Worship is at the very heart of the Christian life. The first question of the Westminster Shorter Catechism is, “What is the chief end of man?” The answer is, “Man’s chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever.” In a real sense, our entire lives are to be lived in the worship of God. Yet the subject of the church’s public, corporate worship is specific, and how we ought to worship is a question the church consistently faces. We have all heard stories about “worship wars,” and many people have lived through them. Oftentimes the discussion becomes primarily about the preferences of the worshiper rather than the One being worshiped.

This is where Ligon Duncan’s short book Does God Care How We Worship? is very helpful. Even the title reveals that this book is primarily about God, not about us, because worship is primarily about God, not about us. Originally published in a Festschrift for James Montgomery Boice,¹ these two essays encourage us to consider what is meant by Reformed worship.

In the first essay, “Does God Care How We Worship?” Duncan makes the case that “true Christian worship is by the book. It is according to Scripture. The Bible alone ultimately directs the form and content of Christian worship” (11). This essay traces that principle through the Old and New Testaments.

Early on, Duncan asks, “Is the regulative principle outmoded?” (16) and gives us his summary definition of the regulative principle:

This strong and special emphasis on the corporate worship of God being founded positively on the directions of Scripture came to be known as the regulative principle. It is an extension of the Reformational axiom of sola scriptura. As the Bible is the final authority in faith and life, so it is also the final authority in how we corporately worship—but in a distinct and special way. Whereas all of life is to be lived in accordance with Scripture, Scripture does not speak discreetly to every specific component of our lives. There are many situations in which we must rely upon general biblical principles and then attempt to think Christianly without specific guidance in various circumstances. (12)

While the Bible does not give us specific instructions for every circumstance of life, when it comes to the subject of corporate worship, “God had given full attention to this matter in his word because it is one of central significance in the Christian life and in his eternal purposes.… He told us what to do and how to do it, in such a way that the prime aspects of worship are a matter of following divine direction” (12).

In the remainder of this essay, Duncan walks through accounts from the Old and New Testaments to show that the regulative principle has not expired in the New Testament and is not, in fact, “outmoded.” He gives helpful overviews of passages dealing with the golden calf, Christ’s interactions with the Pharisees on matters of worship, the words of Jesus to the woman at the well, Paul’s letter to the Colossians and his first letter to Corinth, as well as other relevant passages of Scripture. The burden and concern in this section is to demonstrate that the regulative principle itself is founded on Scripture, and the goal of showing that is accomplished well in these pages. Duncan writes toward the conclusion of the first section, “The Bible testifies, in both New Testament and Old, in its teaching about God and his enduring moral norms, by precept and example, that corporate worship is to be conducted in careful response to divine revelation. And thus we can say that the Bible itself provides us with what the Reformed tradition sometimes labels the regulative principle of worship” (53).

The second section of the book, “Foundations for Biblically Directed Worship,” deals with theological truths and underpinnings of Reformed worship as well as some of the practical outworkings of Reformed worship. In other words, Duncan analyzes what drives Reformed worship (what he calls “foundational realities” [58]) and what Reformed (or biblical) worship looks like. In considering these foundational realities, Duncan addresses “the nature of God” (58–59), “the Creator-creature distinction” (60–61), “the nature of revelation and knowledge” (61–62), “the second commandment” (62–63), “the nature of faith” (63–64), “the doctrine of carefulness” (64–65), “the church’s derivative authority” (65–66), “the doctrine of Christian freedom” (66–67), “the nature of true piety” (67), “our tendency to idolatry” (68–69), and “the testimony of church history” (69–70).

This section serves as an excellent systematic overview of doctrines related to God, man, the law, and the Christian life. As Duncan addresses the doctrine of the nature of God, he argues that our worship reveals something of our understanding of God, and our worship itself is instructional. In other words, how we worship influences how we think about God. This is one reason our worship must be biblical and shaped by the Word of God. If our worship is not according to the Word of God, we will develop unbiblical notions of God. If our worship is according to the ways of man, we will think about God in man-centered terms. Duncan says it much better:

God’s own nature—who God is—determines the way we should worship him.…The parallel truth to the above point [that God’s nature determines the nature of his worship] is that corporate worship informs our understanding of God and therefore must be superintended by him if his self-revelation is to be the prime factor in our knowing him. This is one of the underlying rationales of Exodus 20:4–6. If you worship God via the usage of images, it changes your view of God. Form impacts content. The means of worship influences the worshiper’s apprehension of God. So, Christian corporate worship both requires and shapes our understanding of the Bible’s teaching about God. The doctrine of God informs our corporate worship, and in turn, our corporate worship refines our practical comprehension and embrace of the doctrine of God. (58–59).

Duncan’s summary of systematic theological realities that inform worship shows that Reformed worship is not merely a tradition of man, nor is it formulated on merely loose principles found in Scripture. Reformed worship is fueled by some of the most profound and, indeed, foundational theological truths of the Bible.

In my estimation, perhaps the highlight of the book is the final subsection, “The Form and Content of Worship.” This shines through as a thoughtful, winsome, robust, and even concise treatment of what is often called “Reformed worship” or “ordinary means of grace” worship. Duncan writes, “What is striking about the Reformed approach to worship is that it requires the substance of corporate worship to be suffused with Scripture and scriptural theology. An apt motto for those who embrace the regulative principle then might be, ‘Read the Bible, preach the Bible, pray the Bible, sing the Bible, and see the Bible’” (74). Duncan skillfully shows us that Reformed worship is Bible-driven worship. The Word is at the very core. It is scriptural from start to finish. The Bible is read in the worship service, even apart from the sermon text. Centrally, the Bible is preached, as “preaching is God’s prime appointed instruction to build up his church” (78). The language of Scripture is prayed in public prayer, and Duncan issues a call to “restore the pastoral prayer to its former place of dignity” (79). The Bible is to be sung in psalms and biblically rich, edifying hymns. So much of the discussion about worship in the church today centers on music. Too often, more attention is given to worshipers’ preferences than to discerning the kinds of biblical songs God actually prefers and intends to use to edify his people. Duncan helpfully states, “What we mean by ‘sing the Bible’ is that our singing ought to be biblical, shot through with the language, categories, and theology of the Bible” (80). The Bible is to be seen in the two sacraments appointed by our Savior, baptism and the Lord’s Supper. “We say ‘see’ the Bible because God’s sacraments are ‘visible words’ (Augustine’s phrase). The sacraments (baptism and the Lord’s Supper) are the only two commanded dramas of Christian worship” (81). To conclude, Duncan explains how all of this is “simple, biblical, transferable, flexible, and reverent” (32).

Ligon Duncan has served the church well by very simply but carefully defining the regulative principle and its biblical foundations, as well as showing how this principle is indeed for the good of God’s people. In a day when many people (especially young people) are looking for rootedness and tradition, Duncan’s book should not be overlooked. Many have reacted to a lack of structured worship in the wider evangelical world by turning to vastly different high church traditions, such as Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy. The jump from evangelicalism to these traditions is a huge one, and it is surprising how often Reformed Protestantism, with its biblically rooted worship, is overlooked. Rather than being at one end of the pendulum’s swing or the other, Reformed worship seeks to be truly rooted in the Scripture. Reformed worship certainly has tradition, but it is tradition grounded in and fueled by the Bible, seeking to be Bible-shaped. It aims to be joyful as well as biblical and reverent. It is serious and weighty. Terry Johnson writes that “neither the ‘high’ nor ‘low’ church alternatives can carry the weight of Presbyterian theology and practice.”² For those seeking proper reverence and weightiness, Reformed churches practicing Reformed worship have something unique to offer. For those seeking joyful, simple worship in which the beauty of the gospel, pardon, peace, and new life in Christ are displayed throughout the service, it is difficult to imagine where these things are clearer than in a Reformed service of worship. For those seeking rootedness, what better rootedness could there be than that of Scripture? Reformed worship is both filled with the Bible and is anchored in and driven by the Bible. Duncan’s book highlights this directly and winsomely. And this book reminds us that worship is ultimately not about the seeker, but about God.

I will simply close with a personal word. When I was a member of First Presbyterian Church in Jackson, Mississippi, Dr. Duncan was one of my pastors. The gravity of the service mixed with the joy of Dr. Duncan and the other pastors as they led public worship played a significant role in my life and persuaded me perhaps as much as anything else of the beauty of Reformed theology. Theology’s end is not chiefly academic; theology drives worship. I am grateful to Dr. Duncan not only for the convictions he set forth in this book but also for the way he has modeled them in the public worship of God.

Notes

1. Phillip Graham Ryken, Derek W. H. Thomas, and J. Ligon Duncan III, eds., Give Praise to God: A Vision for Reforming Worship: Celebrating the Legacy of James Montgomery Boice (P&R, 2003), 17–73.
2. Terry Johnson, Leading in Worship: A Sourcebook for Presbyterian Students and Ministers Drawing from the Biblical and Historical Forms of the Reformed Tradition (Tolle Lege Press, 2013), 14.

©James Ritchey. All Rights Reserved.

Ligon Duncan, Does God Care How We Worship? (P&R, 2020).

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Post authored by:

• James Ritchey

  

  James Ritchey is originally from Birmingham, Alabama and studied at Reformed Theological Seminary in Jackson, MS (2018). James serves as mission developer and pastor at River City Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP) in Little Rock, AR.

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