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 of your songs into lament, and I will put sackcloth on all loins and baldness on every head. And I will make it like the mourning for an only child, and its end like a bitter day.
And [after they] had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
And [after they] had sung the hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
Now about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying [and] singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them.
{Therefore what should you do}, brothers? Whenever you come together, each one of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. All [things] must be [done] for edification.
speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and singing praise in your heart to the Lord,
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another with all wisdom, with psalms, hymns, [and] spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God,
And most certainly, great is the mystery of godliness: Who was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was proclaimed among the Gentiles, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.
Is anyone among you suffering misfortune? He should pray. Is anyone cheerful? He should 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 {Israelites} sang this song to Yahweh, {and they said}, "Let me sing to Yahweh because he is highly exalted; [the] horse and its rider he hurled into the sea. Yah [is] my strength and song, and he has become my salvation; this [is] my God, and I will praise him--the God of my father--and I will exalt him. read more. Yahweh [is] a man of war; Yahweh [is] his name. The chariots of Pharaoh and his army he cast into the sea, and his choice adjutants were sunk in the {Red Sea}. The deep waters covered them; they went down into the depths like a stone. Yahweh, your right hand [is] glorious in power; Yahweh, your right hand destroyed [the] enemy. And in the greatness of your majesty you overthrew those standing up [to] you; you released your fierce anger, and it consumed them like stubble. And by the breath of your nostrils waters were piled up; waves stood like a heap; deep waters in the middle of the sea congealed. [The] enemy said, 'I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide plunder, my desire will be full [of] them, I will draw my sword, my hand will destroy them.' You blew with your breath; the sea covered them; they dropped like lead in the mighty waters. Who is like you among the gods, Yahweh? Who is like you--glorious in holiness, awesome [in] praiseworthy actions, doing wonders? You stretched out your right hand; the earth swallowed them. In your loyal love you led [the] people whom you redeemed; in your strength you guided [them] to the abode of your holiness. Peoples heard; they trembled; anguish seized the inhabitants of Philistia. Then the chiefs of Edom were horrified; great distress seized the leaders of Moab; all of the inhabitants of Canaan melted away. Terror and dread fell on them; at the greatness of your arm they became silent like the stone, until your people passed by, Yahweh, until [the] people whom you bought passed by. You brought them and planted them on the mountain of your inheritance, a place you made for yourself to inhabit, Yahweh, a sanctuary, Lord, [that] your hands established. Yahweh will reign as king forever and ever." When the horses of Pharaoh came into the sea with his chariots and with his charioteers, Yahweh brought back upon them the waters of the sea, and the {Israelites} traveled on dry ground through the middle of the sea.
"Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak, and let the earth hear the words of my mouth. May my teaching trickle like the dew, my words like rain showers on tender grass, and like spring showers on new growth. read more. For I will proclaim the name of Yahweh; ascribe greatness to our God! The Rock, his work [is] perfect, for all his ways [are] just; [he is] a faithful God, and {without injustice}; righteous and upright [is] he. They [have] behaved corruptly toward him; [they are] not his children; [this is] their flaw, a generation crooked and perverse. [Like] this do you treat Yahweh, foolish and {unwise} people? [Has] he not, your father, created you? He made you, and he established you. Remember [the] old days, {the years long past}; ask your father, and he will inform you, your elders and they will tell you. {When the Most High apportioned} [the] nations, at his dividing [up] of the sons of humankind, he fixed the boundaries of [the] peoples, according to the number of the children of Israel. For Yahweh's portion [was] his people, Jacob the share of his inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in a howling, desert wasteland; he {encircled him}, he cared for him, he protected him like the {apple} of his eye. As an eagle stirs up its nest, hovers over its young, spreads out its wings, takes them, carries them on its pinions, [so] Yahweh alone guided him, and {there was no foreign god accompanying him}. And he set him on the high places of [the] land, and he fed [him] the crops of [the] field, and he nursed him with honey from crags, and [with] oil from flinty rock, [With] curds from [the] herd, and [with] milk from [the] flock, with [the] fat of young rams, and rams, the offspring of Bashan, and with goats [along] with the finest kernels of wheat, and [from] the blood of grapes you drank fermented wine. And Jeshurun grew fat, and he kicked; you grew fat, you bloated, and you became obstinate; and he abandoned God, his maker, and he scoffed [at] the rock of his salvation. They made him jealous with strange [gods]; with detestable things they provoked him. They sacrificed to the demons, not God, [to] gods whom they had not known, new [gods] [who] came from recent times; {their ancestors had not known them}. [The] rock who bore you, you neglected, and you forgot God, [the one] giving you birth. Then Yahweh saw, and he spurned [them], because of the provocation of his sons and his daughters. So he said, 'I will hide my face from them; I will see what [will be] their end, for they [are] a generation of perversity, {children in whom there is no faithfulness}. They annoyed me with [what is] not a god; they provoked me with their idols. So I will make them jealous with [those] not a people, with a foolish nation I will provoke them. For a fire was kindled by my anger, and it burned {up to the depths of Sheol}, and it devoured [the] earth and its produce, and it set afire the foundation of [the] mountains. I will heap disasters upon them; my arrows I will spend on them. [They will become] weakened by famine, and consumed by plague and bitter pestilence; and the teeth of wild animals I will send against them, with [the] poison of [the] creeping [things] in [the] dust; From outside [her boundaries] the sword will make [her] childless, and from inside, terror; both [for] [the] young man [and] also the young woman, the infant [along with] the gray-headed man. I thought, "I will wipe them out; {I will make people forget they ever existed}." If I had not feared a provocation of [the] enemy, lest their foes might misunderstand, lest they should say, "Our hand is {triumphant}, and Yahweh [did] not do all this." ' For {they are a nation void of sense}, and there is not [any] understanding in them. If only they were wise, they would understand this; they would discern {for themselves their end}. How could one chase a thousand and two could cause a myriad to flee, if their Rock had not sold them, and Yahweh had [not] given them up? For the fact of the matter is, their rock [is] not like our Rock, and our enemies recognize [this]. For their vine [is] from the vine of Sodom, and from the terraces of Gomorrah; their grapes [are] grapes of poison; {their clusters are bitter}. Their wine [is] the poison of snakes, and [the] deadly poison of horned vipers. '[Is] not this stored up with me, sealed in my treasuries?' {Vengeance belongs to me} and [also] recompense, {for at the time their foot slips}, because the day of their disaster [is] near, {and fate comes quickly for them}.' For Yahweh will judge [on behalf of] his people, and concerning his servants; he will change his mind when he sees that [their] power has disappeared, and [there is] no one left, confined or free. And he will say, 'Where [are] their gods, [their] rock in whom they took refuge? Who ate the fat of their sacrifices [and] drank the wine of their libations? Let them rise [up], and let them help you; {Let them be to you a refuge}. See, now, that I, [even] I [am] he, and there is not a god besides me; I put to death and I give life; I wound and I heal; there is not [one] who delivers from my hand! For [indeed] I lift up my hand to heaven, And I promise {as I live forever}, When I sharpen {my flashing sword}, and my hand takes hold [of it] in judgment, {I will take reprisals against my foes}, and my haters I will repay. I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh with the blood of the slain, and captives from the heads of the leaders of [the] enemy.' Call for songs of joy, O nations, [concerning] his people, for the blood of his servants he will avenge, {and he will take reprisals against his foes}, and he will make atonement [for] his land, his people." And Moses came, and he spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people; [that is], he and Joshua the son of Nun.
I will tell your name to my brothers; inside [the] assembly I will praise you.
From you [is] my praise. In [the] great assembly, I will pay my vows before those who revere him.
speaking to one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and singing praise in your heart to the Lord,
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another with all wisdom, with psalms, hymns, [and] spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God,
And they were singing a new song, saying, "You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slaughtered, and bought [people] for God by your blood from every tribe and language and people and nation,
And they were singing [something] like a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders, and no one was able to learn the song except the one hundred forty-four thousand who had been bought from the earth.
And they were singing the song of Moses, the slave of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying: "Great and marvelous [are] your works, Lord God All-Powerful; righteous and true [are] your ways, King of the ages!