His vision of God’s mercy is still too narrow at this point

The literary structure is typical of a thanksgiving psalm: (1) petition for deliverance (2:2); (2) review of crisis (2:3–6); (3) review of deliverance (2:6, 7); and (4) praise for deliverance (2:8, 9).

“steadfast love” is hesed, which often describes God’s covenant faithfulness to His people. This verse warns that those who worship idols abandon God’s hesed toward them.

the final phrase could be translated, “Victory is Yahweh’s!” Jonah is acknowledging that his attempted flight has failed

Augustine of Hippo reflected on Ps. 130:1, celebrating Jonah’s time in the fish as a reassurance that no matter how deeply a person might fall into sin, God can always hear their repentance and deliver them

the idea that people cannot fall so low that they cannot stand back up is powerful.

the story tells of Jonah’s continual descent: He went down to Joppa (1:3), then down to the ship (RSV, “on board,” 1:3), then down into the hold (1:5). Now he goes down a final time, “to the land whose bars closed on me for ever” (2:6), a picture of the realm of the dead from which there is no escape, where the gates are secured with heavy iron bars like those which secure the gates of a city

The witness of this psalm is that in such a desperate situation the only thing to do is to pray

he receives a new mind, and prays from the bowels of the fish