Engaging with God: A Biblical Theology of Worship
The following is a book review of
Peterson, David. Engaging With God: A Biblical Theology of Worship.
Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1992. 317 pp. $24.00.
Copyright © 2008 by Alex S. Leung. All rights reserved.
Introduction
As the principal of Oak Hill Theological College in London, England for the past 11 years, David Peterson has been a significant vessel that God has used to elevate that seminary to be one of the largest in the United Kingdom and in the Church of England. Only recently succeeded by Michael Ovey as Principal, Peterson has shown himself to be an astute interpreter of the biblical text, being formerly a lecturer in New Testament at Moore College in Sydney, Australia. As such, it is no wonder why Engaging With God is another first-rate example of Peterson’s careful exegesis and gospel-centered hermeneutic.
Subtitled A Biblical Theology of Worship, Peterson’s Engaging With God is the author’s attempt at a biblical theology of worship that is evangelical and generally free from denominational bias. Students of biblical worship would be happy to see an extensive exegetical volume finally released, as Peterson provides a full-orbed examination of what worship is according to the whole counsel of God and the entirety of Scripture – both the Old and New Testament.
Jesus is the New Temple
I am reading Engaging God by David Peterson (Principal at Oak Hill Theological College in London) for my January class, The Worshipping Church. I am trying to read through it quickly, but it is a heavy book on the biblical theology of worship where every page is packed full of insightful analysis and exegesis of Scripture through a redemptive historical view of worship! I’ve read just over a third of the book so far, and I’m highlighting & taking notes on almost every paragraph — I really need to speed up my reading here :@ If you’re a worship leader or know of one, look nowhere else than Engaging God for a concise book on the theology of Christian worship!
In Chapter 3 (Jesus and the New Temple), Peterson explains that the gospel according to Matthew and John are expressly focused on emphasizing that God’s presence and glory are fully and finally experienced in Jesus Christ. For Jesus came to bring Judaism to its destined end in the worship of the new age, rather than coming to destroy it. Furthermore, Jesus Himself transferred the significance of the temple from Jerusalem to another entity — not in the messianic community, but primarily in his own persona and work. Christ replaces the temple as the well-spring of life and renewal for all the world, as Jesus Himself is the eschatalogical destination to which all nations journey to for worship.
(more…)
Acceptable Worship in the Old Testament
As we celebrate the birth of Christ this Christmas, may these words be a reminder to us as to what acceptable worship to our God entails:
Thus, acceptable worship in Old Testament terms involves homage, service and reverence, demonstrated in the whole of life. A common factor in these three ways of describing Israel’s response to God is the assumption that he had acted towards them in revelation and redemption, to make it possible for them to engage with him acceptably. By contrast, the worship activities of the nations are considered to be offensive to God, because they are human inventions, arising from misconception about God and ignorance about what pleases him.
David Peterson, Engaging with God: A Biblical Theology of Worship. (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1992), 73-74 emphasis mine.
