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I want to draw your attention to two new books that I think are worth your time. One I have yet to read and one I played a small part in.

John Witvliet has just finished a new book on the Psalms and their place in Christian worship. I haven't read this book yet, but it should be arriving in the mail soon. (Thanks to Carl Stam for the tip and quote.) The following is a brief excerpt from the book...

Over and over again, I have been struck by how the Psalms encompass both sides of some of the most striking divisions within Christian communities today. The Psalms speak for both social justice and personal transformation: they embody hand-clapping exuberance and profound introspection; they express the prayers of both the exalted and the lowly; they are fully alive in the present, but always point to the future on the basis of the past; they highlight both the extravagance of grace and the joy of faithful obedience; they express a restless yearning for change and a profound gratitude for the inheritance of faith; they protest ritualism but embody the richest expression of ritual prayer. It's little wonder, then, that any journey into literature on the Psalms will quite quickly lead us to materials produced by neo-Puritan Calvinists, Catholic mystics, social justice activists, and charismatic worship leaders. . . .

This breadth can lead each tradition or group within the broad church to latch on to only the portions of the Psalms that match its theological emphases or preferred type of piety. At the same time, the good news is that the Psalms give each community and each believer an opportunity to work their weak sides, to develop habits and modes of prayer that do not come naturally.

Indeed, may God's Spirit use this work to help us all work our weak sides, and to grow in us a deeper faith and more robust public prayer.

— John D. Witvliet
from The Biblical Psalms in Christian Worship (Eerdmans)

Another important book that has just been released is The Dangerous Act of Worship by Mark Labberton. The book champions worship that is for God and worship that does justice. I had the pleasure of being one of the manuscript readers for InterVarsity Press on this book and was able to help in its early developments. Here is an excerpt...

The world is racked with dramatic, torturous suffering as a consequence of poverty and injustice - from human trafficking to HIV/AIDS, from malnutrition to genocide. One-sixth of the world's population lives in absolute poverty, and nearly a million children each year are sold or forced into the sex-trafficking trade. But this is not just about statistics - it's about real lives. People with names and families are living daily without food or water, in sickness or oppression. Their experience is in their bodies and hearts and minds, not in a global facts chart. They are made with the same dignity and worth as you and me. They have the same capacities and desires. But they are circumstantially without hope. Every day.

All this is going on while mainline and evangelical churches keep debating what they think are the primary worship issues: guitars versus organs, formal versus informal, traditional versus contemporary, contemporary versus emergent; while other denominations are absorbed over issues like gay and lesbian ordination that dominate their landscapes and preoccupy their fading national bureaucracies; and while congregations and individuals alike struggle with their own needs, genuine and personal as they are.

At a time when many are struck by the polarization between liberal and evangelical churches in America, it is more striking to see what the average congregations on both sides hold in common: they are asleep. Some seem asleep to God. Some seem asleep to the world. Some sleep on their right side, others on their left, but either way they are asleep.

- Mark Labberton
from The Dangerous Act of Worship (IVP Books)

Comments

[dave]

so...let me get this straight, you are personally recommending a book that you have never read?

[brian moss]

No, I haven't read it yet, but having read the excerpt and other books by Witvliet I feel confident that it will be worthwhile.