Preface to Volume Two
Greatly encouraged by the generous reception awarded to my first volume, I have laboured on with diligence, and am now able to present the reader with the second installment of my work. Whether life and health shall be given me to complete my task, which will probably extend to six volumes, remains with the gracious Preserver of men; but with his aid and allowance, my face is set towards that design, and I pray that my purpose may be achieved, if it be for the divine glory, and for the good of his church.
In this volume, which contains thirty-one sacred odes, we have several of the more memorable and precious of Zion’s songs. In commenting upon some of them, I have been overwhelmed with awe, and said with Jacob, “How dreadful is this place, it is none other than the house of God.” Especially was this case with the fifty-first; I postponed expounding it week after week, feeling more and more my inability for the work. Often I sat down to it, and rose up again without having penned a line. It is a bush burning with fire yet not consumed, and out of it a voice seemed to cry to me, “Draw not nigh hither, put off thy shoes from off thy feet.” The Psalm is very human, its cries and sobs are of one born of woman; but it is freighted with an inspiration all divine, as if the Great Father were putting words into his child’s mouth. Such a Psalm may be wept over, absorbed into the soul, and exhaled again in devotion; but, commented on—ah! Where is he who having attempted it can do other than blush at his defeat?
I have followed the same plan as in the former volume, not only because I am committed to it by the law of uniformity, but also because it is on the whole advantageous. Some have suggested alterations, but many more have commended the very features which would have been improved away, and therefore I have continued in the selfsame method.
Greater use has, in this volume, been made of the Latin writers. Extracts have been made not only from those which are condensed in Pool’s Synopsis; but from many others. These works are a mine of exposition far too little known. If the index shall serve to introduce fresh expositions to my ministerial readers, I shall not have laboured in vain.
The acknowledgments of obligation made in Volume I, might very justly be repeated as concerning Volume II; the reader will consider them as again recorded. It may also be needful to repeat the statement that as I give the name of each author quoted, each authority is personally responsible for his own sentiments; and I do not wish it to be supposed that I endorse all that is inserted. It is often useful to us to know what has been said by authors whose views we could by no means accept.
More and more is the conviction forced upon my heart that every man must traverse the territory of the Psalms himself if he would know what a goodly land they are. They flow with milk and honey, but not to strangers; they are only fertile to lovers of their hills and vales. None but the Holy Spirit can give a man the key to the Treasury of David; and even he gives it rather to experience than to study. Happy is he who for himself knows the secret of the Psalms.
If permitted by the Great Master whom I serve, I shall now proceed with another portion of this Treasury of David; but the labour and research are exceedingly great, and my other occupations are very pressing, and therefore I must crave the patience of the Christian public.
– C. H. Spurgeon