SOUND WAVES IN DEEP WATER

 

SOUND WAVES IN DEEP WATER

Mary Ann Wray

 

 

“Deep calls to deep at the roar of your waterfalls; all your breakers and your waves have gone over me.
By day the Lord commands his steadfast love, and at night his song is with me…” Psalm 42: 7-8 ESV

There is an amazing device called an Echo Sounder or Underwater Depth Finder that uses sound waves to detect objects deep under the water’s surface and even measure the surrounding depth. They are must haves for fishermen, deep sea divers and underwater explorative missions. How they work is twofold: the main unit of the device along with a transducer work together by sending out sound waves as pulses and measure how long it takes for the sound echoes to return to the device. The main unit sends an electrical signal to the transducer. When the sound waves hit the ocean's floor or another object they reflect back to the transducer. The transducer then sends this information (reflected echoes) back to the main unit as an electrical signal. The end result is the main unit processes the signal and produces an image on a screen that literally shows the underwater world. It can also measure how long it took for the sound wave to travel and the hardness of the object its sound waves reflected. These little electronic "echo chambers" are almost miraculous in thought and design. They are only something contemporary underwater enthusiasts have been able to use and enjoy in our lifetime.

I thought of a passage of scripture this morning as I meditated on the goodness of our Father and how He speaks to us through His word and a myriad of other ways such as nature, metaphors, children, strangers etc. I meditated on how Holy Spirit comforts us in our deepest times of sorrow and how Jesus guides us as our Good Shepherd when our lives seem to have lost direction in our day-to-day dealings.  Our hearts are like deep waters calling out to God for help, healing and hope. As we cry out to him from the depths of our hearts, His response is made clear to us through the use of the still small inner voice of the Holy Spirit. He never contradicts the canon of scripture, but His words to us are personal, clear and edifying, and yes, sometimes corrective. Even when the Father corrects us it is for our good and never manifests in a hostile or condemning tone.

When we experience those times of refreshing in His presence it literally feels like a washing and cleansing in our souls. In looking a little deeper of the Hebrew meaning of the word waterfall or waterspout (KJV) another insight came into view. I by no means am a Hebrew scholar, but there are some very useful tools available to help us understand the meaning of words that Holy Spirit may want us to focus on. The tool I used was an online Hebrew concordance. Evidently, in Hebrew this word translates waterspout or waterfall as tsinnuwr.  It goes on to explain that figuratively speaking, these spouts, are similar to sluices of heaven opened. A sluice is a sliding gate or other device that can control the flow of water, especially one in a lock gate. It also means a rinsing or showering with water. 

What a beautiful picture of how Father God responds to the cries of our heart  with echoes of mercy, times of refreshing and cleansing us from our sins when we call out to Him with an honest heart.

“…that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word.” Ephesians 5: 21 ESV