For all the day long have I been plagued - Far from enjoying worldly prosperity, we are not only poor, but we are afflicted also; and every succeeding day brings with it some new trouble.

for all

Psalm 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous: but the LORD delivers him out of them all.

Psalm 94:12 Blessed is the man whom you chasten, O LORD, and teach him out of your law;

Job 7:3,4,18 So am I made to possess months of vanity, and wearisome nights are appointed to me...

Job 10:3,17 Is it good to you that you should oppress, that you should despise the work of your hands, and shine on the counsel of the wicked...

Jeremiah 15:18 Why is my pain perpetual, and my wound incurable, which refuses to be healed? will you be altogether to me as a liar...

Amos 3:2 You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities.

Hebrews 12:5 And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as to children, My son, despise not you the chastening of the Lord...

1 Peter 1:6 Wherein you greatly rejoice, though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through manifold temptations:

chastened. Heb. my chastisement was.

What is Meant by "Altogether Lovely"
Let us consider this excellent expression, and particularly reflect on what is contained in it, and you shall find this expression "altogether lovely." First, It excludes all unloveliness and disagreeableness from Jesus Christ. As a theologian long ago said, "There is nothing in him which is not loveable." The excellencies of Jesus Christ are perfectly exclusive of all their opposites; there is nothing of a contrary property or quality found in him to contaminate or devaluate his excellency. And …
John Flavel—Christ Altogether Lovely

The Great Gain of Godliness
'And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, every man under his vine and under his fig tree, from Dan even to Beer-sheba, all the days of Solomon. 26. And Solomon had forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen. 27. And those officers provided victual for king Solomon, and for all that came unto king Solomon's table, every man in his month: they lacked nothing. 28. Barley also and straw for the horses and dromedaries brought they unto the place where the officers were, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Of Meditating on the Future Life.
1. The design of God in afflicting his people. 1. To accustom us to despise the present life. Our infatuated love of it. Afflictions employed as the cure. 2. To lead us to aspire to heaven. 2. Excessive love of the present life prevents us from duly aspiring to the other. Hence the disadvantages of prosperity. Blindness of the human judgment. Our philosophizing on the vanity of life only of momentary influence. The necessity of the cross. 3. The present life an evidence of the divine favour to his …
John Calvin—The Institutes of the Christian Religion