Again, Brueggemann does not disappoint. In this book, we invited into exactly what the title represents: Israel's Praise. By looking through the liturgy that is found in the Scriptures of their history, we are able to grasp the reasons for which God is worthy of worship(and God alone!) by their different experiences and their responses to them.

This was an absolutely fascinating book for me and very pertinent to me as we do not really have a church we truly feel a part of(although we're very excited about finding a place of worship out in the Seattle area). Evie and I have been having a home church from time to time that has been very fruitful and enjoyable and it has been very easy to come to a point of questioning why church is so important after all. While I am very eager to be part of a church, it is still worth asking what the point of church actually is because I believe a good explanation is severely lacking (outside of being a custom/ritual). Through this book, I have been reminded of why it is we meet and exactly what is intended in that time although I do not even know if this was intentional by Brueggemann or not.

Brueggemann reminds us that we gather to celebrate the good things that God is doing and has done for His followers throughout all of time. This is why the Old Testament is so important to be included as part of our meeting as well. We are given an extremely unique time of tangible closeness of God to His people and are able to understand how the relationship pans out and how it would look in an ideal situation. We are given glimpses of right living by our forefathers and the response by God when they are following His will. Additionally, we are shown times where Israel continually falls on its face and yet is still given hope. We also see times of grief as we see the endless wickedness(idolatry) which leads them to exile and we mourn in those times we are not following the proper path. We gather to tell the story of God and His Creation. To push us forward on the story that we continue to write with God. To share our hurts and our joys. Our current situation may be largely different than what Israel experienced, yet we are invited to enter this story and challenged to live a life that avoids idolatry and instead seeks to praise God and God only. ( )