Deep calleth unto deep - One wave of sorrow rolls on me, impelled by another. There is something dismal in the sound of the original; תהום אל תהום קורא tehom el tehom kore; something like "And hollow howlings hung in air." Thompson's Ellenore. Or like Horner's well known verse: -

Βη δ' ακεων παρα θινα πολυφοισβοιο θαλασσης.

"He went silently along the shore of the vastly-sounding sea."

Il. i., ver. 34.

The rolling up of the waves into a swell, and the break of the top of the swell, and its dash upon the shore, are surprisingly represented in the sound of the two last words.

The psalmist seems to represent himself as cast away at sea; and by wave impelling wave, is carried to a rock, around which the surges dash in all directions, forming hollow sounds in the creeks and caverns. At last, several waves breaking over him, tear him away from that rock to which he clung, and where he had a little before found a resting-place, and, apparently, an escape from danger. "All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me;" he is then whelmed in the deep, and God alone can save him.

Waterspouts - A large tube formed of clouds by means of the electric fluid, the base being uppermost, and the point of the tube let down perpendicularly from the clouds. This tube has a particular kind of circular motion at the point; and being hollow within, attracts vast quantities of water, which it pours down in torrents upon the earth. These spouts are frequent on the coast of Syria; and Dr. Shaw has often seen them at Mount Carmel. No doubt the psalmist had often seen them also, and the ravages made by them. I have seen vast gullies cut out of the sides of mountains by the fall of waterspouts, and have seen many of them in their fullest activity.

Deep calleth

Job 1:14-19 And there came a messenger to Job, and said, The oxen were plowing, and the donkeys feeding beside them...

Job 10:17 You renew your witnesses against me, and increase your indignation on me; changes and war are against me.

Jeremiah 4:20 Destruction on destruction is cried; for the whole land is spoiled: suddenly are my tents spoiled, and my curtains in a moment.

Ezekiel 7:26 Mischief shall come on mischief, and rumor shall be on rumor; then shall they seek a vision of the prophet...

water-spouts. A water-spout is a large tube formed of clouds by means of the electric fluid, the base being uppermost, and the point let down perpendicularly form the clouds. It has a particular kind of circular motion at the point; and, being hollow within, attracts vast quantities of water, which it frequently pours down in torrents upon the earth. These spouts are frequent on the coast of Syria; and no doubt the Psalmist had often seen them, and the ravages which they made.

all thy

Psalm 69:14,15 Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters...

Psalm 88:7,15-17 Your wrath lies hard on me, and you have afflicted me with all your waves. Selah...

Lamentations 3:53-55 They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone on me...

Jonah 2:3 For you had cast me into the deep, in the middle of the seas; and the floods compassed me about...

Be not Far from Me, O My Strength,
"Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of Thy waterspouts; all Thy waves and Thy billows are gone over me. Yet the Lord will command His lovingkindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life." -- Psalm 42:7,8. Be not far from me, O my strength, Whom all my times obey; Take from me anything Thou wilt; But go not Thou away, -- And let the storm that does Thy work Deal with me as it may. On Thy compassion I repose, In weakness and distress: …
Miss A. L. Waring—Hymns and Meditations

Dialogue ii. --The Unconfounded.
Eranistes and Orthodoxus. Eran.--I am come as I promised. 'Tis yours to adopt one of two alternatives, and either furnish a solution of my difficulties, or assent to what I and my friends lay down. Orth.--I accept your challenge, for I think it right and fair. But we must first recall to mind at what point we left off our discourse yesterday, and what was the conclusion of our argument. Eran.--I will remind you of the end. I remember our agreeing that the divine Word remained immutable, and took …
Theodoret—The Ecclesiastical History of Theodoret

The Exile.
David's first years at the court of Saul in Gibeah do not appear to have produced any psalms which still survive. "The sweetest songs are those Which tell of saddest thought." It was natural, then, that a period full of novelty and of prosperous activity, very unlike the quiet days at Bethlehem, should rather accumulate materials for future use than be fruitful in actual production. The old life shut to behind him for ever, like some enchanted door in a hill-side, and an unexplored land lay beckoning …
Alexander Maclaren—The Life of David