Hands together, eyes closed

How would you support that practice of putting your hands together and closing your eyes in prayer from the Bible? Are there any biblical examples of it?

I can see a common sense argument that such things may help us to avoid fidgeting and distraction. Which is one of the things that reminds us we don't want a very rigid (caricatured?) view of the Regulative Principle of Public Worship as if "everything that is not [explicitly?] commanded [in the Bible / NT] is forbidden" in worship. Surely no one thinks closing your eyes to pray is always and necessarily wrong? (See John Frame's questions and thoughts about the Regulative Principle).

I'm all for reverence for God, of course, and so bowing down in prayer seems appropriate, but personally I also like to look up to pray from time to time - it feels more elevating, expansive, joyful, hopeful, expectant, open, almost, somehow.

On a rainy day, I'm sure a Bible study on postures for prayer (kneeling, standing, bowing, hand-raising) would be rewarding. But at the moment the sun is shinning (ish) and there's more pressing things for me to be doing...

Free use of symbols and ceremonies

According to Zachman:

According to Calvin, both the apostles and Jesus were rather free in their use of such symbols and ceremonies, as when Jesus at times uses dust and spittle, at other times just a touch, or the apostles heal by word or touch, as well as by oil. (Image and Word etc. p319)

Granted that Jesus and the Apostles had the authority to institute ceremonies and symbols which we do not have, and wisdom which we cannot fully achieve, is it not still reasonable to take their actions as a model for our own? At least their actions show the lawfulness of symbols and ceremonies, even ones for which there is little explicit commandment in the Word of God, and not just in an entirely Old Testament context since Jesus is bringing in the Kingdom.

Regulative Principles in Practice

Zachman comments that “… in the third edition of the Institutes of 1543, Calvin completely changes his position in the symbol of the laying on of hands.” (Image and Word etc. p315) Previously Calvin had rejected the practice since it not (explicitly) commanded in the New Testament but he later advocated it since the uniform custom of the Apostles means it is effectively commanded.

The Hermeneutics of High Church Puritanism

Granted we are not under the Old Covenant, Rev'd Dr Peter Leithart rightly identifies a very important question: how, if at all, may the ceremonial, ritual and cultic aspects of the Old Covenant be used to govern the practices of New Covenant worship?

The Reformed would generally assume some continuity between the covenants while recognising differences: e.g. they circumcised their children, we baptise ours.

If you assume NT only worship you may end up in a rather different place than if you are willing to learn from the OT: e.g. you might ban musical instruments (which many Reformed people have), which you'd never do if you thought the Psalms taught New Testament believers the practicalities of how to worship.

See further Peter Leithart, 'Sacramental Hermeneutics' in Greg Strawbridge (ed.), The Case for Covenant Communion (Athanasius Press, 2006)

Biblical Worship?

It’s interesting to find a Reformed professor making statements like this from John Frame:

Most everything in Lutheran and Anglican worship, even things Presbyterians most object to, such as vestments, processionals, and incense, arise from theological reflection, including a biblical rationale.

The Doctrine of the Christian Life (P&R, 2008), p465

Glory and Beauty in NT worship?

It is interesting to note that Exodus 28 repeatedly points out that the priestly garments are given "for glory and for beauty" and are to be skillfully made in a variety of spelendid colours.

Granted that the Lord Jesus Christ is our supreme and final High Priest and that the Old Covenant is fulfilled and the ceremonial law radically changed, how do the OT cultic laws regulate New Testament worship today?

Of course there is great glory and beauty to the New Covenant and all of it is fulfilled in Christ (2 Cor 3 springs to mind), but what are the implications for our church buildings, our clothing and our collective public worship today? Is it still appropriate to look for glory, beauty and skill on a Sunday morning?

Surely such things are not necessarily Judaizing returns to the Old Covenant shadow-lands? The Book of Revelation would suggest such symbolism in heaven and in the New Creation too. So why not a little foretaste of heaven coming on earth too?

It feels quasi-Marcionite to say that the OT no longer regulates public worship and semi-Gnostic to say that simple invisible spiritual worship is best.

Ritual, buildings and clothes would seem inevitable. Neutrality would seem impossible.

So what should it look and sound and feel and smell like?

Anglican & Reformed RP

(With a nod in the direction of John Frame's excellent article...)

The common perception is that there is a stark and unbridgeable difference between Anglicanism and Calvinism with regard to the Regulative Principle of Public Worship, but this need not be so. This shows how some Puritans could for a time continue to operate within the Church of England. Anglicans are generally thought to hold that “what is not forbidden is permitted” in public worship whereas the Reformed tend to think that “what is not required is forbidden”. This thesis argues along with John Frame that a form of the Regulative Principle can be retained and (going further than Frame) that it is compatible with Anglicanism, once it is realized how God regulates public worship, and indeed the whole of life. Once one is committed to the sufficiency of Scripture and sees the whole Bible as regulating by examples and patterns rather than just by New Testament commands, one has moved significantly from some strict and narrow Reformed understandings of the Regulative Principle. If there is no neutrality, the Bible, rightly understood, must tell us how to make all decisions, including those about public worship and sometimes using sources and instruments other than Scripture itself (such as tradition, reason and experience). Calvin was willing to appeal to “natural reason”, for example, in arguing that prayers should be in a language people can understand. This is consistent with the Reformation principle of the supreme final authority of Scripture which should not be absolutised into a crude form of sola scriptura, as if nothing else need be considered. If Scripture gives examples of men rightly inventing festivals (such as the Feast of Purim in Esther 9) and encourages the making of wise decisions, one has embraced both a form of the Regulative Principle and of the Anglican principle.

Ritual Actions and RP

I reckon it would be useful for understanding the Regulative Principle of public worship in the NT era to go through the NT and make a list of more or less "ritual actions" that are spoken of maybe more or less positively. Of course all or most of our actions are in some way ritualised, but I hope you can see what I mean and the point of it all. Off the top of my head:

baptism
OT rituals such as circumcision as good in themselves in their place
the Lord's Supper
meals / feasts - waiting for one another
weddings
shaking the dust of your feet as a witness
feet washing
riding a donkey into Jerusalem
Jesus asking Peter the same question 3 times
white robes
incense
Sabbath keeping
Jesus' habit of appearing to his disciples on a Sunday
Putting aside an offering on the 1st day of the week
regarding some days as special to the Lord
day and night, waking and sleeping
communal singing
formal excommunication
laying on of hands / ordination
holy kiss
public reading a scripture

Can you add to my list?

Ritual (like "tradition") seems inescapable. God seems to like it. The options are good ritual or bad and confused ritual not no ritual.