Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

New, published 26 October 2026. What else is new

Around AD 112 a Roman governor in northern Asia Minor wrote to the emperor about the Christians in his province, Bithynia. Pliny had questioned them, two under torture. Their crime, they said, amounted to this: they met "on a fixed day before daylight" to "sing responsively a song unto Christ as God" (Pliny, Letters 10.96, trans. McGiffert). Fifty years earlier Paul had written to churches further south in Asia Minor and told them to do exactly that.

In one sentence: God fills His church with His Holy Spirit so that it sings: the old psalms and new songs about Jesus carry the word of Christ into every member's memory, so that you teach one another with them and thank the Father with them.

Key Takeaways

(This section follows the Key Takeaways format — see that page for what each part is for.)

Types & Prophecy

Prophecy. "In the midst of the congregation I will praise you" (Psalm 22:22, ESV). Hebrews puts these words in the mouth of Jesus, who is "not ashamed to call them brothers" (Hebrews 2:11-12, ESV).
A pattern completed. The first song Scripture records being sung to the LORD is Moses' song beside the Red Sea (Exodus 15:1). In Revelation, saints beside a sea of glass sing "the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb" (Revelation 15:3, ESV).

Lessons about Jesus

He is sung to. Paul's songs go "to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:19), and the next verse names Him: "our Lord Jesus Christ" (Ephesians 5:20, ESV). The first Christians sang to Christ "as God".
He sings. On the night He was betrayed He sang a hymn with His disciples (Matthew 26:30), and Hebrews has Him singing the Father's praise among His brothers (Hebrews 2:12).

Memory verses

✝️ Colossians 3:16 (ESV)

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Be Transformed

Think. Singing in church is teaching. The songs you sing are the theology you will remember when you have forgotten the sermon.
Attitude. Sing to two audiences at once: to the Lord Jesus with your heart, and to the person beside you with your voice.
Do. Learn one song of Scripture by heart this month, so that "the word of Christ" dwells in you richly (Colossians 3:16, ESV), and sing it to someone. The Songbook has a place to start.

Prayer

Father, you fill your people with your Holy Spirit, and your Son Jesus sings your praise in the midst of His brothers. Thank you that we may join Him. Let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. Put a new song in our mouths, and give us the old songs too, so that we remember your deeds when trouble comes. Teach us to sing to one another and to you, and to give thanks always and for everything.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

Study outline

One command, five results and The word of Christ, sung — what Paul says in Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3, read side by side.
Three words and Only the Psalter? — what psalms, hymns and spiritual songs are, and the debate over which songs Paul meant.
Israel's songbook and The church's first songs — the history, from the Red Sea to Revelation.
What the church kept — the early church's own collection.
The God who sings — what the songs show about Jesus and the Father.
Sing it when — how to use the songs now.

One command, five results

✝️ Ephesians 5:18-21 (ESV)

18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ.

These verses contain one command. "Be filled" is πληροῦσθε (plērousthe, G4137), a present passive imperative. Present: keep on being filled. Passive: the Holy Spirit does the filling. Everything after it hangs from that one verb as a participle:

speaking to one another (λαλοῦντες)
singing (ᾄδοντες)
making melody (ψάλλοντες)
giving thanks (εὐχαριστοῦντες)
submitting to one another (ὑποτασσόμενοι)

So a Spirit-filled church is described by what it does. Three of its five marks are musical.

The sentence is also Trinitarian. The Spirit fills (Ephesians 5:18). The songs go "to the Lord" (Ephesians 5:19), and Paul names the Lord in the next breath: "our Lord Jesus Christ." The thanks go "to God the Father" (Ephesians 5:20). This shows that God the Holy Spirit fills a church in order to turn it toward the Son and the Father. Singing is one of the ways He does it.

The fifth participle opens Paul's teaching on households. Submission in Context treats it; this study stays with the first three.

Wine and the Spirit

Paul sets drunkenness beside Spirit-filling because both take hold of a person and come out in behaviour. Tertullian, writing around AD 197, describes the result at a Christian meal. "As much is drunk as befits the chaste." Then, after the lamps are lit, "each is asked to stand forth and sing, as he can, a hymn to God, either one from the holy Scriptures or one of his own composing — a proof of the measure of our drinking" (Tertullian, Apology 39, ANF 3). A sober church that sings is Ephesians 5:18-19 being practised nearly a century and a half later.

The word of Christ, sung

Paul wrote Colossians at the same time and sent it by the same man, Tychicus (Ephesians 6:21; Colossians 4:7). Its version of the passage runs closely parallel.

✝️ Colossians 3:16-17 (ESV)

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

The two letters name the source differently. Ephesians says "be filled with the Spirit." Colossians says "let the word of Christ dwell in you richly." The results are the same: songs, one another, the heart, thanks to the Father in Jesus' name. Read together, they show the Holy Spirit filling a church through the word about Christ, and the songs are one channel the word travels by.

Songs that teach

Colossians makes the songs a means of teaching: "teaching and admonishing one another" (Colossians 3:16). The NASB, CSB and NIV attach the psalms to that teaching ("with psalms", "through psalms"), and the ESV attaches them to the singing; Ephesians 5:19, "addressing one another in psalms," says it either way. The singing has two directions. It goes sideways, "addressing one another" (Ephesians 5:19), and upward, "to the Lord with your heart." The person next to you in church hears your song, and it teaches them.

God had used songs this way before. When Israel was about to enter the land, He told Moses to write a song for exactly this purpose.

✝️ Deuteronomy 31:19, 21 (ESV)

19 Now therefore write this song and teach it to the people of Israel. Put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the people of Israel. … 21 And when many evils and troubles have come upon them, this song shall confront them as a witness (for it will live unforgotten in the mouths of their offspring).

"So Moses wrote this song the same day and taught it to the people of Israel" (Deuteronomy 31:22, ESV). The song is Deuteronomy 32. God gave it because a song outlasts a sermon. It "will live unforgotten."

Three words

Paul's three nouns are ψαλμός (psalmos, G5568), ὕμνος (hymnos, G5215) and ᾠδή (ōdē, G5603). Each has a Hebrew word behind it, through the Greek Old Testament his churches read.

Greek	Hebrew behind it	Centre of meaning	Where it occurs
ψαλμός psalmos	מִזְמוֹר (mizmor, H4210)	a song sung to a plucked instrument	7 times in the NT, four of them referring to the Psalms (Luke 20:42; 24:44; Acts 1:20; 13:33). Mizmor occurs 57 times, every one in a psalm title.
ὕμνος hymnos	תְּהִלָּה (tehillah, H8416)	a song of praise addressed to God	Only Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 in the NT. Psalm 145 is the one psalm titled tehillah, and the plural, Tehillim, is the Hebrew name of the whole book.
ᾠδή ōdē	שִׁיר (shir, H7892)	song, the general word	Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16; Revelation 5:9; 14:3; 15:3. Shir occurs in 16 books, among them Moses' song (Exodus 15:1) and the Song of Songs.

Psalm 76 carries all three

The Hebrew title of Psalm 76 reads "To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments. A Psalm of Asaph. A Song" (ESV). The Greek Old Testament translated it ἐν ὕμνοις, ψαλμὸς τῷ Ἀσάφ· ᾠδή: "in hymns, a psalm of Asaph, a song" (LXX Psalm 75:1, Brenton's Greek text). Paul's three words stand together in one psalm title. The Greek Psalter uses psalmos 72 times and ōdē 44 times, most of them in titles. Every Song of Ascents (Psalms 120-134) is headed ᾠδή. At the end of Book Two the Hebrew reads "The prayers of David, the son of Jesse, are ended" (Psalm 72:20, ESV), and the Greek has "the hymns of David".

The three words overlap. A psalm in the Psalter can be a hymn and a song at once, as Psalm 76 is. Each word still has a centre: psalmos leans toward the Psalter and accompaniment, hymnos toward praise of God, ōdē toward song of any kind. Together they cover the whole range of song a church has.

"Spiritual"

πνευματικός (pneumatikos, G4152) agrees grammatically with the nearest noun, "songs," and may describe all three. The CSB's translators note the sense in a footnote at Colossians 3:16: "songs prompted by the Spirit." The word points back to the command in Ephesians 5:18. These are songs the Holy Spirit gives, to a church He is filling.

Only the Psalter?

Some churches sing only the 150 psalms in worship, a practice called exclusive psalmody. The question is contested, and both sides argue from the text.

The case for the Psalter alone. Paul's three nouns are the Psalter's own title words, as Psalm 76 shows. His readers' Bible used all three for the psalms. The Psalter was the songbook God had already given, and it was inspired.

The case for the Psalter and new songs. Several texts point wider:

Five verses earlier Paul writes, "Therefore it says, 'Awake, O sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you'" (Ephesians 5:14, ESV). No Old Testament verse reads like that. It may be a Christian song, or a summary of Isaiah 26:19 and 60:1; scholars divide on which.
In Corinth "each one has a hymn" when the church gathers (1 Corinthians 14:26, ESV). The Greek word is psalmos, brought by individual members. Paul adds, "I will sing praise with my spirit, but I will sing with my mind also" (1 Corinthians 14:15, ESV).
The Psalms themselves call for new songs: "He put a new song in my mouth" (Psalm 40:3, ESV; see Psalm 96:1).
In heaven the living creatures and the elders "sang a new song" to the Lamb: "Worthy are you… for you were slain" (Revelation 5:9, ESV). The Psalter could not yet name Him.
Tertullian's church sang songs "from the holy Scriptures or one of his own composing."

Where this study lands. It is settled that the Psalms belong in the church's singing; they come first and every side agrees on them. The wider reading has more of the text behind it, because the New Testament itself records songs to Jesus by name. This study holds that reading and marks it as held against a serious alternative.

Israel's songbook

The first song Scripture records being sung to the LORD comes straight after Israel's great rescue. "Then Moses and the people of Israel sang this song to the LORD" (Exodus 15:1, ESV), and Miriam led the women with tambourines (Exodus 15:20-21). From there the songs mark Israel's history:

Moses' second song, written to be remembered (Deuteronomy 31-32).
Deborah and Barak after the defeat of Sisera: "I will make melody to the LORD" (Judges 5:3, ESV).
Hannah at the dedication of Samuel (1 Samuel 2:1-10). Mary's song echoes it a thousand years later.
David, who sang his rescue from Saul (2 Samuel 22, repeated as Psalm 18).

David's singers

David made song an office. He set apart the sons of Asaph, Heman and Jeduthun, "who prophesied with lyres, with harps, and with cymbals" (1 Chronicles 25:1, ESV). They numbered 288, "trained in singing to the LORD" (1 Chronicles 25:7, ESV). Nearly three centuries later Hezekiah restored the temple, and the Levites sang "with the words of David and of Asaph the seer" (2 Chronicles 29:30, ESV). Israel kept its songs and sang them again.

One line sung for a thousand years

The Psalter gathers 150 of these songs into five books, each ending in a doxology (Psalms 41:13; 72:19; 89:52; 106:48; 150). Pilgrims sang the Songs of Ascents on the road up to Jerusalem (Psalms 120-134). Families sang the Hallel at Passover (Psalms 113-118).

One line shows how the songs were reused. Moses sang, "The LORD is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation" (Exodus 15:2, ESV). The Hallel sings it again: "The LORD is my strength and my song; he has become my salvation" (Psalm 118:14, ESV). So does Isaiah, of a rescue still to come (Isaiah 12:2). God's people sang His first great deliverance into every later one.

One word in the line is debated. זִמְרָת (zimrat, H2176) is "song" in the ESV, CSB, NASB and NLT, and "defense" in the NIV; the CSB footnotes "Or might." Hebrew has two words spelled this way, one meaning song and one meaning strength or protection. The reuse of the line across Exodus, Psalms and Isaiah holds whichever sense is right.

The church's first songs

The New Testament opens in song. Luke records four songs around the birth of Jesus:

Mary: "My soul magnifies the Lord" (Luke 1:46-55).
Zechariah: "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel" (Luke 1:68-79).
The angels: "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace" (Luke 2:14, ESV).
Simeon: "Lord, now you are letting your servant depart in peace" (Luke 2:29-32).

The Last Supper ended in a hymn (Matthew 26:30), very likely the end of the Passover Hallel, which ends with Psalm 118. Psalm 118 on the Road to Gethsemane (coming soon) sets out the evidence. If so, Jesus sang Moses' line on the night before the cross: "The LORD is my strength and my song."

Paul and Silas sang in the Philippian jail: "About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them" (Acts 16:25, ESV). The prisoners heard them, as Paul's "addressing one another" says a song will be heard.

Songs inside the letters

Several passages in Paul's letters have the shape of poetry and may be early Christian hymns: Philippians 2:6-11, Colossians 1:15-20 and 1 Timothy 3:16. The last opens "Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness" and runs in six short lines: "He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory" (1 Timothy 3:16, ESV). Calling these hymns rests on their form. Whether Paul wrote them or quoted songs his churches already sang is debated, and the text does not settle it. Either way, every one of them sings about Jesus.

Revelation's songs

Revelation is full of hymns of praise (Revelation 4:8, 11; 5:9-14; 19:1-8). One of its songs returns to the first. Beside "a sea of glass mingled with fire" stand "those who had conquered the beast," and "they sing the song of Moses, the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb" (Revelation 15:2-3, ESV). Moses sang beside the Red Sea after Pharaoh's army drowned. These saints sing beside a heavenly sea after the beast is defeated. Read in the dispensational framework this site holds, they are believers who die for their faith during the Tribulation. The rescue they celebrate is the Lamb's, and they sing it with the words of the Exodus.

What the church kept

The early church kept a collection of songs alongside the Psalter. Greek Bibles added a book called the Odes after the Psalms. In the order of the fifth-century Codex Alexandrinus there are fourteen (Swete's edition):

The song of Moses at the sea (Exodus 15)
The song of Moses in Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 32)
Hannah's prayer (1 Samuel 2)
Isaiah's song (Isaiah 5)
Jonah's prayer (Jonah 2)
Habakkuk's prayer (Habakkuk 3)
Hezekiah's prayer (Isaiah 38)
The Prayer of Manasseh
The prayer of Azariah (Greek Daniel 3)
The hymn of our fathers (Greek Daniel 3)
Mary's song (Luke 1)
Simeon's song (Luke 2)
Zechariah's song (Luke 1)
The morning hymn, which opens with the angels' words, "Glory to God in the highest" (Luke 2:14)

Four of these are outside the Protestant canon: the Prayer of Manasseh, the two odes from the Greek additions to Daniel, and the fourteenth, a Christian hymn built on Luke 2:14 and copied into a Bible. The other ten are Scripture.

Christians also wrote new songs from the start. Early in the third century a writer quoted by Eusebius answered the followers of Artemon, who taught that Jesus was a mere man, by pointing to the songs: "how many psalms and hymns, written by the faithful brethren from the beginning, celebrate Christ the Word of God, speaking of him as Divine" (Eusebius, Church History 5.28.5, NPNF2 1). The church's songs held its doctrine.

So a body of songs kept beside the Psalms is an old practice. This site now keeps one: the Songbook gathers the songs of Scripture, the songs Jesus knew and sang, and the earliest Christian songs, with when each was first sung.

The God who sings

The songs reach further than the people who sing them. Hebrews takes Psalm 22:22 and puts it in the mouth of Jesus:

✝️ Hebrews 2:11-12 (ESV)

11 For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, 12 saying, "I will tell of your name to my brothers; in the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise."

The verb is ὑμνήσω (hymnēsō, G5214), from the same root as Paul's "hymns." The Son of God stands among the people He has made His brothers and sings the Father's praise. This is adoption: He calls you His brother or sister, and He leads the singing. When a church sings to the Father in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ (Ephesians 5:20), it joins a song He is already singing.

The Father sings too. Zephaniah tells Jerusalem, "The LORD your God is in your midst, a mighty one who will save; he will rejoice over you with gladness; he will quiet you by his love; he will exult over you with loud singing" (Zephaniah 3:17, ESV).

So the whole Godhead is involved when a church sings. The Holy Spirit fills it, the Son sings in its midst, and the Father rejoices over it with singing. This shows that God made you to sing because He is a God who rejoices, and He has brought you into His family's song.

Sing it when

James gives the simplest rule: "Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise" (James 5:13, ESV). Scripture's own songs show when else to sing:

After a rescue, as Moses and Miriam did (Exodus 15).
When you are afraid of forgetting, as Israel was meant to sing Deuteronomy 32.
When a child is given, as Hannah and Mary did (1 Samuel 2; Luke 1).
At the Lord's Supper, as Jesus did (Matthew 26:30).
At midnight in trouble, as Paul and Silas did (Acts 16:25).
At the end of a life, as Simeon did (Luke 2:29-32).

The command in Ephesians 5 is "be filled with the Spirit," and singing is what comes of it. So you may sing as an act of faith. You sing the word of Christ to the person beside you, you sing to the Lord Jesus with your heart, and you give thanks to the Father always and for everything.

Discussion questions

The language. Paul uses three words: psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Psalm 76's Greek title uses all three for one psalm. What does that overlap suggest about how much Paul meant to separate them?
The text in its context. Ephesians says "be filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18); Colossians says "let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" (Colossians 3:16). Both produce the same singing. What does that tell you about how the Holy Spirit and the word of Christ work together?
Christ. Hebrews 2:12 has Jesus singing the Father's praise "in the midst of the congregation." How does it change your singing on Sunday to know He is singing too?
The hard part. The Psalter's titles use Paul's three words, yet Revelation 5:9 records a "new song" to the Lamb by name. How do you weigh those two facts when a church chooses its songs?
Be transformed. God gave Israel a song so that it would "live unforgotten" (Deuteronomy 31:21). Which truths about God do you most need to remember in trouble, and which song of Scripture could you learn to carry them?

Group study sheet for a 40-minute group: two A4 sheets, or one with the guided path

The point, the passage, the questions and the response, from this study. Print on both sides of two A4 sheets, flipping on the long edge. While this block is open, printing the page prints the sheet; close it to print the study.

Black & white for a black-only printer Two pages one sheet: each step of the study with its questions

Group study · 40 minutes

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

Ephesians 5:18-21; Colossians 3:16-17

The point God fills His church with His Holy Spirit so that it sings: the old psalms and new songs about Jesus carry the word of Christ into every member's memory, so that you teach one another with them and thank the Father with them.

0–5min

Ask: what comes to mind when you hear Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.

5–12minRead it aloud BSB

Ephesians 5:18-21 ¹⁸Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to reckless indiscretion. Instead, be filled with the Spirit. ¹⁹Speak to one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Sing and make music in your hearts to the Lord, ²⁰always giving thanks to God the Father for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. ²¹Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ.

Colossians 3:16-17 ¹⁶Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. ¹⁷And whatever you do, in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.

12–25minLook closer

What does it say?

What did it mean to them?

What does it mean for us?

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

The study in brief

One command, five results and The word of Christ, sung — what Paul says in Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3, read side by side.
Three words and Only the Psalter? — what psalms, hymns and spiritual songs are, and the debate over which songs Paul meant.
Israel's songbook and The church's first songs — the history, from the Red Sea to Revelation.
What the church kept — the early church's own collection.
The God who sings — what the songs show about Jesus and the Father.
Sing it when — how to use the songs now.

Notes

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

12–18minStep 1 · One command, five results

1The text in its context. Ephesians says "be filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18); Colossians says "let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" (Colossians 3:16). Both produce the same singing. What does that tell you about how the Holy Spirit and the word of Christ work together?

18–29minStep 2 · Three words

2The language. Paul uses three words: psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Psalm 76's Greek title uses all three for one psalm. What does that overlap suggest about how much Paul meant to separate them?

3The hard part. The Psalter's titles use Paul's three words, yet Revelation 5:9 records a "new song" to the Lamb by name. How do you weigh those two facts when a church chooses its songs?

Step 3 · Israel's songbook

Step 4 · What the church kept

29–35minStep 5 · The God who sings

4Christ. Hebrews 2:12 has Jesus singing the Father's praise "in the midst of the congregation." How does it change your singing on Sunday to know He is singing too?

Step 6 · Sing it when

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

35–40minBe transformed

5Be transformed. God gave Israel a song so that it would "live unforgotten" (Deuteronomy 31:21). Which truths about God do you most need to remember in trouble, and which song of Scripture could you learn to carry them?

Think. Singing in church is teaching. The songs you sing are the theology you will remember when you have forgotten the sermon.
Attitude. Sing to two audiences at once: to the Lord Jesus with your heart, and to the person beside you with your voice.
Do. Learn one song of Scripture by heart this month, so that "the word of Christ" dwells in you richly (Colossians 3:16, ESV), and sing it to someone. The Songbook has a place to start.

Memory verse

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Colossians 3:16 (ESV)

Pray together

Father, you fill your people with your Holy Spirit, and your Son Jesus sings your praise in the midst of His brothers. Thank you that we may join Him. Let the word of Christ dwell in us richly. Put a new song in our mouths, and give us the old songs too, so that we remember your deeds when trouble comes. Teach us to sing to one another and to you, and to give thanks always and for everything.

In Jesus' name. Amen.

Notes

The whole study, with every verse a tap awayhttps://the-way.lewy.au/christian-life/psalms-hymns-and-spiritual-songs/

Group study · step by step

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

Ephesians 5:18-21; Colossians 3:16-17

Open Ask: what comes to mind when you hear Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs? Hear a few answers before anyone reads.

Read it aloud Ephesians 5:18-21; Colossians 3:16-17

Step 1One command, five results — and The word of Christ, sung — what Paul says in Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3, read side by side.

1The text in its context. Ephesians says "be filled with the Spirit" (Ephesians 5:18); Colossians says "let the word of Christ dwell in you richly" (Colossians 3:16). Both produce the same singing. What does that tell you about how the Holy Spirit and the word of Christ work together?

Step 2Three words — and Only the Psalter? — what psalms, hymns and spiritual songs are, and the debate over which songs Paul meant.

2The language. Paul uses three words: psalms, hymns and spiritual songs. Psalm 76's Greek title uses all three for one psalm. What does that overlap suggest about how much Paul meant to separate them?

3The hard part. The Psalter's titles use Paul's three words, yet Revelation 5:9 records a "new song" to the Lamb by name. How do you weigh those two facts when a church chooses its songs?

Step 3Israel's songbook — and The church's first songs — the history, from the Red Sea to Revelation.

Step 4What the church kept — the early church's own collection.

Step 5The God who sings — what the songs show about Jesus and the Father.Key verses: Hebrews 2:11-12

4Christ. Hebrews 2:12 has Jesus singing the Father's praise "in the midst of the congregation." How does it change your singing on Sunday to know He is singing too?

Step 6Sing it when — how to use the songs now.

Be transformed

5Be transformed. God gave Israel a song so that it would "live unforgotten" (Deuteronomy 31:21). Which truths about God do you most need to remember in trouble, and which song of Scripture could you learn to carry them?

Think. Singing in church is teaching. The songs you sing are the theology you will remember when you have forgotten the sermon.
Attitude. Sing to two audiences at once: to the Lord Jesus with your heart, and to the person beside you with your voice.
Do. Learn one song of Scripture by heart this month, so that "the word of Christ" dwells in you richly (Colossians 3:16, ESV), and sing it to someone. The Songbook has a place to start.

Psalms, Hymns and Spiritual Songs

The point God fills His church with His Holy Spirit so that it sings: the old psalms and new songs about Jesus carry the word of Christ into every member's memory, so that you teach one another with them and thank the Father with them.

The whole study, with every verse a tap awayhttps://the-way.lewy.au/christian-life/psalms-hymns-and-spiritual-songs/

References & Recommended Reading

ESV (English Standard Version), Crossway, for all quotations unless marked. Verse text and study notes from the ESV Study Bible (Crossway), notes on Ephesians 5:14, 5:19 and Colossians 3:16.
NA28, Novum Testamentum Graece, 28th edition (Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft), and the SBLGNT via MACULA Greek, for the Greek of Ephesians 5:18-21 and the New Testament word counts.
Westminster Leningrad Codex (morphhb), for the Hebrew word counts.
Brenton's Septuagint and the Open Scriptures Septuagint lemmas, for the Greek psalm titles; Swete's Septuagint for the Odes.
CSB and LSB translators' footnotes at Colossians 3:16 and Ephesians 5:19.
NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible and NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible (Zondervan), notes on Ephesians 5:14, 5:19 and 1 Chronicles 25 background.
Pliny the Younger, Letters 10.96, in A. C. McGiffert's note to Eusebius, Church History 3.33, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 1 (1890).
Tertullian, Apology 39, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 3.
Eusebius, Church History 5.28.5, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 1.

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