5. Jonah’s Prayer for Salvation
We all face distress. Jonah found himself in the belly of the leviathan, and from this place of utter despair and hopelessness, he cried for salvation. How often do we find ourselves already in the belly of the beast? Yet, even from this place we can cry out to the Lord and still He saves us! 3 Out of my distress I cried to Yahweh and he answered me, from the belly of Sheol I cried out; you heard my voice!
4 For you threw me into the deep, into the heart of the seas, and the floods closed round me. All your waves and billows passed over me;
5 then I thought, ‘I am banished from your sight; how shall I ever see your holy Temple again?’
6 The waters round me rose to my neck, the deep was closing round me, seaweed twining round my head.
7 To the roots of the mountains, I sank into the underworld, and its bars closed round me for ever. But you raised my life from the Pit, Yahweh my God!
8 When my soul was growing ever weaker, Yahweh, I remembered you, and my prayer reached you in your holy Temple.
9 Some abandon their faithful love by worshipping false gods,
10 but I shall sacrifice to you with songs of praise. The vow I have made I shall fulfil! Salvation comes from Yahweh!
(Jonah 2:3-9)
