Digital Logos Edition
Throughout history, the Psalms have yielded in Spurgeon’s words, “boundless profit and ever-growing pleasure.” The Treasury of David, a 6-volume commentary on the Psalms, captures Spurgeon at the height of his literary career. With hundreds of thousands of copies sold, these classic commentaries have informed and inspired generations of Christians who have studied the Psalms ever since. The Logos Bible Software edition of The Treasury of David was originally published in New York by Marshall Brothers in 1869.
The Treasury of David is one of the most comprehensive commentaries on the Psalms ever written, and Spurgeon devoted nearly two decades to completing the project. For each Psalm, Spurgeon offers verse-by-verse commentary, followed by detailed explanatory notes, quotations, and sayings for each verse. Each Psalm also contains suggestions for preaching and teaching, including illustrations, themes, and other tips. That makes Spurgeon’s Treasury of David one of the more useful commentaries for pastors and teachers ever written on the Psalms.
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was born in Kelvedon, Essex, England on June 19, 1834. He converted to Christianity in 1850 at a small Methodist chapel, to which he detoured during a snowstorm. While there, he heard a sermon on Isaiah 45:22 and was saved—“Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else.” He began his own ministry of preaching and teaching immediately, and preached more than 500 sermons by the age of twenty.
In 1854, at nineteen years of age, Spurgeon began preaching at the New Park Street Chapel in London. He was appointed to a six month trial position, which he requested be cut to three months should the congregation dislike his preaching. He gained instant fame, however, and the church grew from 232 members to more than five thousand at the end of his pastorate. Many of his sermons were published each week and regularly sold more than 25,000 copies in twenty languages. Throughout his ministry, Spurgeon estimated that he preached to more than 10,000,000 people. Dwight L. Moody was deeply influenced by Spurgeon’s preaching, and founded the Moody Bible Institute after seeing Spurgeon’s work at the Pastor’s College in London.
Spurgeon read six books per week during his adult life, and read Pilgrim’s Progress more than 100 times. In addition to his studying and preaching, Spurgeon also founded the Pastor’s College (now Spurgeon’s College), various orphanages and schools, mission chapels, and numerous other social institutions.
Charles Spurgeon suffered from poor health throughout his life. He died on January 31, 1892, and was buried in London.
“‘One thing.’ Divided aims tend to distraction, weakness, disappointment. The man of one book is eminent, the man of one pursuit is successful. Let all our affection be bound up in one affection, and that affection set upon heavenly things. ‘Have I desired’—what we cannot at once attain, it is well to desire. God judges us very much by the desire of our hearts.” (Page 2)
“When a man comes to tears, constant tears, plenteous tears, tears that fill his cup and trencher, he is in earnest indeed.” (Page 271)
“‘To behold the beauty of the Lord.’ An exercise both for earthly and heavenly worshippers. We must not enter the assemblies of the saints in order to see and be seen, or merely to hear the minister; we must repair to the gatherings of the righteous, intent upon the gracious object of learning more of the loving Father, more of the glorified Jesus, more of the mysterious Spirit, in order that we may the more lovingly admire, and the more reverently adore our glorious God.” (Page 3)
“Faith cures fretting. Sight is cross-eyed, and views things only as they seem, hence her envy; faith has clearer optics to behold things as they really are, hence her peace. ‘And do good.’ True faith is actively obedient. Doing good is a fine remedy for fretting. There is a joy in holy activity which drives away the rust of discontent. ‘So shalt thou dwell in the land.’” (Page 171)
“Subject.—It is the cry of a man far removed from the outward ordinances and worship of God, sighing for the long-loved house of his God; and at the same time it is the voice of a spiritual believer, under depressions, longing for the renewal of the divine presence, struggling with doubts and fears, but yet holding his ground by faith in the living God. Most of the Lord’s family have sailed on the sea which is here so graphically described. It is probable that David’s flight from Absolom may have been the occasion for composing this Maschil.” (Page 270)