From an Old Testament perspective, spiritual formation is communal and liturgical. Brueggemann affirms that Israel’s faith experiences are expressed through psalms shaped by community life, temple worship, and historical memory. The form‐critical insights of Gunkel, Mowinckel, and Westermann deepen our understanding of how different life settings (orientation, disorientation, and new orientation) are captured along the believer’s journey.
Within ancient Israel, spiritual growth was inseparable from the ongoing renewal of the covenant with God. Simultaneously, the people reflected “the very definition of spiritual formation, the process of being conformed to the image of Jesus Christ for the glory of God and for the sake of others,”[1] a principle we still hold dear. Indeed, as one observes, “obedience is not a human work but a practical outworking of Israelite faith within the context of the covenant relationship with Yahweh.”[2] This dual emphasis on inner change and communal accountability underlies Israel’s radical renewal.
This renewal was never purely individual; it required an inner change that reshaped communal life. The Psalms provided a rich, poetic framework through which individuals and the community expressed their deepest longings, doubts, and celebrations. Walter Brueggemann reminds us, “the Psalms are a genuinely dialogical literature that expresses both sides of the conversation of faith,”[3] reinforcing the communal nature of spiritual formation. In engaging with these texts, Israel was invited to become more fully what it meant to be created in the divine image, reflecting on diverse expressions—orientation, disorientation, and new orientation.
Tracing the origins of spiritual formation leads us to Genesis 12:1–3, where “God set apart the nation of Israel to be formed into a kind of people who were to reflect God to the world, and in so doing, point the world back to God,”[4] marking the beginning of His work with Abraham and His chosen people. From then on, Israel was shaped as a communal “kingdom of priests,” where the individual’s life was inseparable from the collective story.
In this communal context, the Psalms functioned as both personal and public resources. The author notes, “in this literature the community of faith has heard and continues to hear the sovereign speech of God, who meets the community in its depths of need and in its heights of celebration.”[5] They were recited, chanted, and sung during gatherings and times of crisis—practices that fostered a robust communal identity rooted in a shared theological understanding. “Underlying these practices is the dynamic presence of the Holy Spirit, recognized as the primary Trinitarian agent of spiritual formation.”[6] In this way, we witness not only the transformative power of communal worship but also how the Holy Spirit actively shapes and guides the collective faith experience.
Psalms as Expressions of Community Life in the Old Testament
How did psalmsbecome an expression of the community? In the ancient Israelite community, the Psalms played a central role beyond the level of individual devotion. These sacred songs were integral to public worship and were employed during temple ceremonies, festival celebrations, and communal gatherings. They functioned as a collective language of praise, lament, and thanksgiving, weaving together the shared experiences of the people.
As they share, “Brueggemann notes that ‘that creative word is spoken in these psalms in the liturgical process, and it is in the world of worship that Israel ‘reexperiences’ and ‘redescribes’ the safe world over which God presides,’”[7] giving the people of Israel that assurance in their hearts. By expressing the joys, struggles, and hopes of the community, the Psalms not only reinforced communal identity but also facilitated a dynamic form of spiritual formation. In this context, understanding the liturgical use of the Psalms sheds insight into how ancient practices continue to influence modern congregational life.
Psalms of Orientation
The psalms of orientation were created, transmitted, valued, and relied upon by a community of faithful people. To them, faith was both important and satisfying; these psalms served as foundational texts within the Old Testament, affirming both the order and stability of society and the covenantal faithfulness of God. They reinforced a communal identity through shared liturgical practice and provided a template for spiritual formation. Brueggemann underscores this role when he states, “We have seen that the psalms of orientation tend to be consolidating, stability-enhancing, and inclined to urge conformity. These psalms reflect a theodicy that is accepted and celebrated without question. They reflect society ‘in a state of homeostatic equilibrium,’”[8] demonstrating that God is always in control.
This initiates a theological point: these psalms express a confident, serene settlement of faith issues. The psalms of orientation “mean to affirm the order, to generate new allegiance to the order, to give the order more power and authority, and to inculcate the young into it.”[9] At the same time, they serve a formative role by transmitting values across generations, thereby sustaining community continuity.
Certain aspects of life are so settled that believers do not live in perpetual anxiety. Such a happy settlement arises from the reliability and trustworthiness of God. In this community, the decision to stake life on this God is expressed through psalmic declarations that celebrate a stable, divinely ordered existence. In doing so, the psalms not only affirm a positive state of faith but also provide reassurance that life, though challenging, is anchored in the steadfast character of God.
The function of these psalms is both theological and social. They are intended to praise and thank God while articulating and maintaining a “sacred canopy” under which the community of faith lives free from anxiety. Life is not merely a human endeavor or an endless construction of effort but is sustained by a givenness guaranteed by God—a presence that stands over us, endures beyond us, and surrounds us.
Analysis of the Psalters shows that the psalms of orientation strengthen shared belief through communal recitation, provide emotional and spiritual stability, and build a collective memory by repetitive tradition. Ron Cantor captures this insight when he states, “the psalmist reveals that God’s goal in touching Israel is so ‘[God’s] way may be known on earth, [his] saving power among all nations (Ps 67:2 ESV),’”[10] demonstrating His will while offering salvation to all. These texts ultimately affirm the foundational order, stability, and divine provision inherent in creation and covenant, anchoring the community in continuity and tradition.
Psalms of Disorientation
Psalms of Disorientation are a category of Psalms that capture the raw experience of crisis, uncertainty, and spiritual upheaval. Unlike Psalms of Orientation, which establish order, comfort, and a reaffirmation of divine promises, Psalms of Disorientation articulate the disruption that occurs when life’s reality clashes with the expected order of God’s creation. “The God assumed by and addressed in these psalms is a God of sorrows and acquainted with grief.”[11]
Psalms of disorientation have three core characteristics, the first is expression of lament and anguish. These are the psalms that provide a language for deep mourning and existential questioning. When the bonds of faith are crushed by loss, injustice, or communal catastrophe, the psalms of disorientation echo the emotions of grief, doubt and perplexity. “The use of these psalms of darkness may be judged by the world to be acts of unfaith and failure, but for the trusting community, their use is an act of bold faith, albeit a transformed faith.”[12] Second, The moment the people of Israel is confronted with divine silence. That moment of silence in their hearts allow the community or individual to feel abandoned by God., where is God? The hope of the people and community comes in the third characteristic, “the psalms of disorientation occur and make sense to us when the consensus about theodicy has collapsed and there is a crisis in the ordering of life.”[13]
Psalms of New Orientation
After a season of disorientation emerges the era of Psalms of New Orientation. They mark a transformative juncture where the crisis has been acknowledged and overcome. “The psalms of new orientation celebrate a new settlement of the issue of theodicy. The crisis is past, and there is again a stable paradigm for social life.”[14] This “new rule” is not a mere return to the old, but a reimagined trust in God’s justice that establishes a stable, reoriented way of life. “The liturgical event is a foretaste of the real settlement. So these psalms of new orientation speak about the new state of things when life is whole and well-ordered, when the system is just and God is known to be righteous and just,”[15] here, Brueggemann underlines how worship practices themselves become an anticipatory celebration of the new order.
What is clear in these psalms is that this is not a return to the old theodicy. There is here no knuckling under to the old regime, the old God. There is rather a celebration of the coming of God, who now establishes a new rule.[16]
This passage cements the idea that the transformation embodied in the New Orientation psalms is radical; it does not reinstitute the old order but honors a God who now brings forth an entirely redefined governance of justice.
[1] Ken Van Vliet, Is Spiritual Formation Biblical, https://www.georgefox.edu/seminary/articles/spiritual-formation-biblical.html
[2] Watch video
[3] Chap 1.
[4] Ibid, https://www.georgefox.edu.
[5] Chap 1.
[6] Watch Video.
[7] Chap, 2
[8] Chap 5.
[9] Chap 5.
[10] Ron Cantor, https://www.roncantor.com/post/the-old-testament-and-spiritual-formation-part-2
[11] Chap 3.
[12] Chap 3.
[13] Chap 5.
[14] Chap 5.
[15] Chap 5.
[16] Chap 5.