Guess I am throwing myself back in.
As to the discussion involving the relationship within the Trinity. I don't think that God had to create-The Triune God created out of the desire to share this perfect relationship with something else. I will agree with Travis, I don't think God was lacking anything.
If we really want to think about the actions of God, we need to starting thinking about what the supreme attribute of God is-and how that affects everything that flows out of him.
In most modern (contemporary) theology, the attribute of God that is spoken as the most supreme is his sovereignty. But I really think that is a wrong way to think about God. While the triune God's role as king is one that is expressed a good deal, I think we need to start with God's holiness and our concept of person-hood. When we look at the Garden, we see that God made us in His image, and I bet you grew up thinking that meant God looked like a cool old-dude. But if we really break apart God's attributes, we see that God has attributes that distinctly make him God, like the omni's (his relative attributes) and his "absoluteness". But what God did decide to share is what makes him a loving God-this is the idea of biblical personhood and the fact that has humans we have the (limited) capacity to practice love, righteousness, grace, goodness, etc..etc...Basically, this is the fact that God allows humans (as He has these attributes) the ability to practice reason, imagination, emotion and will. Our idea of personhood is based on our abilities to practice these shared attributes in moral choices, freedom,creativity and responsibility. It is through God's holiness that these attributes are expressed, and this sharedness is what makes us in Gods image.
Holiness is the central biblical starting point. At Sinai God told Israel that He wants a holy people because he himself is a Holy God. It is this holiness that sets God apart from all of the various deities in the ANE. Holiness is originally defined in God, remember that many of our idea's of who God is (king, shepard, Father, etc..) is us trying to explain God using human concepts. God will communicate to us in a manner that we understand, as he does to the Jews in the OT, but God's holiness alone is the descriptor that we cannot name a earthly person.
This really affects how we view worship, because we place ourselves (through salvation)inside of the proper relationship that Man was destined for. Throughout the majority of Church History, mans songs directed towards God were not internal, but a re-telling of God's holy nature and a re-hearsing of the biblical history of salvation. So our worship is not just music, but is is us placing ourselves back inside this idea of a proper relationship with the God-head. Augustine taught that Man was originally was created posse non peccare et non mori ( (possible not to sin and die). We were created for the perfect relationship with God, and not acknowledging that in our relationship, and instead focusing on our attempts to come to God, is almost like being stuck in nuetral when you are trying to learn to drive stick...you give it tons of power, but never really go forward. Our worship is a lifestyle back with God-and one of the ways that this is acknowledged when gathered together is through song.
Sorry this was so long, and I don't want it to be harsh at all...I just have been watching this thread and trying to find a way to put all this together.
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