We are troubled on every side
Or afflicted; (en panti) ,
either "in every place", wherever we are, into whatsoever
country, city, or town we enter, we are sure to meet with
trouble, of one sort or another; for wherever we be, we are in
the world, in which we must expect tribulation: or "always",
every day and hour we live, as in ( 2
Corinthians 4:10 2
Corinthians 4:11 ) we are never free from one trial or
another: or "by everyone"; by all sorts of persons, good and bad,
professors and profane, open persecutors and false brethren; yea,
some of the dear children of God, weak believers, give us
trouble: or "with every sort" of trouble, inward and outward;
trouble from the world, the flesh and the devil:
yet not distressed;
so as to have no hope, or see no way of escape; so as to have no
manner of comfort, or manifestations of the love of God; or so as
to be straitened in our own souls; for notwithstanding all our
troubles, we have freedom at the throne of grace, and in our
ministry; we can go with liberty to God, and preach the Gospel
boldly to you:
we are perplexed;
and sometimes know not what to do, which way to take, what course
to steer, or how we shall be relieved and supplied; we are
sometimes at the utmost loss about things temporal, how we shall
be provided for with food and raiment; nor are we without our
perplexing thoughts, doubts, and fears, about spiritual affairs:
but not in despair;
of the Lord's appearing and working salvation, both in a temporal
and spiritual sense.