JONAH, THE PSALMIST!

Greetings to all in the matchless name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ!

We meditated about Jonah's reluctance to deliver God's message, but we see a drastic change in His speech and approach in the next chapter.

1) Pray Ceaselessly

St. John Chrysostom says: We should not be obsessed with a certain place, but we should think more of the Lord of the place. Jonah was in the whale’s belly and God heard his prayer. Pray, wherever you are, pray, do not demand a place to pray in, because your spirit is a temple.

2) Pray Believing

Isn't it strange that from the belly of the fish, Jonah is offering a Prayer of Thanksgiving and Praise! Jonah was in a terrific situation, but he sings a Psalm."In my distress, O Lord, I called to you, and you answered me."When God saved him from death by drowning, he isn't complaining about his discomfort in the belly of the fish but he is thankful to the God for delivering him from death. Thus in faith he sees a pledge of further deliverance.

3) O Lord, My God

When Jonah was asked about his identity he replied, "I am an Hebrew; and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven" but soon he feels a personal relationship with God as he prays,"I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God".

4) Salvation is of the Lord.

Jesus Christ who was persecuted gave Himself as a song of praise and a sacrifice of thanksgiving to the Father. If Jonah offered a sacrifice of praise inside the whale, it was but a symbol of Christ, the Lord.

5) The Living Jonah

"So the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah into dry land” 

St. John Chrysostom says that God taught Jonah several consecutive lessons about having pity on people. The whale had swallowed him, then threw him out without any harm, so should not he have compassion on his fellow humans even if they were Gentiles? 

May God Bless You!

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