One of the past year’s 10 top books for preachers (cited by Albert Mohler in the March-April issue of Preaching) is Daniel I. Block’s For the Glory of God: Recovering Biblical Theology of Worship (Baker Academic). Mohler writes:
“Daniel Block, now professor of Old Testament at Wheaton College, has been known by his friends to have been working on this project for many years. Students at a succession of theological schools have benefited from Block’s careful, biblical and deeply respectful presentation of a biblical theology of worship. While so many churches are engaged in what has been described as ‘worship wars,’ Block takes us back to the sources.
“The strength of this single volume is its combination of biblical theology and a keen heart for authentic worship. Any pastor will be exhilarated by its content, educated by Block’s scholarship, and made more competent and equipped to be faithful as a leader in Christian worship.
“Block defines worship in such a way that it ‘involves reverential human acts of submission and homage before the divine Sovereign in response to His gracious revelation of Himself and in accord with His will.’ Therefore, Block argues, ‘any authentic Christian worship must aim toward the promotion of the worshiper’s awe and reverence for the one true and living God.
“In the place of widespread confusion about the very nature of worship, and as a correction to the artificial worship services found in far too many churches, Block never loses sight of the fact that (as the Book of Hebrews says most emphatically) we worship the God who is a consuming fire (Heb 12:29).”