I recently was made aware of an old acquaintance who is now part of a house church. In a message he sent to me giving a short explanation, he said, “\u2026after a lot <\/b>of study, I have come to the understanding that we are only authorized to sing inspired songs from the book of Psalms.”<\/p>\n
Well, that was a new one for me. I’d like to see if anybody has any material on this subject, both explaining this view and arguments against this view.<\/p>\n\t
It appears to me someone didn’t do much study at all. The pertinent passages are:<\/p>\n
“speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord<\/em>” (Ephesians 5:19).<\/p>\n
“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<\/em>” (Colossians 3:16).<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
The New King James quotes above reflect the Greek well in these two verses. There are “and”s between the three categories of songs. The psalms are just one of the types of songs we are to sing. The other two words are not a commentary on “psalms” because of the “and”s. The other two are hymns — songs based on other passages in the Bible, such as “Seek Ye First.” Spiritual songs are songs about biblical ideas though not necessarily strongly based on any particular passage, such as “Angry Words.”<\/p>\n
Another approach to this is to notice the purpose of singing is to teach our fellow Christians. To say that we are to only sing the Psalms is to say that we can only teach in our songs Old Testament doctrine. Yet some of the Psalms speak of animal sacrifices, worship at the temple, and the use of instrumental music which are not a part of the Christian’s worship. There is much to learn from the Psalms (Romans 15:4) but is not the dominant or exclusive source of teaching for the Christian.<\/p>\n\t
Response:<\/h2>\n
Thanks so much for your information.\u00a0 I have not asked him for how he came to that conclusion, but I\u2019m assuming that he believes the other tow terms used in those passages are referring to the Psalms.<\/p>\n
Thanks again!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: I recently was made aware of an old acquaintance who is now part of a house church. In a message he sent to me giving a short explanation, he said, “\u2026after a lot of study, I have come to the understanding that we are only authorized to sing inspired songs from the book of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[520,521],"class_list":["post-24130","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-music","tag-songs"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":34803,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/more-questions-about-psalms-hymns-and-spiritual-songs\/","url_meta":{"origin":24130,"position":0},"title":"More questions about Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 14, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Just curious regarding\u00a0Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs: what are your thoughts on the genre that many of the new \"brethren hymns\" are written in? That's a big chunk of the \"other 300\", maybe pushing 1\/3 of it by a wild guess? For my own edification, and I take a\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14716,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-sing\/","url_meta":{"origin":24130,"position":1},"title":"Why Sing?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 2, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker \"I will praise You, O Lord, among the peoples; I will sing to You among the nations\" (Psalm 57:9). The Hebrew name for the book of Psalms is \"Tehellim\" meaning \"praises.\" Our English word \"psalm,\" which translates the Hebrew word \"mizmor,\" comes from the Greek term\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2007\/11\/music.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":20698,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-the-use-of-parts-justify-the-use-of-choirs-and-solos\/","url_meta":{"origin":24130,"position":2},"title":"Does the use of parts justify the use of choirs and solos?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 31, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Choirs and solo supporters say that the entire congregation must sing every word simultaneously. They say \"If we can not have choirs and solos, you can not sing in four-part harmony.\" How can I respond to them? Answer: Given the simple fact that men and women do not sing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":86059,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/psalms-hymns-and-spiritual-songs\/","url_meta":{"origin":24130,"position":3},"title":"Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 25, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Wayne S. Walker via\u00a0Biblical Insights, Vol. 15 No. 1, January 2015 We know from the New Testament and can infer from later writings of church leaders that Christians of the first century did sing in their worship, but we do not know precisely what songs they sang or exactly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50032,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/evaluating-new-songs\/","url_meta":{"origin":24130,"position":4},"title":"Evaluating New Songs","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 15, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mark Roberts in\u00a0Abundant Life\u00a0via\u00a0Meditate on These Things For the longest time, it seemed brethren were fairly certain Sacred Selections contained just about every hymn that needed to be sung. Like it or not, that has certainly changed. Many congregations are now using some other hymnal other than Sacred Selections.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2006\/07\/song.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":14641,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/are-drums-of-god-or-the-devil\/","url_meta":{"origin":24130,"position":5},"title":"Are drums of God or the devil?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 17, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I wanted to know if the drums are of God, or is it from the devil. Did God make drums for one of his instruments? Answer: God tells us that it is men who invented instrumental music, not Satan. \"His brother's name was Jubal. 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