Question: Where is salvation found?

Text: When my life was fainting away,
    I remembered the Lord,
and my prayer came to you,
    into your holy temple.
⁸ Those who pay regard to vain idols
    forsake their hope of steadfast love.
⁹ But I with the voice of thanksgiving
    will sacrifice to you;
what I have vowed I will pay.
    Salvation belongs to the LORD!” (Jonah 2:7-9)

Context, Context, Context: Once again, here was Jonah, this stubborn, recalcitrant, self-centered prophet. And he was praying from inside the “belly of the fish” (Jonah 2:1). And God, through sheer sovereign grace, yet again spared Jonah, saved him, and delivered him onto dry land: “And the Lord spoke to the fish, and it vomited Jonah out upon the dry land” (Jonah 2:10).

Encouragement: Does the Bible anywhere teach here that Jonah was saved by Jonah? Hardly. Jonah was the problem! Does the Bible anywhere teach here that Jonah merited favor with God? Again, no. Does the Bible anywhere teach here that salvation came by human works, human effort, human goodness, or human credentials? Again, no. Salvation belongs, according to the text, “to the LORD!” (Jonah 2:9b).