(It’s an odd topic, I know. But I think today’s poem makes an important point about the way we approach and use commentaries in our studies and preaching. God bless you as you delve into his word!)

A Poem about Commentaries

Adam B. Cozort

I searched high and low desiring to find the books that were written by man,

So that I might know what God’s Word had said and learn it the best that I can.

So I read through works of men of great fame with volumes both thick and thin,

Trying to see what they would say about the book God had given to men.

But with all my reading I noticed a change in the way I approached all these books.

For some I was constantly reaching and others I gave dirty looks.

I knew what I wanted to get from those books as I started to teach other men;

I wanted the writers who thought like me, but could put it better with pen.

So it was with great pride that I stood up to speak and said what I wanted to say,

I then pointed out, with a quote and a shout, what great men saw it my way.

Needless to say, I was pleased with myself and I thought others should be too.

For those who had such writers agree with them I was convinced would probably be few.

But what happened next was so unexpected I almost gave up then and there,

For a kind-hearted brother told me that my opinion and God’s did not square.

So I went to the Bible intending to find the evidence to prove me right.

Yet, all that I found, when I took God’s word down, was that I was the one in the plight.

You see, what had happened was I had become more concerned with the thoughts of men;

And I failed to acknowledge the greatest book first, for it came from God’s mind through man’s pen.

So now I still read the books of wise men, yet through the many volumes I plod,

I look not so much at whether they have agreed with me, but whether we have agreed with God.