Ecclesiastes (Preaching the Word) [eBook]

Why Everything Matters

The book of Ecclesiastes is “about life, the way it really is,” writes commentator Philip Ryken. Readers throughout the ages have been drawn to the way it honestly wrestles with the tedium of work, injustices in this life, the ravages of age, and the inevitability of death. But its wisdom, according to Ryken, is in teaching people to trust God with life’s questions even in the midst of struggles.

Pastors, writers, speakers, and students will find this Preaching the Word commentary to be a helpful resource in their teaching and studies. Ryken explores what will happen if we choose the world’s offerings instead of God’s and teaches valuable lessons about what it means to have a God-centered worldview.

Ecclesiastes is the twenty-sixth volume of the Preaching the Word series—noted for its clear exposition, readability, practical application, and unqualified commitment to biblical authority. Ryken’s commentary will not only enrich any individual study of Ecclesiastes but will equip Christian leaders in communicating its universal application to a wide audience.

PHILIP GRAHAM RYKEN (DPhil, University of Oxford) is the senior minister of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, where he has preached since 1995. He has published more than thirty books, including Preaching the Word commentaries on Exodus and Jeremiah and Lamentations.

R. KENT HUGHES is senior pastor emeritus of College Church in Wheaton, Illinois. He serves as the series editor for the popular Preaching the Word commentaries and has written seventeen books in the series.

“The single best resource for faithful biblical exposition available today. A great boon for genuine reformation!”
—Timothy George, Founding Dean, Beeson Divinity School; general editor, Reformation Commentary on Scripture

“For this outstanding series of expository commentaries, Kent Hughes has assembled a team of unusually gifted scholar-preachers. The series will be widely used and much sought after.”
—Eric J. Alexander, Retired Senior Minister, St. George’s-Tron Parish Church, Glasgow, Scotland

“The Preaching the Word commentary series is one of my favorites. The focus upon explaining a text with preaching it as the goal makes the series resonate with the priorities of the pulpit. No academic aloofness here, but down-to-earth, preacher-to-preacher meat for God’s people.”
—Bryan Chapell, President Emeritus, Covenant Theological Seminary; Senior Pastor, Grace Presbyterian Church, Peoria, Illinois

“I’m delighted to endorse the philosophy behind the series edited by my friend Kent Hughes. Here sounds out the voice not of the scholar in the study but of the scholar in the pulpit. The authors are all able teachers who regularly expound God’s living Word to his people. May this rich material give us ‘patterns of preaching’ that will not only feed the flock, but, by God’s grace, change the church.”
—R. C. Lucas, Retired Rector, St. Helen’s Church, Bishopsgate, London, England