Jonah’s Psalm of Thanksgiving

The story of Jonah is strange and filled with surprises. He is the only prophet who runs in the opposite direction, the true wise men of the story are Gentile sailors, there is a rescue-ish fish, and, at the end, Jonah is one cranky prophet—to name a few. Then there is his prayer, spoken from the fish’s belly, which closely follows the tradition of the psalms of thanksgiving. It ends, “But I with the voice of thanksgiving will sacrifice to you. Salvation belongs to the Lord” (2:9). And it is in