The New Testament Teaches Us To See Christ In All The Psalms

In Luke 4:11, Satan tempts Christ by quoting to him Psalm 91:11-12, where God "will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. On their hands they will bear you up, lest you strike your foot against a stone." If this account had not been included in the Gospels, we might never have known that Psalm 91 is all about Christ.

In the book of Acts, Psalm 16:10 is twice quoted by the apostles, and by them it's revealed that Christ is the speaker in that Psalm. Again, if these statements by the apostles hadn't been recorded, we might never have known that Psalm 16 is all about Christ.

Psalms 91 and 16 are typical of the language of many other Psalms. There is no reason to assume that the words and prayers in many other Psalms are not the prayers of Christ, or words about him, I believe that this is what we are to infer from the many other New Testament references to Christ in the Psalms.

The resurrected Christ himself told his slow-to-understand disciples, "These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me" (Luke 24:44).

So, the New Testament lets us know to look for our Good Shepherd in the Psalms; either for his voice in the "first person" or for words about him. 

One common argument against singing only the Psalms in the worship and praise of God is that in singing them we are not singing the name of Jesus. Yet, in singing the Psalms, we're singing both about him and with him. We are singing what he is singing, what he desires to sing in the congregation (Psalm 22:22-25; Hebrews 2:11-13). He will not sing our uninspired words, but will sing his own words, leading the churches in the praising, thanking, and petitioning the Father.

James E. Adams On Praying The Imprecatory Psalms

Do you use the Psalms as your own prayer book? Are the people to whom you minister learning to pray from the Psalms? Most Christians are in the habit of entering into the spirit of some of the Psalms as prayers of their own. Probably every human passion or emotion is expressed in the Psalms. So on any given day a Christian may pick up the Psalms and find a vivid expression of his feelings of the moment, whether discouragement, ecstasy, or simply “hanging in there.”

Seeing the Psalms as prayers of the Lord Jesus Christ will deepen your understanding of His heart, His sufferings, and His victory on your behalf. But how do these prayers of Christ become your own personal expressions to God? And how can you who are pastors help the sheep of your flocks to pray the imprecatory psalms?

You may say, “This is the last thing my church needs! If our hearts are lazy and cold to pray for those we love, how can we think of praying for enemies, as we find in the Psalms?” But I would challenge you, isn’t this the cause of our lack of prayer? We have not learned from the Lord Jesus how to pray!

Many Christians are like little children who don’t ever want to acknowledge being taught anything by another. You will often hear them say, “I know that!” Or, if you ask them where they learned something, they will answer, “I just know it!” as though knowledge began within themselves. Do we have the maturity to recognize that even as Christians we do not pray rightly simply by instinct? The very disciples who were constantly in our Lord’s physical presence for instruction felt their need for help in learning to pray. How much more do we need to confess that we are totally unable to pray on our own and humbly ask with those disciples of old, “Lord, teach us to pray!”

Read the article in its entirety here.

The Psalms Teach Us To Think And To Speak

The Letter of Athanasius of Alexandria to Marcellimus, on the Interpretation of the Psalms 

...[The Psalter] is like a picture, in which you see yourself portrayed, and seeing, may understand and consequently form yourself upon the pattern given. You find depicted in it all the movements of your soul, all its changes, its ups and downs, its failures and recoveries. Moreover, whatever your particular need or trouble, from this same book you can select a form of words to fit it, so that you do not merely hear and then go on, but learn the way to remedy your ill.

Prohibitions of evil-doing are plentiful in Scripture, but only the Psalter tells you how to obey these orders and abstain from sin. Repentance, for example, is enjoined repeatedly; but to repent means to leave off sinning, and it is the Psalms that show you how to set about repenting and with what words your penitence may be expressed... it is in the Psalms that we find written and described how afflictions should be borne, and what the afflicted ought to say, both at the time and when his troubles cease: the whole process of his testing is set forth in them and we are shown exactly with what words to voice our hope in God. 

Or take the commandment, "In everything give thanks"(1 Thess 5:18). The Psalms not only exhort us to be thankful, they also provide us with fitting words to say. We are told, too, by other writers that all who would live godly in Christ must suffer persecution (2 Tim 3:12); and here again the Psalms supply words with which both those who flee persecution and those who suffer under it may suitably address themselves to God, and it does the same for those who have been rescued from it.

We are bidden elsewhere in the Bible also to bless the Lord and to acknowledge Him: here in the Psalms we are shown the way to do it, and with what sort of words His majesty may meetly be confessed. In fact, under all the circumstances of life, we shall find that these divine songs suit ourselves and meet our own souls' need at every turn.

Bonar On The Solidarity Of Christ With His Church In The Psalms

Andrew Bonar, "Christ and His Church in the Book of Psalms"

Now in the early ages men full of the thoughts of Christ could never read their Psalms without being reminded of their Lord. They probably had no system or fixed theory as to all the Psalms referring to Christ; but still, unthinkingly we might say, they found their thoughts would wander unto their Lord, as the one person in whom these breathings, these praises, these desires, these hopes, these deep feelings, found their only true and full realization.

Hence Augustine said to his hearers, as he expounded to them this book, that "the voice of Christ and his church was well nigh the only voice to be heard in the Psalms." And on another occasion, "Everywhere diffused throughout is that man whose Head is above, and whose members are below. We ought to recognize his voice in all the Psalms, either waking up the psaltery or ordering the deep groan; rejoicing in hope, or heaving sighs over present realities...We cannot err far, therefore, if we keep our left eye on David, while we have our right eye full on Christ."

In some instances, the Head exclusively speaks, or is spoken of; and in a few others the Members alone; but generally, the strain is such in feeling and matter, that the Head and Members together can use the harp and utter the song. And so important are these holy songs, that nearly 50 of them are referred to in the New Testament, and applied to Christ.

The Church In The Psalms

Just a bit of reflection: the more familiar I become with the Psalms through reading and dwelling on them, the more oriented I become to the realities of being the church in the world. This, as opposed to a merely individualistic reading of the Psalms.

What I mean is, that the Psalms, while absolutely meant to supply words for the cries to God of his individual members, are also meant for the prayers and praises and supplications of the church who is in Christ, the Christ of the Psalms.

He went through these travails of the flesh for us (for each individual member, absolutely; but he came to redeem a people, a royal priesthood, a nation, a bride). Those travails are given expression uniquely in the Psalms.

This morning, I read Psalm 120, the first of the Songs of Ascent:

In my trouble I cried to the LORD, and he answered me. Deliver my soul, O LORD, from lying lips, from a deceitful tongue. What more shall be given to you, and what more shall be done to you, you deceitful tongue? Sharp arrows of the warrior, with the burning coals of the broom tree. Woe is me, for I sojourn in Meshech, for I dwell among the tents of Kedar! Too long has my soul had its dwelling with those who hate peace. I am for peace, but when I speak, they are for war.

This brought me right up against the truth that these are the words of the sojourning, suffering church in the world. As an individual member of Christ's body, I am in union with the church universal through our union with Christ; there is a for real solidarity with the sufferings she experiences, and I am, right now, groaning in those sufferings, even if I feel relatively at ease for the moment: "all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution" (2 Timothy 3:12). What this Psalm and others like it teach through their expressions of joy and sorrow and difficulty (and of imprecation, verse 4) is that the ultimate realities are those expressed in all the Psalms.

I'm realizing that it is happiest to have my thinking transformed through God's word to think as he does about his church and about our experience in the world as a "lively stone" of it.  The Psalms are uniquely given for this purpose, giving us words that transform our thinking to see his church as God sees it in this world.

Passages Showing How The Old Testament Musical Instruments Helped

The musical instruments used by the prophets in the Old Testament had a prescribed, prophetic use for that dispensation: you especially see it in some texts, such as in 1 Chronicles 15:16:

"And David spake to the chief of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be the singers with instruments of musick, psalteries and harps and cymbals, sounding (shama`) by lifting up the voice (qowl) with joy."

The word qowl, often translated "voice" in the KJV and other translations, does not necessarily mean the human voice, though here it does. Strong's concordance shows it to also be translated as "noise,' "sound," "thunderings,' and "proclamation."

The Levitical priesthood appointed to song were, by use of their human voices and with instruments of music, to lift up a voice that produced this "sounding," this shama`. You can see how the idea of proclamation could apply here.

In 2 Chronicles 5:13:

"It came even to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, to make one sound (qowl) to be heard in praising and thanking the LORD; and when they lifted up their voice (qowl) with the trumpets and cymbals and instruments of musick, and praised the LORD, saying, For he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever: that then the house was filled with a cloud, even the house of the LORD..."

The human voices together with voices of the trumpets, cymbals, and instruments of music "were as one;" lifted up together, they made one voice "to be heard."

And in 2 Chronicles 7:6:

"And the priests waited on their offices: the Levites also with instruments of musick of the LORD, which David the king had made to praise the LORD, because his mercy endureth for ever, when David praised by their ministry; and the priests sounded trumpets before them, and all Israel stood."

The musical instruments made by David were unique in that dispensation, for they had a specific use; David praised God by their ministry; these musical instruments were commanded by God through David, Gad the seer, and Nathan the prophet (2 Chronicles 29:25) to serve a purpose for that time. David wasn't free to dispense with them, to change them, or to add to them. He wasn't free to innovate with them or with the words sung in any way. All must be done exactly as prescribed through the Old Testament prophetic office.

They are no longer commanded but have been done away with, since Christ has ascended and sent his Spirit to give something better—enabled the church to raise her voice and make melody in, or with, the heart (Ephesians 5:19) to the Lord (see this article regarding this phrase). The "sound," the "voice" of the carnal means prescribed by God in the Old dispensation has been replaced by the spiritual worship that Jesus promised, without the need for shadows and types (John 4:21-26).

How Some Translations Add The Word "Music"

I wrote here about the connotations (to our modern ears) of the phrase "musical instruments" in the Bible, and how knowing more about that phrase can help the reader understand better what was going on in Levitical worship with its use of trumpets, cymbals, and lyres.

I have also noticed that in places in some more modern translations—I've seen it in the ESV and it may happen in other translations too— the word "music" is used in some Old Testament texts when not at all called for. Several times the  ESV uses "music" to translate Hebrew words that mean something different.

While it may not seem like a big deal (musical instruments do, after all, make music), in these places where that happens it's not an accurate translation, and that's never desirable. I think the use of the word in these places masks what's really the emphasis in the passage, for one thing. It can also nudge the modern reader to feel a false familiarity with the purpose and place of the Old Testament musical instruments.

Following are several places where I've seen "music" used this way in the ESV. I've included the actual Hebrew word after each instance, along with the Strong's Exhaustive Dictionary definition of the word. I included the KJV text to illustrate how translators from an earlier era translated the word.


1 Chronicles 15:22

ESV: "...Chenaniah, leader of the Levites in music (massa': burden, song, prophecy) should direct the music (massa') for he understood it."

KJV: "And Chenaniah, chief of the Levites, was for song (massa'): he instructed about the song (massa'), because he was skilful."

Masa' seems to have to do with song and prophecy, though some commentators think Chenaniah's assignment and skill was in bearing the ark. But the idea of this text being about music (as we think of it) is definitely not in view.


1 Chronicles 15:27, 28

ESV: "David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, as also were all the Levites who were carrying the ark, and the singers and Chenaniah the leader of the music (massa', see above) of the singers. And David wore a linen ephod. So all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting, to the sound of the horn, trumpets, and cymbals, and made loud music (shama: to hear, hearken, sound aloud, publish, declare) on harps and lyres."

KJV: "And David was clothed with a robe of fine linen, and all the Levites that bare the ark, and the singers, and Chenaniah the master of the song (massa')) with the singers: David also had upon him an ephod of linen. Thus all Israel brought up the ark of the covenant of the LORD with shouting, and with sound of the cornet, and with trumpets, and with cymbals, making a noise (shama) with psalteries and harps."

We already looked at masa'; and now here is a new Hebrew word, shama, which the ESV translates "music." The phrase in verse 28, "all Israel... made loud music," is misleading! The idea of shama is a loud sound that is itself the message, the publication and declaration of something (the praise of God) that was to be heard, hearkened to, and obeyed. The horns, trumpets and cymbals were actually themselves part of the prophetic ministry of the Levites; only they played upon the musical instruments; their loud sound was a prescribed element and a means in the worship and praise of God.

1 Chronicles 25:6

ESV: "They were all under the direction of their father in the music (shiyr: song, to sing, a singer) in the house of the LORD with cymbals, harps, and lyres for the service of the house of God. Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman were under the order of the king."

KJV: "All these were under the hands of their father for song (shiyr) in the house of the LORD, with cymbals, psalteries, and harps, for the service of the house of God, according to the king's order to Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman.

Song, not mere instrumental music, is the goal of the Levites in their service of the house of God. Notice here, incidentally, how the KJV clarifies that all was done "according to" the king's order to (the prophets) Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman. No aspect of the service of the house was left to any human devising.


Psalm 49:4

ESV: "I will incline my ear to a proverb; I will solve my riddle to the music of the lyre (kinnowr: lyre, harp)."

KJV: "I will incline mine ear to a parable: I will open my dark saying upon the harp (kinnowr)."

Again, the word "music" is not in the original Hebrew text. Removing it and seeing what is in the text makes it easier to see that the harp itself is a keliy, a tool; and in this case, a prophetic tool for the Old Testament psalmists/prophets (in this case, for the sons of Korah).


Psalm 92:1-3

ESV: "It is good to give thanks to the Lord,to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night, to the music (higgayown, meaning "meditation, solemn sound") of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre."

KJV: "It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High: to shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night, upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound (higgayown)..."

This is another instance where the use of the word "music," which again is not in the original Hebrew text, potentially leads away from the emphasis of the text. In addition, the ESV inserts the word "melody" in verse 3; no corresponding word is in the Hebrew text.


Psalm 101:1

ESV:  "I will sing (shiyr, to sing) of steadfast love and justice; to you, O LORD, I will make music (zamar)."

KJV: "I will sing (shiyr) of mercy and judgment: unto thee, O LORD, will I sing (zamar)."

 Zamar is a Hebrew word that conveys the sense of striking or plucking an instrument with the fingers. Its Greek equivalent, psallos, is used in Ephesians 5:19 to mean a metaphorical plucking of the strings of the heart ("making melody to the Lord with your heart"). Here in Psalm 101:1, Hebrew parallelism requires that the second half of the verse be a restating of the first half; therefore the KJV translates zamar as "sing," while the ESV again chooses the phrase, "make music."


These are a few of the places where the ESV (and again, not to pick on the ESV; other translations have also done so) has chosen translations and even inserted words into the text that have helped muddy the doctrinal waters (at least it did for me, for years). It's hard to shake off our modern notions of the place musical instruments have in the worship of God, but it's worth thinking deeply about. This is a helpful quote:

...in Old Testament worship "the noise was the worship: an audio-symbolic evocation of the majesty and glory of God … which passed away with the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, when worship 'in Jerusalem' passed over into worship 'in spirit and truth.' "

The Book of Psalms for Worship

                                 



This is a video on the reasoning behind singing the Psalms, and was occasioned by the creation of a new Psalms translation, the Book of Psalms for Worship.

A cool thing is that this Psalter is available as an app for iPhone, Android, and Windows. I have it on both Windows and iPhone and am learning to make use of it. It includes the words to all 150 Psalms and a selection of tunes fitted for each one. It's also available in print from Crown and Covenant.

Let's sing God's praises from his Book of Praises, the Psalms.

Christ Teaching Us How To Repent In The Psalms

Just as when Christ instructed his disciples on how to pray he mouthed words of repentance for them to say: "Forgive us our trespasses...;" so in the Psalms he gives his people and his church the words of repentance  to say: "Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity..." (Psalm 51:2; and so many other places). Christ is in the Psalms in many ways, including, as High Priest, teaching his church the words and ways of repentance and faith in God.

Faithful To The Book

I heard someone express an opinion about what was and was not "faithful to the book" in the Lord of the Ring movies. A listener declared that the differences in the movies from the book were offensive to her. "Oh, so you're a purist?" was the response. "Proudly so," was the reply.

Thinking about this later, I was struck at how, in our worship, we should have some sort of desire to see it conform to the Bible- to see it be "faithful to the Book." We should rightly be offended when the worship of the church deviates widely from what God has said.

As movie purists, we're (and by "we" I mean Christians; these were Christians having this conversation; we Christians do love our Tolkien!) ready to take offense at things in these movies that fell short of the book we so know and love. Yet we will gather for worship to God and sing and say and do all kinds of things that God has not commanded, that fall so far short of the Book we profess to so know and love.

The ethic of the Puritans is missing in the churches, and badly needed.

On Supposed Hymn Fragments Sung In The Early Church

Did the early church sing uninspired (merely written by men) songs in their public worship together? Many claim that they did, and as proof they point to supposed hymns or fragments quoted by the Apostles. Here are some excerpts from The Psalms in Worship, edited by John McNaughter, that help clarify:

IV. Are there traces of hymns in the Epistles? It is affirmed with much positiveness that there are fragments of hymns found in the Epistles, and that these must have been in use in the Apostolic Church... 

...[but] in all the historical records that have been consulted there is not a hint that this text [i.e., any text in any Epistle] is the fragment of a Christian hymn. Assertions by interpreters there are in plenty; of historical evidence there is none.

The chief, if not the only, proof adduced in support of the view that it [any supposed hymn text in the Epistles] is the fragment of a “Christian hymn” is its poetical structure. It has the parallelism that distinguishes Hebrew poetry. Accordingly, the American Revision prints it as verse. Is the plea well founded? [Consider the truth that] all intense thought, whether of writing or public speech, falls into rhythm. This is true of the best writing of uninspired men; it is preeminently true of the penmen of Scripture. There is often a measured beat in the sentences that the reader feels, can almost hear.

There are many such rhythmical passages in the Epistles... [Mr.] Winer furnishes thirteen instances of poetical parallelism, 1 Timothy 3:16 being one of the thirteen. Green’s Handbook, the second, gives seven more. Thus, in all, we have twenty such rhythmical texts in the Epistles. If we include the whole body of New Testament Scripture, the number will exceed thirty. These all have the poetical structure of 1 Timothy 3:16. Are they all “fragments of Christian hymns?”

1 Timothy 3:16 does not by any means stand alone as to poetical structure; it is only one of many passages of the like form. Therefore no weight can attach to its parallelism as proof of its being a "Christian hymn." The argument breaks down totally because it proves too much. If such exegesis should prevail, then no limit scarcely can be fixed to the hymnal fragments of the New Testament; the Book abounds with them.

[One] passage must be briefly noted—2 Timothy 2:11-13: "Faithful is the saying: for if we died with Him, we shall also live with Him; if we endure, we shall also reign with Him; if we shall deny Him, He also will deny us; if we are faithless, He abideth faithful, for He cannot deny Himself" (RV). This great sentence has rhythmical arrangement; its parts balance each other as in genuine parallelism; it is as poetical in its structure as 1 Timothy 3:16. But yet it is not the fragment of a hymn, nor a brief creed, nor yet a liturgical fragment, although it has been called all these. The words, "faithful is the saying" seem to denote a quotation, but in the other places where they occur they cannot be thus understood (1 Timothy 1:15; 1 Timothy 3:1; 1 Timothy 4:9).

All these 'sayings' of Paul in the Pastoral Epistles belong to a time of extreme danger and persecution. These Letters were written in martyr times. Nero’s persecution of Christians began in AD 64; it lasted till 68—four years of indescribable torture and suffering for the people of God. 1st and 2nd Timothy and Titus were written almost certainly after Nero’s atrocities had begun. The peril was that Christians would quail before the dreadful trial, that they would deny Christ. Hence Paul writes to these young ministers of the Gospel to be steadfast, faithful, true even in death.

Read in the light of martyr fires, his sayings glow with intensity of feeling, with the pathos and the entreaty of one who himself faces death as a witness for Christ. His words ring like a battle shout, like the sharp, abrupt orders of the commander on the field:—"Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life" (1 Timothy 6:12); "watch thou in all things, endure afflictions" (2 Timothy 4:5); "hold fast the form of sound words" (2 Timothy 1:13); "great is the mystery of godliness" (1 Timothy 3:16); "if we suffer with Him, we shall also reign with Him; if we deny Him, He also will deny us" (2 Timothy 2:12). Every one of these texts, and many more like them, have something of cadence; they ring like sharp steel, and there is a rhythm in their ring.

Accordingly, they are not fragments of hymns, nor short creeds, nor quotations of any sort. They are the impassioned words of Christ’s servant who appeals to his fellow-saints by the Spirit of God to hold fast, to fight bravely, and to hope to the end.

There are fourteen songs in the Book of Revelation: Revelation 4:8,11; Revelation 5:9-10,12-13; Revelation 7:10,12; Revelation 11:8,17-18; Revelation 12:10-12; Revelation 15:3-4; Revelation 19:1,2,5-8. The American Revision of the Bible marks these songs [sets them apart typographically] as distinct and different from the rest of the Book. Sometimes these songs are cited as a justification for the use of other songs than the Psalms in God’s worship. Let the following points be noted as a reply to the assertion referred to:

1. These songs are all inspired by the Spirit of God. More than any other Book of the New Testament Canon, the Revelation insists on its being from God, that in it God unveils His purpose touching the future of this world, of His people, of their enemies, and of His Kingdom. Therefore these inspired songs can afford no ground whatever for the use of uninspired compositions in the worship of God.

2. They are sung almost exclusively by angels and glorified saints. The only apparent exception is Revelation 5:13—the song of creation. But even this does not contradict our statement. The voices of angels and saints are joined by the voice of creation, animate and inanimate, now made vocal in its praise to the Lamb. The tuneful utterances of the glorified and of angels before the Throne hardly belong to sinful mortals on earth.

3. They are sung in heaven. Hence, they do not pertain to this world.

4. There is not a shadow of a hint that these and the like songs in the New Testament are divinely authorized to be employed in the worship of Christ’s Church.

5. They are an essential part in the structure of the Apocalypse; they move within the circle of those mighty events which mark the winding up of the world’s affairs, which characterize the final struggle between the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. Hence, in the judgment of some of the most earnest students of the Book, they do not pertain to this dispensation.

A Helpful Article

Here's a link to a nice article by Nicholas T. Batzig at the website "Feeding On Christ." The article has some good information, including some reasoning on 'why the scarcity of modern christocentric Psalm commentaries?' (Calvin's reticence!). It also contains some helpful resources and links, including audio by Edmund Clowney on Christ in the Psalms (update: I have listened to some of this audio and found it helpful in some ways, but a bit vague or unclear in others. I may try to post a few thoughts on it later, for reasons I'll explain then.) Very thoughtful and informative! Go check it out.

The Songs of the Son (Seeing Christ in the Psalms)

A Special Exegesis of Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16

Yet another helpful exposition, from  Prof. John McNaugher, on these two important passages in the New Testament. He explains how it is that the "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs" in these passages all refer to the Psalms alone.

A Special Exegesis of Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16

Helpful Articles on Exclusive Psalmody

A series of articles (ongoing, I think) on exclusive Psalmody from Rev. Daniel Kok, a RPCNA pastor in Calgary, Alberta Canada. These are helpful.

Exclusive Psalmody and Singing Jesus' Name

Exclusive Psalmody and "a new song"

Exclusive Psalmodists and the singing of Psalms

Exclusive Psalmody and the use of Old Covenant language

Exclusive Psalmody and singing other songs in Scripture

"Psalms" and Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs

18th Century Understanding of Ephesians 5:19

John Gill is a revered but now underused Baptist theologian and Bible commentator who died in 1771. He's famous for his comments on the Old Testament, being an outstanding Hebrew scholar and an expert in ancient Jewish historical writings and commentaries.

Reading through the histories of the kings of Israel and Judah, and the exile and subsequent return of Judah into their land, I've now arrived near the end of these accounts to the book of Nehemiah, which describes how the public worship prescribed by God through David is reestablished. Gill observes that "there was song at the time of the daily sacrifice, in which prayer was also made, as in many of the songs, hymns, and psalms of David..." 

In using the phrase "songs, hymns, and psalms of David," Gill showed that he, like other Puritan and Reformed theologians, understood Paul's "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs" in Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 to refer (only) to the book of Psalms in the Old Testament. But this understanding came under increasing attack from the mid-1700's onward, to the point that people now believe that the Greek hymnos in the New Testament refers to uninspired songs composed by men. It's good to read older theologians and their comments on Scripture so we can see that we aren't the first people to study the Bible and reach conclusions on the meaning of Scripture.

Working Hard To Deny The Obvious

Many have worked hard to make Paul's "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs" (Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16) to mean "songs in addition to" the inspired Psalms. Here's an example of this I recently came across. The first few paragraphs reveal the good-intentioned, I am sure, author's dilemma:

"Christian Hymns of the First Three Centuries"

There is no part of the general field of Christian hymnology so baffling to the student or so full of difficulties as the one under consideration in this paper [i.e., the non-Psalm hymnody of the early church]... This is due, first of all, to the unexpected scarcity of original sources. When one views the rise of Christianity from its inception to the period of the Council of Nicaea, 325, its numerical growth from a handful of original adherents to millions of followers at the time of the Edict of Milan, 313, its literary development from early scattered records to the works of the great Greek and Latin fathers, one cannot help inquiring, “What has become of their hymns?”

No wonder finding information on the supposed hymnody sung by millions in the first three centuries of the early church proves baffling and full of difficulties!  This difficulty in finding hymn texts is due to "the unexpected scarcity of original sources." In other words, when researchers go looking for the supposed non-Psalm hymns of the early church they come up empty-handed, and this doesn't make sense to them, considering the otherwise tremendous body of writings that has come down to us from that period. This leads researchers to scratch their heads and wonder, "What has become of their hymns?" The article continues:

Let us abandon at once our contemporary connotation of the word 'hymn'...In the pre-Ambrosian period, Christian hymns were largely of the psalm type, to be chanted in rhythmic periods without rhyme. Not only should the word hymn be conceived in terms of ancient thought, but also the futile attempt to differentiate among psalms, hymns and canticles should be avoided. (Italics and quotes mine)

The researcher admits freely that our contemporary understanding of the word 'hymn' is unhelpful in determining what the early church sang, as their hymns were "largely of the Psalm type." In fact, of course, they were the Psalms, and the article all but admits it when it says that the "futile attempt to differentiate among psalms, hymns and canticles [again, Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16] should be avoided." The author continues:

Specialists in liturgical matters testify to the confusion existing among ancient writers in the use of these words and to the uncertainty of definition which results.

Surely this isn't in reference to Paul when the writer speaks of the "confusion existing among ancient writers?" The apostle was not confused about what the church was to sing or confused in his choice of words. Neither was the ancient church confused about what to sing, or confused about Paul's choice of words. Paul's "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs" were all nouns from the Greek Old Testament in use by the church in that day, and were commonly understood to be terms that described the Old Testament Psalms.

It is better not to multiply difficulties but to hold fast to the actual texts which we know were used in Christian worship. In this study, the extant hymnic sources will be presented objectively. Groups of hymns will be used to illustrate the types current in the period. 

The article speaks confidently of "actual texts which we know were used in Christian worship," of "extant hymn sources," and of "groups of hymns used to illustrate the types current in the period." But then what follows is an attempt to force various early documents, including some New Testament passages, to yield hymn texts,*  but this is all based purely on conjecture, and is anything but objective, solid reporting. The fact is that the only texts that are known to have been used in Christian worship were the Psalms. There is no record that uninspired songs were used in the public worship of the church in its first centuries.

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It makes one wonder! Why the ongoing, relentless effort to deny the fact that the early church sang the Psalms exclusively (just as the Old Testament church had done)?

*On the supposed hymn fragments contained in the NT epistles, see here.

And More On Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs

G.I. Williamson on what Paul meant by the phrase (in Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3) "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs:"

The proper interpretation of scripture terms requires that we discover, not what we mean by these terms when we use them today, but what the inspired writer meant when he used them. And it is one of the oddities of biblical interpretation that this rule is commonly observed with reference to the term 'psalms', and commonly disregarded with respect to the terms 'hymns' and 'songs'. For the fact is that all three of these terms are used in the Bible to designate various selections contained in the Old Testament Psalter. 

In the Greek version of the Old Testament familiar to the Ephesians and Colossians the entire Psalter is entitled 'Psalms'. In sixty-seven of the titles within the book the word 'psalm' is used. However, in six titles the word 'hymn' is used, rather than 'psalm', and in thirty-five the word 'song' appears. Even more important, twelve titles use both 'psalm' and 'song', and two have 'psalm' and 'hymn'. Psalm seventy-six is designated 'psalm, hymn and song'. And at the end of the first seventy two psalms we read that 'the hymns of David the son of Jesse are ended' (Ps. 72:20.) In other words, there is no more reason to think that the Apostle referred to psalms when he said 'psalms' than when he said 'hymns' and 'songs', for the simple reason that all three were biblical terms for psalms in the book of psalms itself. 

We are in the habit of using the terms 'hymns' and 'songs' for those compositions that are not psalms. But Paul and the Christians at Ephesus and Colossae used these terms as the Bible itself uses them, namely, as titles for the various psalms in the Old Testament Psalter. To us it may seem strange, or even unnecessary, that the Holy Spirit would use a variety of titles to describe His inspired compositions. But the fact is that He did so. Just as the Holy Spirit speaks of His 'commandments and his statutes and his judgments' (Deut.. 30:16, etc.), and of 'miracles and wonders and signs' (Acts 2:22), so He speaks of His 'psalms, hymns and songs'. As commandments, statutes and judgments are all divine laws in the language of scripture; as miracles and wonders and signs are all supernatural works of God in the language of scripture; so psalms, hymns and songs are the inspired compositions of the Psalter, in the language of scripture itself... 

The New Testament evidence sustains this conclusion. On the night of the Last Supper Jesus and His disciples sang 'a hymn' (Matt. 26:30). Bible expositors admit that this was the second part of the Hallel Psalms (115-118), which were always sung at the Passover. (New Bible Commentary, p. 835.) Matthew called this psalm a 'hymn' because a psalm is a hymn in the terminology of the Bible. To the same effect is the Old Testament quotation in Hebrews 2:12, in which the Greek word 'hymn' is quoted from Psalm 22:22. In this quotation from an Old Testament psalm, the word 'hymn' is used to denote the singing of psalms because the Old Testament makes no distinction between the two. But if Scripture itself says that psalms are hymns, and that hymns are psalms, why should we make any distinction between them?

If we grant that the Apostle used biblical language in a biblical sense there is no more reason to think that he spoke of uninspired hymns in these texts (Col. 3:16, Eph. 5:19) than to think that he spoke of uninspired psalms, because hymns are inspired psalms in the holy scriptures.

On Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs

I have posted a link to this before but will do so again today because it's just that helpful. R. Scott Clark discusses what Paul means by telling the church to sing "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs." What did those terms mean to Paul's readers: did they mean the same to them as they do to us today? Very necessary information in framing the conversation about what we are to sing in public worship.

Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs in the Septuagint