Jonah and the Fish
The description of these verses in some translations as ‘A Psalm of Thanksgiving’ is a recent misnomer and best ignored. On the surface it might appear that Jonah’s experience in the belly of the fish concentrated his mind and a brief act of repentance would enable God to give him a second chance, but the future tense (v 9) suggests this is much more like a plea for deliverance if not a bit of unadulterated bargaining. The experience has done nothing to allay this man’s turmoil, anger and arrogance.
This is hardly surprising. Sure that we are right, and driven into a tight corner, our prejudices are usually fortified, our worst fears realised and our arrogance intensified. This seems to have happened to Jonah. Arrogance oozes out all over.
Trevor Dennis spells out the man’s self-centredness. Count the number of times he uses ‘I’ and ‘me’. Forgetting that he actually asked to be dumped into the sea he now vents his anger on God and holds him responsible (v 3). Sometimes he seems to be whistling in the dark (v 6) but as arrogance breeds self-confidence, platitudes flow like water. Jonah knows he is right, knows he will be vindicated, and the psalm ends as he unfolds his plans for the future. The final line is almost, ‘Deliver me . . . or else’. Dennis says the psalm made God sick. No wonder the fish did what he did.
But to what extent is this psalm a fair reflection of what many of us would feel (indeed have felt) in similar circumstances? Jonah is the epitome of those people in every age, race, tribe and religion for whom everything is black and white and who find no difficulty dividing the world into two: those who see it their way, know their God, and those who don’t.
How different is the reaction of the sailors, and possibly nearer to some of Jonah’s contemporaries even within Judaism. The sailors have no doubt who they believe in and pray to (1:5) but seem able to accommodate different gods (or expressions of God) for different peoples. They understand that Yahweh is the God of Israel. In company with Jonah they can even pray to him (1:14).