Remembering: A central theme in Biblical worship

Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, Mar 2000 by Merrill, Eugene H

3. This response as a whole may be defined as worship. Every word of praise; every petition, every act of ritual and ceremony, every obedient work-all these are worship and all are triggered by remembrance and depend on remembrance, if they are to be carried on into the future as part of the living tradition and mission of the Church.

4. In practical terms, the Christian worshiper must seek every means of bringing to mind the person and attributes of God. This includes reflecting deeply upon his salvific work from remotest times to the present and celebrating in Biblical ways what these mean to corporate and individual life and experience. The definition of worship must be broadened to incorporate the notion of response in all its forms, for obedient and loving response is the essence of what it means to be a believer.

1 Irwin Goldstein, "Information Processing," International Encyclopedia of Psychiatry, Psychology, Psychoanalysis, and Neurology ted. Benjamin B. Wolman; New York: Aesculapius, 1977) 6:50.

2 Reenactment, in fact, is seen by the famous philosopher of history, R. C=. Collingwood, to he the very basis for historical knowledge. But reenactment, he also argues, is based on memory, both that of the historian and that of others whom or about whom he knows. See his The Idea of History (Oxford: Clarendon, 1946? esp. pp. 282, 296.

3 Many scholars see these creedalized in such passages as Deut 26:5b-9 and Josh 24:2-13 which, in effect, are brief recitals of the historical turning points of Yahweh's election and guidance of his people. See e.g. Gerhard von Rad, "The Form-Critical Problem of the Hexateuch, in The Problem of the Hexateuch and Other Essays (London: SGM, 1966) 3-8.

4 Gerhard von Rad, Old Testament Theology (New York: Harper & Row, 1962) 1:242-243.

5 For a careful lexical analysis see H. Eising, "1*T,, TDOT 4:64-82; cf also Leslie C. Allen, "W t," NIDOTTE 1:1100-1106.

6 BDB 269-271; KB 255-257.

7 Eising, "'i7?,' 81.

8 This is a way of speaking of the connection between worship and form. Dyrness expresses this connection well: "Worship is the response of the believing heart to God . . . Cult is simply the form of Israel's response to the revelation of God." William Dyrness, Themes in Old Testament Theology Downers Grove: InterVarsity, 1979) 143.

9 As Dumbrell happily puts it, "Biblically, when the past is `remembered,' what is often meant is that what is done is present experience is logically dependent upon some past event." William d. Dumbrell, Covenant and Creation (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1984) 31.

10 Artur Weiser, The Psalms (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1962? 206. Van Gemeren suggests that the remembrance is synonymous with acceptance. Willem A. VanGemeren, "Psalms,' in Expositor's Bible Commentary (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1991) 5:190.

11his is not the place to get into the so-called "blame theology," in which the divine name is s metaphor for God himself. For this see e.g. Samuel Terrien, The Elusive Presence (New York: Harper & Row, 1978) 197-213.