Charles Spurgeon Commentary Jonah 2:1

"Then Jonah prayed unto Jehovah his God out of the fish`s belly." — Jonah 2:1 (ASV)

What a strange place for prayer! Surely that is the only prayer that ever went up to God out of a fish's belly. Jonah found himself alive; that was the surprising thing, that he was alive in the belly of a fish; and because he was alive, he began to pray. It is such a wonder that some people here continue to live that they ought to begin to pray. If you live with death so near, and in such great peril, and yet you do not pray, what is to become of you? This prayer of Jonah is very remarkable because it is not a prayer at all in the sense in which we usually apply the word to petition and supplication.

If you read the prayer through, you will see that it is almost all thanksgiving; and the best prayer in all the world is a prayer that is full of thankfulness. We praise the Lord for what he has done for us, and thus we do, in effect, ask him to perfect the work that he has begun. He has delivered us, so we bless his holy name, and by implication we beseech him still to deliver us.

Notice that it says here, Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God. He was a runaway; he had tried to escape from the presence of God; yet the Lord was still his God. God will not lose any of his people; even if, like Jonah, they are in the belly of a fish, Jehovah is still their God: Then Jonah prayed unto the Lord his God out of the fish's belly,—