The material of praise in the Old Testament seems to have been what we now have collected in the Book of Psalms. What, however, was the New Testament practice?

Jesus and The Apostles⤒🔗

Jesus, as "made under the law", would have sung the psalms, as He did on the night of the Passover — Last Supper. Whether He sang them in the synagogue, depends on whether or not they were sung there and by whom. He certainly would not have sung them in the temple.

The apostles and the earliest Christians would have been in a similar position, being Jews by race, culture and religious background.

What, then, does the New Testament have to say about the praise of God in public worship? Not very much in reality. It can be legitimately said that, "when Jesus sang the Hallel on the night of His betrayal, the Psalms passed over from the Old to the New Testament church" (Matthew 26:30; Mark 14:26). It was the custom to sing the Great Hallel­ — Psalms 113 to 118 and 136 — on the night of the Passover. Jesus and His disciples probably sang Psalms 115 to 118).

Psalms in the New Testament←⤒🔗

Other references to the psalms in the New Testament are: Luke 20:42; 24:44; Acts 1:20; 13:3; 16:25; 1 Corinthians 14:15, 26; Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16; James 5:13.

Of all these references, Luke 20:42 and 24:44, Acts1:20 and 13:33 are merely references to the Book of Psalms. Acts 16:25 refers to what Paul and Silas sang in the stocks in the jail in Philippi. James 5:13 has a general reference. 1 Corinthians 14:15 refers to Paul's intention to sing praise to God in a form that will be intelligible to those who listen in the church.

1 Corinthians 14:26 referred to a psalm in the congregational assembly. Ephesians 5:19 (with 18) refers to the Christian alternative to getting happy through over-indulgence in wine, and the outward expression of that filling with the Spirit. The psalms etc. here are spoken by Christians the one to the other. There is also to be singing and making melody with (or in) the heart to the Lord. Colossians 3:16 is similar. The word of Christ is to dwell richly in each believer. They are to teach and to admonish one another with psalms, etc., and to sing with thankfulness in their hearts to God. These verses in Ephesians and Colossians are set in the wider context of Christian conduct and ethics. There is no specific reference to the assembly for public worship.

Public Worship and Psalms←⤒🔗

Of all these references, then, only those of 1 Corinthians 14 have to do expressly with the public assembly of the church.

According to verse 15, praise must be intelligible so that the listeners can add their "Amen". Verse 26 may refer to a psalm from the Book of Psalms which would be read, chanted or sung solo by a member of the congregation, or it may refer to a composition given directly by the Holy Spirit, a charismatic psalm, which would then be an inspired song in the same sense as the psalms of the Old Testament book (cf. John Murray).

Others see the psalm as perhaps a private com­position of the person who gives it (cf. Grosheide, Leon Morris, C. K. Barrett). The other words in verse 26 are expressive of the charismatic gifts (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:6 and 12:10) and the whole context of chapters 12-14 is that of the ordered use of these gifts in the public assembly of the church. This being so, it would be more natural to understand "psalm" as a divinely inspired production, given by the Holy Spirit, by virtue of the charismatic gift, through the person to the Christian community.

Even from these two verses it would appear that singing was an integral part of Christian worship from the beginning, and history bears this out.

The materials of praise would, naturally, have been the psalms used by the Old Testament church by virtue of the regulative principle mentioned in the last article, the unity of the church, the fact of New Testament Christians being heirs of the tradition of the Old and most importantly, the fact that the psalms spoke of the Christ and His redemptive work, His sufferings and triumph — Luke 20:4-18, especially 17, 41, 42; 24:44-47; Acts 2:25-28, 34-35; 4:8-12, 24-28.

Early Church Practice←⤒🔗

This was clearly understood in the early church as this quote from Basil the Great (died 379 AD) shows:

Psalmody is the church's voice. From thence may not everything be acquired? ... Is there a blessing to be named which there resides not? The splendours of theology beam refulgent; Jesus is predicted; the resurrection is announced; judgement is proclaimed; the sword of vengeance is unsheathed; crowns of glory glitter; speakless mysteries aston­ish. All these are treasured up in the Book of Psalms as in a common treasure.

The manual of praise of the early church was the Book of Psalms. Schaff, the church historian, says, "The Book of Psalms is the oldest Christian hymn­book, inherited from the ancient covenant." K. S. Latourette says,

From a very early date, perhaps from the beginning, Christians employed in their services the psalms found in the Jewish Scriptures, the Christian Old Testament. Since the first Christians were predominantly Greek speaking, those psalms were in a Greek translation ... and, until the end of the fourth century, only the Old Testament psalms and hymns or canticles were sung and other hymns were for personal, private and family use.History of Christianity, pp. 206, 207

Quotes from several of the Fathers bear this out and the church councils confirm this too. The Council of Laodicea (343) forbade the singing of uninspired hymns in the church and the reading of uncanonical scriptures. This was confirmed later by the Council of Chalcedon (451).

From church history, it would appear that the heretics were the first to sing hymns of purely human composition. The church throughout her history has seen the danger to doctrinal purity of an open-ended hymn-book. Many hymns are thoroughly scriptural but, in periods of spiritual dullness, doctrine also deteriorates, and hymns from these periods tend to reflect this. Again, there is even the risk of a different concept of God to that of the Bible being given, with the result of worshipping an other-than-God god and the confusing of the vital truths of redemption.

Even though most of the passages of the New Testament mentioned earlier as referring to psalms do not refer directly to what should or should not be sung in public worship, it may be as well to look at them.

Psalms, Hymns, Songs←⤒🔗

Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 use the expression "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs". Various interpre­tations have been given of these verses, finding here evidence of the existence of Christian hymns in the Apostolic period.

It has been said that the best way to arrive at the true meaning of a passage, verse or expression of Scripture is to ask what would have been the meaning that would most naturally have sprung to the minds of the first readers or hearers. The earliest Christians were mainly Jews and proselytes familiar with the Old Testament in the Septuagint (Greek) version. This was their Bible, as the New Testament was only in the process of coming into being. In the Septuagint version, the different psalms in the Book of Psalms are variously described in their titles as "psalms" (67 times), "hymns" (6 times), and "songs" (25 times). Twelve titles use the expression "psalm and song"; two, "psalm and hymn"; and one, "psalm, hymn and song". Psalm 72: 20 says, "the hymns of David the son of Jesse are ended". The whole book is entitled "psalms".

According to the Greek in Matthew 26:30, Jesus and the disciples "hymned" before going out to Gethsemane, a clear reference to the psalms of the Great Hallel. In Hebrews 2:12, the Greek word for hymn is quoted from Psalm 22: 23. All this shows that the readers of the Septuagint version of the Old Testament were quite familiar with the use of the words "psalms, hymns, and songs" to describe the contents of the Book of Psalms from their reading of that book. Add to this the fact that 50% of all Old Testament quota­tions found in the New Testament are from the Book of Psalms, and there is clear evidence of a widespread acquaintance with, and use of it, which is further brought out in the quotes from the Father.

Inspired Materials←⤒🔗

John Murray refers to this in the Minority Report to the Orthodox Presby­terian (U.S.A.) Synod where he says, "We cannot determine the denotation or connotation of "psalms, hymns and spiritual songs" by any modern usage of these same words. The meaning and reference must be determined by the usage of Scripture ... the use of these terms in the Greek Septuagint, current in the Apostolic church, is not to be ignored." It would seem, then, that the most natural meaning for the recipients of Paul's letter in Ephesus and Colosse, and the first to spring to mind, would be that Paul was referring them to the contents of the Book of Psalms. Besides, he said to them, "Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" (Colossians 3:16). This would seem more naturally to refer to Scripture.

John Murray further says, "There is no use of these terms in the New Testament where it can be shown that they designate other than inspired compo­sitions." Most references are clearly to the Book of Psalms. Even where it can be shown that they are not (Revelation 5), they are not used with reference to uninspired compositions.

Summing up, he goes on to say, "If we possessed evidence that in the Old Testament period the Church gave expression to revelation as it progressed by the singing of uninspired songs in the worship of God, then the analogy would be rather conclusive, especially in view of the relative silence of the New Testament. But no evidence has been produced to prove the use of uninspired songs in the worship of the OT ... We are not certain that other inspired songs (apart from the psalms) were intended to be sung in the worship of God, even though the use of other inspired songs doesn't violate the principle on which Scripture authorisa­tion is explicit, namely, the use of inspired songs ... In view of the uncertainty with respect to the use of other inspired songs, we should confine ourselves to the Book of Psalms."

With respect to Paul and Silas "hymning in the jail at Philippi", we cannot be dogmatic, but it is likely that songs from the Psalter would more readily come to their lips, in view of their both being Jews and in the light of the fact that they knew the psalms to speak of Christ, to whom they were no doubt singing their praises (cf. Acts 5:41) and that they spoke of His sufferings — an added encouragement. It could be said, however, that they were directly supplied with material for praise by the Holy Spirit on that occasion — a sort of parallel to Luke 21:12-15.

In the light of the above, it would seem that the argument for inspired materials of praise in the public worship of the Christian church is very strong indeed.

Present Practice←⤒🔗

Our position as a denomination is, with regard to our practice, "to avoid the use in public worship of uninspired materials of praise" (Act V, Class II, 1932). We are not committed to exclusive psalmody as such. This raises the question of the use of other inspired material in singing praise to God in our public worship i.e. Biblical material other than psalms. Such, as John Murray said, does not violate the Scriptural posi­tion of using only inspired, i.e. God-given materials in public worship. He himself would limit himself to the psalms, but he did not rule out the other possibility.

In the light of this any portion of Scripture suitable for that purpose could be sung in praising God in public worship without violating the principle.

Hymns?←⤒🔗

What about what we call hymns? Are they totally ruled out? Not necessarily. On the basis of the above principle, if such hymns were in their content and balance one hundred percent scriptural, they would then come into the category of inspired materials being words of Scripture brought together for the purpose of praise. Man would simply be the arranger and not the composer.

Metrical Psalms←⤒🔗

This latter need not shock as it might. Our metrical psalms were not directly given by God in the form we have them and sing them. They are arrange­ments by men of the prose psalms of the Book of Psalms. Some stick very close to the words of Scripture. In others, there has been a bit of liberty used in order to get the words to fit into the rhythm of the tunes. For example, in Psalm 84:7, the word "unwearied" has been added to make the line of the correct length. It is not found in the prose version. Christian experience, past and present, does not bear out an unwearied going on. This is bad doctrine. Yet, if we make the proper allowance for this, we can sing that verse quite sincerely.

Keeping it Before People←⤒🔗

This shows the need for a constant revision of the psalms we sing so that they are the best possible translation of the original Hebrew, a translation which retains the freshness and vigour of the originals and, if possible, their structural form, e.g. the acrostic psalms like Psalm 119, or if that is not possible, then perhaps that form could be expressed in an equivalent one in our language. Such translations should be in the current language of the people so as to be readily understood by all (a Biblical and reformed principle).

If we believe as we do, that the psalms are a unique means of praise to God and of teaching in song, then we must not keep them from our very needy generation, whatever our personal predilections maybe, but ensure that they are made easily available to all.

As far back as 1905, the United Presbyterian Conference had this to say on the subject: "Psalm singing churches haven't adapted to intelligent methods of work or adaptation to the masses of men (sic) or to putting psalms in a popular form. Their witness has often been meagre and in a narrow sort of way." This has been only too sadly true.