Commentary on the Psalms (Horne)

Description

The popularity of Dr. Horne's work on the Psalms is due to his heart-warming, Spirit-induced ability to take his readers to the Savior. That he saw that Christ is the key to understanding the Psalms is demonstrated in his own preface to his work.

He states, "with respect to the Old Testament, and the Psalter more especially, a person may attain a critical and grammatical knowledge of them, and yet continue a Jew, with a veil upon his heart; an utter stranger to that sense of the holy books, evidently intended, in such a variety of instances, to bear testimony to the Savior of the world; that sens , which is styled, by Divines, the prophetical, evangelical, mystical, or spiritual sense."

Dr. Horne continues - "As it is one great design of the following work to investigate that sense in many of the Psalms, this is the proper place to lay before the reader those grounds and reasons upon which such investigation has been made."

Horne then warns against the abuse of the spiritual interpretation of Scripture, yet declares that "human errors can never invalidate the truths of God." Therefore, he does proceed in his preface to demonstrate the spiritual and evangelical meaning of the Psalms. He refers to about twenty passages from the Psalms which are cited by Christ and His Apostles, his purpose being that of showing how the Lord and His disciples applied these passages "to matters evangelical." By referring to this use of the Psalms by the Lord and the New Testament writers, Dr. Horne certainly offers incontrovertible proof of the Gospel application of the Psalms.

Endorsement  "It has been said that this author had no qualification for a commentator except piety. This is not true, for he had natural poetry in his soul; and even if it were true, his work would go far to show how abundantly piety compensates for other deficiencies. He is among the best of our English writers on this part of Scripture and certainly one of the most popular. This work meditatively explains the Psalms in their literal or historical sense, as they relate to King David, and the people of Israel yet does not neglect the allegorical nature or double sense of the book in their application to the Messiah, to the Church, and to individuals as members thereof. Horne strives to demonstrate the allegories of this most perfect form, with which the book of God abounds, and which are all pregnant with truths of the highest import." - Charles Spurgeon