In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the LORD thy Redeemer.
Ver. 8. In a little wrath.] God can let forth his wrath in minnums, in little bubbles, as the word here rendered "wrath" properly signifieth. This wrath to the saints is but love displeased, and soon pacified again.
I hid my face from thee.] God sometimes concealeth his love out of increasement of love; he departeth from us, but then turneth again and looketh through the chinkers, as that martyr phraseth it, to see how we take it. Fathers leave their children, saith one, the other side the stile, and help them over when they cry; they seem to leave them sometimes in a throng, and then reach them the hand again upon their complaint. So is it here. To say God hath cast me off because he hath hid his face, is a fallacy fetched out of the devil's topics. When the sun is eclipsed, foolish people may think it will never recover light; but wise men know it will. As, during the eclipse, though the earth wanteth the light of the sun for a time, yet not the influence thereof; for the metals that are engendered in the heart of the earth are concocted by the sun at the same time; so doth God's favour visit men's hearts in the power, heat, and vigorous influence of his grace, when the light and comfort of it is intercluded. a
But with everlasting kindness.] See a like elegant antithesis, with a double hyperbole to boot in 2 Corinthians 4:17 .
a Dr Goodwin.