It is awe-inspiring but can also be terrifying when weather conditions are rough. I took my love and curiosity about the wonders of the deep and turned that into a pursuit of learning how to be a diver. I took a course and learned the ins and outs of diving culminating with a written test and an underwater test at fifty feet to see if I had all the safety procedures down pat. After that, I officially became a licensed diver. I then went on my first real dive. What a wondrous experience it was! There is a whole other world down in the depths of the sea that a lot of people never get to experience. In order to experience that world, you have to dive and go deep.

It is the same with our relationship with God. Many people, just like those that like to stay close to the shore when they go in the ocean, are content to stay in the shallows regarding their relationship with the Lord. They’ll go to church a few times a month, read a proverb or a psalm occasionally and pray when they need something or when something goes wrong. They do their “religious duty” so that they can feel that it is right between them and God. But the Lord is so much more than that and wants to take us so much deeper than many are willing to go. But when you get to the place of really needing more of God in your life and you take that leap and dare to go into the deep waters of a relationship with Him, it is then when you experience the wonders of the Almighty. Many times it happens through God’s intervention and prodding, like a parent who wants to teach their young child how to swim in the deep. The child will not go on their own, but the parent takes them deeper to teach them to survive in deep water.

Many times we will find ourselves in deep waters just through life’s happenings. You may have lost your source of income or perhaps you had to battle a serious disease or one of your loved ones was going through something very difficult or ominous. Those are the deep waters that life many times takes us through. But if you know God at all, that is the time when you deepen your prayer life and you remember and dive even more into His Word and you look to be around the people of God as never before and when you do that, your eyes are opened to the wonders that God does in the deep. Before I was a diver, I missed out on the wonders of the deep and even though there were some scary things down there (barracudas, sharks, octopuses, etc.), I am so glad that I have experienced the wonders of the deep. But that woefully pales in comparison to the wonders that I have experienced in the deep waters that the Lord has taken me through. His deeds in the deep waters of life are beyond what one can fully describe or express, but it is in those experiences that your love for God and your knowledge of Him deepens and thereby enrich your life. Don’t be afraid of the deep waters when it comes to your relationship with the Lord. It is there that you will experience His wonderful and awesome deeds.

Pastor Joey Vazquez