Reference: Hymns
Fausets
Hebrew tehillim; in direct praise to God (Ac 16:25; Jas 5:13). Not restricted to church worship; but used to exhilarate Christians in social parties. "Psalms," mizmor, were accompanied with an instrument, carefully arranged. "Songs," Greek oodai, Hebrew shir, were joyous lyric pieces on sacred subjects; contrast the reveling, licentious songs of pagan feasts (Am 8:10). The accompaniment is the "melody of the heart," not the lyre. Tertullian (Apology, 39) records that at the love feasts (agapae), after the water was furnished for the hands and the lights lit, according as any remembered Scripture or could compose (compare 1Co 14:26, "improvised psalms"), he was invited to sing praises to God for the general good. The heart is the seat of true psalmody, "singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord" (Col 3:16; Eph 5:19).
Some generally accepted confession, in the form of a hymn, appears in 1Ti 3:16; the short unconnected sentences, with words similarly arranged, almost in the same number of syllables, the clauses in parallelism (the principle of Hebrew versification) antithetically arranged, each two forming a pair which contrasts heaven and earth, the order reversed in each new pair, flesh and spirit, angels and Gentiles, world and glory; the first and the last clauses correspond, "manifested in the flesh. .. received up into glory." So Pliny, 1:10, ep. 97: "the Christians are wont on a fixed day, before dawn, to meet and sing a hymn in alternate responses to Christ as God." Christ and His disciples sang a hymn after the Passover and the Lord's supper (Mt 26:30; Mr 14:26). Probably it was the Great Hallel or paschal hymn, usually sung after the Passover by the Jews, namely, Psalm 113-118.
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And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation. And I will bring sackcloth upon all loins, and baldness upon every head, and I will make it as the mourning for an only son, and the end thereof as a b
Now toward midnight Paul and Silas, while praying, were singing praises to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
What is it therefore, brothers? When ye come together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.
speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and striking strings in your heart to the Lord,
Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing by grace in your hearts to God.
And without controversy great is the mystery of piety. God was manifested in flesh, justified in spirit, seen by heavenly agents, proclaimed among nations, believed in the world, taken up in glory.
Is any man among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise.
Morish
These occur in this order: 'psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.' Eph 5:19; Col 3:16. The word 'psalms' is the same as the Greek ???????; so the word 'hymns,' ??????; for 'spiritual songs' it is ?.???? ????????????, spiritual odes or songs. There can be no doubt that the Psalms of David had been used by the devout of Israel as songs of praise, and some of these may have been used in the early church, such as Psalm 23, Psalm 103, etc., which in substance have found their way into nearly all modern hymnals.
But the new dispensation required new songs of praise, and some may have been written that retained the name of psalms; others were called hymns, which apply to those compositions which are addressed to the Father or the Son, or directly to God. The word used for 'songs' is employed in Re 5:9 for the song of the redeemed; and in Re 14:3 for the new song; and in Re 15:3 for the song of Moses, the sentiments of which are often repeated in the Psalms: cf. also Ex 15:1-19; De 32:1-44.
It will be noticed that the passages in Ephesians and Colossians do not refer to singing in the assembly, and the one in Colossians may be punctuated thus: "in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another, in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." The Lord sang a hymn with His disciples at the last passover; and we may be sure that there was singing in the assemblies. The heathen Pliny bore testimony that the Christians sang 'odes to Christ as God.' Christ is twice represented as praising God, in the midst of His congregations, that is, in the assembly, and in the great congregation of Israel and those associated with them. Ps 22:22,25. Among hymns generally it is easy to see that some are hymns of praise; others recount what God has done; others speak of what Christ has suffered; others refer to future blessing; and again others are really prayers.
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Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to LORD, and spoke, saying, I will sing to LORD, for he has triumphed gloriously. The horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea. LORD is my strength and song, and he has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him, my father's God, and I will exalt him. read more. LORD is a man of war. LORD is his name. Pharaoh's chariots and his army he has cast into the sea, and his chosen captains are sunk in the Red Sea. The deeps cover them. They went down into the depths like a stone. Thy right hand, O LORD, is glorious in power. Thy right hand, O LORD, dashes the enemy in pieces. And in the greatness of thine excellency thou overthrow those who rise up against thee. Thou send forth thy wrath, it consumes them as stubble. And with the blast of thy nostrils the waters were piled up. The floods stood upright as a heap. The deeps were congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil, my desire shall be satisfied upon them. I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. Thou did blow with thy wind, the sea covered them. They sank as lead in the mighty waters. Who is like thee, O LORD, among the gods? Who is like thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? Thou stretched out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them. Thou in thy loving kindness have led the people that thou have redeemed. Thou have guided them in thy strength to thy holy habitation. The peoples have heard, they tremble. Pangs have taken hold on the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the chiefs of Edom were dismayed, the mighty men of Moab. Trembling takes hold upon them. All the inhabitants of Canaan are melted away. Terror and dread falls upon them. By the greatness of thine arm they are as still as a stone, till thy people pass over, O LORD, till the people pass over whom thou have purchased. Thou will bring them in, and plant them on the mountain of thine inheritance, the place, O LORD, which thou have made for thee to dwell in, the sanctuary, O LORD, which thy hands have established. LORD shall reign forever and ever. For the horses of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and LORD brought back the waters of the sea upon them, but the sons of Israel walked on dry land in the midst of the sea.
Give ear, ye heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain. My speech shall distil as the dew, as the small rain upon the tender grass, and as the showers upon the herb. read more. For I will proclaim the name of LORD. Ascribe ye greatness to our God. The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice, a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is he. They have dealt corruptly with him. [They are] not his sons, [it is] their blemish, a perverse and crooked generation. Do ye thus requite LORD, O foolish people and unwise? Is not he thy father who has bought thee? He has made thee, and established thee. Remember the days of old. Consider the years of many generations. Ask thy father, and he will show thee, thine elders, and they will tell thee. When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the sons of Israel. For LORD's portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the waste howling wilderness. He compassed him about. He cared for him. He kept him as the apple of his eye. As an eagle that stirs up her nest, that flutters over her young, he spread abroad his wings. He took them. He bore them on his pinions. LORD alone led him, and there was no foreign god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, and he ate the increase of the field, and he made him to suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock, butter of the herd, and milk of the flock, with fat of lambs, and rams of the breed of Bashan, and goats, with the finest of the wheat, and of the blood of the grape thou drank wine. But Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. Thou have grown fat. Thou have grown thick. Thou have become sleek. Then he forsook God who made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They moved him to jealousy with strange [gods]. With abominations they provoked him to anger. They sacrificed to demons, not God, to gods that they knew not, to new [gods] that came up of late, which your fathers did not dread. Thou are unmindful of the Rock that begot thee, and have forgotten God who gave thee birth. And LORD saw, and abhorred, because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them. I will see what their end shall be. For they are a very perverse generation, sons in whom is no faithfulness. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God. They have provoked me to anger with their vanities, and I will move them to jealousy with a non-nation. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. For a fire is kindled in my anger, and burns to the lowest Sheol, and devours the earth with its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap evils upon them. I will spend my arrows upon them, [to be] wasted with hunger, and devoured with burning heat and bitter destruction. And I will send upon them the teeth of beasts, with the poison of crawling things of the dust. Outside the sword shall bereave, and in the chambers terror, [to] both young man and virgin, the suckling with the man of gray hairs. I said, I would scatter them afar, I would make the remembrance of them to cease from among men, were it not that I feared the provocation of the enemy, lest their adversaries should judge amiss, lest they should say, Our hand is exalted, and LORD has not done all this. For they are a nation void of counsel, and there is no understanding in them. Oh that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end! How should one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight unless their Rock had sold them, and LORD had delivered them up? For their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of serpents, and the cruel venom of asps. Is not this laid up in store with me, sealed up among my treasures? Vengeance is mine, and recompense at the time when their foot shall slide. For the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that are to come upon them shall make haste. For LORD will judge his people, and regrets for his servants, when he sees that [their] power is gone, and there is none [remaining], shut up or left at large. And he will say, Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge, which ate the fat of their sacrifices, [and] drank the wine of their drink-offering? Let them rise up and help you, let them be your protection. See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me. I kill, and I make alive. I wound, and I heal. And there is none that can deliver out of my hand. For I lift up my hand to heaven, and say, As I live forever, if I whet my glittering sword, and my hand takes hold on judgment, I will render vengeance to my adversaries, and will recompense those who hate me. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the head of the leaders of the enemy. Rejoice, O ye Gentiles, [with] his people. For he will avenge the blood of his servants, and will render vengeance to his adversaries, and will recompense those who hate him, and will make expiation for his land, for his people. And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Hoshea [Joshua] the son of Nun.
I will declare thy name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation I will praise thee.
From thee comes my praise in the great assembly. I will pay my vows before those who fear him.
speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and striking strings in your heart to the Lord,
Let the word of Christ dwell in you abundantly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing by grace in your hearts to God.
And they sing a new song, saying, Thou are worthy to take the book and to open the seals of it, because thou were killed and purchased us from God by thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.
And they sing a new song before the throne, and before the four beings and the elders. And none could learn the song except the hundred and forty-four thousand, those who have been redeemed from the earth.
And they sing the song of Moses the bondman of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty, righteous and TRUE are thy ways, thou King of the nations.