Chapter 2 of the Book of Jonah is a psalm of thanksgiving to the Lord for His deliverance. Poetically, Jonah recounts his near-death experience when thrown into the sea by pagan sailors. He describes his descent into the abyss of mysterious and deadly waters. When he is just at the point of drowning, he cries out for help and is rescued at the last minute by God’s sovereign hand.

After pledging to return to the temple and offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving, Jonah's psalm ends with these simple but profound words: “Salvation is from the Lord.”

This is the lesson of the experience and the point of the psalm. Jonah was delivered from certain death and saved when he almost died. But the lesson is that it was the Lord alone who saved him. Jonah recognizes this and gives a simple praise: “Salvation is from the Lord.”

The Lord is the one who delivers His people when they are in distress. In this case, and often in the Old Testament, salvation means physical deliverance. God delivers His people from enemies, drought, disease, wild animals, and death and destruction.

In these cases, salvation in a theological sense is not in view. We think of salvation in the redemptive sense that God saves our souls. Indeed, He does. But the Israelites recognized that the Lord alone is the one who intervenes to save us from all manner of calamity. This, in turn, is a picture of eternal salvation. God’s deliverance of His people from the many ills of life was a reminder of the assurance of eternal salvation by redemption.

When applied to our own salvation, the words are every bit as true: Salvation is from the Lord.“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast” (Ephesians 2:8-9).

And, “But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:4-5).

He is the source of our salvation.

He is the goal of our salvation.

He is the subject of our salvation.

He is the reason for our salvation.

Salvation is by the Lord.

Salvation is for the Lord.

Salvation is about the Lord.

Salvation is through the Lord.

Do not forget, and do not neglect to thank Him, that from start to finish, from beginning to end, “Salvation is from the Lord.”