Psalm 86
"But you, Lord, are a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in stedfast love"
This description of God goes back to Exodus 34:6, and becomes one of the most repeated refrains in Scripture. Repeated over twenty times in the Bible, we hear it here in Psalm 86. God is compassionate and gracious. Slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. Knowing this about the character of God, the poet of Psalm 86 cries out for help:
I call on you in the day of my distress, for you will answer me.
Exodus 34's description of God sits behind the mystery of Jonah. God sends Jonah to preach to the Assyrians. But Jonah runs. We're never told why. It's a mystery. But when God relents and spares the Assyrians, Jonah finally spits out the answer in a fit of rage:
But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster."
Jonah fled because he knew God would forgive his enemies. Because that is who God is and what God does. God is compassionate and gracious. Slow to anger and abounding steadfast love.
Even toward the people we hate.
Having come to accept and believe that universalism is correct and that God wants to, and will eventually save everybody, the compassion, grace, mercy and forgiveness of God towards Nineveh and the Assyrians stands out as a great example and encouragement for my theological outlook as to the character of God and what God is doing.
Jonah was not happy.
Can I venture another possible reason contributing to Jonah's displeasure of God's forgiveness, and could someone tell me if this is correct.
That is that Jonah was also thinking, and aware of prophecies predicting that the Assyrians would invade and take Israel captive sometime in the future.
I think that happened in about 721 BC.
Could Jonah have had that in mind as well, when he displayed his anger at God having forgiven Nineveh?
He (Jonah) had gone out and sat on the east side of the city of Nineveh, under a shelter he had made, to see what would become of the city (Jonah 4:5-6).
He probably hoped to see Nineveh destroyed.
As an aside, I am amazed at the stubbornness and hardness of Jonah where, even though he knew he was 'speaking' (communicating) with God, he responded to God's question whether he (Jonah) was justified to be angry about the plant (that withered), by saying, "It is right for me to be angry, even to death!" (Jonah 4:9).
I wonder if Jonah got the message from the comparison of feelings towards a plant vis-s-vis a city of people - as presented by God?
V11 is a powerful verse: Give me an undivided heart so I may praise your name. We need forgiveness, this is part of what it means to be human. We also need to be delivered from the common inner conflict that also seems to mark or mar us as humans. Lord, have mercy and hear our prayers.