Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs

Some Christians attempt to infer from Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 that Paul permits Christians to compose their own worship material. They say we have apostolic warrant (authorisation) to write our own hymns and songs of praise to God. They argue that in these two passages, Paul did not mean only the Book of Psalms, because firstly, by them we are to let the “word of Christ” dwell in us richly, and this word of Christ must include the New Testament Scriptures as well as the Old;¹ and secondly, he writes of “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”. Whatever these hymns and spiritual songs were, they argue that they were not psalms, seeing that Paul had already listed “psalms” before he mentioned “and hymns and spiritual songs”.

I have also heard it argued that since the New Testament Greek words translated as “hymns” and “songs” are not exclusively defined as Psalms, therefore it cannot be proven from these words that Paul means “psalms and psalms and psalms”. We agree with that, of course—but our argument is not built upon the meanings of the Greek or Hebrew words translated as “hymns” and “songs”. We know that the Greek words, in themselves, do not exclusively mean Psalms. However, the question is not about what can be included in the broad definition of these words, but what did Paul mean when he used these words in Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16. Which psalms and hymns and spiritual songs was he talking about? Greek and Roman pagans sang hymns and songs (odes) about their false gods, and to their false gods. But seriously, so what? Paul did not mean for Christians to sing them.

It is agreed by all that the words “hymns” and “songs” can refer to Psalms—in fact many of the Psalms are called hymns and songs in their titles, as we shall see. And when used together like Paul used them here, this phrase as a whole can mean the Book of Psalms, as we shall see. We argue that this is precisely what Paul meant, and meant to triple emphasise.

What we need to be sure of is, what did the apostle Paul have in mind when he said “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”? And do Paul’s instructons to the churches of Ephesus and Colosse extend to all Christians, including ourselves today? We believe that yes, these are instructions from God the Holy Spirit to all Christians. What Paul had in mind is what the Holy Spirit has in mind, in this apostolic command that the Spirit gives through the Scripture that he had Paul to write in his epistle, first to those particular congregations and then to all Christians in all churches.

We believe that these “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” are all found in the Book of Psalms. It is by these psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, if we sing them with grace in our hearts to the Lord, and if we teach and admonish one another by them while we sing them together in the public worship of God in our church fellowships—by these Psalms we let the whole word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom², and this is how we are filled with the Holy Spirit.

No, some say, we Christians need more and different than that. The Psalms are too restrictive, and largely irrelevant to offer God in Christian worship. They argue that, seeing the whole Bible is the word of Christ, then this sheer fact indicates to us that we should compose songs based on other parts of the Bible besides the Psalms, including the New Testament Scriptures. Then they say that, since it is only Christians who really know about Christ, therefore Christians can compose songs and hymns about Christ in a way that the Old Testament saints never could³—even if those Old Testament psalmists were prophets in whom the Spirit of Christ did testify, and who wrote their psalms as they were borne along by the Holy Spirit (1 Peter 1:11; 2 Peter 1:21), unlike any Christian today.

“How can you object to Holy Scripture being sung to God?” they ask, incredulously. We answer: we do not reject Holy Scripture, of course, but what we reject is singing to God uninspired selections of Holy Scripture (and worse: paraphrases and simplifications) in place of or in supplementation to the Book of Psalms. We believe God himself has given the Book of Psalms to his people, including Christians, to sing to him in worship. And we do not believe we have permission or authorisation from God to remove it or add other hymns or songs alongside it.

The Regulative Principle of Worship

We believe that our worship is regulated by God (this has been known for centuries as the regulative principle of worship). Those who disagree with us, who think this principle is too restrictve and somehow “legalistic”, assert that God instructs us on some things in worship, but he allows us to offer him many other things too of our own composition or preference; but there are some other things that God has forbidden as they are morally unacceptable to him (this is known as the normative principle of worship).

We can picture these two principles by a sheet of paper with two circles drawn on it, one inside the other. The inner circle (colour it white inside) is what God has commanded us to offer him in worship—this is the regulative principle circle. Beyond the outer circle (colour it black outside) are those things that God has specifically mentioned as forbidden to offer him in worship. And between the inner and outer circle (colour this ring zone gray) are so many things that God did not mention, either as things we must do or as things we must never do in worship. Those Christians who hold to the normative principle sometimes do what is in the inner, white circle (or they do some of what’s there); but what they spend most of their time doing in worship is offering God what would be categorised as in the gray area. As though, “God didn’t say do it, but God didn’t say don’t do it either, so maybe God will accept it.” Now, the question is this: is the gray area really acceptable to God? When you are not doing what God has instructed you to do in your worship of him but something else instead, are you doing what is acceptable to God?

If God has instructed you to do a thing (in Scripture), do it. Don’t say, “No, I will not.” And don’t say, “Yes, I will do it—but I will also do this other thing that will leave me less time, less energy, and less resources to do what God has instructed me to do.” This moral principle extends to the worship of God, too—including what we must sing to God, besides other elements of worship that are beyond the scope of this series of articles.

What Did Paul Mean by “Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs”?

Our argument is not based on the intrinsic meanings of these three words. We know the words in themselves don’t exclusively refer to the Book of Psalms. But we are concerned with what Paul meant when he used these three words (and what his first intended readers in Ephesus and Colosse would have understood him to mean). Why did the apostle Paul choose and use these three words, “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”?

We believe that Paul was not speaking about worship-songs based upon other parts of Holy Scripture. We believe he had in mind those particular psalms and hymns and spiritual songs that the people of God had already known and loved for centuries, in the Book of Psalms. Psalm-singing, as you should know, had been the weekly practice in the synagogues and the daily practice in the homes of the Lord’s people. And now the apostle commanded the first generation of Christians (and Christians today, by extension) to know and love and sing these very same psalms and hymns and spiritual songs to the Lord with his grace in their heart, and to teach and admonish each other by singing them together in their church services.

Let us now follow Paul’s argument. He urges us, his readers, to let the word of Christ to dwell in us richly in all wisdom. Here, it cannot be denied that Paul means to include all the Old Testament Scriptures, as we call them. Many of the New Testament Scriptures were not yet written at that time; and those that were written were only available in their originals and a small but increasing number of faithful copies, in the providence of God. Elsewhere Paul calls the Old Testament Scriptures “the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee [Timothy, and us] wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus” (2 Timothy 3:15). Moreover, “They are they that testify of me”, Christ Jesus himself says; and he opens his disciples’ understanding to see how “all things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets, and in the psalms, concerning me [Jesus himself]” (see John 5:39; Luke 24:13-32, 44-48). He took away their veil over the Old Testament Scriptures, so that they could see him in them all (see 2 Corinthians 3:14)—including in the Psalms. The same is true of all who become disciples of Christ (Acts 16:14; Ephesians 1:17-18; Colossians 1:9-10; 2 Timothy 3:15), so that we too, increasingly, see Christ in the Law, and the Prophets, and the Psalms.

With all this in his mind, Paul says to the churches of the Colossians and the Ephesians—and therefore to us in our churches today too, whether we are of Jews or Gentiles by birth: continue in your instruction and growth in godly living and the worship of God (see the verses leading up to these instructions by the apostle)⁴ by speaking to yourselves in those psalms and hymns and spiritual songs that fill you with the word of Christ and cause it to dwell in you richly in all wisdom, and that fill you with the Holy Spirit. In other words, those psalms and hymns and spiritual songs that fill you with the gospel in its fulness by helping you to learn the whole Bible, both the Old and (yes, now) the New Testament Scriptures.

We are not neglecting the gospel, nor are we turning to Judaism, nor are we departing from Christ, if we sing the Psalms (and only the Psalms) in our worship of God—but rather the opposite: we are on a great mission, a campaign to let the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom and to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

The “Psalms and Hymns and Spiritual Songs” of the Book of Psalms

From the titles included in verse 1 of many of the Psalms in the Book of Psalms, we know that some are called psalms, some are called hymns, and some are called songs. Plus, these words are also found in the body content of several of the Psalms. The three words that Paul uses, evidently copying the Koine Greek of the Septuagint,⁵ are used to translate Hebrew words. Though the apostle used three Greek words in his epistles, Paul would have also had in mind the Hebrew words that they translate, for he was both a Hebrew and Greek reader of the Holy Scriptures (see Acts 5:34; 22:3).

The psalms, hymns and songs that comprise the Book of Psalms are certainly all spiritual:⁶ they are full of spiritual matters in the lives of the Lord’s spiritual people; and they are all inspired by the Holy Spirit (see 2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21; Acts 2:25-36).

Psalms (the Greek psalmos translates the Hebrew mizmôwrim)

The word we have rendered in our Bibles as psalms, psalmos (ψαλμός, Strong’s Concordance, Greek Dictionary #5568), means the same as the Hebrew word מִזְמוֹר, mizmôwr (Hebrew #4210). Most of the titled Psalms have the word psalm (mizmôwr) in their titles. “Psalm” is also used to translate shorter forms of this word: זִ֭מְרָה, zimrah (Hebrew #2172), and זָמַר, zâmar (Hebrew #2167).

The Greek word psalmos, used in both the Septuagint and in the New Testament Scriptures, may be a transliteraton, for it sounds similar to the “zm” sound in these Hebrew words. And all these words seem to be onomatopoeic, mimicing the strumming sound of a stringed instrument. Psalms are songs that were originally accompanied by a stringed instrument, or that follow the lyrical style of such songs.

Hymns (the Greek humnos translates two Hebrew words: tehillim and neginoth)

In our English New Testament Scriptures, the word “hymn” sometimes translates the Old Testament Hebrew word hallel (הָלַל, Hebrew #1984). However, hallel and related Hebrew words are more often translated as “praise”, or “sing praises” in our English Old Testament Scriptures. The Hebrew word hallel heads up each Psalm in the series of Psalms 113-118 that comprise The Hallel. These were the Psalms that were especially sung at Jewish feast days: Passover (Pesach), Pentecost (Shavout), and Booths (Sukkoth).⁷ The Hallel, or a portion of it, was sung at the table of the passover meal. Therefore, this was the “hymn” that Jesus and his disciples sang at our Lord’s last passover meal. At this point in Matthew’s and Mark’s Gospels, “sung an hymn” is a translation of the Greek verb ὑμνέω, humneo (Greek #5214) (Matthew 26:30; Mark 14:26).

In the Greek Septuagint version of the Psalms in the Old Testament Scriptures, ὕμνοις (humnois) is used to six times to translate tehillah (meaning praise, a noun) and hallel (meaning praise, a verb and sometimes used as a noun, e.g. the Hallel; the Great Hallel⁸) (40:3; 65:1; 72:20; 100:4; 119:171; and 148:14). Also, ὕμνοις is also used six times translate a different Hebrew word, neginoth (stringed instrument) (6:1; 53:1; 54:1; 60:1; 66:1; and 76:1). And, ὕμνοις is used one time to translate the word shiyr (meaning song) (137:3). So in total, hymn appears in thirteen of the Septuagint Psalms. And many more Psalms may be included in the phrase at the end of Psalm 72: “The prayers [Septuagint: hymns] of David the son of Jesse are ended” (v.20).⁹

The Greek word humnos that Paul uses is plural, so it can be used to refer to the Hebrew plural noun tehillim (plural of hallel). In the Hebrew, the whole Book of Psalms is called the Sefer Tehillim, meaning the “Book of Praises”. Therefore, we may also speak of the Book of Praises as the Book of Hymns. In Paul’s commanding us to sing hymns, we believe that the apostle is commanding us to sing none other than the tehillim of the Sefer Tehillim.

When Paul and Silas “sang praises” to God while they were in prison for their preaching the message of salvation by the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 16:25), the Greek word given for what they were doing is also humneo (“hymning”). In their prison cell, these two Christian men were singing hymns to God from the repository of praises that they had both committed to memory. They were singing Psalms, same as they always did.

In the Scriptures outside of the Book of Psalms: references to singing praises to God in 2 Chronicles 7:6; 23:13, and 29:30 are also translated as singing hymns in the Septuagint—similar to Acts 16:25 in the New Testament Scriptures. And in the Septuagint translation of Isaiah we have one more use of the word hymn: “Sing unto the LORD a new song, and his praise [humnon, masculine noun] from the end of the earth, ye that go down to the sea, and all that is therein; the isles, and the inhabitants thereof” (Isaiah 42:10).

Songs (the Greek oide translates the Hebrew shîyrim)

The New Testament Greek word translated by the English word “songs” is ᾠδή, ōidḗ, meaning an ode or chant sung by many voices (Greek #5603). This word translates the Hebrew word שִׁיר, shîyr (Hebrew #7892), meaning a “song” or “for singing”. Numerous Psalms have this word in their titles (e.g. 30:1; 45:1; 46:1; 66:1; 67:1; 68:1).

Combinations of These Words

Many of the Psalms have combinations of two or three of these three names in their titles. For example, two Psalms are called both a hymn and a psalm (6 and 67). Several Psalms are called both a psalm and a song (4; 30; 48; 65; 66; 68; 75; 83; 87; 88; 92; 108). And there are two Psalms where all three of these words are used: Psalms 65:1 and 76:1 contain all three words in the Septuagint Koine Greek:¹⁰ ψαλμὸς (psalm), ᾠδή (song), and ὕμνος (hymn)—with ὕμνος translating the Hebrew tehillah (praise) in the former, and neginoth (stringed instrument) in the latter.

• Psalm 65:1: “To the chief Musician, A Psalm [(Heb.) mizmowr, (Gr.) psalmos] and Song [(Heb.) shiyr, (Gr.) ode] of David. Praise [(Heb.) tehillah, (Gr.) humnos] waiteth for thee, O God, in Sion: and unto thee shall the vow be performed.”
• Psalm 76:1: “To the chief Musician on Neginoth [(Gr.) humnos], A Psalm [(Heb.) mizmowr, (Gr.) psalmos] or Song [(Heb.) shiyr, (Gr.) ode] of Asaph.”

Seeing that these three words are found in the so many titles of the Psalms, it necessarily follows that if we sing the whole Book of Psalms, then we will indeed be singing those designated as a “psalm” and a “hymn” and a “song”. So, if we (properly) sing the Book of Psalms, then we are fulfilling the apostle’s instructions—we are obeying his commands in Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16.

Why Did Paul Not Simply Say “Psalms”?

The question is asked: in Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16, why did Paul not simply say “psalms” (only), or the “Book of Psalms”, if that is what he really meant?

We believe that the apostle here engaged a Hebrew Scripture literary style, which he has carried over into the Greek: emphasis by synonym clustering. So that when he said “psalms and hymns an spiritual songs”, Paul was deliberately repeating himself to impress upon his readers the necessity Psalm-singing in the worship of God.

Paul made this point very clear: this is what God would have you to sing to him in your worship of him. We should be singing these particular psalms and hymns and spiritual songs together with grace in your hearts to the Lord because this is what God has provided for us as our worship-material, and because this is what God has commanded. And there’s a great benefit to the Psalm-singer, and the Psalm-singing congregation: the congregational singing of the Psalms is an essential instructor and motivator in our personal and communal Christianity. Taking the words of these Psalms in, singing them into our souls, edifies us. They are an important instrument in our personal and corporate sanctification and godliness.

Before we look at examples of emphasis by synonym clustering in the Old Testamemt Scriptures, and where this technique has been carried over into the New testament Scriptures, let us look at another Hebrew Scripture literary stype upon which it is based: emphasis by word repetition. The Old Testament Scriptures often use word repetition to intensify or emphasise something being said. This can be a doubling or even a tripling of the word. For example: in God’s warning to Adam, where he said, “thou shalt surely die” (Genesis 2:17), the word “die” is doubled in the Hebrew. In God’s covenant with Abraham, where he said, “I will make thee exceeding fruitful” (Genesis 17:6), the English superlative word “exceeding” translates a Hebrew word meaning much, which is doubled. In the book of Job, the statement “He will surely reprove you” (Job 17:10) involves the word reprove, that is doubled. The Angel of the Lord used word duplication for emphasis when he gave God’s promise to Abraham: “…in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea ashore” (Genesis 22:17). And for a triple intensification, or super-emphasis, we have “holy, holy, holy, is the LORD of hosts” (Isaiah 6:1). Inheriting this pattern from the Hebrew Old Testament Scriptures, the same triple emphasis of God’s holiness is also used the Greek New Testament Scriptures in Revelation 4:8: “And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come”.

Our Lord Jesus Christ also used word repetition for emphasis, such as using the word translated as “blessed” at the start of each of his Beatitudes (Mathew 5:3-12), or in his issuing his “woe” warnings to the scribes and Pharisees (Matthew 23:13-16, 23-30). Moreover, Jesus began many things that he taught and said with a “verily” for emphasis, using the word amen, meaning “it is true” (a Hebrew and Aramaic word, that had also become a loan-word in the Greek). And for some of his sayings Christ used super-emphasis when he doubled the word: “verily verily” (John 1:51, 3:5; 5:24; 6:47; 8:58; etc.).

Besides repeating the same words, doubling or tripling for emphasis, words with similar meanings can be clustered together to emphasise something. This is often done in the Old Testament Scriptures, where there are the repeating of meanings (or covering different aspects or nuances of meaning), though not using the same word multiple times. Examples of such synonym clustering are: wisdom, knowledge, and understanding (Proverbs 2:1-2; 9:10; 17:27-28); laws, words, commandments, judgments, statutes, precepts, etc. (Deuteronomy 4, 5, 6, etc.; Psalm 119 throughout); and iniquity, transgression, and sin (Exodus 34:7).

Poetic portions of the Old Testament Scriptures, such as the Psalms, use synonym clustering to make poem couplets and triplets: they use not only words but whole lines with similar meanings (not by rhyming with similar-sounding line endings as we do in English poetry). By such clustering of saying the same thing multiple times using different words, the Psalms are designed for memorisation. In a similar aid for memorisation, many Hebrew proverbs use flipped couplets (bringing together antonyms instead of synonyms), so that the second line contrasts against the first. For example: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction” (Proverbs 1:7). Both synomym and antonym clustering are found many, many times throughout the Psalms!

Multiple Words Meaning the Same Thing

This literary device of synonym clustering for emphasis has been carried over into the New Testament Scriptures, as has word repetition for emphasis. For example, Peter used this technique again and again in addressing the Jews in his first sermon on that Pentecost after the Holy Spirit came down: “Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it” (Acts 2:22-24). Notice how he used synonym clustering again and again. And this was even before he quoted some Psalms, in which the same technique is used.

Paul’s epistles have many doublings, triplings, and even some quadruplings of words that refer to the same thing, or that refer to various aspects of a thing. For an example of such emphasis within one of our “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” passages, Paul also impressed upon us the importance of “teaching and admonishing” them to one another while singing them together (Colossians 3:16). More examples: Paul would have us make “supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks” for kings, and for all that are in authority, that we might live a “quiet and peaceable” life in all godliness and honesty (1 Timothy 2:2). That was a double synonym cluster. Here is a triple: “…prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God” (Romans 12:1). And a quadruple: and “Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind” (Philippians 2:2).

And who can forget our Lord’s greatest commandment in the law, found in both the Old Testament and the New: “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind”. Mark also reports that Jesus further intensified this emphasis on the love we ought to show to God by adding a fourth phrase: “and with all thy strength” (Deuteronomy 6:5; Matthew 22:38; Mark 12:30; Luke 10:27).

So, we know that the apostle Paul, himself a Hebrew scholar and a disciple of Jesus, numerous times employed synonym clustering for emphasis. It was not only that one word is not enough for Paul to say all that he wanted to say on a subject, or to make it memorable: like Moses and the prophets, and like Peter, and like his Saviour, he compounded words with similar meaning to make his teachings stick in our minds.

We are persuaded that the psalms and hymns and spiritual songs that the apostle Paul wrote about are those that comprise the Book of Psalms—and that he used this cluster of similar words for a triple emphasis. Yes, though we are sometimes mocked for it, we do have a good basis for believing that the apostle is here commanding, instructing, and urging us to sing Psalms and Psalms and Psalms! We get it, Paul. We must sing the Psalms.

Paul’s triple emphasis style was easily understandable by his first readers: it was not something they had not seen before, or were unfamiliar with. They possessed the Koine Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, or they had it regularly read aloud to them in their churches—and in their synagogues before that, if they were Jews. So when they heard or read him say “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” they knew what to do—think: what did Paul really mean? What was he directing our attention to? In the first verses (that are often titles) of many Psalms in the Septuagint, the Greek-speaking Jews and Gentiles of the Christian Church would have frequently encountered many times the names “psalm” and “hymn” and “song” identifying particular Psalms. Paul deliberately chose these three words that they had in their Septuagint Scriptures; and of course he would have had in mind the Hebrew too.

Those Christians who argue against exclusive Psalmody (the practice of singing only the Psalms in the worship of God) do so either by denying that Paul had in mind the psalms, hymns and songs of the Book of Psalms, or by denying that he had only the Psalms in mind. While it is true that these three words, in themselves, can mean other than those that comprise the Book of Psalms, and that these words did have a wider usage in Greek literature (where there are other things called songs and hymns), this is no proof that Paul was instructing the Christian church to sing them. Neither did the apostle’s instructions include permission to compose hymns or songs for use in the worship of God, to use alongside the Psalms—which always means in practice to replace the Psalms to a greater or lesser amount.

The psalms and hymns and spiritual songs of the Book of Psalms are what we know we should sing to the Lord with grace in our hearts. They are what we should sing with one voice together in our churches. They are the songs with which we should teach and admonish one another. They are the songs that let the word of Christ dwell in us richly in all wisdom. They are the songs that fill us with the Spirit. We should not set them aside and sing uninspired hymns or uninspired songs instead, no matter how spiritual they are claimed to be.

Appendix: Some Quotes

John Brown of Haddington, Preface to The Psalms of David in Metre (1775):

The Psalms, Hymns, and spiritual Songs, there recommended [in Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16], are plainly the same with the Mismorim, Tehillim, and Shirim, mentioned in the Hebrew titles of David’s Psalms, (Psalms 3, 4, 5, etc; Psalms 145, 120, 134).

Except for the John Brown of Haddington quote above, the other sources can be found linked at the Books Online section of ExclusivePsalmody.com (website).

Alexander Blaikie, in his A Catechism on Praise (1854), Chapter 2 Question 26:

Were they [these three words] not something different from the Book of Psalms?

No. For the Colossians and Ephesians had already the Septuagint. “Moses was read in their synagogues every Sabbath day,” their first Christian assemblies, Acts 13:15, and converts were Jews, Acts 18:19; 19:1, 19; Colossians 2:14, and therefore, when they were thus directed, they would easily understand, that the psalmois, humnois and odais pneumatikais were obviously the Mitzmorim, Shirim, and Tehillim previously given in the Book of Psalms, by the inspiration of God. Besides, in the Septuagint Psalm 72:20, and by Josephus Antiq. B. VII. chap. 12, the Tephiloth, or prayers of David, are called hymns.

In The True Psalmody; or, The Bible Psalms the Church’s Only Manual of Praise, by Rev Henry Cooke DD LLD, Rev John Edgar D.D. LL.D., and Rev Thomas Houston DD LLD (1883)—concerning the words, “psalms”, “hymns”, and “songs”:

It is generally supposed that the Apostle [Paul] made use of the Septuagint version of the Scriptures. With this version the Ephesians and Colossians, being Greeks, were no doubt familiar. Let us open then this version of the Psalms, and we will find some of them bearing the title of a psalm, others of a hymn, and others of a song exactly corresponding to the three Hebrew titles, Mizmar, Tehilla, and Shir. These words in the Septuagint are the very same as those which are employed by the Apostle when he directs the Ephesians and Colossians to “sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.” Will the reader then look at this, and ask himself whether the probabilities in favour of our interpretation of this passage, are not such as almost to amount to a moral certainty. [Italicisation added.]

In The Psalms in Worship: A Series of Convention Papers Bearing Upon the Place of the Psalms in the Worship of the Church (United Presbyterian Church of North America, 1907), the editor John McNaugher, D.D., LL.D. wrote the following in his own included paper, A Special Exegesis of Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:19:

Consulting this great [Septuagint] Version, the most cursory reader will find, first, that there is a steady recurrence of these three designations, “psalms,” “hymns,” and “songs,” in the formal titles to the compositions of the Psalter; second, that the terms “hymns” and “songs,” with their related verbs, occur again and again in the text or body of the Psalms…Still further: “psalm” and “song” are conjoined twelve times, and “psalm” and “hymn” twice. In the heading of Psalm 76 all three terms stand side by side, just as here [In Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:19], and the heading of Psalm 65 contains “psalm” and “song,” while in the first verse the composition is spoken of as a “hymn.” It is noteworthy also in these compound inscriptions that our terms interchange easily, and that “hymn” is written repeatedly in the plural, suggesting that in the estimation of the Seventy it was applicable to all the poems of the Psalter. There are such various phrasings as “a psalm of a song,” “a song of a psalm,” “a psalm, a song,” “in psalms a song,” “in hymns a psalm,” “in hymns, a psalm, a song.”

Notes on Psalmody, by Rev James A Grier D.D. LL.D. (1900):

The terms “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” refer exclusively to the inspired compositions of the Psalter, and in no sense to the uninspired work of men. All these types of praise are found in the Psalter. It abounds in “psalmois,” “humnois” and “hodais” by the very designations or titles of the Psalms in the Psalter of the LXX [Septuagint]. … At any rate, the authority here is not the English version, but rather the Scriptures in use when the New Testament was written. They use “psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” in referring to the Old Testament Psalms. The LXX, or Greek version of the Old Testament Scriptures, was in Paul’s day the one in use among the Hebrews and Hebrew and Greek Christians. They used almost no other. It is a well known fact that the Greek Psalter styles its contents by these names, e.g., Psalm 6 is entitled “Among the hymns in the octave”; Psalm 54, “Among the hymns.” The same word occurs in the titles of the 55th, 67th, 76th and others of the Psalms. Some titles combine two of these names, while Psalm 76 combines all three. There is no very essential difference in the composition. Psalms 120-134, inclusive, are called “odes” or “songs.” As for “Psalms,” many are found. It was the natural thing for Paul in commending the Psalms to do it in terms well understood by all who read his epistles. In view of these titles in their Psalter, not one of those Greek-speaking Jews or converted pagans would misunderstand Paul; and especially as they knew nothing about any hymns and spiritual songs except those in their Psalm book. There were no human compositions used for praise. To understand the matter, we are not to locate ourselves in our own times, when the Church is flooded with compositions called hymns and spiritual songs, but in the times when there were none in the Lord’s Church, except those the Lord had given, and ask what would those Greek-speaking Christians with the Psalter of the LXX. in their hands, and no other psalms, hymns and spiritual songs known to them and used in God’s praise—what they would understand the apostle to mean? When we do so there can be but one answer. This thought is strengthened by the fact these terms are but translations of the terms descriptive of various compositions in the original Hebrew Psalter, viz., Mizmorim, Tehillim and Shirim, more or less familiar to many of these Greek-speaking singers.

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1. We agree that the New Testament Scriptures are also the word of Christ. See part 3, The Word of Christ. ↩︎

2. See part 3, Richly in All Wisdom. ↩︎

3. Further, those Christians who hold to the dispensationalist scheme of Bible interpretation do not see the New Testament era as the era of fulfilment of prophecy (Messianic and eschatological) but as an unforeseen pause or hiatus in the “prophetic clock”, during which God has temporarily turned his main attention away from the Jews to the Gentiles, before he turns back to the Jews (in the “great tribulation” and the “millennium”, as they conceive these events). Dispensationalists describe the “Gentile church” as hidden out of sight from the Old Testament people of God, as though in a veep valley between two mountain peaks. From this theological position, it is sometimes argued that the Psalms are not for the Gentile church (not at all?) to use as her worship-material, because they are for a different time and for a different people of God (the people of Israel). We hope to respond to this argument in a later article in this series. ↩︎

4. See part 2, Godly Living and the Worship of God. ↩︎

5. The Hebrew Scriptures were translated by seventy-two Jewish elders in the city of Alexandria into Koine Greek during the Third and Second Centuries B.C. This translation is known as the Septuagint. This dialect of Greek was the common language spoken in countries around the east side of the Mediterranean Sea, through the centuries from the earlier “classical” Greek times, though the First Century when the New Testament was written also in Koine Greek, and into the era of the Byzantines (Eastern Roman Empire). The Septuagint Scriptures were used by Jews and Christians all around the eastern Mediterranean; and the Christian church increasingly included Gentiles who had come to Christ. (Many of the Psalms are numbered differently in the Septuagint. But here in this article, only the Hebrew/English Psalm numbers are mentioned.) For access to the Septuagint, see https://www.blueletterbible.org (selecting “LXX”) and https://www.septuagint.bible. ↩︎

6. In the New Testament Greek word order in Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16, the word translated “spiritual” comes last: Paul wrote “psalms and hymns and songs spiritual”. Some theologians say that this word “spiritual” is a qualifier for all three terms. See e.g. The Singing of Psalms in the Worship of God by G.I.Williamson. ↩︎

7. In the Septuagint, each Psalm in The Hallel (numbered 114-119 in the LXX) begins with the word αλληλουια (alleluia), a Greek transliteration of the Hebrew word we render as hallelujah, meaning “Praise the LORD”. ↩︎

8. Also, Psalm 136 is known as the Great Hallel. And where Psalm 145 is called “David’s Psalm of praise,” here “of praise” is תְּהִלָּה, tᵉhillâh ((Strong’s Concordance, Hebrew Dictionary, number 8416). ↩︎

9. The Book of Psalms is actually comprised of five books. Book 1: Psalms 1-41. Book 2: Psalms 42-72. Book 3: Psalms 73-89. Book 4: 90-106. Book 5: 107-150. The statement at the end of Psalm 72 may refer to the whole of Book 2. ↩︎

10. In the Septuagint, Psalm 65:1 is numbered 64:1-2, and Psalm 76:1 is numbered 75:1. ↩︎