Psalms Hymns and Spiritual Songs

Introduction

We had to cut the song service a little short so I can have time to get my lesson in before our classes. It’s good to see everyone. I just want to say it, I was just thinking a few minutes ago what a blessing it is to have our elders and our deacons that we have in this congregation. There’s so much that goes on behind the scenes that so many of us don’t see that makes everything possible and that makes so many things happen here. And it’s it’s really a tremendous blessing and privilege. And I was thinking as John was up here praying, you know, that man is going to be a good elder one day. And so we have men who are preparing to be elders now, and many who that may be many years down the road for us, like myself.

But we need to be thinking and praying and developing those qualities and planning for that, because it doesn’t happen by accident. But that’s not what I’m preaching on. That was all extra. I want to begin this lesson with a question. Why is it that we do not use instruments when we have our song worship here at this church? Well, of course, the answer to that is simple, and it’s because we don’t read of using instruments in the New Testament. We read of singing. There are seven passages on that. And this morning’s lesson is going to focus on the two main passages about singing in the New Testament. And these are Ephesians 5.19 and Colossians 3.16. Ephesians 5.19 says, speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.

Colossians 3.16 says, Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you with all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another with psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness or with grace, the new King James says, in your hearts to God. These are beautiful passages. And there are many practical lessons that we can draw and are going to draw from these two verses in today’s lesson. But also we want to look at some arguments that are made, because these verses are used by some as really justification for using instruments of all things. And so we’re going to try to answer the question today do these verses justify using instruments in worship? So we’re going to begin just by breaking down and unpacking these passages, and we’ll see a lot of practical applications as we go along and lead to finally the arguments that we need to make at the end.

The context.

Nothing wrong necessarily. Now, a lot of that stuff today is very trashy. But if all that you sing on a regular basis is secular music, then maybe what that says about your heart is that your heart is filled with secular things. Kind of songs that I think maybe we need to be thinking about singing more often is songs that we’ve learned in church. Songs that your kids learn in Bible class. Sing those songs with your kids. What does that say about your heart? It says that what’s in your heart is the word and the spirit. And by the way, what we sing has a powerful way of impacting our inner person. And if we’re singing a lot of the things that we hear on the radio today, then you might not even realize it, but it’s influencing your thinking.

1. Singing to One Another

And it can make you worldly in your mind and in your heart. But that’s just a side point that I wanted to make. The emphasis in these verses is not really on authority, but authority is there. When I say the emphasis is not really on authority, in other words, Paul was saying what he was saying, not to say, hey, make sure you don’t do this. He was saying, hey, a person filled with the Spirit does this in a very positive way. And he was exhorting us to do that. But authority is there, and we certainly need to respect the authority that is there, and we’re going to get into that as we go along. So how does the exhortation begin in both passages? Singing to one another.

As it says in Ephesians, speaking to one another, as it says in Colossians, teaching and admonishing one another. And this is in the context of singing. You know, we talk about singing praises to God, and that’s certainly true, and I think first and foremost, who are we singing to? It’s the Lord. And you see, that’s how both of these passages end. But I think sometimes we we might need to stop and remember that we’re also singing to one another. We’re singing to one another. We’re singing to the Lord, but we’re also singing to one another.

Doctrines and warnings. Right? Teaching and admonishing one another, as Colossians says. You know the love of God is a doctrine. You ever think about that? The holiness of God is a doctrine. The things that we sing about and the way to live, those are doctrinal matters. And so there is a very real sense in which we are teaching one another and warning one another in our singing. If we pay attention. You know, our songs could be sermons. Psalm one nine or Psalm 19 that we sang earlier. What is it basically communicating? That God is pure, that He is He is perfect, He is sure. Or His law is enlightening the eyes and is righteous. And that God’s law is more desirable and more beneficial than anything on earth.

2. Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs

I could preach that in a sermon. And so let us pay attention to the words and learn the messages that we’re all communicating to one another. Thus singing is not only a way to be encouraged, it’s a way to be educated. Really by way of reminder, more than anything else. And we are teaching one another. In that sense, we’re all teachers. You might not think you’re a teacher, but when you sing to all of us, when we all sing to one another, we are all teaching one another. And what are we singing to one another? Particularly psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Have you ever tried to make a distinction between those three? It’s not really an easy thing to do in my studies. But I’ll give you the best that I can here from what I found.

Psalms refers perhaps to the book of Psalms. I think it would definitely include the book of Psalms, but some have suggested that it might include more than the book of Psalms in sort of a genre. For example, in 1 Corinthians 14, 26, Paul says, What is the outcome then, brethren? When you assemble, each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, as an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification. And it’s in the context of supernatural spiritual gifts there. So this doesn’t seem to me to be referring to the book of Psalms in this particular place, but rather a song that perhaps one would want to lead the congregation in. But I think that here in Ephesians and Colossians, I think that Psalms would definitely include the book of Psalms.

Do we not have songs that come directly from the book of Psalms? Well, sure we do. We sang, uh we sang one this morning, Psalm 19 that I referred to just a minute ago. And uh, you know, the law of the Lord is perfect. And so forth. Well, that comes directly from the book of Psalms. In fact, I found 12 songs in our hymnals that are actually titled Psalm Blank, fill in the blank. Twelve different ones that come directly from the book of Psalms. Now we can sing the Psalms today. There’s certainly parts of the Psalms that we probably shouldn’t sing about because we can’t practice those things today, like offering animal sacrifices. But a great majority of those things in the Psalms we can sing today.

But we need to sing more than Psalms. There was one congregation that was having a controversy because one of the men there, the leading men, believed that you can only sing songs out of the book of Psalms. And I can remember being there, and he was sitting up front here taking part in the service, but when songs were being led that were not from the book of Psalms, he would not move his mouth. Well, you know what he failed to understand is that we’re not only exhorted to sing Psalms, but also hymns and spiritual songs. Hymns from everything I’ve studied refers to songs of praise. Songs of praise. Remember after Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper? It says in Matthew 26, verse 30, after singing a hymn, they went out of the Mount of Olives.

It’s a song of praise. Remember when Paul and Silas were in prison in Philippi? What were they singing? Hymns of praise to God. So this is a specific thing. Hymns of praise. Not all hymns are hymns of praise, are they?

3. Making Melody With Your Heart

Spiritual songs. Literally spiritual odes. And odes can be very general, very secular. So we have the adjective spiritual. This seems to be sort of a catch-all term. So that the first two terms are specific, referring to perhaps the book of Psalms and referring to songs of praise. And this third term is more general, which seems to refer to pretty much any other category of song, whether it’s from the book of Psalms or not, whether it’s songs of praise or not. So we got them all included here: Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. And what are we to involve? What are we to sing from? Well, it is our heart. It is our heart. As Ephesians says, making melody with your heart. As Colossians says, with thankfulness in your hearts.

You know, if we don’t engage the heart in our singing, then it’s an empty exercise. It’s futile. It’s useless. You know, be honest with me for a minute. Be honest with yourself, men. I know today’s Father’s Day, but ask yourself this. Have you ever said, surely you’ve never done this? To your wife, I love you, and not really, you know, said it from the bottom of your heart. Not that you didn’t love her. Of course you loved her, but maybe it was sort of one of these, you know, I love you by on the phone. Did you really mean that? So sometimes when we sing to God, whether we’re saying to him that we love him or that he is holy or what be it, are we just rattling off words because that’s what we’ve done a thousand times?

If we’re doing that, then it’s just as useless as just rattling off, you know, I love you just because we say that sort of thing. You gotta mean it. You’ve got to think about it. It’s got to come from the depths of your being. You know, you think about how beautiful a lot of our songs are. It’s easy to be swept up in the beauty of the song. Like the song Alleluia. Doesn’t that song give you chill bumps when it’s sung just right and the women are singing that beautiful part? Oh, I just love that song. But it might be so easy to get swept up in the beauty of it that you find yourself not even thinking about the words. What you ought to be thinking about is the beauty of the message.

Do you even know what hallelujah means? It means praise God. That’s what you need to think every time you utter that word. And in all of our songs, think about the words. Do you do that? I hope that you do. Really, God is more concerned with the inaudible melody than he is with the audible melody. He wants us to make the audible melody, but he’s mostly concerned with the melody that is in our hearts. Now, we have basically unpacked these verses, and I want to spend the next half of the lesson answering arguments that are used to justify using instruments in worship. Using these passages, and particularly using two Greek words. Okay? So engage your mind. This is not one of those, hey, everybody, let’s get all excited lessons, but I need you to be engaged.

4. The Argument Regarding the Word Psalmos

I’m asking you. I hope that didn’t sound bossy. Please, be engaged because everybody needs to know this information. The first one is regarding the word psalmos. And the emphasis is on that last syllable in the Greek.

Psalmos is transliterated psalm. Okay? And so it’s the word, for example, when we have psalms, hymns and spiritual psalms there in Ephesians and in Colossians. The argument is that the word psalmos means a song accompanied by an instrument. And therefore, when Paul said singing psalms, that that means that we can use instruments, even though the instrument is not specifically mentioned, it is inherent in the word itself. Ooh. It’s a pretty popular argument, maybe the most popular. Now, to be fair with the argument, they would go to Greek dictionary like vines, and they all, you know, pretty much, strong’s and thays, they all pretty much say the same thing. Vine says that this word, psalmos, primarily denoted a striking or twitching with the fingers on musical instruments.

Then a sacred song sung to musical accompaniment, a psalm. Well, see. A song sung to musical accompaniment. So Paul told us we need to do that, so let’s use instruments. Now I want to respond to this in two ways to keep it simple. I’ve done, you know, I do more work to keep things simple than anything else. Because I could just get up here and talk for two hours about this if I wanted to, because there’s so much information. It’s hard to make things simple. So I’ve done a lot of work. I wanted to make it simple in two things. First of all, we’re going to look at the word itself, and second of all, the context. Okay? So the word psalmos itself does not always mean a song accompanied by an instrument.

That’s kind of the virgin definition of the word, but words mean different things in different contexts. Okay. Now, for example, Vines goes on to say that this word is used in three ways. First of all, it is used of the Old Testament book of Psalms. For example, in Acts 120, when Peter is talking about Judas, for it is written in the book of Psalms, he says.

There again, not referring to a song sung with musical accompaniment, but referring to a particular section of Scripture. And thirdly, the word Psalmos is used of psalms in general. The sort of just this genre or category. As we read in 1 Corinthians 14, 26, when you assemble each one has a psalm. One version rendered, at least one version renders that each one has a hymn. Okay, and so a word for a song, basically. Again, not referring to a song with musical accompaniment, but just the song itself. Now, so we talked about the word itself, but regardless of that, the context is really ultimately what matters. The context indicates singing, not playing an instrument. In fact, not only does the context say singing, but the beginning of both of those verses indicates, you know, speaking to one another and teaching and admonishing one another.

5. The Psallo Argument: Making Melody

And so that’s also singing as well. The emphasis is on what comes out of our mouth by way of teaching one another in this singing that we are doing. And therefore, Paul specifies how to use the Psalms, and that is to sing them. Now, is that hard to understand? We all understand. Can we sing psalms? Well, sure we can. Can we sing and play instruments? Well, now that would be a separate matter. And that’s not addressed in Scripture. All we’re told is to sing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. Okay. Now everybody’s with me, and I’m really proud. You’re doing well, because this is somewhat technical. Stay with me. Now for the solo argument. Okay? Solo is the verb form of the noun psalmas. They both come from the same root word.

Okay? So whatever applies for one applies to the other. Alright? So in a way, we’re just kind of looking at the same argument twice. This is the word that is translated making melody. And the argument is that the word, translated making melody in Ephesians 5.19, means to pluck an instrument. And that therefore what Paul is basically saying is singing and playing an instrument from the heart to the Lord. That he is actually commanding or exhorting to sing and use an instrument with your heart. And so, again, they would go to a Greek dictionary, like vines, that says primarily the word means to twitch or twang. Then to play a stringed instrument with the fingers, and hence in the Septuagint, which is the Greek translation of the Old Testament, to sing with a heart, sing psalms.

So there you see, it’s got this primary idea of to twitch or to twang, like you do when you pluck a stringed instrument, for example. Well, what do we say in response to that? First, we’re going to look at the word, and then we’re going to look at the context. And that’s the way you do it. So, first, the word itself, it does not always mean to pluck an instrument. To pluck is the virgin definition. But in its context, it doesn’t always mean to pluck anything. It has many meanings. In fact, the word had evolved by the first century to have many definitions. Do you know how the word originated? Originally, the word meant to pluck out, like you might pluck out a hair on a beard.

Then it came to be used to mean to pluck like an instrument. Then it came to mean a song that is sung and accompanied by an instrument. And eventually by the New Testament days, by the first century, it really could be used to mean to sing. And without any indication of an instrument at all. Do you realize about words that they evolve over time? The word lyric. Do you know what the origins of the word lyric are? I see one person who knows, and I’m not surprised that she knows. She’s a teacher. The word lyric originally was totally associated with the lyre instrument, L Y R E. That’s mentioned in the Bible. It was totally associated with that U-shaped string instrument called the lyre. Eventually it came to be associated with a song that is sung and accompanied by an instrument.

And when you think of the word lyrics today, what do you think of? The words of a song. Just the words. You see how that word has changed? What about the word baptism? Has that word changed? Now, in the New Testament days, I keep saying that. We’re still in the New Testament days, aren’t we? In the first century, the word baptisma meant to immerse. We all know that. It meant to immerse. Today, hasn’t that word evolved to have several definitions? If you looked it up in a dictionary, it doesn’t only mean to immerse, it means to sprinkle and to pour. And those are incorrect definitions of that original Greek word. But the word baptism, I should say, not baptisma. The word baptism has changed over time to have that meaning.

But when we go to the New Testament, we need to understand the word as it was used in the first century. And how was baptisma used in the first century? To immerse. Okay? Now, we need to do the same thing with this word solo. We need to understand what the word meant in the first century and not give it just its virgin definition. Okay. Now, if we go back to Vines and just keep reading, look at what Vines goes on to say about this word. That it denotes in the New Testament to sing a hymn. Sing praise. In Ephesians 5 19, making melody. Elsewhere it is rendered sing. You see that? So in the New Testament, there was a different emphasis in the way that word is used.

It had nothing to do with the instrument in those contexts. And so I want to point out something we just read about there, that the word solo is rendered sing four times in the New Testament. Okay. Alright, have I still got you all? You know, preachers put people to sleep sometimes, and we don’t mean to. Okay? But I’m not up here to excite us. I’m up here to teach. So it’s your job to listen. Alright, the word is rendered sing four times in the New Testament. In Romans 15 9, Paul quotes from Psalm 18, therefore I will give praise to you among the Gentiles, and I will sing to your name. Same word, solo. In 1 Corinthians 14, 15, I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the mind also.

Twice we have the word there. Has nothing to do with the instrument. Originally the word meant to pluck. How about that? In James 5.13, is anyone among you suffering? Then he must pray. Is anyone cheerful? He is to sing Psalms. Same word there. That’s translated making melody in Ephesians 5.19. Now that’s the word itself. Now for the context. The context in Ephesians 5.19 and Colossians 3.16 mentions no instrument as the object. So if you still carry the virgin idea, the virgin definition of plucking, well, you have to have an object of what to pluck. And if there’s no instrument mentioned, then it’s untenable. It’s grammatically incorrect. It’s unfair to demand that it means an instrument. You have to have an object. So what is it that’s being plucked?

The object is the heart. I think that is such a beautiful argument. You know, you think about Paul, it seems, has really gone out of his way. First of all, he tells us what to do with psalms, and that is sing them. And then he tells us what to do, and that is what to make melody with, and that is our heart. In John 4 and verse 24, God is spirit, Jesus said, and those who worship him must worship his spirit and in truth. You think of the Old Testament practice of playing instruments, it was one of the carnal ordinances. You know, it was a carnal law. That that is to lead to a beautiful spiritual fulfillment. And the spiritual fulfillment is not to pluck some harp or lyre or blow a flute or cling cymbals or blow a trumpet.

The spiritual fulfillment is to pluck the instrument of your heart. Isn’t that much more beautiful than plucking a man made object? It is. And those who worship the Father must worship in spirit and in truth. Thus, neither psalmas nor solo demand use of an instrument, neither by the words themselves, nor by the context in which they’re used in the New Testament. If the command is to use instruments, then you could argue that we have to use instruments. And we, which instruments? Well, they were specified under the command of David. So we’re not free to just pick and choose the guitar and the banjo and the whatever. But I’m not saying that we have that choice anyhow. If the command is to use instruments, then the early church misunderstood the command.

Conclusion

Because they didn’t do it. In fact, it was 670 when the instrument was introduced by the Roman Catholic Church. So for over six centuries, the instrument wasn’t used. But that’s another lesson. Now, I don’t want us coming away from this lesson simply remembering that we’re not to use instruments. Although that is very important. Brethren, we don’t need to simply be defined by what we don’t do. We need to be defined by what we do. And it is true that we are not authorized to use instruments. And we must stay within the authority that God has given us. But it is also true that we must sing and make melody with our heart. And if you think, well, I’m justified before God because I don’t use instruments.

And when you sing, you don’t engage your heart. That’s empty. That’s vain. And it’ll get you nowhere. In fact, all of our service to God must be from the heart. It’s not outward form. Obedience from the heart, Romans 6 talks about. And so let us be people who serve God with the whole man. Not just outwardly, but inwardly. In fact, what we do outwardly should come from and must come from within. Would you bow your head with me in a word of prayer? Our God, our Father, thank you so much for your word. We respect your word. We do not want to go beyond it. And we don’t want to subtract from it either. Father, thank you for the authority that we have seen in these passages.

Really incidentally, to the very positive exhortation to sing and make melody with the heart. Not only to you, Lord, but also to sing to one another as we teach and admonish speak to one another. We pray that we may come away from this passage with a fuller understanding and be more equipped to answer those who may ask why we don’t use instruments. But help us, Father, that we will serve you in everything we do from the heart, and not only be defined by what we don’t do, but by what we do actively for you. It is through your Son that we pray. Amen. At this time we’re going to be dismissed for Bible class, and then at 10 55, we will have a second period of worship where we’ll have the Lord’s Supper offered as well.