Desperate situations, even those God has instigated, provide opportunities for prayer and for witnessing God's deliverance.
1 Jonah prayed to the Lord his God from the belly of the fish:
2 I called to the Lord in my distress,
and he answered me.
I cried out for help from deep inside Sheol;
you heard my voice.Jonah 2:1-2 CSB
Salvation from Sheol
However desperate a person's situation, God listens to the prayers of His people and brings deliverance. God wants us to pray in desperate situations (James 5:13).
Jonah's cry to God resulted in his deliverance and the chance to live out God's purpose for his life.
Much of his prayer mirrors those found in the book of Psalms, suggesting that Jonah knew many psalms by heart and he voiced his prayer in the words of familiar Scriptures.
3 When you threw me into the depths,
into the heart of the seas,
the current overcame me.
All your breakers and your billows swept over me.
4 And I said, "I have been banished
from your sight,
yet I will look once more
toward your holy temple."
5 The water engulfed me up to the neck;
the watery depths overcame me;
seaweed was wrapped around my head.
6 I sank to the foundations of the mountains,
the earth's gates shut behind me forever!
Then you raised my life from the Pit, Lord my God!
7 As my life was fading away,
I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came to you,
to your holy temple.Jonah 2:3-7 CSB
Prayer Overpowers the Pit
Jonah recognized God's hand in his being thrown into the sea, and he also saw the waves that swept over him as belonging to God, tools in His hand.
God, in His abundant mercy, was not through with Jonah.
8 Those who cherish worthless idols
abandon their faithful love,
9 but as for me, I will sacrifice to you
with a voice of thanksgiving.
I will fulfill what I have vowed.
Salvation belongs to the Lord.
10 Then the Lord commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah onto dry land.Jonah 2:8-10 CSB
Salvation and Sacrifice
Reflecting on the grace of God motivated Jonah to commit himself anew to serving God.
"Salvation belongs to the Lord" (v. 9) was not just a statement of theological belief for Jonah; it was a confession based on personal experience. In a sense, the whole book of Jonah is about salvation.