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.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
And I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into lamentation; and I will bring up 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 bitter day.
And at midnight Paul and Silas, in praying, were praising God with singing, and the prisoners listened to them.
What is it then, brethren? whenever 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 to edification.
speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and chanting with your heart to the Lord;
Let the word of the Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another, in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God.
And confessedly the mystery of piety is great. God has been manifested in flesh, has been justified in the Spirit, has appeared to angels, has been preached among the nations, has been believed on in the world, has been received up in glory.
Does any one among you suffer evil? let him pray. Is any happy? let him sing psalms.
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.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
Then sang Moses and the children of Israel this song to Jehovah, and spoke, saying, I will sing unto Jehovah, for he is highly exalted: The horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea. My strength and song is Jah, and he is become my salvation: This is my God, and I will glorify him; My father's God, and I will extol him. read more. Jehovah is a man of war; Jehovah, his name. Pharaoh's chariots and his army hath he cast into the sea; His chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths covered them; they sank to the bottom as a stone. Thy right hand, Jehovah, is become glorious in power: Thy right hand, Jehovah, hath dashed in pieces the enemy. And by the greatness of thine excellency thou hast overthrown thine adversaries: Thou sentest forth thy burning wrath, it consumed them as stubble. And by the breath of thy nostrils the waters were heaped up; The streams stood as a mound; The depths were congealed in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my soul shall be sated upon them; I will unsheath my sword, my hand shall dispossess them. Thou didst blow with thy breath, the sea covered them; They sank as lead in the mighty waters. Who is like unto thee, Jehovah, among the gods? Who is like unto thee, glorifying thyself in holiness, Fearful in praises, doing wonders? Thou stretchedst out thy right hand, the earth swallowed them. Thou by thy mercy hast led forth the people that thou hast redeemed; Thou hast guided them by thy strength unto the abode of thy holiness. The peoples heard it, they were afraid: A thrill seized the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the princes of Edom were amazed; The mighty men of Moab, trembling hath seized them; All the inhabitants of Canaan melted away. Fear and dread fall upon them; By the greatness of thine arm they are still as a stone; Till thy people pass over, Jehovah, Till the people pass over that thou hast purchased. Thou shalt bring them in, and plant them in the mountain of thine inheritance, The place that thou, Jehovah, hast made thy dwelling, The Sanctuary, Lord, that thy hands have prepared. Jehovah shall reign for ever and ever! For the horse of Pharaoh, with his chariots and with his horsemen, came into the sea, and Jehovah brought again the waters of the sea upon them; and the children of Israel went on dry ground through the midst of the sea.
Give ear, ye heavens, and I will speak; And hear, O earth, the words of my mouth! My doctrine shall drop as rain, My speech flow down as dew, As small rain upon the tender herb, And as showers on the grass. read more. For the name of Jehovah will I proclaim: Ascribe greatness unto our God! He is the Rock, his work is perfect, For all his ways are righteousness; A God of faithfulness without deceit, Just and right is he. They have dealt corruptly with him; Not his children's is their spot: A crooked and perverted generation! Do ye thus requite Jehovah, Foolish and unwise people? Is not he thy father that hath bought thee? Hath he not made thee and established thee? Remember the days of old, Consider the years of generation to generation; Ask thy father, and he will shew thee; Thine elders, and they will tell thee. When the Most High assigned to the nations their inheritance, When he separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the peoples According to the number of the children of Israel. For Jehovah's portion is his people; Jacob the lot of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, And in the waste, howling wilderness; He compassed him about, he watched over him, He preserved him as the apple of his eye. As the eagle stirreth up its nest, Hovereth over its young, Spreadeth out its wings, Taketh them, beareth them on its feathers, So Jehovah alone did lead him, And no strange god was with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, And he ate the produce of the field; And he made him suck honey out of the crag, And oil out of the flinty rock; Cream of kine, and milk of sheep, With the fat of lambs, And rams of the breed of Bashan, and he-goats, With the fat of kidneys of wheat; And thou didst drink pure wine, the blood of the grape. Then Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked Thou art waxen fat, Thou art grown thick, And thou art covered with fatness; He gave up +God who made him, And lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They moved him to jealousy with strange gods, With abominations did they provoke him to anger. They sacrificed unto demons who are not +God; To gods whom they knew not, To new ones, who came newly up, Whom your fathers revered not. Of the Rock that begot thee wast thou unmindful, And thou hast forgotten God who brought thee forth. And Jehovah saw it, and despised them, Because of the provoking of his sons and of his daughters. And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be; For they are a perverse generation, Children in whom is no faithfulness. They have moved me to jealousy with that which is no God; They have exasperated me with their vanities; And I will move them to jealousy with that which is not a people; With a foolish nation will I provoke them to anger. For a fire is kindled in mine anger, And it shall burn into the lowest Sheol, And shall consume the earth and its produce, And set fire to the foundations of the mountains. I will heap mischiefs upon them; Mine arrows will I spend against them. They shall be consumed with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, And with poisonous pestilence; And the teeth of beasts will I send against them, With the poison of what crawleth in the dust. From without shall the sword bereave them, and in the chambers, terror Both the young man and the virgin, The suckling with the man of gray hairs. I would say, I will scatter, I will make the remembrance of them to cease from among men, If I did not fear provocation from the enemy, Lest their adversaries should misunderstand it, Lest they should say, Our hand is high, and Jehovah has not done all this. For they are a nation void of counsel, And understanding is not in them. Oh that they had been wise! they would have understood this, They would have considered their latter end! How could one chase a thousand, And two put ten thousand to flight, Were it not that their Rock had sold them, And Jehovah had delivered them up? For their rock is not as our Rock: Let our enemies themselves be judges. For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, And of the fields of Gomorrah: Their grapes are grapes of poison, Bitter are their clusters; Their wine is the poison of dragons, And the cruel venom of vipers. Is not this hidden with me, Sealed up among my treasures? Vengeance is mine, and recompense, For the time when their foot shall slip. For the day of their calamity is at hand, And the things that shall come upon them make haste. For Jehovah will judge his people, And shall repent in favour of his servants; When he seeth that power is gone, And there is none shut up or left. And he shall say, Where are their gods, Their rock in whom they trusted, Who ate the fat of their sacrifices, And drank the wine of their drink-offering? Let them rise up and help you, That there may be a protection over you. See now that I, 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 delivereth out of my hand, For I lift up my hand to the heavens, and say, I live for ever! If I have sharpened my gleaming sword, And my hand take hold of judgment, I will render vengeance to mine adversaries, And will recompense them that hate me. Mine arrows will I make drunk with blood, And my sword shall devour flesh; I will make them drunk with the blood of the slain and of the captives, With the head of the princes of the enemy. Shout for joy, ye nations, with his people, For he avengeth the blood of his servants, And rendereth vengeance to his enemies, And maketh atonement 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 the son of Nun.
I will declare thy name unto my brethren, in the midst of the congregation will I praise thee.
My praise is from thee, in the great congregation; I will pay my vows before them that fear him.
speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and chanting with your heart to the Lord;
Let the word of the Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another, in psalms, hymns, spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to God.
And they sing a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open its seals; because thou hast been slain, and hast redeemed to 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 living creatures and the elders. And no one could learn that song save the hundred and forty-four thousand who were bought from the earth.
And they sing the song of Moses bondman of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and wonderful are thy works, Lord God Almighty; righteous and true are thy ways, O King of nations.