If true worship is worship commanded by God (as our Confessions and Catechisms maintain), the crux of the matter becomes this; is there a command in the New Testament that, in addition to the inspired psalms, the Church should make and use uninspired psalms, or hymns, or songs, for the worship of God? Does the New Testament provide us with clear and certain proof that God requires or commands the production and use of uninspired compositions, as it certainly does provide us with proof that God requires the use of the inspired psalms?

We say that God "certainly does provide us with proof for the use of inspired psalms in divine worship", for so far as we know this is not denied by orthodox Reformed and Presbyterian Churches. Even such Churches as have introduced the use of uninspired hymns acknowledge this requirement. For example, the Christian Reformed Church, when introducing many uninspired hymns for the first time, admitted that during the previous "77 years of its existence [it had] sung practically nothing but Psalms in public worship". (Psalter-Hymnal, 1934, p. iii.) And in revising Article 69 of the Church order to allow for this new introduction of uninspired hymns, it still acknowledged that "the singing of the psalms in divine worship is a requirement". Similarly, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, in adopting the Committee recommendation to use uninspired hymns, yet admitted that "the psalms were divinely inspired for the very purpose of praise". (O. P. Min. 14, p. 58.) It would appear, therefore, that there is no dispute that when James the Apostle said, "sing psalms" (5: 13), he meant the psalms of the Bible. By "psalms" James meant what the Bible itself denotes by that term. This much is clear. But when we consider texts in which "hymns" and "songs" are mentioned (i.e. Col. 3: I6 and Eph. 5: 19) the difficulty begins. For there are those who argue that these texts not only require the use of inspired psalms, but also allow the production and use of uninspired songs and hymns in divine worship. To this matter we now give our attention.

When Paul the Apostle went forth to preach the gospel to the Gentiles he did not find the way unprepared. In the providence of God synagogues could be found everywhere. In them the scriptures were read and expounded each Sabbath. And it was Paul's custom to seek out these synagogues first, wherever he went. "Paul, as his manner was, went in unto them, and three Sabbath days, reasoned with them out of the scriptures." (Acts 17:2, cf. 13:14, etc.) The translation of the Old Testament which Paul found ready for his use in these synagogues was called the "Septuagint" (abbreviated: LXX.). This Greek version had been in circulation for nearly three hundred years. (Almost as long as the King James version has been known in the English speaking world.) It was this Greek Bible which the Berean Jews searched daily with all readiness of mind as they tested the teaching of Paul. (Acts 17:11.) And we may be sure that Paul's teaching was agreeable with this version of the Old Testament. Paul's enemies accused him of departing from the Old Testament, but he said, "This I confess . . . that after the way which they call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers, believing all things which are written in the law and in the prophets". (Acts 24:14.)

But this indicates something very important. As Dr. B. B. Warfield has said, "The writers of the New Testament . . . all had in their hand the Septuagint version of the Old Testament, and . . . derived their Greek religious terminology from it". (The Person and Work of Christ, p. 443.) Paul used the words known to his listeners from the Greek version of the Bible. He used the language of familiar scripture with a meaning determined by that scripture. Therefore the precise point of our inquiry comes to this: what did the Apostle Paul mean when he instructed the Churches to sing "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs" in the worship of God? What do these terms mean in the language of scripture itself?

The texts in question are as follows:

"And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord." (Eph. 5:18-19.) "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom: teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." (Col. 3:16.)

The proper interpretation of scripture terms requires that we discover, not what we mean by these terms when we use them today, but what the inspired writer meant when he used them. And it is one of the oddities of biblical interpretation that this rule is commonly observed with reference to the term "psalms", and commonly disregarded with respect to the terms "hymns" and "songs". For the fact is that all three of these terms are used in the Bible to designate various selections contained in the Old Testament psalter. In the Greek version of the Old Testament familiar to the Ephesians and Colossians the entire psalter is entitled "Psalms". In sixty-seven of the titles within the book the word "psalm" is used. However, in six titles the word "hymn" is used, rather than "psalm", and in thirty-five the word "song" appears. Even more important, twelve titles use both "psalm" and "song", and two have "psalm" and "hymn". Psalm seventy-six is designated "psalm, hymn and song". And at the end of the first seventy two psalms we read that "the hymns of David the son of Jesse are ended". (Ps. 72:20.) In other words, there is no more reason to think that the Apostle referred to psalms when he said "psalms", than when he said "hymns" and "songs", for the simple reason that all three were biblical terms for psalms in the book of psalms itself. We are in the habit of using the terms "hymns" and "songs" for those compositions that are not psalms. But Paul and the Christians at Ephesus and Colossae used these terms as the Bible itself uses them, namely, as titles for the various psalms in the Old Testament Psalter. To us it may seem strange, or even unnecessary, that the Holy Spirit would use a variety of titles to describe His inspired compositions. But the fact is that He did so. Just as the Holy Spirit speaks of His "commandments and his statutes and his judgments" (Deut. 30:16, etc.), and of "miracles and wonders and signs" (Acts 2:22), so He speaks of His "psalms, hymns and songs". As commandments, statutes and judgments are all divine laws in the language of scripture; as miracles and wonders and signs are all supernatural works of God in the language of scripture; so psalms, hymns and songs are the inspired compositions of the Psalter, in the language of scripture itself.

The New Testament evidence sustains this conclusion. On the night of the Last Supper Jesus and His disciples sang "an hymn". (Matt. 26:30.) Bible expositors admit that this was "the second part of the Hallel Psalms (115-118)" which was always sung at the Passover. (New Bible Commentary, p. 835.) Matthew called this psalm a "hymn" because a psalm is a hymn in the terminology of the Bible. To the same effect is the Old Testament quotation in Hebrews 2:12, in which the Greek word "hymn" is quoted from Psalm 22:22. In this quotation from an Old Testament psalm, the word "hymn" is used to denote the singing of psalms because the Old Testament makes no distinction between the two. But if Scripture itself says that psalms are hymns, and that hymns are psalms, why should we make any distinction between them? If we grant that the Apostle used biblical language in a biblical sense there is no more reason to think that he spoke of uninspired hymns in these texts (Col. 3:16, Eph. 5:19) than to think that he spoke of uninspired psalms, because hymns are inspired psalms in the holy scriptures.

But let us also consider the context in which these words appear. (1) We are commanded to be "filled with the Spirit", or to "let the Word of Christ dwell" in us "richly in all wisdom". The one statement evidently interprets the other. To be filled with the Spirit requires the indwelling of the Word of Christ. One cannot be filled with the one unless he is filled with the other. If the words with which we are filled are not those of the Holy Spirit, how can they be the means by which we are filled with the Holy Spirit? And how can the Spirit fill us with other than His own words? (2) Note that we are told how we must effect this filling with the Spirit and Word of Christ. We are to effect this by "speaking to" ourselves, or by "teaching and admonishing one another". It will be observed that this is something very different from self-expression. When we make compositions we express our own sentiments and convictions. But here we are told to teach and admonish one another by speaking to ourselves the Word of Christ. Self-instruction is very different from self-expression. To express what is in us is the very opposite of being instructed and admonished. And (3) observe, finally, the instrumentality by which we are to effect this, namely, "psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs". We are to teach and admonish one another with "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs" in order that we might be filled with Christ's Spirit and Word. It certainly follows that these must be the psalms and songs of the Bible, for only these can properly be called the spiritual or inspired word of Christ. Only inspired words are appropriate for teaching and admonishing the Church of God. To receive instruction or admonition from uninspired words is wrong. "We ought to obey God rather than men." (Acts 5:29.) It is sometimes said that we do not sing in order to be taught and admonished, but rather to express our own feelings in response to God's Word. But God does not command us to express our own feelings in response to His Word, rather He commands us to instruct and admonish ourselves by means of His words. Thus the context, as well as the precise terms themselves (i.e. psalms, hymns and songs) leads to the conclusion that only the inspired words of the biblical psalms are qualified and authorized for the singing of God's praise in divine worship.

Let it not be thought that we have overstated the case. Even those who advocate the use of uninspired songs in worship admit our basic argument. For example, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church — even though it decided to use uninspired hymns — acknowledged the fact that in the scriptures "psalms", "hymns" and "songs" are synonymous terms. "It is possible that each of these terms may refer to such psalms, since each is used in the LXX (Septuagint) in the titles of the psalms." (O. P. Min. 1947, p. 54.) Or again, "in the language of Scripture the word 'psalm' and 'hymn' may be used synonymously." (Ibid.) In other words, even those who have advocated the use of uninspired hymns have been quite unable to prove that God has commanded such anywhere in His Word. They have been unable to prove that Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:19 sanction anything more than the "psalms, hymns and songs" inspired by the Holy Ghost and contained in the book of Psalms.

Even if we follow the usual careless interpretation of these scripture titles for psalms, however, the conclusion is virtually the same. Even if we were arbitrarily to say that the "psalms" refer to the selections of the psalter, but the other terms refer to something else, we would still be commanded to use only the inspired songs of scripture. The Apostle carefully states that we are to sing only "spiritual songs". And there is no doubt that the term "spiritual" means "inspired". As Dr. B. B. Warfield of Princeton said (The Presbyterian Review, July 1880): "Of the twenty-five instances in which the word ["spiritual"] occurs in the New Testament, in no single case does it sink even as low in its reference as the human spirit; and in twenty-four of them it is derived from 'spirit' (pneuma), the Holy Ghost. In this sense of belonging to, or determined by, the Holy Spirit, the New Testament usage is uniform." "The appropriate translation for it in each case is 'Spirit-given,' or 'Spirit-led', or 'Spirit-determined'." No doubt this term, appearing as it does with the three-fold designation for compositions of the psalter, qualifies all three, thus: spiritual psalms, hymns and songs. But even if we overlook this, we still must recognize that the songs sung in Christian worship are to be only such as are divinely inspired. And if the psalms are to be inspired (as this view admits) and the songs must also be inspired (as this qualifying terms demands) it would be necessary to assume that the hymns also are to be inspired. It would make sense if the Apostle were to distinguish between inspired psalms and uninspired hymns and songs. But it would be absurd to think that Paul would insist that psalms and songs be inspired and the hymns not. We can conceive of a distinction between psalms and other compositions whereby the one would be inspired and the other not. But we cannot conceive of a principle of discrimination which would require psalms and songs to be inspired but hymns not. To Paul and the Colossian and Ephesian Christians, then, the word "hymns" must have had a meaning qualitatively the same as the psalms and inspired songs with which it is classed. The word "hymn" like the word "psalm" must have been recognized without qualification as designating the same kind of inspired compositions as the others with which it is mentioned.

Let us summarize the assured teaching of these verses: (1) We are commanded to fill ourselves with Christ's Spirit and Word. (2) We are to effect this by mutual instruction and admonition in song. (3) The rule for this instruction and admonition is the psalter, because it contains inspired psalms, hymns and songs.

Or to put the matter in the negative: (1) We are not commanded to compose our own songs, nor to fill ourselves with the words or spirit of men. (2) We are not commanded to express our own thoughts or feelings, nor to be instructed or admonished by the thoughts or feelings originating from others. (3) We are not commanded to receive teaching and instruction by any other rule or instrumentality than that provided by the Holy Spirit in the book of inspired psalms, hymns and songs called the psalter.

Go to the next installment:
The Singing of Psalms in the Worship of God: Part III