Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs provide us a repertoire of biblical theology.  They enrich our worship of God and assist us with words we couldn’t otherwise bring to express our love and adoration to God.  They express our corporate and personal beliefs, convictions, and faith.  They allow us to actually say the name of Jesus in music.

On a recent Sunday, my Presbyterian Church sang the hymn, There Is a Fountain, during and following the Lord’s Supper. Of course, the focus of the hymn is on the sacrificial blood of Jesus Christ.  However, we began our worship with O Worship the King—another focus on Jesus Christ and a bit later, Hallelujah! What a Savior—again, a focus on Jesus Christ.  We ended our worship with singing the Doxology—praising “Father, Son, and Holy Ghost”—our triune God.  Our worship was rich, Christ-centered, and triune God-centered.

As I was driving home, I thought of what we would miss if we never sang a hymn specifically addressing the Trinity, praising the Father and Creator, praising the Son and Redeemer, and praising the Holy Spirit, our Helper and Sustainer. When the New Covenant was introduced, it appears that God ordained the hymns to reflect the revelation of this Covenant just as there were participants brought into that New Covenant.  Did the Holy Spirit cease to inspire new songs that clearly expressed the New Covenant, as had the Psalms in the Old Covenant?

“. . . speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,
singing and making melody with your heart to the Lord.” Ephesians 5: 19 (NASB)

I realize Ephesians 5: 19, despite clearly expressing speaking to one another in hymns and spiritual songs as well as Psalms, is not interpreted the same within Reformed denominations.  Some consider all three words referring only to the Psalms.  In addition, they consider the Psalms as alone being inspired by the Holy Spirit and appropriate for singing in congregational worship.  However, in the Greek “Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” are separated by a conjunction—kai, meaning and.  In the original Greek kai and has various meanings including ‘also,’ ‘even.’ ‘so then’ and ‘both.  The clearer understanding in this verse is “and.”

Hermeneutically, and to be consistent with principles of grammar, it appears to me one can most accurately interpret the verse as referring to three different modes of music or hymns.  And there is some historical background supporting the nature of hymns that were known to the Gentile world at that time, which may be why Paul chose a specific word recognized by new Gentile believers. This would relate to the nature of the New Covenant that incorporated Gentiles into God’s Covenant family.

According to Ken Puls of Founders Ministry, “Hymn was a term that would have been especially familiar to the Gentiles. In the Greek and Roman empires leading up to the time of the New Testament, hymns were sung in praise of heroes and gods. People would celebrate the military victories of great generals and exalt the false gods of mythology in hymns. But as the gospel swept across the known world, the church transformed the hymn into a song in praise to the one true God. Its transformation astounded the Romans. In 112 when Pliny, a governor in Bithynia, wrote to Emperor Trajan, asking for advice on how to handle the rising number of Christians in the realm, he commented that the Christians were observed singing “a hymn to Christ as to a god.” In his mind hymns were songs for heroes and champions, not for one shamefully crucified on a cross! When Paul spoke of singing hymns, he wasn’t thinking ‘traditional’ or reminding the church to include or revive some of the old songs from the past. He had something more radical in mind. Paul encouraged the church to claim the music of the culture and sing it to God’s glory. The hymn is the first example in church history of a secular form of music being captured and claimed for the sake of the gospel—its transformation so complete that today a hymn is most commonly recognized as belonging to the church.”

Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs provide us a repertoire of biblical theology.  They enrich our worship of God and assist us with words we couldn’t otherwise bring to express our love and adoration to God.  They express our corporate and personal beliefs, convictions, and faith.  They allow us to actually say the name of Jesus in music, such as “Jesus, O What a Name!” They are so important that many choose certain hymns or spiritual songs they want sung at their funeral.  For me, I have already chosen Holy, Holy, Holy as the first hymn to focus on our triune God, the second to be The Church’s One Foundation to focus on my family in and because of Christ, and ending with the spiritual, He Never Failed Me Yet to focus on God’s faithfulness to a sinner who was definitely saved only by grace.

Lastly, how could Easter be celebrated more worshipfully without Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus?  Let’s thank the Holy Spirit for inspiring the Apostle Paul to give such clear direction as to what we could and should sing!

Helen Louise Herndon is a member of Central Presbyterian Church (EPC) in St. Louis, Missouri. She is freelance writer and served as a missionary to the Arab/Muslim world in France and North Africa.