COOL STUFF FROM LIBRARY BOOKS, Entry #8: "The Hands Of GOD" by Dean Burgon-- from Spurgeon's TREASURY OF DAVID

In Bisbee, AZ's historic Public Library, there is an ancient set of Charles Spurgeon's great commentary on the Book Of Psalms, entitled THE TREASURY OF DAVID.  The librarian there once told me that this particular set is over 100 years old and is now part of the non-circulating "special collections" section, reserved for books still remaining from old Territorial Cochise County Library [Arizona became a state in 1912 so these books are very old indeed!]

Although I own my own set in a much later edition [passed down from my mother, RIP] I really enjoyed looking at these old volumes... my mind imagining the solace and comfort they may well have given to some miner, rancher, or cowboy a long, dry century ago.  [The photo below is from a set currently on eBay, but it looks exactly like the Bisbee set... I am sure it is the same or very nearly the same edition...]

If you're not familiar with Spurgeon's masterpiece, let me just say that it is truly a a commentary unlike any other, as it contains a wealth of illuminating extracts and quotes from literally hundreds of commentators-- both contemporaries of Spurgeon as well as the great Puritan expositors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Preachers and teachers have long appreciated the homiletical hints on almost every verse, concise sermon outlines, and provocative seed thoughts.  If this sounds interesting to you, get a copy at once.  I am told it is now a popular e-book item for Kindle readers.

Just recently I was struck by this extract written by Dean John Burgon [1813-1888], the great Bible Scholar and early defender of the Textus Receptus Greek New Testament and its Authorized Translation into English. In this amazing excerpt, Burgon comments on Psalm 138:8,



"The LORD will perfect that which concerneth me: thy mercy, O LORD, endureth for ever: forsake not the works of thine own hands."


"'Thine own hands!'    Let us consider:


"His creating hands formed our souls at the beginning;


"his nail pierced hands redeemed them on Calvary;


"his glorified hands will hold our souls fast and not let them go for ever.


"Unto his hands let us commend our spirits, sure that even though the works of our hands have made void the works of his hands, yet his hands will again make perfect all that our hands have unmade."


--J.W. Burgon.

AMEN!


from Spurgeon, Charles H. "Commentary on Psalms 138:8". "C.H. Spurgeons's The Treasury of David," first published 1865-1885.