In Created for Worship, Noel Due has written an excellent exporation of the Biblical Theology behind worship. I wrote a more general review of the book on my book review blog, but I wanted to highlight the book here because I think it’s one of the finest books written on worship in the last decade or so. I bring it up on this blog because I want to highly recommend it to everyone reading this, whether you’re a worship leader, you desire to be, you’re a pastor, or you’re just a lay person who’s hungry for a little more.

Here’s a little excerpt from the beginning of the book (I tried to include enough to understand what he was talking about, but every concept in the book builds on the ones before it…). check it out:

The anointing of Jesus with the Spirit at his baptism thus identifies him as the covenant king of Israel, who is both the vice-regent of God and the covenantally obligated ruler of God’s people. His mission as the great Davidic King would hinge entirely on his worship of God. Its successful outcome would be a worshiping people, led by his own faithfulness to the throne of his Father. Jesus’ role as the purifier of the Temple (e.g. Joh 2:13-22) and the transformer of worship  (e.g. John 4:19-24) is thus fully fitting for his kingly ministry over Israel and for his construciton of a new Temple, far greater than that of Solomon or Herod. (pp. 11-12)

That may seem like a mouthful, but it is very insightful. The whole book is a Biblical Theological approach to understanding worship and our role in it. Thusly, Due walks through the Bible, pulling out themes and points relevant to worship as he goes along.

I highly recommend this book!