December 30, 2015

Ephesians 5:19  NLT - "Singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs among yourselves, and making music to the Lord in your hearts."

Commentary:

What a wonderful way to show the fullness of the Spirit in one's heart than to be singing songs of praise to the Lord and to one another!  The Bible speaks of entering into the presence of God with songs.  Music has been one of the nicest ways to give God praise and show the JOY in one's heart for all the Lord has done!  This is probably one of the great hallmarks of a happy Christian.  The world expects Christians to sing.  And Christians share some of their greatest times of fellowship in praise!

Think of the three categories of music - psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.  Psalms, of course, come directly from the Word of God.  Sure, the great "Hymnbook of the Bible" is the book of Psalms.  But these psalms of Ephesians may be more than just words from that book.  Some believe the doctrinal statement of 1 Timothy 3:16 was a song for the believers to sing their beliefs.  Psalms speaks of "singing the Scriptures."  Putting the literal words of the Bible to music.  A more modern example?  Handel's Messiah!

Another category is hymns.  These are the grand songs of the faith that we share in formal times of praise in our worship services.  They have also been used as one of the greatest ways for Christians to meditate on God and His works as they move through life.

And the final category is spiritual songs.  The wonderful joyful choruses that Christians have grown to love starting in their childhood and finding their greatest pleasure during their youth.  These often start off as the "contemporary songs" of the day.  Too many of us "older believers" forget that the choruses sung in our youth were "contemporary" when they were first written!

Whatever the music - God expects believers to sing and praise Him in their fellowship together and in their own personal private moments of worship with Him.