In accordance with an embodiment, a system and method provides a messaging service in a multitenant application server environment. Deployable resources are usable within the multitenant application server environment and groupings of resources are defined by resource group templates within a domain. One or more partitions are provided, with each partition providing an administrative and runtime subdivision of the domain that can be associated with a tenant. Java message service (JMS) resources are defined within a resource group template or a resource group, and instantiated within a partition to enable messaging for applications deployed within the partition and between partitions. Integrating JMS in a multitenant application server environment further includes a foreign JMS server feature which maps remotely hosted JMS connection factories and JMS destinations into a local partition's JNDI, so that bridges and applications in turn gain access to these resources by looking them up in this name-space.