This commentary on The Psalms is a treasury of Puritan thoughts. I Praise the Lord that He led a man of such caliber like Spurgeon to collaborate articles on such a blessed book.

Along with Spurgeon's beautiful facility with language, this also has a surprisingly easy format to follow. One need not search in vain for the verse that he is looking for. Nor will one run out of meat if preparing for the sermon or Bible study. Spurgeon has provided the best advice from the best teachers in the best volume on the Psalms. If you are not a pastor or teacher and you are looking for devotional material, this is the cream of the crop. Because the Psalms are prayers, and Spurgeon is the master of prayer, then your soul will be stirred as he speaks of prayer. Reader be blessed.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was England's Prince of Preachers in the nineteenth century. Today he is still one of the most well-known and loved authors in the English language - with more of his books and sermons in print (over 100 years) than any other English writer. However, I am not endorsing his works simply because of his popularity or any man's for that matter. I am recommending the works of this man because he is one who listens to God.

The Treasury of David is Spurgeon's Magnum Opus. If he had not written anything else apart from this masterful commentary on the Psalms, he would still be considered among the greatest Christian writers of all history. Students of the life of Spurgeon would know that he was not a strict academician. However, in all sense of the word, he was a man of learning who was acquainted with much of the scholarly issues of his times. Ultimately, he was a man who listen to God and labored for God's honor among men. This Treasury is the supreme monument to his 21 year labor.

In the compiling of this Treasury, Spurgeon read up hundreds of theological texts and commentaries (much of which was quoted among his own notes and comments). In the original edition, Spurgeon also included his "Notes to the Village Preacher" on every Psalm - showing that Spurgeon will always be very important to anyone who wishes to speak from the Pulpit. I believe, however, that the worth of this book is even more for the lay student (Spurgeon's heart beats for them the most throughout his life). He attempted to share with them the best scholarship of his time and to lead them beyond scholarship to the worship of David's God. Reading this volume led me into worship of the same God - and I will never recover from Him! I exult in Him!

We will see, as many other readers have seen that the greatest treasures of the ancient Israelite Kingdom was not the Temple that Solomon built, the gold and harem that the kings acquired nor even the Ark of the Covenant (that so many modern authors are speculating about) but these simple, unassuming songs that came from the worshipping heart of Israel's King David and his fellow worshippers. In this Treasury, we see a prayer for every occasion. We see the entire spectrum of the spiritual man's experience - penitence, courage, humiliation, power, confidence, exultation, doubt, weeping, laughter, awe, dread, fear and ultimately worship. Rightly did Faber exclaimed, "The Thought of Thee is almost prayer". This volume brings together the worship of David to Jehovah and Spurgeon to Jesus showing that they were both ultimately worshipping One same God. "Hear O Israel, the Lord thy God is One Lord".

The volume I'm reviewing here is an update of the original 7 volume set written in Victorian English. What we have here is the result of Roy H. Clarke's 10 year research into the life and writtings of Spurgeon. For those of you who distrust any update of a classic, rest assured that the work done here is exemplary work. Clarke has too much respect for Spurgeon to ever water down his words - every word by Spurgeon is here (only archaic words are replaced with modern English usage of the same). Clarke did not water down Spurgeon's words with the language of commerce but allowed the spaciousness, reverence and expansiveness of Spurgeon's English to be retained - and to speak afresh to us today in language that we can understand. Clarke removed most of the quotations from the other commentators in Spurgeon's original volumes and included only the most significant in this volume side-by-side with Spurgeon's own notes (something only done in this volume for the first time). Finally, the original notes of preachers are now presented in outline form according to the outlines for Spurgeon's own sermons (something that Roy Clarke himself spent his 10 years studying). Reading this volume makes me want to seek out the original 7 volume set (still in print) but I would say that even for those who have already read the original, this volume is still very valuable - for its dynamism, its freshness and as an aid by which we can listen to a man who listens to God.

Fuller's collection of writings from some of the big names in Christian history is an excellent place to start learning about who said what, why, and when. The selections are short enough to be read in those few spare moments between tooth-brushing and falling asleep but long enough to provide an adequate picture of the thoughts and styles of the authors. Fuller did not aim at exhaustiveness; the reader who wants more information will need to look elsewhere. This book is a good spring-board. Based on the introductory notes for each author, one would easily be able to look up other works by the author and historical and biographical information about the author.

I would comment on two downsides to this book. First, the selections are not always taken from the most authoritative or readable translations (where translation is relevant). For some of the authors, certain editions have become quoted widely and in many contexts; the reader might recognize the places where one of the famous quotations originated, but it's unlikely that the famous quotations will be present verbatim in this book. If the reader doesn't recognize the place or the quote, the reader might be at a loss to be able to trace (from this source) this influence of a writer's specific words throughout other times and places.

Second, the biographical and historical notes that introduce each author are rife with cliches and attempts at eloquence that more often end up being circuitous than eloquent. I prefer that people get from point A to point B with a minimum of what Cicero calls "purple passages", but that does not seem to have been the goal of the writer.

As a beginning resource or quick reference to digestable selections, this book is great. As a guide to writing and translation, this book could have been better.

This is a wonderful compendium of sermons and writings from thelast 2,000 years (roughly) that explicate and proclaim the Gospel ofJesus Christ. Each piece has a short historical introduction to give some background about the author and provide historical and cultural context. Each piece also reminds us that truth has been proclaimed by some very intelligent and wise men throughout history and it also reminds us that no one has a monopoly on truth.

While each piece of writing is wonderful in and of itself, the real value of the book, and it is a real value, is that it provides a source for a reader new to church history to identify major historical actors and become familiar with them. From there, it allows the reader to gather the information necessary to expand their self-education into church history by providing a source to jump off from. That is eminently valuable and I heartily recommend this book.

Kelly Whiting

Too often modern day illustrations fall into the category of mundane and lack lustre. This will never happen to the illustrations of Charles Spurgeon. Although one should be careful in choosing the antiquated verse of the prince of preahcers, Spurgeon will offer many portraits of illustrative grace for the expository preacher. As with any illustration book, if you get only one illustration from it, it is well worth the price.

Shelton Cole

Don't buy this book. It is a waste of good paper. If you are interested in Fuller's ramblings, buy Doug Kutilek's "Answer to David Otis Fuller: Fuller's Deceptive Treatment of Spurgeon Regarding the King James Version."

Fuller repeats the flawed arguments of KJV Onlyists and demonstrates that he is more interested in defending his ideas than his is in accurately discussing textual issues. Why do books like this ever get published?

Almost half of this collection of essays is the sanitized writing of Benjamin Wilkinson, a Seventh-Day Adventist Theologian and College Professor who first published his beliefs in a book entitled "Our Authorized Bible Vindicated" back in 1930. I say "sanitized" because Fuller, publishing "Which Bible?" for fundamentalist Baptists, didn't want them to know that the biggest portion of it was by a man they would regard as a heretic and so removed references to Ellen White and other Adventist allusions.

It isn't hard to sniff out the difference between real scholarship (whether one agrees with it or not) and junk scholarship (again whether one agrees or not). Fuller's first obligation, if he had wanted anybody to be open to the case he made, was to have been open about his sources.

For this and other reasons that will become obvious to all who make the habit of reading every side of a controversy, this book belongs on the shelf with tracts that deny the holocaust or claim Apollo 11 didn't land on the moon.

The author begins with the presupposition that the KJV is the best out there, and then goes on to seek evidence to justify the conclusion (which he probably reached before examining the evidence - hmmm.....). What is even more ridiculous is that he calls Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria Gnostics, which makes me laugh. The author is clinging to positions that he should not have ever embraced. Bottom line, if you want to know better the original texts, I would reccomend, like the reviewer below, to learn greek, and to pick up a UBS NT and a Septuagint for the OT, which is the greek translation of the OT. The apostles used the Septuagint, they quoted from it, and it's older than the Masoretic Text, which is the hebrew OT that we've got today.