What are hymns? What is the value of hymns in worship?

In the fifth chapter of the Epistle to the Ephesians, as also in the third chapter of the Epistle of the same apostle to the Colossians, we are enjoined to praise God even the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to make melody in our hearts to our Lord and Saviour and Head in glory, whilst speaking to one another with singing lips in happy communion. In Eph. 5 this is presented as the effect of being filled with the Spirit, but in Col. 3 as the result of being richly indwelt by the word of Christ in all wisdom, in keeping with the character of each epistle upon which we cannot enter here. But in both passages we find the three kinds of Christian songs of praise, namely: Psalms, i.e., Christian songs for thanksgiving and praise. Hymns for Christian worship. Spiritual songs, i.e., such as serve for domestic and social Christian edification.

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 Rev. 5:9 for the song of the redeemed; and in Rev. 14:3 for the new song; and in Rev. 15:3 for the song of Moses, the sentiments of which are often repeated in the Psalms: cf. also Ex. 15:1-19; Deut. 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.

Hymns properly are addressed to God in Himself and His relations, His grace and holiness, His attributes and mercies, His counsels and His ways, etc.; and so with our Lord Jesus in His person and offices, His work, love, glory, coming, and kingdom, etc. A didactic form is surely to be avoided when God or the Lord is approached in praise or thanks-giving; though nothing can in effect more truly instruct and admonish the saints than such outpourings of heart under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. In a hymn one looks for the elevated expression of communion rising from true and deep spirituality, or that charming simplicity in celebrating grace and truth, which is due in homage and gratitude to God and His Son, and most widely acceptable. Hence those which address the saints, or again the church, etc., as the rule (not perhaps without exception) fittingly fall into a place separate from what is suited for worship; so those of experience, and of course others of a gospel character. These may be excellent, more so than some of direct praise. But the difference is just, and ought to part many otherwise good.

A didactic statement, like 18, 64, etc. has no real right to a place; nor is Watts' (30) quite suitable, as being a sermonette with a hymnal preface and end, (or Haweis' (32) with its warm individual feeling). Is it well for assembly worship to use verses which teach "Jesus!" or even us the difference between the Levitical economy and Christianity? It may be in the later pieces. The 'Good Tidings' Hymn Book, again, more appropriately has such as 39, 40, 53, 62, 67, 111, etc. Number 22 is a touching record, but not a hymn. Take 54, 63, 82, 93, 98, 99, etc. however fine in varying degree, they naturally follow those of adoration.

In order to have a right understanding of any subject under discussion, it is well to attend to the real meaning of terms. What then is the definition of a hymn? Rose's edition of Parkhurst's Greek and English Lexicon to the New Testament says the word that hymnos means a hymn, a song in honour of God, as among heathen of the gods; or a celebration in verse of some hero, and his exploits. So the more general Lexicon of Liddell and Scott, etc.

"'Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord.' It enters into the affections, because that is the character of hymns and spiritual songs. It is not so much knowledge written down like a sermon, but it is where the heart answers in its affections to the revelation of Christ; perhaps something that I have heard in a meeting when Christ has been unfolded: it is the Holy Ghost raising up the affections in answer to the revelation of Christ. Then there is the expression of the heart that has received it in the affections of the new man, answering to this in the praise and adoration that it produces. It may not be the reproduction of the same ideas, but it is the adoration of the heart that is drawn out towards the Person that has been revealed."

We have the positive direction of Scripture to speak to one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs; but psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs mean compositions rhythmically and metrically arranged; so that I judge that the use of such compositions is scripturally authorized. I would add that I think the spiritual mind will detect at once what is really given of the Spirit in such compositions and what is not, even when merely added to make up the measure or rhyme. Moreover, also, those who believe in the action of the Holy Ghost, as the true and only power of blessing, look for the liberty of the Spirit of God, not bondage — liberty in everything that is of Him for edification. The binding to a form of prayer is not this; but the exclusion of hymns is not that liberty either. Only it is to be sought that hymns should be really composed under His influence, and not mere human poetry.

It has been repeatedly pressed that the Christian is bound to sing "to the Lord," and that according to the plainest teaching of scripture not only one but every psalm, hymn, or song should be consciously sung as before God. It is at the same time equally true, on the same authority, that sacred song has a reflex action upon the singer. Just as, when our requests are made known to God, the result is, whether we get what we ask for or not, that the incomprehensible peace of God keeps our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus (Phil. 4:6-7). The very attitude of prayer produces a state of calm restfulness in the soul even though the direct answer be withheld. In like manner singing, while it is primarily addressed to God, has secondarily a beneficial effect upon the believer. The very verse that enjoins the Ephesian saints to make melody in the heart to the Lord, says, "Speaking to yourselves in psalms, etc." And to those in Colosse the apostle writes, "Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, etc." (Eph. 5:19; Col. 3:16).

The action of singing enlarges the heart and the mind, and leads to a more practical acquaintance with truth. Just as man's mental and physical powers are developed and strengthened by exercise, so it is with the faculties and emotions of the believer's spiritual nature. The hymn affords a suitable channel for the outflow of the affections and aspirations of the soul, which react in blessing and profit to the singer. So that, if in the words of the Psalmist, "It is a good thing to give thanks unto Jehovah and to sing praises unto thy name, O Most High" (Ps. 92:1), it is not less so to sing praise unto the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Again, it is a notable fact that singing is a means of deeply embedding truth (or, alas! that it should be so, error) in a person's heart. There is an extravagant paradox that is often quoted, to the effect that if a man had the making of a nation's ballads, he need not care who had the making of its laws. Whatever the degree of truth this may contain, it is certain that sacred hymnology has an incalculable effect upon Christian thought and belief. Scriptural hymns exercise a sanctifying and instructive influence whenever sung; while on the contrary an unsound hymn, whatever its "beauty" as a composition, injures and does not help. How many hearts have thrilled with fervent adoration as they have joined in Watts' "When I survey the wondrous cross," etc., or in Hart's "How good is the God we adore," etc. And on the other hand how many hearts have been blinded as to the fact of the abiding presence of the Holy Spirit by the many hymns, which pray for His present coming or His outpouring, such as, "Come, Holy Ghost, Creator blest, Vouchsafe within our souls to rest, etc." Such sentiments entirely overlook the Lord's promise that the Comforter should come to abide forever (John 14:16), and expressly deny that Acts 2 was the fulfilment of that promise; and the mass, who are alas! not accustomed to "prove all things," through singing such hymns receive this false and mischievous unbelief to the damage of their own souls.

Let the troubled Christian do this, and he will find that his burden is lightened and his heart eased even while in the very act of making melody to the Lord. Again, it is a means of edification; i.e. supposing the hymns sung are according to truth; and, lastly, it may become a testimony. This would seem to have been the case with Paul and Silas. Cast into prison, with their backs still sore from the stripes of their persecutors, like the apostles Peter and John, they rejoiced that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ, and at midnight they prayed and sang praises to God; and the prisoners heard them. It was a new thing for such a sound to be heard in that prison-house. Satan had roused the city against these servants of the Lord, and thought he had gained a great victory by securing their imprisonment. But God would be glorified over the adversary, and He thus filled the mouths of Paul and Silas with praise in the very seat of the enemy's power, and so mighty was the testimony rendered in connection with the events of that night that the jailor (who was used of Satan to afflict the apostles) and his family were turned from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God. Songs had been given to them in the night, and while they ascended as sweet incense before the throne of God, they also were accompanied by a testimony which bore fruit for eternity in the salvation, through the sovereign grace of God, of the jailor and his house.

In the judgment of many the sense of this passage is better seen with a different punctuation. Thus: "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." Nor can we doubt, because of its harmony with the teaching of Scripture in other places, that this sets forth the correct interpretation. As to what were the psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, there is no means of knowing with certainty. But of this we may be sure - that they were different channels through which joy in the Lord ascended to Him in praise and adoration. They might have been - at least some of them - compositions, inspired for the occasion in the first energy of the Spirit, or they might have been, as now, the meditations of pious souls flowing out in psalms, hymns, or songs.

And here I will allow myself to make some remarks which, I think, may be helpful to souls often charged with the inconsistency of using hymn-books, whilst they object to forms of prayer. There is no such thing in the New Testament as a body of praise metrically prepared for Christian use. There is no provision of psalms, or hymns, or spiritual songs, written by inspiration for the Christian; there is very abundantly for the Jew. Do you wonder at this? It seems to me simple, suitable, and full of interest. The Jew needed such praises made for him; the Church does not; for the Christian and the Church, having the Holy Ghost, as the Jew had not, has within a full spring for making melody in his heart. This seems to me the reason why there is no external supply provided for Christians. To the Church, having the ever-present and indwelling Holy Ghost, belongs the well of living water; nay, each individual Christian has it, and so far, naturally and normally, breaks out into psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs. Thus, what to some is an evidence of the need of human forms, or to others a ground for falling back on the psalms of David, is really the most striking proof, in the simplest possible way, of the actual blessedness of the Church of God and of the Christian, if they had only faith to use their goodly heritage. Those who are under all the dolorous experience of the law, and cannot therefore enter into proper Christian worship, may, no doubt, require to be provided and stimulated with the Jewish store of the psalms, which, if they only understood, suppose a wholly different experience as well as relationship. There is no spring of joy in themselves; they want a provision for them outside. But just because we have Christ, and, besides, the Holy Ghost as a divine power for enjoying our Saviour, with our God and Father, it would be to lower the Church's place to make for our singing a provision of psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs in the word of God. Holy Scripture deals with the Christian as grown up to man's estate, and supposes the Church, unless beguiled by deceivers, to be standing in full liberty before God, in intelligence of His mind, and confidence of His love, entering into the riches of His grace and of His glory in Christ; and this because the Holy Ghost is in the Christian and in the Church. The consequence is, that such conscious blessedness naturally — not to say necessarily — finds its expression, as is said here, not merely in praise, but "speaking to each other in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your hearts to the Lord."

Again, I do not the least doubt that these psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs here spoken of were Christian compositions — not indeed extemporaneous, any more than Davidical, but their own suited expressions of various praise. They were the fruit of the Spirit of God working in the early believers, causing them to express their own proper joy to God, instead of casting them on an inspired provision, which does not enter into their distinctive privileges and joy, but in all directly belongs to others who are as yet to come. Does not this, then, fully meet those persons who urge captious difficulties, and say, "After all, you have a hymn-book, and we must have forms"? It seems to me so. The expressions here really intimate that there were known metrical compositions of these kinds; that there was a due and characteristic expression of praise and thanksgiving, as well as of the different spiritual experiences of the Christian. These varieties seem meant by "psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs." They have each their own proper character, and no one can take up a Christian book of praise to God without finding one and the other and all of these things. But, I repeat, these compositions are left room for among Christians, instead of being provided ready by God's inspiration outside themselves; indeed, this is one of the peculiarities of the Holy Ghost's action in the New Testament. He has come down to be in us. He is not merely One who writes for us and teaches us: there is this kind of testimony. You will find, particularly in the Apocalypse, and occasionally elsewhere, even the prophetic character of revelation still, as "The Spirit speaketh in the latter times," etc. Thus we do not lose in the New Testament the predictive element which abounds in the older Scriptures, any more than the narrative. There is in the epistles special instruction on Christian standing and conduct, ministry, etc. Besides, the Holy Ghost leads the believer in joy and praise. He does not give up His function in furnishing authoritative injunctions or visions of the future; but neither is in any way the characteristic dealing of the Holy Ghost with the Christian or the Church. The praise of children, the expression of common as well as of individual joy in the Lord, cannot but go forth from the heart now, as well as from the lips, to the praise of God, and this, too, in a rhythmical form.