Liturgy. Whether we realize it or not, we all long for liturgy in our daily lives. When we think of liturgy, we often think of it as “high church” or “stuffy religion”. Yet all of us are engaged in liturgy every day. Simply put, liturgy means “the work of the people”, and is the weekly and oftentimes daily expression of worship for God‘s people. Whether you are Anglican, Catholic, Baptist, Presbyterian, or even non-denominational you are being formed by liturgy. And that’s a good thing (for the most part). We are shaped more, however, by the personal/private liturgy we engage with daily.
Growing up as a Baptist, this was referred to as one’s “quiet time”, time that was set aside for prayer and Bible reading. As an Anglican, I know this as The Daily Office. There are many excellent resources out there to guide us through a devotional quiet time/prayer time. One obvious choice is the Daily Office from the Book of Common Prayer. A modern resource in a similar genre is the work of Jonathan Gibson, who’s written several resources for liturgical devotion, including his most recent book. Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing: A Liturgy for Daily Worship with the Psalms (Crossway, 2026).
In the style of the Daily Office, Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing provides thirty-one daily liturgies crafted to soar our hearts heavenward. As any good liturgy should, each day is structured almost identically. Each day begins with a call to worship, taken from the Psalms, followed by a prayer of adoration borrowed from prayers by Matthew Henry. Then, a reading of the Law taken from across the scriptures, followed by a prayer of confession.
The liturgy then moves to assurance of pardon, followed by another reading of the Law. Next comes a recitation of one of the creeds of the Church (Apostles’ or Nicene) followed by the Gloria Patri and a catechism question taken from either the Heidelberg or Westminster catechisms. The heart of the liturgy is the reading of scripture, which in this book is either thirty-one Psalms or the option to read all 150 Psalms in a month. Gibson also offers the option to follow the M’Cheyne Bible reading plan. The liturgy concludes with prayers of intercession ending with the Lord’s Prayer.
The shape of Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing is very familiar. It is essentially a Reformed/Presbyterian Book of Common Prayer with a little Anglicanism thrown in for good measure. As an Anglican, I am partial to the Book of Common Prayer, and I use this as my “bread and butter” prayer resource. In my opinion, the Book of Common Prayer has stood the test of time, and I find it difficult to improve upon. The BCP provides daily reading options for both the Psalms (30 and 60 days) and a full Bible reading plan, including the Apocrypha/deuterocanonical books. Additionally, I am not keen on either the Heidelberg or Westminster catechisms and would prefer to use either the BCP 1662 catechism or the ACNA catechism, To Be A Christian.
Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing would serve as a good “gateway drug” to the Book of Common Prayer and the Daily Office. For these reasons, I would recommend Jonathan Gibson’s Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing to anyone seeking to engage in liturgical devotion for the first time. As someone who is relatively new to the liturgical tradition, I appreciate Gibson’s accessible style. In full disclosure, I must give Gibson some credit for my transition toward the Anglican tradition. While Gibson himself is a Presbyterian, his earlier liturgical devotional, Be Thou My Vision, whetted my appetite for liturgy and helped point me down the road to the Anglican tradition, and for that, I am grateful.
Editor’s Note: This title was received by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
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