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Tabernacle of David |
Eph 5:18-19
18 And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be
filled with the Spirit,
19 speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making
melody in your heart to the Lord,
(NKJ)
Taking a closer look at these two verses, we see that we are to be filled with the Spirit – the Holy Spirit of course, and speak to one another in songs etc. How do we speak in songs? It doesn’t say talk to each other and it doesn’t say let one man do all the talking. It says speak to one another in songs. That means each of us is to speak as well as listen. Again, it says each of us.
The word ‘speaking’ literally means to utter words. We utter words when we sing, so this simply says that we should sing one to another. If you take this literally, it means that I would sing to the others -- then the next brother or sister would sing to the others. Is there any reason to spiritualize this? I don’t think so. It seems clear enough to stand on its own, and does not conflict with the general tenor of the Bible.
Making melody in your heart to the Lord… Making melody is actually one word in the Greek dictionary:
5567 psallo (psal'-lo);
probably strengthened from psao (to rub or touch the surface; compare 5597); to twitch or twang, i.e. to play on a stringed instrument (celebrate the divine worship with music and accompanying odes):
KJV-- make melody, sing (psalms).
Now this presents a dilemma! How do we play a stringed instrument in our heart? There is not a harp or guitar in my heart. One could say this is just a figure of speech. If so, why doesn’t it say ‘singing in your heart’? It specifically says to play on a stringed instrument in your heart. We have all heard references to the strings of our heart. This could be what this verse is talking about. Could this possibly mean that we are to come up with the melody in our heart and play it on our instrument? Hmm… Let’s look further. Take a note here and we will come back to this.
What about these hymns, psalms and spiritual songs? What are they? Have we also changed the definitions of these words? We all know that a hymn is what we find in a song book, right? Yes, according to our current definition. Let’s see what the actual definition is in the Greek.
HYMN:
5215 humnos (hoom'-nos);
apparently from a simpler (obsolete) form of hudeo (to celebrate; probably akin to 103; compare 5667); a "hymn" or religious ode (one of the Psalms):
KJV-- hymn.
It is interesting that the translators use the word they are trying to define to define the word – sort of a ‘round robin’ effect. Rain means rain? Luckily for us they tell us that it is a religious ode and then note that it is one of the psalms. Which one of the psalms? Or does it mean all? If it is all, then why does this verse follow with the word psalms next? Are they really saying psalms, psalms and spiritual songs? Or maybe they are saying hymns, hymns and spiritual songs? I think it is neither, but it appears that there is double talk here. Actually there isn’t, as we will see.
What is a pslam?
5568 psalmos (psal-mos');
from 5567; a set piece of music, i.e. a sacred ode (accompanied with the voice, harp or other instrument; a "psalm"); collectively, the book of the Psalms:
KJV-- psalm. Compare 5603.
We can see here that a psalm is a set piece of music; a sacred ode. We begin to see the picture here. I see that both hymns and psalms are odes. So what is an ode?
ODE:
5603 oide (o-day');
from 103; a chant or "ode" (the general term for any words sung; while 5215 denotes especially a religious metrical composition, and 5568 still more specifically, a Hebrew cantillation):
KJV-- song.
This is the general term for any words sung. Clearly, ‘any words sung’ pertains to all three types of songs because the hymns, songs and spiritual songs all have words (any words) in common.
The differences in the three terms are explained elsewhere. We know that a psalm is a set piece of music. Since a hymn is music too, and both are religious odes, we can conclude that a hymn must be a spontaneous ode. If the music had already been written, it would be a psalm (a set piece of music).
Let’s apply this and see if this verse makes sense now.
Spontaneous songs, (hymns), set or pre-written songs (psalms) and spiritual songs. This seems to make sense, doesn’t it? Then, a religious song that is spontaneous is a hymn. When it is commemorated or written down, it is still a hymn, but it now also falls into the category of a psalm.
The psalms were not psalms until they were written down. Where did they come from? From the heart of a worshipper, David, as inspired by God. They were originally inspired hymns. David had appointed recorders to write them down for future use. God had a plan.
1 Chronicles 16:4
4 And he appointed some of the Levites to minister before the ark of the LORD, to commemorate (record), to thank, and to praise the LORD God of Israel:
(NKJ)
So, we see a picture here. We get a melody from our heart and play it on our instrument. We also get spontaneous words from our heart and sing them. We have zamar, which is praise on an instrument accompanied by the voice. This is singing a hymn (new song) that is not rehearsed. When one sings an unrehearsed hymn, it is tehillah.
So, we can zamar and at the same time tehillah. What a concept, doing two things at once. Kind of like singing and dancing at the same time.
One could say that according to our current understanding, hymns are the foundational, doctrinal songs of the church. Aren’t psalms truly the same also? Don’t the psalms teach us about God and how to be godly? I think it is very clear that a hymn as used in this scripture is not a set piece of music.
Now let’s go back and visit the definition of tehillah from chapter two.
8416 tehillah (teh-heel-law');
from 1984; laudation; specifically (concretely) a hymn:
KJV-- praise.
- to laud is to praise highly.
So tehillah is a hymn as we just defined hymn. Tehillah is essentially spontaneous praise. Tehillah is derived from the word "halal". It does not carry the same meaning, but it would have the flavor of halal. We now understand what a hymn was in Bible times. We know that a psalm is a set piece of music. So that leaves us with the term ‘spiritual song’ to define now. The two words for this are ode (song), defined as ‘any words sung’, and pneumatikos:
Pneumatikos:
4152 pneumatikos (pnyoo-mat-ik-os');
from 4151; non-carnal, i.e. (humanly) ethereal (as opposed to gross), or (daemoniacally) a spirit (concretely), or (divinely) supernatural, regenerate, religious:
KJV-- spiritual. Compare 5591.
This denotes the ‘breath of God’ in any words sung. This is God singing through His people. The spiritual song is the song of the Lord. He writes the melody and the words and we open our mouths to bring it forth.
Notice that the scripture explains that we are to sing all three types, and not just one or the other. To sing only set pieces of music in our services does not fulfill the instruction of this scripture.
Many churches still use hymn books. Others use overheads to project song lyrics onto a wall or screen - this is just a multi-user hymn book. Some churches encourage spontaneous praise and prophecy, and others forbid it. I have heard pastors say that certain types of music appeal to the young set, and that playing it leaves the older folks out. If you play to the older folks, you leave the young out. Some try to offer a bit of something for everyone.Are we in church to please our individual tastes? Should a worship leader be trying to play a song that pleases Mr. and Mrs. Elderly in the back row? Maybe they should be trying to please the young folks because the church needs more youth?
The fact is that you can’t please them all at the same time. Truly, we need to examine whether we go to church to please ourselves. Or, are we there to minister to God, and to praise Him?
A person may feel that it is unpleasant to sit through a song that they don’t know, or one that they don’t necessarily like. That may be. But try listening to each member of the church singing a new song from the heart. They might then gratefully exchange this for the songs they disliked!Imagine, however, God’s view of the situation: if the truth is known, the songs from the heart are to Him the most beautiful of all.
Ps 33:1
1 Rejoice in the LORD, O you righteous! For praise from the upright is beautiful.
(NKJ)
This word praise in Ps 33:1 is tehillah. It is beautiful to the Lord.
It doesn’t matter to Him if the person expressing tehillah sings well, or not. The church has been entertained by its favorite songs for too long. What about God? What does He want? The Bible commands us to sing a new song to the Lord numerous times. The church needs a new song. A new song can come forth every day.
Do we pray the same prayer each time we pray? Do we have a favorite prayer? No. Why then, do we treat songs differently?
So am I saying that we should scrap the old reliable ‘hymns’ we have sung for years? No, of course not! Scripture says to sing spontaneous religious odes, set religious odes (what we call hyms) or psalms and songs of the Lord (spiritual songs). All three types of songs are to be a part of our meetings.
We’ve heard rebuttals to this concept in the church today. For example, "Well, that wouldn’t go over well with folks here." Or, "You can’t go off and leave the people. They need to participate and they don’t know what to do when the praise goes instrumental or spontaneous".
Heard it before? If people don’t know the words, they don’t enter in as readily. New songs can make them uncomfortable. But truly, EVERY SONG THEY NOW SING WAS A NEW SONG TO THEM AT ONE POINT.
It is more important to God that we get out of our comfort zones and step into the Biblical pattern. Let’s stop looking for reasons not to change, and start looking at the reasons why we should. Let’s stop trying to get our favorite music in the church and get on with the music God has for us. If new songs and styles of music hadn’t come forth in past generations, we’d still be singing the three-note chants of the old days.
No one likes change, but we must change. We must do it God’s way. We simply are used to doing it the way we were taught.
What would happen if you took a ministry trip to Africa? You would find a different type of music altogether. Not only words you don’t know, but words you won’t understand! If there happened to be an overhead, you wouldn’t be able to read the words anyway! So are we to understand that a Christian wouldn’t be able to worship God in Africa because of these barriers? You tell me.Remember the verse "out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water"? It doesn’t say a river, it says rivers. Multiple. More than one. This He spoke of the Spirit. The words Jesus spoke were Spirit and life. Rivers of dead water is not what it says, but rather living water. Something that is living is fresh. When it is not alive it quickly decays and is not fresh. These rivers of living water could very well, among other things, be songs. Couldn’t they?
The word of God set to music. What a concept! Wow, have we discovered something? Nope! Psalms have been around for a long time. We the church, need to quit complaining and get with the plan that God set in place. If we adopt God’s pattern, it will become comfortable to us after a time. At some point it will become normal. As we study further, we will find that spontaneous praise is very important in God’s plan.