Ephrem said...
Sorry if this has already been covered, but what do you make of "sing gratefully to God from your hearts with Psalms, hymns and inspired songs?"
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Colossians 3:16 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.
Ephesians 5:19 ... addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart…
When Paul uses the words “Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs”, he is quoting from the Greek Bible of his time (known as the Septuagint, or the LXX, as many of you already know). The titles of the Psalms in the Septuagint contain those three words. Some Psalms are titled “a song”, some are titled “a hymn”, and some, of course, are entitled “a Psalm” of David. Reading the titles of these Psalms from the LXX is a very enlightening experience. It gives great insight into what Paul is commanding us to do in Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16. He is commanding us to sing the inspired Psalms. (This reading exercise proves to be a great “ah-ha” moment for anyone who wants to seriously study the Psalmody subject).
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I disagree. Note what Paul says in 1 Cor 14:26 "How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying."
Everyone in Corinth participated in leading the worship. Everyone had something to offer. But apparently it got out of hand and they had to be reminded to do everything decently and in order, to take turns, and to do everything to edification not to get up and look cool. Now, I think that just as much as "a revelation" would be something new, and "a tongue" would be something new, and "an interpretation" would be something new, the psalm referred to here is a new psalm. I don't think he's saying that everyone had decided what Psalm from the book of Psalms they wanted to sing, but that they were writing psalms, new psalms, just as they were receiving revelations and speaking in tongues. After all, why would God leave the church to sing about Christ in types and figures without songs that mention him by name?
An interesting question I found in an article on this subject, "Why would Paul say that we must 'teach and admonish one another with all wisdom in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs,' if he simply wanted to urge us to sing the canonical Psalms? Do we need 'all wisdom' to select say, Psalm 100 this Sunday, but Psalm 72 the following Sunday?"
The basic argument presented is that in Col 3:16 Paul is commanding the church, not merely to sing the psalms from the book of Psalms, but to write psalms with "all wisdom" that will be able to teach the message of the gospel effectively. Particularly convincing is the fact that the verse begins with "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" which word we would tend to think of as being properly the gospel, and therefore we ought to "with all wisdom" compose such psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs as will enable us to be "teaching and admonishing one" thereby as well as "singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord."
Now, so far as grace is concerned it may be added that many of David's songs are calling out for the blood of his enemies, and certainly are not singing with grace in our heart to the Lord so much as requesting vengeance upon the ungodly. To Christians singing such psalms, would not Christ respond as he did to John when he would have called fire down from heaven on the Samaritans? "Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them." (Luke 9:55-56)
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