Rediscovering Worship: Past, Present, and Future

Rediscovering Worship

Past, Present, and Future

edited by

Wendy J. Porter

Rediscovering Worship

Past, Present, and Future

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Scripture portions marked NIV are taken from The Holy Bible, New International Version® NIV® copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide.

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Scripture portions marked NRSV are taken from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture marked ESV® is from the Holy Bible, English Standard Version®, copyright© 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. All rights reserved.

Chapter 1 by Daniel I. Block, ‘In Spirit and in Truth’: The Mosaic Vision of Worship, is a slightly edited form of his chapter by the same title in The Gospel according to Moses: Theological and Ethical Reflections on the Book of Deuteronomy (Eugene, OR: Cascade, 2012, pp. 272–98), and is used by permission of Wipf and Stock Publishers. www.wipfandstock.com.

McMaster Divinity College Press

McMaster New Testament Series

Patterns of Discipleship in the New Testament (1996)

The Road from Damascus: The Impact of Paul’s Conversion on His Life, Thought and Ministry (1997)

Life in the Face of Death: The Resurrection Message of the New Testament (1998)

The Challenge of Jesus’ Parables (2000)

Into God’s Presence: Prayer in the New Testament (2001)

Reading the Gospels Today (2004)

Contours of Christology in the New Testament (2005)

Hearing the Old Testament in the New Testament (2006)

The Messiah in the Old and New Testaments (2007)

Translating the New Testament: Text, Translation, Theology (2009)

Christian Mission: Old Testament Foundations and New Testament Developments (2010)

Empire in the New Testament (2011)

The Church, Then and Now (2012)

Rejection: God’s Refugees in Biblical and Contemporary Perspective (2015)

Rediscovering Worship: Past, Present, and Future (2015)

Preface

The 2010 H. H. Bingham Colloquium at McMaster Divinity College in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada was entitled Rediscovering Worship: Past, Present and Future. The Colloquium was the fifteenth in a continuing series held at the seminary, but again attempted to do something different from previous conferences. For this Colloquium, we began on Friday evening with a unique worship service led by a respected worship leader from the area, and concluded the evening with a key-note paper. The main segment of the colloquy was held on Saturday, where six scholars presented papers representing their various areas of biblical specialty—three from the Old Testament and three from the New Testament—and a worship practitioner responded to each by bringing their own insights or questions to the connection between worship theory and worship practice as it pertained to that particular paper. Participants thought the conference was relevant and valuable. It is hoped that the reader of this volume also will find it both challenging and useful.

The Bingham Colloquium is named after Dr. Herbert Henry Bingham, who was a noted Baptist leader in Ontario, Canada. His leadership abilities were recognized by Baptists across Canada and around the world. His qualities included his genuine friendship, dedicated leadership, unswerving Christian faith, tireless devotion to duty, insightful service as a preacher and pastor, and visionary direction for congregation and denomination alike. These qualities endeared him both to his own church members and to believers in other denominations. The Colloquium has been endowed by his daughter as an act of appreciation for her father. We are pleased to be able to continue this tradition.

The volumes in this series are published by McMaster Divinity College Press, in conjunction with Wipf & Stock Publishers of Eugene, Oregon. We appreciate this active publishing relationship. Previous Colloquia published in this series are listed on page ii.

Finally, I would like to thank the individual contributors for accepting the assignments, and for all their efforts in the preparation and presentation of papers and responses that make a significant contribution of benefit to biblical scholars, students of the Bible at every level, and believers in general who are concerned about the biblical, historical, and practical outworkings of worship in the church. I would also like to thank the staff and student helpers and volunteers at McMaster Divinity College, all of whom were integral in creating a warm environment and a supportive atmosphere for this conference. Thanks to Lois Dow for her work on this manuscript, and seeing it through to publication. As chair of the conference, I hope that this volume will contribute well to furthering insight and offering challenge into the sometimes troubled discussion of worship in the Christian church.

—Stanley E. Porter

Contributors

Gordon Adnams (PhD University of Alberta) teaches on the Music Faculty at Redeemer University College in Ancaster, Ontario. Gordon has been involved in music education and leadership, as well as professional music-making, throughout his adult life. He has served as Minister of Music at several churches, and was Associate Professor and co-chair of the Music Department at Taylor University College in Edmonton. He earned both MusBac and MusM degrees from the University of Toronto. His PhD dissertation is entitled, The Experience of Congregational Singing. Gordon coordinates worship at a local church, conducts the Strata Vocal Ensemble and The Guelph Male Choir, and leads workshops, seminars, and retreats to encourage and enrich churches in their congregational singing.

Mark J. Boda (PhD University of Cambridge, UK) is Professor of Old Testament at McMaster Divinity College. He has been there since 2003, previously teaching for nine years at what is now Ambrose University College/Seminary in Calgary, Alberta (previously Canadian Bible College/Canadian Theological Seminary in Regina, Saskatchewan, from which he also gained his BTh). His MDiv is from Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mark has authored seven books, edited fifteen volumes of collected essays, and written over 80 articles on various topics related to the Old Testament and Christian Theology. His key areas of interest include Old Testament theology, prayer and penitence in the Old Testament and Christian theology, Babylonian and Persian period Hebrew books and history, the Book of the Twelve, Isaiah, and Judges. Mark enjoys mentoring students and approaches the teaching of Old Testament with contagious enthusiasm for making it relevant to contemporary Christians. He also has a deep and wide-ranging appreciation for music, and brings a welcome voice to musical worship.

Daniel I. Block (DPhil University of Liverpool, UK) is Gunther H. Knoedler Professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College, Wheaton, Illinois. Previous degrees (BEd and BA) were from the University of Saskatchewan and (MA) from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois. His research interests span most of the Old Testament, including especially Ezekiel, Judges, and Ruth, and more recently, the gospel according to Moses as set out in the book of Deuteronomy. His recent book, For the Glory of God: Recovering a Biblical Theology of Worship, is directly related to the substance of this colloquy. Dan was raised in a Mennonite Brethren context, but over the past decades has worshiped in Evangelical Free, Plymouth Brethren, Baptist General Conference, Evangelical Covenant, Southern Baptist, and independent congregations. He has also been involved in weekend seminars on Recovering a Biblical Theology of Worship, as well as lecturing and preaching in numerous countries around the world. When at home, he loves to garden, surely also an expression of worship and devotion to God.

Paul S. Evans (PhD University of St. Michael’s College, in the University of Toronto) is Assistant Professor of Old Testament at McMaster Divinity College, having joined the faculty in 2009. His MTS is from Wycliffe College, Toronto. Paul taught for three years at Ambrose University College in Calgary, Alberta. Paul specializes in Old Testament studies and his teaching and research emphasize the theological significance of the Old Testament and the value of its application for the church today. He has published several articles on Kings and Chronicles, and a monograph on Sennacherib in the Book of Kings that won the 2010 R. B. Y. Scott Award given by the Canadian Society of Biblical Studies. Before teaching, Paul was involved in pastoral ministry. He is passionate about the church and its mission, and frequently preaches in local churches in the area.

Grant R. Osborne (PhD University of Aberdeen, Scotland) since 1977 has been Professor of New Testament at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois. Prior to this, he taught at Winnipeg Theological Seminary and the University of Aberdeen. Grant studied at Taylor University in Upland, Indiana, received the BA in Missions and Pastoral Training from Fort Wayne Bible College, Fort Wayne, Indiana, and earned the MA in New Testament from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. He has done postdoctoral research at the Universities of Cambridge, England, and Marburg, Germany. He is editor of the IVP New Testament Commentary series and the Life Application Bible Commentary (Baker). He has published monographs on the resurrection narratives, the hermeneutical spiral, and three crucial questions about the Bible, as well as commentaries on Matthew, Romans, and Revelation. He has also pastored churches in Ohio and Illinois.

Stanley E. Porter (PhD University of Sheffield, UK) is President and Dean and Professor of New Testament at McMaster Divinity College. He has MA degrees from both Claremont Graduate School, Claremont, California, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, Illinois. He has taught for over twenty-five years in post-secondary institutions in Canada, the USA, and the UK. His publications to date include over twenty authored books and over 330 journal articles, chapters, and related publications; he has also edited over eighty volumes. Stan has wide-ranging interests in New Testament and related studies, including Greek grammar and linguistics, Pauline studies, the Gospels and historical Jesus, and papyrology. He has a great love for classical music, which often is the backdrop to his writing, and an even greater love for the church, where he loves to preach and teach in ways that prompt congregations to explore and understand Scripture on much deeper levels.

Wendy J. Porter (PhD University of Surrey, UK) is Director of Music and Worship at McMaster Divinity College. Wendy teaches courses on music and worship, theological reflection, spiritual formation, and the history of worship and liturgy. She plans and leads Chapel services at the Divinity College with a worship team of passionate, serious-minded and talented students. She leads music and worship seminars in churches and retreats, and is the worship leader at numerous events and churches. Her PhD research was in sixteenth-century music, but her song-writing is in a contemporary mode for the local worshiping church. She has recorded solo albums in the past, but found most rewarding the writing and recording of the album simply called Worship, comprised of twelve original songs of worship, each a theological reflection on the act of worship or a conversation with the One we worship.

Cynthia Long Westfall (PhD University of Surrey, UK) is Assistant Professor of New Testament at McMaster Divinity College. Her areas of interest include discourse analysis of the New Testament, the Book of Hebrews, Jewish Christianity, the General Epistles, Johannine literature, and gender in ministry. She has published a number of articles, and the book A Discourse Analysis of the Structure of Hebrews: The Relationship between Form and Meaning, and regularly presents papers at scholarly conferences. Cindy is also actively involved in church ministry, including facilitating more effective roles for the local church in addressing the needs of their community.

Abbreviations

ABD The Anchor Bible Dictionary. 6 vols. Edited by David Noel Freedman. New York: Doubleday, 1992.

AHw W. von Soden. Akkadisches Handwörterbuch. 3 vols. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1965–81.

ANET Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. 3rd ed. Edited by James B. Pritchard. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969.

BAR Biblical Archaeologist Reader

BHQ Biblia Hebraica Quinta. Stuttgart: United Bible Societies, 2004–.

Bib Biblica

BSac Bibliotheca sacra

BZAW Beihefte zur ZAW

CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly

DSS Dead Sea Scrolls

EA El-Amarna Tablets. Edition by J. A. Knudtzon. Die el-Amarna-Tafeln. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1908–1915. Repr. Aalen: O. Zeller, 1964. Continued in A. F. Rainey, El-Amarna Tablets 359–379. 2nd rev. ed. Kevalaer: Butzon & Bercker; Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1978.

FOTL Forms of the Old Testament Literature

FRLANT Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des Alten und Neuen Testaments

HALOT The Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. 5 vols. Edited by L. Koehler and W. Baumgartner. Translated by M. E. J. Richardson. Leiden: Brill, 1994–2000.

Int Interpretation

JBL Journal of Biblical Literature

JETS Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society

JSNT Journal for the Study of the New Testament

JSOT Journal for the Study of the Old Testament

JSOTSup Journal for the Study of the Old Testament Supplement Series

LXX Septuagint (Old Testament in Hellenistic Greek)

LCL Loeb Classical Library

LN Johannes P. Louw and Eugene A. Nida. Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament Based on Semantic Domains. 2 vols. New York: United Bible Societies, 1988.

LNTS Library of New Testament Studies

MNTS McMaster New Testament Studies

MT Masoretic Text (Hebrew Old Testament) where verse numbers differ from English versions

New Grove The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. 2nd ed. Edited by Stanley Sadie. 29 vols. New York: Oxford University Press, 2001.

NICNT New International Commentary on the New Testament

NIDOTTE New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis, edited by W. A. VanGemeren. 3 vols. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1997.

NIGTC New International Greek Testament Commentary

NIVAC New International Version (NIV) Application Commentary

NTS New Testament Studies

NWDLW The New Westminster Dictionary of Liturgy and Worship, edited by Paul F. Bradshaw. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox, 2002.

OHCW The Oxford History of Christian Worship, edited by Geoffrey Wainwright and Karen B. Westerfield Tucker. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006.

OIHC The Oxford Illustrated History of Christianity, edited by John McManners. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990.

OTL Old Testament Library

RST Religious Studies and Theology

SBL Society of Biblical Literature

SBLDS SBL Dissertation Series

SBLEJL SBL Early Judaism and Its Literature

TDNT Theological Dictionary of the New Testament. 10 vols. Edited by Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich. Translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1964–76.

TOTC Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries

TynB Tyndale Bulletin

VT Vetus Testamentum

WBC Word Biblical Commentary

ZAW Zeitschrift für die alttestamentliche Wissenschaft

ZNW Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde der älteren Kirche

Introduction

Wendy J. Porter

For much of the latter part of the twentieth century and well into the twenty-first, the simple word worship has prompted a wild array of responses, many of them instantly heated, most of them honestly passionate, some of them well-considered, a few of them inviting further conversation, and an occasional one prompting deep serious reflection. The lay person may feel deeply about what it means to worship God in a way that is meaningful to them, and may know a range of Scripture verses that seem to support that style and manner of worship. The trained or untrained worship leader in a church works hard to facilitate worship in their location and tradition that will be rich and rewarding for all of the participants, and will aid their congregation in experiencing communion with God. The academic invests deep thought and long hours of research in studying Scripture and weighing the scholarly findings and opinions on what biblical worship is, how and where it takes place, how God’s people met with him in the Old Testament, what changed when God Incarnate came to earth, and what a vision of worship such as John’s Revelation might tell us about current and future worship practice and experience.

Books on worship abound, and have done so for a number of decades. There are books on liturgical reform, and intricate theologies of worship. There are books on Old Testament worship and on New Testament worship. There are books on Christ-centered worship and Spirit-filled worship. There are books on the actions of worship, the symbols of worship, the people at worship. There are books laying out the texts and principles of denominational worship. There are books on ecumenical worship; books on the psalms in worship; books on the hymns of worship. There are books on the ancient liturgies of worship; books on the history of Orthodox worship, and Catholic worship, and Protestant worship, and Pentecostal worship. There are books on the historical wars of worship; and books on the current wars over worship. There are books that tell us what we must do to worship; that tell us what we must not do in worship; that introduce new ways of worshiping; that call us back to a previous way of worshiping. There are books that instruct us on how to create a worship team; and what kinds of electronics we will need to facilitate that. The list goes on. And on.

Yet, here we are, with another book focused on worship, coming out of a conference on worship. Can there be any need for another one of either? Well, we think there was a need for a conference on worship, and that there continues to be a need for at least this one more book on worship. As we thought about this conference in its planning stages, we knew that we were neither positioned nor prepared to host a typical worship conference, which has come to mean a high-energy conference full of well-known solo recording artists and bands, recognized worship leaders who travel the world leading tens of thousands of people gathered in auditoriums, and internationally-renowned seminar-leaders who teach worship teams how to master techniques of music-making or sound- and media-production or even just how to plan a service or train a choir or worship team to produce good vocal sound. Each of these can be important, and have their place, but these were not what we envisioned we could bring to this discussion. What we could bring was highly-trained academics with deep and passionate hearts for God, who would turn their attention to some of the specifics of what the Bible and Christian history have to teach us about worship. As we thought more about this, we realized that we also wanted to do something more than this. We wanted to bring an integration of mind and heart, intellect and practice, coming together in conversation and in mutual experience. To that end, we envisioned beginning the conference on Friday evening with a worship service in the McMaster Divinity College Chapel, followed by the first conference paper, to be a survey of Christian worship in the church from its inception to the present day. Further, we wanted to have some kind of interaction after each paper on the following day, with someone who truly represented the practitioner’s concerns and insights, not just leaving the discussion of worship to the formal academic paper, but engaging in some questioning and probing of how the findings and concerns in that paper play out in the on-the-ground ministry of the local worship leader. To this end, we included three practitioners, each to respond to two of the papers, which they had received in advance of the conference.

This book is the result of our experiment in crafting this worship conference. Unfortunately, not everything worked out as I, personally, had hoped in putting together the volume for the conference. I had imagined that it might be possible to capture something of the experience of the Friday evening worship service, which was creatively planned and skillfully led by a well-known worship leader in our area, Glen Soderholm. Glen brings warmth and vibrancy, an interest in leading the congregation through liturgical texts and music of a previous era, as well as his own well-crafted songs of worship, some to listen to, and many in which to participate. Glen’s rhythmic and well-articulated guitar-playing, combined with the skill of a fellow musician, allowed for a rich but intimate congregational worship experience. At some times, his thoughtful comments and prayers invited the worshiper into reflective worship; at others, his joyful spirit led to moments of uplifted rejoicing and gratefulness to God for his goodness and love and mercy.

However, my imaginings of capturing something of this had to remain that: imaginings. Glen also was involved in the full day of our conference by being the practitioner-respondent to two of the papers. Here, again, it has not worked out to include those responses in the book. The other two respondents were Gordon Adnams, of whom I will say more below, and myself. So, for the book, Gordon and I have each taken one more of the papers and prepared a response, neither of which were part of the original conference. Our goal was to respond to, or interact with, the presenter’s paper from the perspective of how this particular paper seems to contribute to the ongoing discussion of worship in the church today, so that our conference papers would not remain isolated from the ever-present issue of contemporary practice.

For good or for ill, in this volume my voice will be heard quite a bit more than one might reasonably expect. I trust the reader will forgive this quantitative inequality. The Friday evening survey of the history of Christian worship was assigned to me, and as the writer of a paper that sits somewhat outside the bounds of the six main papers to be delivered on the Saturday, I was given latitude to treat this more fully than I would have been able to otherwise. In order to do at least a measure of justice to the topic, I have included only a range of the possible topics that could have been introduced into this survey, but even so, this results in something substantially larger and longer than the other papers in this collection. Having said this, I actually wish my paper had been longer, because the more time I spend in this area, the more I wish to invite others to engage in this venture, also. That paper, combined with the fact that I took on the role as editor during a time when my husband, Stan, was very ill, and that I acted as one of the respondents on the Friday, means that, as I say, my voice is heard a lot in this volume. I trust that it will be a well-modulated and melodic voice that prompts the reader to hear more than just the printed words on the page. Sometimes I will speak as the editor, as here. Sometimes I will speak as a formal presenter, as in the paper. Sometimes I will speak as the contemporary worship leader who writes songs for the church and leads worship with contemporary bands and speaks to worship leaders in churches with wide-ranging, and sometimes internally conflicting, practices and modes of worship.

So, back to my earlier topic: of the making of books on worship, there seems to be no end. But we—my fellow-participants in this conference and I—believe that we have an important and challenging contribution to make to the discussion and embodiment of worship.

One further component of our Saturday events was a half-hour opening service of worship prior to the morning’s sessions, and another prior to the afternoon’s papers. These two brief worship services were designed loosely around a paradigm that Walter Brueggemann put forward in The Message of the Psalms: A Theological Commentary (Minneapolis: Augsburg, 1984), where he laid out the Psalms in categories of orientation, disorientation, and re-orientation, which we hear more about in Mark Boda’s paper.

In our opening worship segment, we began with Orientation by singing a tuneful jazz call to worship, followed by a song of prayer that invites God through his Holy Spirit to come invade our hearts and minds. We read together Psalm 8, Lord, our Lord, how majestic is your name in all the earth! We listened to an interpretive song-setting of Psalm 89, Who is like you, Lord? and responded with a great seventeenth-century hymn of the faith, Praise to the Lord, the Almighty, and a prayer. We moved into the second voice of our trio, Disorientation, and began with Psalm 38, Lord, do not rebuke me in your anger, or discipline me in your wrath. Your arrows have pierced me, and your hand has come down on me . . . We sang together a lament from Ps 13:1–4, How long, Lord, will you turn your face away? And we sang an ancient hymn that looks forward to rescue and redemption, often sung during Advent, O come, O come, Emmanuel, and ransom captive Israel. Then we turned our attention to the third voice of our trio, Re-Orientation, heard the words of the psalmist in Psalm 18, I love you, Lord, my strength. The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer . . . , and sang as the nineteenth-century hymnist did, of the Immortal, Invisible God that we worship. We concluded, as congregations around the globe do, with the seventeenth-century doxology penned by Thomas Ken and set to a tune from the sixteenth-century Genevan Psalter, Praise God, from whom all blessings flow. . .

Our afternoon worship segment, again based on the same template, began its Orientation with the sixteenth-century Latin round, Jubilate Deo, Alleluia by Michael Praetorius. We read together Isa 61:1–11, The Spirit of the Sovereign God is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim the good news to the poor . . . , and we sang the eighteenth-century Charles Wesley hymn, Rejoice, the Lord is King. We moved to our second position, Disorientation, by listening to Luke 4:14–30, which begins with Jesus returning to Galilee in the power of the Spirit and ends with the people furious at him and driving him out of town, hoping to throw him off the cliff. We listened to a reflective contemporary song, What Was It Like? that asks what it was like to be God and yet to be lying there in a manger, to be the Word made flesh and yet unable to speak. We spent several minutes in silent contemplative prayer. Our third segment, Re-Orientation, began again in the Gospels, Luke 24:13–31, with two disciples on the road to Emmaus, and we sang a song, A Hush Hung in the Air, that tells four of the stories of God being present when humans were not expecting him, and could not recognize him. We sang one of the short worship songs from the 1970s, written by Bob McGee, and sung around the world: Emmanuel, Emmanuel, his name is called, Emmanuel; God with us, revealed in us, his name is called Emmanuel. We concluded our Re-Orientation with one more verse from Luke 24, verse 36: While they were still talking about this, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’

The first of three papers located in the Old Testament was presented by Daniel Block. In his paper, ‘In Spirit and in Truth’: The Mosaic Vision of Worship, he takes us into the heart of the book of Deuteronomy to explore what the Torah has to say about worship. He wishes to dispel some of the mythology of Old Testament worship, to prompt reflection on how the New Testament is more in line with the liturgical nature of the Old Testament, and to eliminate the wedge that has been placed between the Testaments. He presents Deuteronomy as a book that is a relevant worship book. He draws on Jesus’ description of worshiping in spirit and in truth as an appropriate description of the kind of worship that takes place in Deuteronomy, seeing continuity, rather than discontinuity, from the Old Testament to the New Testament to the present.

Gordon Adnams responds to Block, particularly resonating with the notion of vassaldom, and how Yhwh has mercifully freed his people from oppressive vassaldom. Adnams believes that current literature agrees with the principles of deuteronomic worship but that current practice does not, and proposes that we once again look to the notion of servanthood as a useful metaphor to counter the quest for authentic and possibly self-serving worship.

The second essay is presented by Paul Evans, who brings evidence that the book of Chronicles has important implications for contemporary worship. He begins with the crisis of faith that comes as a result of the destruction of Solomon’s temple, and the starkness of a people in exile, unable to worship as they normally had done. He contends that through his recasting of the history of Israel, the anonymous writer of Chronicles presents worship as the most prominent theme for the people in exile. However, Chronicles has been a neglected book, and, therefore, not recognized for its great contribution to worship, not only then, but now. Throughout his paper, Evans continually connects principles of worship as they are outlined in the Chronicler’s account with their implications for worship in the church today. Of particular interest to the contemporary scene is how much of the account has to do with music, and Evans invites the reader to recognize the innovations, even radical innovations, that the Chronicler depicts or himself introduces. Even the touchy topic of emotions in worship is addressed by the Chronicler and highlighted by Evans. He also contends that a precursor of Jesus’ statement that worshipers must worship in spirit and truth is found in the Old Testament, and, in this case, in Chronicles.

In response, Wendy Porter suspects that few contemporary worship leaders use Chronicles as their go-to handbook for worship, but contends that a lot more should. She is intrigued by focus on the prophetic role of musicians in worship, the scale of worship depicted in this book, the notion that the temple was not complete until the Levites were in place to handle the music, and the surprisingly contemporary relevance of much that the Chronicler has to say in relationship to music in the church right now.

The third essay grounded in the Old Testament is from Mark Boda, who delves into the Psalter for some of its riches, beginning his work with reference to John Calvin. Boda explores the variety of voices in the Psalter, the variety of genres in the Psalter, and the variety in the shape of the Psalter. For each, he begins by giving some sense of the orientation of that particular feature, providing an analysis of it, and drawing out its implications for worship, both then and now. He suggests that not only is the Psalter of varied and resplendid riches, as Calvin penned it, but that it has the capacity to touch and kindle the believer well after our current generation has passed.

Wendy Porter appreciates how Mark Boda has tuned our ears more closely to the variety of voices of the Psalms, as well as to the variety of audience. She picks up on his contention that God’s voice breaks in, and wonders if we have handled that possibility very well, recognizes that the model of many of the Psalms to speak directly to the community can be a challenging one for worship leaders, and looks to a future of worshipers who re-explore the Psalms in every generation to find their depth and richness.

The second grouping of essays is located in the New Testament, beginning with Stanley Porter’s on worship in the Gospels. Surprisingly, the topic of worship in the Gospels is one that has been somewhat neglected, at least in dedicated studies. Porter takes two approaches to the material, first assembling the evidence from the Gospels that deals with worship, and then focusing on one specific instance that captures the heart of worship practice. He handles worship terminology, such as the Greek words that are translated worship but do not all mean the same thing. The extended passage that he takes for more thorough investigation is John 4, which Porter describes as a prescription for worship, and concludes that Jesus points to a true worship that is not limited by physicality or even by historicity, but is a Spirit-directed and truth-affirming act.

Gordon Adnams highlights the ongoing debate over and difficulties in defining what it is to worship in Spirit and worship in truth, and how there is often confusion over these, that it is an elusive concept in practice. He argues that our inner being is the source of our doing, and that our mode of being or our being in the world, that is, being-in-worship-in-Spirit-and-Truth, may be a paradigm that is more helpful for perceiving what these terms mean.

The fifth essay in this collection is from Cynthia Long Westfall, who looks at the Epistles as a map for our worship experience. She recognizes the cultural shifts that are taking place, and that worship practice requires constant attention and reform. She notes the roots of earliest Christian worship in the context of Judaism and the Greco-Roman environment. She also presents the Epistles in their earliest use as components read out loud during worship, that is, examples of worship, not just teachings about worship. Westfall explores the notion of sacred space and time, not