Resources on Worship

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frog

Puritan Board Freshman
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:
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).
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.

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.
 
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:

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.

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.
By the way, your username amuses me! My granddaughter and her granddad call each other “Frog.”
 
My latest book Aiming to Please: A Guide to Reformed Worship discusses the connection between covenant theology and the RPW. It also discusses how covenant theology informs Reformed worship in other regards. It's available at Amazon and other online retailers.
 
https://www.ligonier.org/learn/articles/regulative-principle-worship/ Derek Thomas probably falls in the moderate camp.

https://www.the-highway.com/articleSept12.html Williamson is more conservative.

I will say that adherents of RPW here have some 'discussions' about what that actually looks like in practice.
I have not come across this distinction between the two camps before - I wasn't aware they could be classified as such. Are you aware of anything that elaborates on these two camps in regards to the RPW?
 
Are you aware of anything that elaborates on these two camps in regards to the RPW?
The clearest distinction is between Psalms only for singing, and Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs singing. Instruments vs no instruments which largely overlaps that debate, but may differ on the fringes. There are threads here exploring some of those divisions.

There is also the brief PCA study paper, that comes down on the moderate side. https://www.pcahistory.org/pca/studies/psalmody.html
 
I'm a bit confused about how this relates to worship? I confess ignorance in this regard.


This is sort of a side issue book. But you mentioned the distinction between the ceremonial law from the moral law (and that is also in distinction from the civil law). This is the book on the threefold division of the law which is part of the key to understanding reformed worship.
 
I consider "Gospel Worship" to be the most important book I have ever published in the 35 years I've been doing so. The theme that "Worship Is For God, Not For Us" changed my life. RC Sproul said the same thing about that book.
 
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