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.