Psalms & Hymns & Spiritual Songs
Music – it’s in our souls. It is itself both a science and an AART 😎 which is, of course, why I’ve got an AART of Waiting Apple Playlist you’re welcome to check-out. (It’s also linked via the music notes 🎵 in the header/navigation menu.)
Music can be designed to provoke every range and kind of emotion – and this power has, of course, been used by every culture and society all throughout time for various intentions and objectives, both good and evil. Music is shown to influence prophecy in the OT both directly and indirectly (2 Kings 3:15; 2 Chronicles 25:1; 1 Samuel 10:5–6). Music involves all kinds of instruments from the voices God has given us to every imaginable creation for generating sound.
In Christian worship, there are those who get hung-up on what particular kind or style or genre is appropriate or even holy and acceptable. Here’s where I find a couple exhortations from Paul particularly helpful. In writing to the churches both in Ephesus (Ephesians 5:19) and Colossae (Colossians 3:16), he uses the phrase “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.”
Many more traditional congregations can get stuck on hymns – meaning, anything that happens to be in their hymnal. Many modern congregations barely know what a hymnal is. And often neither have any idea what it is to sing from a psalter (a songbook of the Psalms). So, let’s talk about these.
First, singing the Psalms themselves may feel odd to many but that has more to do with our want of experience and practice than anything else. (Note: I would differentiate this from singing songs directly inspired by Psalms &/or other Scripture.) The Psalms have been the songs of God’s people for literally thousands of years. Although we may not know the tunes to which the Psalms were originally sung, we have Christian psalters dating back to the late 3rd century AD. A wonderful modern example is the Seedbed Psalter in which the Psalms are paraphrased into metrical/poetic formats that are then paired with the most common and familiar hymn tunes of the church. Beyond giving us such a wondrous foundation for praising and glorifying our almighty God, singing the Psalms awakens our understanding that all the range of human emotions are welcome in worship.
A hymn, in all its etymology, is a song of praise to a god. As Christians, of course, we know there is only one true God Who alone is worthy of all praise! But whether it’s as formal as “How Firm A Foundation” or a simple praise chorus, both are hymns.
And that leaves us with “spiritual songs” – meaning what exactly? This doesn’t need to be over-complicated. This category includes all the other songs inspired by the Holy Spirit. There’s obvious overlap with hymns and Psalms but I believe there’s also a very intentional freedom (2 Corinthians 3:17) of expression that Paul wants us to have. Of course, freedom always comes with responsibility (Galatians 5:13) and expression always needs to honor context (1 Corinthians 14:40) and the spirits always need testing (1 John 4:1).
All that being said, from culture to culture and generation to generation, musical expression will explore and expand all the creative powers and boundaries of humanity – some to our liking and some not. But this exhortation remains true:
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.
Colossians 3:16-17