Jonah and a Whale of a Prayer
Then Jonah prayed to the LORD his God from the stomach of the fish, and he said, “I called out of my distress to the LORD, And He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice. For You had cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me. So I said, ‘I have been expelled from Your sight. Nevertheless I will look again toward Your holy temple.’ Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, Weeds were wrapped around my head. I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, But You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God. While I was fainting away, I remembered the LORD, And my prayer came to You, Into Your holy temple. Those who regard vain idols Forsake their faithfulness, But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the LORD.” Then the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land. —Jonah 2:1-10 (NASB 1995)
1. Distressing Remembrance of
and he said, “I called out of my distress to the LORD, And He answered me. I cried for help from the depth of Sheol; You heard my voice. —Jonah 2:2 (NASB 1995)
O LORD, You have brought up my soul from Sheol; You have kept me alive, that I would not go down to the pit. —Psalm 30:3 (NASB 1995)
For You had cast me into the deep, Into the heart of the seas, And the current engulfed me. All Your breakers and billows passed over me. —Jonah 2:3 (NASB 1995)
As for me, I said in my alarm, “I am cut off from before Your eyes”; Nevertheless You heard the voice of my supplications When I cried to You. —Psalm 31:22 (NASB 1995)
Water encompassed me to the point of death. The great deep engulfed me, Weeds were wrapped around my head. —Jonah 2:5 (NASB 1995)
I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, But You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God. —Jonah 2:6 (NASB 1995)
2. Declaring Reflection and
I descended to the roots of the mountains. The earth with its bars was around me forever, But You have brought up my life from the pit, O LORD my God. —Jonah 2:6 (NASB 1995)
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. —Romans 6:23 (NASB 1995)
The LORD’S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. —Lamentations 3:22-23 (NASB 1995)
But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved) —Ephesians 2:4-5 (NASB 1995)
For Your lovingkindness toward me is great, And You have delivered my soul from the depths of Sheol. —Psalm 86:13 (NASB 1995)
indeed, we had the sentence of death within ourselves so that we would not trust in ourselves, but in God who raises the dead; who delivered us from so great a peril of death, and will deliver us, He on whom we have set our hope. And He will yet deliver us —2 Corinthians 1:9-10 (NASB 1995)
“For My people have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, The fountain of living waters, To hew for themselves cisterns, Broken cisterns That can hold no water. —Jeremiah 2:13 (NASB 1995)
He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit —Titus 3:5 (NASB 1995)
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