What does it mean to make melody in your heart (Ephesians 5:19)?

Verse 19. "Speaking to yourselves," etc. Personal worship is the first effect of fulness of the Spirit, and the communion of saints its natural sequel and continuance. The Spirit, which comes from Jesus, leads us first to Him; and in Him and with God we find our brethren and His. Psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs, are audible expressions of a melody which has its secret beginnings in the heart in which Christ dwells. When we are in the Spirit, if we speak to ourselves, it is of Jesus: if we answer one another, it is in the Lord's song. Joy must be in abundance, when the Spirit is in His unhindered flow, for, next to love, it is His chiefest fruit (Gal. 5:22). Hence the essential pre-requisite of genuine praise is a lively faith. There is no melody for Christ, if our hearts are still estranged from Him, although the words we use may have been indited by His Spirit. Psalms and spiritual songs, if sung without a discernment and believing enjoyment of Him who is their theme, are among the most offensive of those unacceptable offerings which carnal irreverence brings, in its unhallowed rashness, into the courts of God (Amos 5:23, seq.).

Grace, while it establishes the heart (Heb. 13:9) and enables us to serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear (Heb. 12:28), also provokes the heart into outbursts of praise and thanksgiving to God. For it is to God we sing in Colossians (R.V.) as the Author of grace, while in Ephesians the Lord is before the soul evoking the melodies of the heart — "making melody in the heart to the Lord."

And it may surely be said that herein lies the secret of this heart-melody. If any ask, "How may I produce this inward harmony?" the answer is, Let Christ be before the soul. Why does the tongue so often sing while the heart is silent? Is it not because the blessed person of our Saviour and Lord is forgotten? The voice joins listlessly with others, but the heart is apathetic and dull or even engaged with the most worthless thoughts. Oh! for faith so to realize His presence that in this as in other things we might exhibit a demeanour becoming to us and, if we may so speak, worthy of Him.

While it is clear that one may be filled with the Spirit in speaking for the Lord (Acts 13:9-11), yet it also may be true in the singing of psalms, hymns and spiritual song (v.19). The word indicates a sacred song accompanied by a stringed instrument. Hymns are songs of praise addressed to God, and the word is evidently used for many of the psalms also, though not all psalms are hymns and hymns are not necessarily psalms. Spiritual songs embraces a wider field than praise, for it includes songs of spiritual experience and celebration of scriptural events and of meditation on various truths of scripture. Singing is audible, but making melody in your heart is more vital. This is surely an encouragement to those who have difficulty in carrying a tune!

This constitutes the melody of the heart. But while it cannot exist apart from the offices of the Holy Spirit, the responsibility to produce it abides upon the singer, as our text implies. The one who utters the praises of the Lord with the lip is expected to offer concurrent melody in the heart. For the Holy Ghost assuredly will not act unless the believer honours His presence here upon the earth and yields himself to His direction. It is therefore incumbent upon the worshipper to assume this attitude of faith and dependence in order to secure the operation of the Holy Ghost without which no sacrifice of praise can be acceptable on high.

Though running the risk of being considered tedious, one ventures to point out the further emphasis given to the point now being dwelt upon in Eph. 5:19. There the saints are exhorted, not to sing alone, nor to make melody in the heart alone, but to sing and make melody in the heart. No degree of melody with the voice can become an equivalent substitute for melody in the heart according to the words before us.

Being filled with the Spirit is outlined for us in Ephesians 5:18-21. "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit." v. 18. A man filled with wine does things he would not do when sober; under the power of wine he exhibits another character. So a man filled with the Spirit exhibits another character quite different from what once marked him before he possessed the Spirit. When filled with the Spirit he will talk about the things of God in the language of Scripture. "Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." v. 19. He will be moving along the Christian pathway rejoicing, "singing." v. 19. His heart will be in tune with the Lord, "making melody in your heart to the Lord." v. 19. He will be ever thankful as a recipient of the grace and mercy of God, "Giving thanks always." v. 20. He will be submissive and not wanting to assert his will, "Submitting yourselves one to another." v. 21. These are some of the marks of a believer who is filled with the Spirit.

A particular example is then given which illustrates the principles thus laid down: "And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ; submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God." (vv. 18-21.) The world's joy expresses itself in a carnal manner; it is mere natural excitement, such as that caused by wine. The believer's is to be in contrast with this. It is not the exhilaration ministered by mere natural causes, but the deeper delight ministered by the Spirit of God. It is one thing to be indwelt by the Spirit, and another to be filled with the Spirit. All believers are indwelt; but how few, alas, are filled! As we have seen in former chapters, the Spirit, though still sealing, may be grieved, and not able to minister either peace or joy. But to be filled with the Spirit is to be under the direct energy of the Spirit's action. It is here put in contrast with the forced, natural mirth caused by wine. In place of this the believer should have the joy and happiness shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost. This will find its suitable outlet in expressions of joy; not the foolish songs of the world, but the psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs in which the heart, filled with the sense of God's goodness, delights to pour forth its feelings. Thanksgiving is as natural to hearts thus tuned as the idle songs of the world are to the heart excited by the world's gaiety and folly.

This is important today when what is vital is being crushed by what is official; but we should always see to it that our hymns and songs of praise are Godward. The heart is turned directly to Him in faith and in the energy of the Spirit. Probably most of religious singing today is manward; the house of God exists for His praise In Ephesians 5:19 we are exhorted to make melody in our hearts to the Lord, and in Colossians 3:16, to sing with grace in our hearts to the Lord. The praise should surely be none the less hearty, but increasingly so as God Himself is before us, knowing, too, that He finds pleasure in the offerings which we bring to Him by His beloved Son. As we reach the close of this wonderful day of grace—as we draw near to the moment of the Lord’s coming for the assembly—as the darkness deepens in official Christendom—may we allow the blessing of the ascended, victorious Man, the Son of God, to fill our hearts with great joy, so that we may be found responding like the disciples at the close of the past day—“praising and blessing God.”

The man of the world sings when happy, but he cannot enjoy the things of God that are found in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, nor can he sing with melody in his heart to the Lord. Singing lifts the spirit into the Lord’s presence to engage the heart with Him. Whatever the circumstances of the Christian, he can give thanks for all things, knowing that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them that are called according to purpose. We are never to submit to what would compromise the honour of the Lord’s Name, but to submit to what secures His will, even if it means setting aside our own judgment.

"'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."

You may mark along with this, that it is not merely knowledge or wisdom of which he speaks, but he adds, "Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts 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 that has come down. 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.