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Jon_2:4 Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.
Ver. 4. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight] Thus those straits brought him to these disputes of despair, as they did likewise David, Psa_31:22, the Church in the Lamentations, Lam_4:22, and others, apt enough in affliction to have hard conceits of God and heavy conceits of themselves. While men look at things present, while they live by sense only, it must need be with them as with a house without pillars, tottering with every blast; or as a ship without anchor, tossed with every wave. They must therefore thrust Hagar out of doors, and set up Sarah; silence their reason, and exalt faith, as did Jonah here; "Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight." Here you may take him up for a dead man; here he inclineth somewhat to that of Cain, Gen_4:13-14, and surely they that go down to this pit of despair, as Hezekiah speaketh of the grave, Isa_38:17, cannot hope for God’s truth as long as there they stay.
Yet I will look again toward thine holy temple] Here he recollects and recovers himself; as the same soul may successively doubt and believe, not simultaneously; and faith, where it is right, will at length out wrestle diffidence, and make a man more than a conqueror, even a triumpher. When sense saith such a thing will not be, reason saith, It cannot be, faith gets above and saith, Yea, but it shall be; what talk you to me of impossibilities, I shall yet (as low as I am, and as forlorn) look again towards God’s holy temple of heaven; yea, that here on earth, where God is sincerely served, and whereto the promises are annexed. Faith is by one fitly compared to the cork upon the net; though the lead on the one sinks it down, yet the cork on the other keeps it up in the water. The faithful soon check themselves for their doubtings and despondency, as Jonah here; as David chides David, Psa_43:5; and as Paul saith of himself and his fellows, that they were staggering, but not wholly sticking, 2Co_4:8.