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 feast into mourning, and all your songs into weeping; and I will bring up sackcloth on all loins, and baldness on every head. And I will make it like the mourning of an only son, and the end of it like a bitter day.
And singing a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
And when they had sung a hymn, they went out to the Mount of Olives.
And toward midnight Paul and Silas prayed and praised God in a hymn. And the prisoners listened to them.
Then how is it, brothers? When you come together, each one of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be for building up.
speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
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.
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among nations, believed on in the world, and received up into glory.
Is any among you afflicted? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? 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.
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Then the sons of Moses and Israel sang this song to Jehovah, and spoke, saying, I will sing to Jehovah, for He has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider He has thrown into the sea. Jehovah is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation. He is my God, and I will glorify Him, my father's God, and I will exalt Him. read more. Jehovah is a Man of war; Jehovah is His name. Pharaoh's chariots and his army He has thrown into the sea; his chosen captains also are drowned in the Red Sea. The depths have covered them; they sank into the bottom like a stone. Your right hand, O Jehovah, has become glorious in power. Your right hand, O Jehovah, has dashed the enemy in pieces. And in the greatness of Your excellency You have overthrown them that rose up against You. You sent forth Your wrath, consuming them like stubble. And with the blast of Your nostrils the waters were gathered together; the floods stood upright like a heap; the depths were curdled in the heart of the sea. The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust shall be satisfied upon them, I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. You blew with Your wind; the sea covered them. They sank like lead in the mighty waters. Who is like You, O Jehovah, among the gods? Who is like You, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, doing wonders? You stretched out Your right hand, the earth swallowed them. You in Your mercy have led forth the people which You have redeemed. You have guided them in Your strength to Your holy habitation. The people shall hear, being afraid. Sorrow shall take hold on the people of Philistia. Then the princes of Edom were terrified. Trembling seized upon the mighty men of Moab. All the people of Canaan shall melt away. Fear and dread shall fall upon them. By the greatness of Your arm they shall be still as a stone, until Your people pass over, O Jehovah; until the people whom You have purchased pass over. You shall bring them and plant them in the mountain of Your inheritance, the place, O Jehovah, You have made for You to dwell in; the Sanctuary, O Jehovah, which Your hands have established. Jehovah shall reign forever and ever. For the horses of Pharaoh went in with his chariots and with his horsemen into the sea, and Jehovah brought again the waters of the sea upon them. But the sons of Israel went on dry land in the middle of the sea.
Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the rain; my speech shall drop down as the dew, as the small rain on the tender plant, and as the showers on the grass; read more. because I will proclaim the name of Jehovah, ascribe greatness to our God. He is the Rock; His work is perfect. For all His ways are just, a God of faithfulness, and without evil; just and upright is He. They have corrupted themselves: they are not His sons; it is their blemish; they are a crooked and perverse generation. Do you thus give back to Jehovah, Oh foolish and unwise people? Is He not your Father who bought you? Has He not made you and established you? Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you. When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the sons of Israel. For Jehovah's portion is His people. Jacob is the lot of His inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the deserted, howling wilderness. He led him about, He cared for him, He kept him as the pupil of His eye. As an eagle stirs up her nest, flutters over her young, spreads abroad her wings, takes them and bears them on her wing, Jehovah alone led him, and there was no strange god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, so that he might eat the increase of the fields. And He made him suck honey out of the rock, and oil out of the flinty rock, butter from cows, and milk from sheep, with fat of lambs, and rams of the sons of Bashan, and goats, with the fat of kidneys of wheat. And you drank the blood of the grape. But Jeshurun grew fat and kicked. You grew fat, thick, and satisfied. Then he forsook God who made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation. They provoked Him to jealousy with strange gods; with abominations they provoked Him to anger. They sacrificed to devils, not to God; to gods whom they knew not, to new ones newly come up, whom your fathers did not fear. You forgot the Rock who brought you forth, and ceased to care for God who formed you. And Jehovah saw, 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 very perverse generation, sons in whom is no faithfulness. They have moved Me to jealousy with a no-god. They have provoked Me to anger with their vanities. And I will move them to jealousy with a no-people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation. For a fire is kindled in My anger, and shall burn to the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with its increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains. I will heap evils on them. I will spend My arrows on them. Exhaustion by famine, and consumption by burning heat, and bitter destruction, and the teeth of beasts I will send on them, with the poison of crawling things of the dust. The sword outside, and the terror inside, shall destroy both the young man and the virgin, the suckling also with the man of grey hairs. I said I would dash them to pieces; I would make the memory of them to cease from among men, were it not the provocation of an enemy I feared, lest their enemies should misconstrue; lest they should say, Our hand is high and Jehovah has not done all this. For they are a nation without wisdom, neither is there any understanding in them. If they were wise, they would understand this; they would consider their latter end! How shall one chase a thousand, and two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them and Jehovah had shut 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 and sealed up among My treasures? Vengeance and retribution belong to Me. Their foot shall slide in time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come on them make haste. For Jehovah will bring His people justice; and He shall have compassion on His servants, for He sees that their power is gone, and only the imprisoned and abandoned remain. 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 offerings? Let them rise up and help you; let it be your hiding place. 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 no deliverer out of My hand. For I lift up My hand to Heaven and say, I live forever! If I sharpen My glittering sword, and if My hand takes hold in judgment, I will give vengeance to My enemies and will reward those that hate Me. I will make My arrows drunk with blood, and My sword shall devour flesh, with the blood of the slain and of the captives, from the hairy scalp of the enemy. Rejoice, O, nations, with His people; for He will avenge the blood of His servants, and will render vengeance to His foes and will be merciful to His land, to His people. And Moses came and spoke all the words of this song in the ears of the people, he and Joshua the son of Nun.
I will declare Your name to My brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will praise You.
My praise shall be of You in the great congregation; I will pay My vows before the ones who fear Him.
speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
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.
And they sang a new song, saying, You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals, for You were slain and have redeemed us to God by Your blood out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation.
And they sang as it were a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and the elders. And no one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousands who were redeemed from the earth.
And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are Your works, Lord God Almighty, just and true are Your ways, O King of saints.