It is no secret that I make much use of commentaries. Trustworthy commentaries stimulate my thinking and open up perspectives that I had not recognized. And I like to quote apt passages from good commentaries. Sometimes the commentator will say something much better than I could, and sometimes I quote just to have another voice confirm what I’m saying.

The man who presumes to have a direct line to the mind of God and belittles or denigrates the use of commentaries is a poor man indeed. Charles Spurgeon had little use for such thinking, or perhaps non-thinking. In volume four of his Lectures to My Students, Spurgeon observed: “In order to be able to expound the Scriptures, and as an aid to your pulpit studies, you will need to be familiar with the commentators: a glorious army, let me tell you, whose acquaintance will be your delight and profit. Of course, you are not such wiseacres as to think or say that you can expound Scripture without assistance from the works of divines and learned men who have labored before you in the field of exposition. If you are of that opinion, pray remain so, for you are not worth the trouble of conversion, and like a little coterie who think with you, would resent the attempt as an insult to your infallibility. It seems odd, that certain men who talk so much of what the Holy Spirit reveals to themselves, should think so little of what he has revealed to others. My chat this afternoon is not for these great originals, but for you who are content to learn of holy men, taught of God, and mighty in the Scriptures. It has been the fashion of late years to speak against the use of commentaries. If there were any fear that the expositions of Matthew Henry, Gill, Scott, and others, would be exalted into Christian Targums, we would join the chorus of objectors, but the existence or approach of such a danger we do not suspect. The temptations of our times lie rather in empty pretensions to novelty of sentiment, than in a slavish following of accepted guides. A respectable acquaintance with the opinions of the giants of the past, might have saved many an erratic thinker from wild interpretations and outrageous inferences. Usually, we have found the despisers of commentaries to be men who have no sort of acquaintance with them; in their case, it is the opposite of familiarity which has bred contempt. It is true there are a number of expositions of the whole Bible which are hardly worth shelf-room; they aim at too much and fail altogether; the authors have spread a little learning over a vast surface, and have badly attempted for the entire Scriptures what they might have accomplished for one book with tolerable success; but who will deny the preeminent value of such expositions as those of Calvin, Ness, Henry, Trapp, Poole, and Bengel, which are as deep as they are broad? and yet further, who can pretend to biblical learning who has not made himself familiar with the great writers who spent a life in explaining some one sacred book?” (C. H. Spurgeon, Lectures to My Students: Commenting and Commentaries; Lectures Addressed to the Students of the Pastors’ College, Metropolitan Tabernacle, vol. 4 [New York: Sheldon & Company, 1876], 11–13; emphasis added).

As usual, Spurgeon is right on target. God has gifted his church with godly thinkers throughout its history, thinkers imperfect and fallible, to be sure, but men who gave their lives to the study of the sacred Scriptures. To be sure, most Christians have neither the time nor the resources to build a large theological library and devote hours weekly to study, but most can find a few helpful books to aid their study of the Book of books.

Every household should obviously have good translations of the Bible. The English Standard Version is my preferred translation, but the King James Version and the New King James Version are obviously good, and the New American Standard Bible is excellent. These are solid word-for-word translations rather than thought-for-thought translations. The 1984 edition of the New International Version was probably the best thought-for-thought translation, but it is not longer published, having been replaced by the 2011 edition which, unfortunately, replaced a lot of gender-specific words (such as man, woman, he, she, son, daughter) with gender-neutral words (such as person, they, child). The Bible should be read slowly, carefully, and prayerfully, asking the Holy Spirit of God to aid one’s understanding.

Everyone should own and consult a quality Bible dictionary. The Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary is a good one. You may want to know who the Hittites were. You’ll find an article on them in a good Bible dictionary.

Often overlooked are handbooks to the Bible, books which help us understand the message of the Bible. Two valuable books along this line are by Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C.: Promises Made: The Message of the Old Testament and Promises Kept: The Message of the New Testament.

Please acquire and use a good study Bible. The notes make for good commentary. Two of the very best are the Reformation Study Bible, available in the English Standard Version and New King James Version, and the ESV Study Bible, available, obviously, in the English Standard Version. Good one-volume commentaries would include the Baker Commentary on the Bible, edited by Walter A. Elwell, and the New Bible Commentary, edited by Wenham, Carson, and France. Study Bible and commentary notes are not inerrant, but they are usually very helpful.