Out of the Deep, I Call

Down at the very bottom of things,
where the water is dark and cold,
where no one can see you,
and you are too tired even to swim,
a singer once lifted up his voice.

That is where this song begins.

Out of the deep, I call to you.
Out of the deep, O Lord, hear me.
Lean your ear close,
the way you lean close
to a small voice in the dark.

The one who sang this
had done wrong things.
He knew it. He felt it.
And he was afraid.

Because if you kept a list, Lord,
if you wrote down every wrong,
every single one,
and held it up against us,
who could ever stand?
Not him.
Not me.
Not anyone.

Then the song turns,
like a boat swinging toward home.

With you there is forgiveness.
You do not keep the list.
You long to wipe it clean.
You are waiting to welcome us home.

And so he waits.

I wait for the Lord,
my whole self waits,
and in his word I hope.

A watchman waits like this:
in the longest, coldest dark,
high on the wall of the city,
he watches the edge of the sky.
He is tired. His eyes ache.
But he keeps looking east,
because he knows the morning is coming.

The sun has not climbed up yet.
He cannot see it.
But it is already on its way.

My soul waits for the Lord
more than the watchman waits for the morning.
More than the watchman waits for the morning.

He says it twice
because that is how badly he wants it.

Little one,
sometimes you will be down in the deep too,
afraid and alone in the dark.
You will call,
and it may feel like no one hears,
and morning may feel far away.

Do you remember the Keeper who never sleeps,
the one who watches all night from the last song?
He hears every small voice in the dark.
And the God who would not keep your list
kept a promise instead.
A promise to send the Morning himself.

Hope in the Lord.
For with the Lord there is love that never lets go,
and rescue all the way down,
deep enough to reach the deepest deep,
deep enough to reach you.

The singer did not know the Morning's name yet.
But he was right to keep looking east.

Because one morning, far away,
a stone would roll back,
and the Light himself would step out of the dark
to call your name
and lift you up out of the deep,
where there is no list
and no more night.

Keep looking east.