As the framework of God’s relationship with his people, the biblical covenant finds expression in the worship arts. Worship celebrates the distinctive themes of the covenant: the kingship of the Lord; his leadership and protection in warfare; his covenant promises and the story of his great deeds of deliverance; his laws and precepts, in the observance of which the worshiper maintains his place in the covenant; and his judgments against violation of the relationship, as expressed in prophetic psalm or song uttered during the assemblies of the people.
The covenant is corporate; it is a relationship between the Lord and the entire worshiping community. In revealing his covenant name to Moses, Yahweh related it to his involvement in the history of a people, the ancestors of Israel: “The Lord, the God of your fathers—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob” (Exod. 3:14–15). Although the covenant is promised, mediated, and renewed through individual leaders—patriarchs, prophets, kings—it is made with all the people, a people consecrated to the Lord: “The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession” (Deut. 7:6). In the prayer and hymnody of covenant worship, the speaker represents the entire community, not himself as an individual.
This accounts for the prominent place given to the king, as the nation’s representative, in the prayer and praise of the Psalms and in the erection and dedication of the temple. It accounts for the role of the prophet as an intercessor for the people in the face of impending judgment (Amos 7:1–6). It also accounts for the fact that so much of the biblical literature is really anonymous, though often included in books associated with the names of prominent figures. Although more than half of the Psalms are related in their superscriptions to David, Asaph, or other musicians, many psalms have no superscription.
Of the prophetic books, one that eloquently proclaims the Lord’s purification of covenant worship is anonymous: “Malachi” simply means “my messenger” in Hebrew. Only later, in the Hellenistic period, did Hebrew thought come to see the arts and literature in terms of individual authorship. In the well-known passage beginning, “Let us now praise famous men” (Sir. 44:1), Jesus ben Sirach celebrates the achievement of “those who composed musical tunes and set forth verses in writing” (Sir. 44:5). But the visual art of the early Christian movement, and most of its hymnody, are anonymous. From the biblical standpoint, individual creativity is not important, especially in the worship arts. Here the Christian artist is not making a statement of personal religious experience or calling attention to himself but is seeking to sum up the corporate experience of the church. When he or she expresses a personal faith, it is faith as practiced within the context of the community of faith.