Many Jewish biblical commentators have considered, and struggled with the prayer we just read.  How could Jonah, having been swallowed by the great fish and having spent three days in its belly, offer up a prayer of thanksgiving?  Their responses vary greatly.

There were those who claimed that it actually wasn’t a prayer of thanksgiving but rather an appeal for help.  These commentators point to the fact that much of the prayer is said in the past tense - what God did for Jonah, and not what God does or will do for him.  They claim that this indicates that Jonah is call­ing upon God to deliver him now as God had delivered him in the past.

Then there are those commentators who disagree with this interpretation of those past tense phrases and say that this prayer is actually misplaced in the text.  According to them, this prayer is in the past tense because it was actually offered by Jonah after he reached land, and therefore had reason to express his gratitude.

Still others disagreed with them and claim that the past tense verbs of this prayer are to be understood as prophetic perfects; that Jonah, in offering this prayer while in the belly of the fish, was doing none other than pro­phesying his eventual deliverance.

But then there were those commentators who held a completely different view.  Unlike the others, these commentators saw no contradiction between Jonah’s situation and his prayer.  They felt no need to ratio­nalize a prayer of thanksgiving at that time in Jonah’s life.  On the contrary!  They felt a prayer of thanks­giving was not only appropriate but doubly appropriate, for Jonah had already experienced two deliver­ances.  After all, Jonah had been thrown into the sea but did not drown.  Then Jonah had been swallowed by the fish but was not consumed.  In spite of his situation - in spite of finding himself in the belly of this fish - still Jonah had much for which to be thankful.

There is a powerful message to be found in such commentary.  All too often we lose ourselves in the belly of the fish.  Our consciousness fills with all those things that have gone wrong in our lives; all those frus­trations that confront us in the course of our day; all those dreams that have somehow or other been side­lined and remain unfulfilled.  And as we stew over them all, we fail to count our blessings; we lose sight of all for which we, too, should be profoundly grateful.  “‘Only once did I complain of my condition’ said an old man - ‘that was when my feet were bare and I had no money to buy shoes.  But I met a person without feet and became contented.’”

Jonah understood that life is all the richer when we focus on our blessing and fill ourselves with the spirit of true gratitude, even when we find ourselves in dire straits.