CRITICAL NOTES. Prayed] Really praised. His] not only to Jehovah as the sailors did. “He shows his faith by adoring Him as his God” [Burk], The structure of this hymn, composed like many Psalms, and filled with allusions to them, falls into three strophes (Jonah 2:4; Jonah 2:6; Jonah 2:8): each of which rises from distress to deliverance and hope [cf. Lange].
Jonah 2:2. Cried] More definite than Psalms 16:1; Psalms 120:1. Belly] Womb of Sheol, i.e. the peril of death; snares of death (Psalms 18:5); deliverance out of Sheol (Psalms 30:3).
Jonah 2:3. Deep] abyss (Psalms 42:7). Midst] Heart of the seas, in the fathomless depth, away from the shores. Floods] The stream or current of the sea which sweeps along, as Psalms 24:2. Waves] from Strâbăr, to break; thy breakers and thy billows roll. “Thy billows, because he felt in his conscience that the sea with its waves and billows was the serv. ant of God and of his wrath to punish sin” [Luther].
Jonah 2:4. Said] in my heart, i.e. I thought that I was banished from thy protection and care (Psalms 31:23). Look] Lit. look intently, an assurance that he will yet appear in the temple to praise God (Psalms 5:8).
PRAYER AND DISTRESS.—Jonah 2:1-4
Jonah now describes his mournful and dismal condition. Let us notice his sorrows, prayers, and hopes.
I. The great distress. “I cried by reason of my distress.”
1. Distress in the deep. Pharaoh’s army sank into the deep; and the sea is often as the grave. (a) Into the heart of the seas, far away from the shores, and down into the fathomless bottom. (b) Encircled by the floods. “The floods have compassed me” (cf. Psalms 46:3; Psalms 69:1-2; Psalms 88:6). (c) Swept by the billows. The broken surges and mountain-billows rolled over his head. Sin casts into darkness and dismal gulfs. The punishment of God is often intense, but love is seen in it all. “Thy waves.”
2. Distress in Sheol. “From the belly of hell.” His confinement was like the lower world, the region of ghosts. But no abyss of grief is beyond Divine help. God can keep alive and deliver from the pit. “O Lord, thou hast brought up my soul from the grave, thou hast kept me alive that I should not go down to the pit.”
3. Distress away from God’s presence. “I am driven out of thy sight.” This was the worst of all, yet only a just retribution for one who had fled from the presence of God. Jonah’s sin, and the Divine judgment upon it, pierced his soul, darkened his prospect, and led him to despair. Hope of deliverance for body or soul seemed no longer cherished. But man’s extremity is God’s opportunity. Bradford said the prison can be made the palace of the Great King. Seek to be near God, and feel distressed at distance which is (a) a penal consequence of sin; (b) a sad complaint with God’s people. “Why standest thou afar off, O Lord?”
II. The earnest prayer. Sorrows within, around, and above him, led him to cry out to God. The Church is indebted for its best men, and the world for its best sayings, to affliction. Many of God’s children have first prayed by reason of distress. Backsliders have been reclaimed, and prayers quickened into cries, by poignant grief.
1. Its intensity. “I cried.” Prosperity tends to negligence, formality, and deadness in prayer; distress makes it earnest and ardent (James 5:13). “Many, silent with their lips, have cried aloud with their heart,” says Augustine. “Many, noisy with their lips, could, with heart turned away, obtain nothing.”
2. Its directness. “Unto Jehovah, and Jehovah as his God” (Jonah 2:1). Away from himself, and up to the throne of the Eternal, were his confidence and desire fixed. He was yet the servant of God, linked to him by past discipline and future hope. The covenant of God stands firm, and brighter than stars does it shine in the depths of sorrow. “This God is our God.”
3. Its place. “The fish’s belly.” What an oratory! No place is amiss for prayer. The wilderness and the den, the prison, and “the belly of hell. The voice of a child is heard wherever he cries in distress. “Call upon me in the day of trouble,” &c.
3. Its language. Most of its expressions are found in the Psalms. It is well to be conversant with Scripture, which gives consolation and aids devotion in all circumstances. Our prayers would be more refreshing to others, and more acceptable to God, if offered in words of inspiration.
4. Its speed. “Thou heardest my voice.” God, who cast him down, lifted him up; inspired his heart, and answered his petition. God had called upon Jonah, and often calls to us, without response. But when we turn in penitence and prayer to him he listens. There is a voice in faith and prayer which God quickly hears, for “he delighteth in mercy.”
“Prayer ardent opens heaven” [Young].
REVIVED FEELING.—Jonah 2:4
By degrees Jonah gained strength to hope and pray. His despondency was only momentary. A ray of light pierced the darkness, and blessed his heart. “I will look again,” &c. Learn—
I. That a servant of God may be overcome with fear. Not only assaulted with temptation and despair, but overcome by them for a time. Men change in feeling, rejoice to-day, and doubt to-morrow. Light and darkness alternate in the spiritual as in the natural world. But resist temptation, seek to gather strength, and look again. “Cast not away, therefore, your confidence.”
II. That the weakest act of faith may be mighty in overcoming fear. Faith in God will sustain us in extremest sufferings, and find a way in greatest impediments. To remain in unbelief, rest under the waves, or trust in anything but the promise, is folly. Jonah looked not at probabilities, at things as they really were, but with fixed eye toward the holy temple. His faith pierced the darkness, and pictured the mercy-seat and the Divine presence. A true retrospect of God’s house will tinge the present with hope, and dissipate the clouds that darken our horizon. “All things are possible to him that believeth.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Jonah 2:2. The affliction.
1. Its acknowledged source. Neither himself nor the mariners were considered. All comes from God. “Thou hast cast me into the deep.” “Thy waves,” &c. “It was not you, but God, that sent me here.”
2. Its benevolent design. Design there was, and that design not malevolent. “God is love.” He does not afflict willingly, but for our future good and his glory.
“Now let us thank the Eternal Power, convinced
That heaven but tries our virtue by affliction:
That oft the cloud which wraps the present hour,
Serves but to brighten all our future days.”
Jonah 2:2-3. The right use of the Psalter. Even holy men of God, who were partakers of the Holy Ghost, have not refused to appeal to, and to cite formally, the books of Scripture, which existed already in their time. A strong argument for the authority of the Holy Scriptures [Lange].
Depths.
1. Sorrow.
2. Despair.
3. Desertion.
“One woe doth tread upon another’s heel,
So fast they follow” [Shakespeare].
“Thus woe succeeds woe, as wave a wave.” [Herrick.]
Look again.
1. A determination to remember God in future.
2. An expression of encouragement derived from displays of Divine providence and mercy. “God gave him no hope save that he preserved him alive. For he seemed to himself forsaken of God. Wonderful pattern of faith which gains strength even from God’s seeming desertion” [Pusey].
Again, past experience in God’s house.
1. When improved, (a) A source of comfort in distress, (b) A ground of hope for future blessings.
2. When abused, (a) Taken an evidence of present grace. (b) Made an excuse for further effort. If you have not force enough to contemplate God in heaven, try again by fresh exercises of faith and prayer; you may be refreshed with a more excellent view and better hope than Moses had on Nebo’s summit. The hasty conclusion. “Then I said, I am cast out.” I. Its cause.
1. Consciousness of guilt.
2. Calamity interpreted as visitations of God. II. Its folly. God reproves, and often severely, but never casts away his children. When we speak in haste we do not consider. Our minds are then disturbed, and we distrust God. (Cf. David, 1 Samuel 27:1; Psalms 21:2.) “Hasty words,” says one, “are but for a moment on the tongue, but they often lie for years on the conscience.” The mischief of hasty conclusions is great. “Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off. I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.”