Many people today who claim to hold to the Regulative Principle of Worship (ie: ‘whatever is not commanded in worship is forbidden’ as taught throughout the Bible, and in the Westminster Confession of Faith) claim that they have a warrant for singing uninspired hymns from passages such as Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 in which we are commanded to sing ‘psalms and hymns and spiritual songs’. These people however refuse to consider what Paul, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, actually meant by these words. Of course, anyone who thinks that they can decide how God is to be worshipped, rather than God Himself (ie those who don’t hold to the Regulative Principle) really needs to sort out their ideas, because, in the words of John Knox:

‘All worshipping, honouring, or service invented by the brain of man in the religion of God, without His own express commandment, is Idolatry’

Before we even start it should be noted that in Colossians we are instructed to “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly” – not the words of any man. But what do ‘psalms, hymns and spiritual songs’ actually mean. Below is what I feel to be indisputable proof that these 3 terms all refer to the 150 songs in the Book of Psalms. It comes from a book called ‘The Worship of God’ by Malcolm H. Watts and David Silversides and is definitely worth reading. I don’t think you’ll find the point argued better by anyone else. Over to Mr S:

“We must not assume that the word hymn and song means what we mean by it today. When we talk about ‘hymns’ or ‘songs’ we generally mean something other than the inspired psalms – something written, perhaps, within the last 250 years. Modern usage, however, is not necessarily the same as the biblical usage. We must ask, what did the apostle Paul mean when, under the inspiration of the Spirit, he wrote ‘psalms and hymns and spiritual songs’?

In the New Testament we are told that at the Last Supper our Lord and his disciples sang an ‘hymn’ or, more literally, ‘hymned’ (Matt 26:30; Mk 14:26). Just about everyone concedes that this refers to the customary singing of the great Hallel Psalms, Psalm 113-118, which were normally sung at the Passover. So this particular singing of a ‘hymn’ evidently refers to what we call a psalm, or psalms.

The Old Testament uses three Hebrew words for the contents of the book of Psalms. These words are mizmor, tehillah and shir, and they are generally, although not uniformly rendered in the Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) by the words psalmos (psalm), humnos (hymn) and ode (song). Remember, this Greek translation of the Old Testament was in constant use in the Greek-speaking synagogues and, wherever it was adequate, it was quoted by the apostles in their writings. It used the words ‘psalms’, ‘hymns’ and ‘songs’ when referring to what we would simply call the psalms.

Let us look at some of the uses of these terms in the book of Psalms. First of all, we should consider the titles of the psalms. In the Septuagint, ‘psalmos’ is used in 67 titles, ‘ode’ is used in 36, and ‘humnos’, although less frequent, is still used in 6 (as a translation of ‘on Neginoth’ or ‘upon Neginah’). There are 12 psalms where ‘psalmos’ and ‘ode’ appear together and 2 where ‘psalmos’ and ‘humnos’ appear together. Psalm 76 has all 3 terms in the Greek version. In our English Bibles, the title reads, ‘To the chief Musician on Neginoth (Greek Septuagint: ‘humnois’), a Psalm or Song of Asaph.’

As well as being used in the titles, these words are also used in the psalms themselves. Psalm 65 has ‘psalm’ and ‘song’ in the title , but the first verse, ‘Praise waiteth for thee, O God, in Sion’ in the Greek version is ‘To thee, in Zion, O Lord, a hymn is befitting’. Here the word ‘praise’ (which refers to the Psalm) is rendered ‘hymn’. Similarly, in the Greek Septuagint, Psalm 100:4 reads, ‘Enter into his gates with hymns’ and Psalm 137:3 reads, ‘For there they that had taken us captive demanded us of words of a song; and those that carried us away demanded of us a hymn saying, Sing us one of the songs of Sion. How should we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?’ (The words used are ‘humnos’ and ‘ode’ – ‘hymn’ and ‘song’).

Psalm 22:22 reads as follows: ‘I will declare they name unto my brethren: in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee’. In the Septuagint, we have this translation: ‘I will declare thy name to my brethren: in the midst of the church will I hymn unto thee’. Now it so happens that this Septuagint rendering is quoted in Hebrews 2:12. There it is applied to Christ who shows salvation to his people and who promotes the worship of his redeemed Church. The original reference is to David singing psalms in the Old Testament congregation, but he clearly typified Christ in what he did; and the interesting thing is the singing of the psalms is described in Hebrews 2:12 as the singing of a ‘hymn’ or as ‘hymning’.

So, we see that the words ‘psalm’, ‘hymn’ and ‘song’ are used in the titles of the psalms and also in the text of those psalms in order to describe the inspired composures within the book of Psalms.

Furthermore, these terms are used elsewhere as descriptions of the psalms. Psalm 72:20 reads, ‘The prayers of David the son of Jesse are ended’. That word ‘prayers’ is rendered by the Septuagint, ‘hymns’ – ‘The hymns of David the son of Jesse are ended’.

In the Greek rendering of 2 Chronicles 29:30 we read, ‘They sang hymns to the Lord in the words of David and Asaph the seer’.

One very interesting reference is 1 Chronicles 16:9: ‘Sing unto him, sing psalms unto him, talk ye of all his wondrous works’. This is the same, of course, as Psalm 105:2. However, in the Septuagint, the former reference is rendered ‘hymns’ while the latter is rendered ‘psalms’. So the same Hebrew clause, when translated into the Greek, is in the one place rendered ‘Sing hymns unto him’ and in the other place, ‘Sing psalms unto him’.

This may appear a rather detailed and laborious argument, but it has been necessary to proceed with it. Taking all the material together, we must conclude that there is no reason whatsoever to think that when the apostle Paul spoke of ‘psalms and hymns and songs’ he was speaking of anything other than what we know more simply as the psalms (i.e. the compositions in our book of Psalms).

Dr. John Gill, the Baptist theologian, although not committed absolutely to exclusive psalmody, admits not only the sufficiency of the psalter but, with his great linguistic knowledge, acknowledges that the three terms all refer to the compositions in the book of psalms. He states: ‘These three words, psalms, hymns, and songs, answer to…the titles of David’s Psalms; and are, by the Septuagint, rendered by the Greek words the apostle uses. I shall not trouble you with observing to you how these three are distinguished by learned men, one from another, but only observe, what has been remarked by others before me; that whereas the apostle, in his exhortations to singing, directs to the titles of David’s psalms, it is highly reasonable to conclude, that it was his intention that we should sing them’ (A Discourse on Singing of Psalms, 1734).

Now someone may say, Why would the apostle use three different words to describe the Psalter? Allow me to ask, why does Scripture call the commands of God ‘ordinances, statutes and judgments’? Why are might works called ‘miracles, signs and wonders’? Why are petitions called ‘prayers, supplications and intercessions’? Why should the Scriptures not speak of the Psalter in terms of ‘psalms, hymns and songs’?

Before leaving this point, attention should be drawn to the non-exclusiveness of each of these words. One composition can be a ‘psalm’ and a ‘hymn’ and a ‘song’, all at the same time. We have seen that from the title of Psalm 76. Also, in Psalm 72:20, we saw the psalms of David described as ‘hymns’ and Psalm 65 refers to a ‘psalm’ and a ‘song’. And the Psalter as a whole, of course, is called the Psalms of David. However, there is something more here. In Ephesians 5:19, where we read ‘psalms and hymns and spiritual songs’, we also read of ‘making melody in your heart unto the Lord’. Now that expression ‘making melody’ is actually a rendering of the Greek verb ‘psallo’ (from which we have the word ‘psalm’), so literally it is ‘speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and psalming in your heart unto the Lord’. The only possible conclusion to draw is that the singing of ‘psalms, hymns and spiritual songs’ is really nothing more nor less than ‘psalming’ and that the three terms are not at all mutually exclusive of each other.”

Of course, when we sing the psalms without concentrating on the words, we are guilty of idolatry, so let’s not be too pleased with ourselves. But let’s be able to stand up to those with other beliefs!