In an essay on “How to Chant the Psalms,” James B. Jordan says, “Just how important is this shape of the text? Well, our answer will depend on how we view the Word of God. Is the Word merely information, or does it shape our thinking and our lives in other ways as well? Does the shape of the text shape us? Does it change how we think, in subtle ways, enabling us to live in God’s world more perfectly? I submit that to ask such questions is virtually to answer them. Certainly the shape of God’s Word is an aspect of the Word, and should be brought across as much as possible in translation and reading.”
Is the pattern of God’s creation week an aspect of the creation? Does the Lord only want to fill our heads with ideas, or does he want to make our bodies and spirits fat with holy patterns, shapes, rites, and real, physical objects (water, bread, wine, etc)? We serve, me thinks, the Lord of pattern and shape, and I believe that we ought to pay attention to Biblical patterns and shapes, for it will cause us to mature in a manner that is cruciform.
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