Horae Homileticae, Volume 6: Psalms, LXXIII-CL
Overview
Charles Simeon eloquently expounds on scripture in the classic Horae Homileticae Collection. In the series' sixth volume Simeon gives insight on the second half of Psalms. The author's time-honored commentary provides in-deep analysis and inspires new appreciation for this well-known section of Scripture.
These expository outlines (or "skeletons") are not a verse-by-verse explanation of the English Bible. Rather, they are a chapter-by-chapter study with explanations of the most important and instructive verses in each chapter. Simeon's aim with this commentary is "Instruction relative to the Composition of Sermons." To this end, his exposition of the Scriptures is designed to maintain a focus on the more general aspects of a passage over and above possible treatments of particulars. His test for a sermon, as he teaches in Horae Homileticae, is threefold: does it humble the sinner, exalt the Saviour and promote holiness?
Opposing all human systems of divinity, Simeon's commentary is also marked by an avoidance of any possible systemization of God's Word and entanglement with theological controversies. A self-described "moderate Calvinist" or, more plainly, a "Biblical Christian," Simeon believed that the Bible should speak for itself. "Be Bible Christians, not systems Christians" was his maxim; "My endeavor is to bring out of Scripture what is there, and not to thrust in what I think might be there. I have a great jealousy on this head; never to speak more or less than I believe to be the mind of the Spirit in the passage I am expounding." With Horae Homileticae this conviction is soundly applied.
Top Highlights
“IT is a favourite opinion of some divines, that we are bound to love God for his own perfections, without having any respect to the benefits which we receive from him. But this appears to us to be an unscriptural refinement.” (Page 205)
“IN some of the Psalms, David speaks of himself only; in others, of himself and of the Messiah too; but in this, of the Messiah exclusively: not a word is applicable to any one else.” (Page 251)
“To be forgiven one sin is a mercy of inconceivable magnitude; but to be forgiven all, all that we have ever committed, this is a mercy which neither the tongues of men nor of angels can ever adequately declare. Think too of the corruptions which with most inveterate malignity infect our souls: to have these healed! to have them all healed: We no longer wonder at the ardour of the Psalmist’s devotion; we wonder only at our own stupidity. Contemplate moreover the efforts which Satan, that roaring lion, is ever making to destroy us; consider his wiles, his deceits, his fiery darts: what a stupendous mercy is it that we have not been given up as a prey unto his teeth!.” (Page 207)
“It represents the Psalmist as expressing his conviction of the utter insufficiency of all earthly powers to assist him, and his determination to confide in God alone.” (Page 380)
“It seems, however, that on the present occasion he refers to his spiritual troubles, because it is of his iniquities that he chiefly complains, and of forgiveness that he expresses his chief desire. It might be supposed that so holy a man as he should have no complaints of this kind to make: but the truth is, that the more holy any man is, the more enlarged will be his views of the spirituality of God’s Law, and the more painful his sense of his short-comings and defects: and it should seem that David was permitted to sustain great anguish of mind on this account, that so he might be the better fitted to instruct and comfort God’s tempted people to the very end of time.” (Page 412)
Praise for the Print Edition
[Horae Homileticae] is the best place to go for researching Simeon's theology. You can find his views on almost every key text in the Bible … What Simeon experienced in the word was remarkable. And it is so utterly different from the counsel that we receive today that it is worth looking at …
—John Piper
If Wilberforce is the most famous evangelical layman in the Church of England, then Simeon is the most famous evangelical clergyman.
—Who's Who in Christian History
[The volumes of Horae Homileticae] have been called 'a valley of dry bones': be a prophet and they will live.
—Charles Spurgeon
Product Details
- Title: Horae Homileticae, Volume 6: Psalms, LXXIII–CL
- Author: Charles Simeon
- Series: Horae Homileticae
- Publisher: Holdsworth and Ball
- Publication Date: 1832
- Pages: 529
