Sermon post...psalms, hymns, spiritual songs...definitions of terms help with unity

 

I am not a Greek and Hebrew scholar.  I heavily rely on others and their work to help me understand the original languages of the Bible.  I am so thankful for blueletterbible.org which dissects each verse and provides the multiple meanings of the words of the ancient languages which leads to our modern English translations.  The definition of the terms or words allows us to be on the same page when we talk and apply the verse.  

This subject I have spoken of in Maine and Illinois.  Now I take another stab at it in Ohio.  The texts go beyond just the definitions of these lyrical or musical terms to how these types of songs service the church in glorifying God and serving each other.  I do find that the definitions help us to have a different conversation about the music God has given us to use.  

One difference is how we might look at a "blended" service.  Typically it means we will have some older songs and some newer songs.  But what if the blend is between songs identified as psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs?  Now we take the age of the song out of the picture.  

The verb psalm means "to pluck" but the noun form is a part of Scripture, i.e. the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms.  A song deemed a psalm contains and has a focus on God's very words.  

A hymn is a sacred song about a deity.  For the Christian, this is a sacred song that has the focus on Him, God.  A song deemed a hymn is about Him and He is the main subject.

A spiritual song is a song that is connected to our spirit.  It is a song that includes us in the lyrics as a response to our great God.  A song deemed a spiritual song allows us to testify of our relationship to Him.

Again, I am taking these definitions from the words that have been given to us by Paul in Ephesians 5:19, "...addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart,..." and 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."  

Using these definitions of the terms of Ephesians and Colossians, a blended service is one that includes songs using God's very words (psalms), songs with a focus on God alone (hymns), and songs that share our love for Him (spiritual songs).  I believe we need to evaluate our services this way because we tend to love those spiritual songs which include us.  The radio is full of these types of songs but I have also sung many of the older songs from the hymnal that would fall in this category as the entirety of a service.  I think we are at a deficit if we don't balance our services with songs from each category.

One caveat is that not each song will neatly fall into each category.  Some songs are blends and a common one is the verses of a song being in the hymn form about Him and the repeated chorus of the same song being in the spiritual song form as a human response to Him.  Probably the biggest challenge is to sing more songs that are in the psalm form, God's very words.

But lastly and I think most importantly is the context of these passages.  The Ephesians passage speaks of "addressing one another" and the Colossians passage speaks of "teaching and admonishing one another."  Not only are these "one another" passages with many examples of how we care and treat one another but they are speaking of how we are speaking to each other in the forms of these different types of songs.  At times we address, teach and admonish one another with God's very words, chapter and verse per say (psalms); at times we address, teach and admonish one another with words all about Him, His attributes (hymns); and at times we address, teach and admonish one another with our personal testimonies, our love back at Him (spiritual songs).   

Corporately we sing these types of songs but individually we can use these three forms to serve one another as the passages suggest.  

A longer post than I thought I would write but I was thankful to speak again about these rich passages that help us as a local congregation to have greater unity.

Adam