Following excerpt from recent CT interview with N. T. Wright regarding his new book, The Case for the Psalms: Why They Are Essential.

How can the Psalms transform us?

Within the Jewish and Christian traditions, you get your worldview sorted out by worship. The Psalms are provided to guide that worship. When we continually pray and sing the Psalms, our worldview will actually reconfigure according to their values, theology, and modes of expression. It’s not that the Psalter gives us “Five Rules for Constructing Your Worldview.” But it does embody the worldview that is to shape the people of God. And somebody who is regularly exposed to certain media forms (like a sequence of films, or a radio talk show with a particular bias) will begin seeing the world through those ideas and values.

“The atonement is objective to us, performed independently of us, and the subjective effects that accrue from it presuppose its accomplishment. The subjective effects exerted in our understanding and will can follow only as we recognize by faith the meaning of the objective fact” (John Murray, Redemption – Accomplished and Applied, 52).

“But why didn’t God, when sin entered the world, simply squash Satan and his legion and finish the battle? Why does he put up with, even actively join the fight against, such rebellion when he could stop it at any time? The only answer we have to such questions is that all things are still working to and for his own glory, even though sin has ruined his creation (Rom. 11:36). Everything that happens, happens according to his all-wise and perfect plan” (K. Scott Oliphint, Covenantal Apologetics: Principles and Practices in Defense of Our Faith, 32).

“The word “condemned” in Romans 8:3 recalls the words from verse 1, “There is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” This is a reference to the reality of justification. (“Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn?” [Romans 8:33-34, ESV].) The Son of God became flesh so that the “condemnation” of sin might be on him (who had no sin). That is, he bore our condemnation. We are now viewed as free from condemnation “in Christ” (v. 1) when we are united to him by faith” (John Piper, Counted Righteous in Christ: Should We Abandon the Imputation of Christ’s Righteousness?, 79).

“Being saved is not some individual achievement, not the result of some flash of personal insight, nor the securing of life’s sense of meaning, although all of that may happen in the process of praying this prayer. Salvation is the delightful surprise of having your little life caught up in the purposes of God for the whole world. Salvation is having your life bent toward God when all you thought you were doing was memorizing a little prayer” (William H. Willimon & Stanley Hauerwas, Lord, Teach Us: The Lord’s Prayer and the Christian Life, 21-22).

“The Bible claims to be the word of God; it speaks in his name, it assumes his authority” (Charles Hodge, The Way of Life: A Handbook of Christian Belief and Practice, 17).

“[T]he essential teachings of Christianity is that God has a plan for man and the world. We are bound to believe that history is not a haphazard conglomeration of chance events which are going nowhere. We are bound to believe that there is some divine far off event to which the whole creation moves and that when that consummation comes Jesus Christ will be Judge and Lord of all. The Second Coming is not a matter for speculation and for illegitimate curiosity; it is a summons to make ourselves ready for that day when it comes” (William Barclay, The Acts of the Apostles, 14).

“Who would you rather listen to: someone who has been around the world three times on a oil freighter, or someone who never came out of his basement – even if he had really sweet bandwidth down there?” (Douglas Wilson, Wordsmithy: Hot Tips for the Writing Life, 66).

“We eat, sleep, make love, shake hands, hug our children out of habit. Some things in life are too important to be left up to chance. Some things in life are too difficult to be left up to spontaneous desire – things like telling people that we love them or praying to God. So we do them “out of habit.” Thus, in the church we generally do the same things over and over again, week after week, telling the same stories and singing the same songs” (William H. Willimon & Stanley Hauerwas, Lord, Teach Us: The Lord’s Prayer and the Christian Life, 18).