In reading Dr. Pipa's review of Frame's book "Worship in Spirit and Truth" I came across the following statement on worship from a covenantal perspective:
I was wondering if there were any resources or books that people could suggest on worship and the church service from a reformed background? It would be great if there were some that also looked at this from the perspective of covenant theology.
The ideas that Pipa speaks about regarding worship in the whole of the Bible through the covenants is completely new to me. In fact, thinking through worship biblically in a Presbyterian theological framework is new to me. I have been looking online for resources in understanding worship and often I'm left with many disconnected ideas that often don't join up all the dots in a comprehensive manner.In chapter 3 on NT worship he fails to distinguish between the ceremonial elements of temple worship that Jesus fulfilled and the trans-covenantal elements like preaching, prayer, and singing, when he says, “From a New Testament perspective, we can see all the various elements of Old Testament worship pointing to Jesus” (25). The problem with this inaccurate statement is the conclusion reached: “But what is left when these ceremonies are no longer required? Essentially, what is left is worship in the broad sense: a life of obedience to God’s word, a sacrifice of ourselves to his purposes” (30). By failing to consider the trans-covenantal nature of corporate prayer, praise, preaching and reading of Scripture he is able to suggest the possibility that it is very difficult in the NT to distinguish between broad and narrow worship (31, 32). He wrongly concludes that we may withhold the term “worship” from the New Testament meeting (32): in a number of places the NT applies the term worship to narrow worship (Matt. 4:9,10; John 4:22-24; Phil. 3:3; Acts 13:2; I Cor. 14:25).
I was wondering if there were any resources or books that people could suggest on worship and the church service from a reformed background? It would be great if there were some that also looked at this from the perspective of covenant theology.