spiritual songs

Music in the Worship of the New Testament

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From the beginning of the New Testament experience, the believer’s response to Jesus Christ has included song. Most of the New Testament songs or hymns have found their way into the enduring liturgy of the church, including the Magnificat, the Benedictus, the Gloria, and the Nunc Dimittis. New Testament music in worship included psalmody, hymns composed in the church, and spiritual songs—alleluias and songs of jubilation or ecstatic nature. Further, many of the elements characteristic of later liturgical practice are rooted in New Testament actions and elements of worship.

Early Christian Worship It is not just a coincidence that the birth of Christ was announced by an outburst of song which is recorded in the first two chapters of Luke. Since that time, the Christian faith has been expressed with joyful music that has not been matched by any religion in history. The four canticles found in Luke are psalmodic in style and are traditionally known by the first words of their Latin translation.

  • Magnificat. And Mary said, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior” (Luke 1:46–55)
  • Benedictus. Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit, and prophesied, saying, “Blessed be the Lord God of Israel” (Luke 1:67–79)
  • Gloria in Excelsis Deo. And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among men with whom he is pleased!” (Luke 2:13, 14)
  • Nunc Dimittis. He (Simeon) took him up in his arms and blessed God and said, “Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word; for mine eyes have seen thy salvation” (Luke 2:28–32).

The Song of Mary, the Song of Zechariah (father of John the Baptist), the Song of the Angels, and the Song of Simeon have been used more in historic Christian worship than any other biblical passages, outside of the Psalms.

After the resurrection and ascension of Christ, the disciples (later including the apostle Paul) continued to meet in the synagogues on the Sabbath as was their custom, giving witness to their faith in the risen Christ as the Jewish Messiah. At the same time, they met on the first day of the week to “remember their Lord” in the celebration of the Eucharist, followed by an agape meal, or love feast. Eventually, it became apparent that their presence would no longer be tolerated in the synagogues, and they began to meet for their own “Christian synagogue” service. In the final evolution of full Christian worship, the synagogue and the Upper Room experiences were united in one two-part service.

Regarding music, it seems clear that first-century Christians used three different types of songs: “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” It is a little short of amazing that Paul delineates three different genres of music for worship, mentioning them in two different letters to young churches. We must believe that they were contrasting—in origin, in subject matter, and possibly even in performance practice. This is substantiated by Egon Wellesz, one of the leading authorities on the music of this period.

St. Paul must certainly have been referring to a practice well known to the people to whom he wrote. We may therefore assume that three different types of chant were, in fact, used among them, and we can form an idea of their characteristics from the evidence of Jewish music and later recorded Christian chant:

  • Psalmody: the cantillation of the Jewish psalms and of the canticles and doxologies modeled on them.
  • Hymns: songs of praise of a syllabic type, i.e., each syllable is sung to one or two notes of the melody.
  • Spiritual songs: Alleluia and other chants of a jubilant or ecstatic character, richly ornamented (Egon Wellesz, “Early Christian Music,” in The New Oxford History of Music, vol. 2, p. 2).

Whether or not Wellesz is correct about the musical character of these forms, the nature and source of the texts seem well established. “Psalms” no doubt included all the psalms and canticles that were common to Jewish worship, in the tabernacle, the temple, and the synagogue. “Hymns” were probably new expressions in song, presenting the doctrine and theology of the church. There are a number of these hymns in the letters of Paul, written in the patterns of classical Greek poetry, and it is reasonable to assume that they were quickly adopted as “Christ songs” by the churches which read the epistles.

The koine Greek phrase for “spiritual songs” is odaes pneumaticaes—“pneumatic odes,” or possibly “odes upon the breath” since the same word was used for “breath” and “spirit.” Some have conjectured that these were melismatic songs based on acclamations such as “alleluia”, “glory”, or “holy.”

Wellesz connects it with the common practice of most Near Eastern cultures at the beginning of the Christian era. Furthermore, he suggests that it was perpetuated in later Christian worship in the jubilus of the mass, the (originally improvised) melismatic prolongation of the final syllable of the “Alleluia.” As St. Augustine said of this type of Jewish-Christian song: It is a certain sound of joy without words … it is the expression of a mind poured forth in joy. A man rejoicing in his own exultation, after certain words which cannot be understood, bursteth forth into sounds of exultation without words so that it seemeth that he … filled with excessive joy cannot express in words the subject of that joy. (Nicene & Post-Nicene Fathers, ser. 1, vol. 8, 488)

We presume that early Christian worship was strictly vocal, since instrumental music was primarily associated with Hebrew temple sacrifices, was probably not used in synagogues, and was abandoned even by the Jews when the temple was destroyed in a.d. 70.

The Functions of Music in the Early Church

The New Testament emphasizes both the human and the divine sources of song. Music flows from human experience, and it no doubt also affects that experience. James seems to suggest that it is most logically associated with the emotion of Christian joy. “Is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praise” (James 5:13). In Paul’s first letter to Christians at Corinth, one verse (when read alone) seems to be saying that all musical worship should be equally emotional and cerebral. “I will sing with the spirit and I will sing with the mind also” (1 Cor. 14:15). However, the scriptural context reveals that he is talking about two different experiences. Relating the verse to Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16, it may be Paul is suggesting that he would sing “hymns” with the mind and “spiritual songs” with the spirit. In any experience of worship, our minds are engaged, no doubt, at different levels at different times; on occasion, perhaps most persons hear music more emotionally than rationally.

All of these functions of music in the early Christian community may be seen to support the expression of the Christian faith. One passage in the Authorized Version, “teaching and admonishing one another in psalms” (Col. 3:16), seems to be a clear biblical injunction to use song to learn doctrine and to teach Christian ethics.

The early church sang of the divinity and the work of Christ to express their new faith; at the same time, they were teaching those doctrines to the catechumens, those who were still being trained in the faith but had not yet been baptized.

Finally, and perhaps primarily, we should see Christian song as an offering to God in worship. Paul mentions this specifically in Hebrews 13:15: “Through him [Jesus] then let us continually offer up a sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of lips that acknowledge his name.” This is also emphasized in the two verses in which Paul says so much about musical worship: “singing and making melody to the Lord with all your heart” (Eph. 5:19), and “sing … with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (Col. 3:16).

Worship Elements Mentioned in the New Testament

The following is a brief outline of early Christian worship taken from various excerpts of Scripture:

Liturgy of the Word

  • Singing (of various types)—“psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” (Col. 3:16), probably without instrumental accompaniment
  • Prayers—“And they devoted themselves to … prayers” (Acts 2:42).
  • Congregational amen—“how can any one in the position of an outsider say “amen” to your thanksgiving when he does not know what you are saying?” (1 Cor. 14:16).
  • Scripture readings (especially the prophets, and including letters from Paul)—“Till I come, attend to the public reading of Scripture” (1 Tim . 4:13).
  • Homily (exposition)—“On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them … and he prolonged his speech until midnight” (Acts 20:7).
  • Physical action—“I desire then that in every place the men should pray, lifting holy hands” (1 Tim. 2:8).
  • Intercession (following the example of Christ in the Upper Room)—“When Jesus had spoken these words, he lifted up his eyes to heaven and said … I am not praying for the world but for those whom thou hast given me” (John 17:1, 9).
  • Collection (alms)—“Now concerning the contribution for the saints … On the first day of every week, each of you is to put something aside and store it up, as he may prosper, so that contributions need not be made when I come” (1 Cor. 16:1, 2).

Liturgy of the Body and the Blood

  • The kiss of peace (evidently a Jewish practice, continued by early Christians)—“So if you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother” (Matt. 5:23, 24). The phrase “kiss of love” or “holy kiss” is found in Rom. 16:16, 1 Cor. 16:20, 1 Thess. 5:26, and 1 Pet. 5:14.
  • A confession of faith—“take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses” (1 Tim. 6:12).
  • Thanksgiving (Eucharist)—“And he took bread, and when he had given thanks” (Luke 22:19).
  • Remembrance (anamnesis, Gr.)—“Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me” (1 Cor. 11:25).
  • The anticipation of Christ’s return—“For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Cor. 11:26).

Summary

One of the Bible’s most significant contributions to church music is the broad spectrum of texts it has left for Christian worship. The psalms and canticles of the Old Testament and of Luke 1 and 2 have been the basis for liturgical expression for almost two thousand years. In addition, the New Testament hymns and many other passages in both Testaments have been used verbatim in anthems, motets, and cantatas, and have provided the inspiration for many of our extrabiblical hymns and Christian songs. The Scriptures will always be our best source for worship material; that which is not directly quoted or paraphrased is rightly expected to conform to Bible truth.

By inference, the scriptures also suggest proper functions for today’s church music. Both Old and New Testaments reveal a transcendent God who is the object of our adoration. From the New Testament, we understand more of the believer’s personal relationship with God through Christ, and also of his fellowship with other saints.

A Paradigm for the Church Music of the Future

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All of us have personal preferences. Some prefer blue over green. Some prefer a trip to the beach over a trip to the mountains. Some favor grits over hash browns, country music over rock. And almost everyone favors the home team over the visitors.

But while we smile at some of our preferences, our religious preferences are often quite a different matter. For some reason, our own particular religious traditions and experiences tend to color our ideas of what God’s preferences are and aren’t. Nowhere is this more true than in the area of worship styles. How quickly our preferences become biases. And how easily our biases become walls that keep us from the larger body of Christ and from fuller expressions of worship.

The sum total of these distinctives and preferences is termed culture. Every individual and group is part of a culture. Worship and culture are closely related. It is interesting that the root word for culture is cult, which is, in its simplest definition, a system of worship or devotion. You could say our culture reflects our worship. We should neither despise nor deny our culture, for it helps to give us the initial parameters for personal identity, but we must thoughtfully evaluate all our ways in light of God’s ways. When God says that His ways are higher than our ways (Isa. 55:9) he is saying that his divine culture is higher than our human culture. The Lausanne Covenant of 1974 appeals for churches to be “deeply rooted in Christ and closely related to their culture.”

Culture must always be tested and judged by Scripture.… The gospel does not presuppose the superiority of any culture to another, but evaluates all cultures according to its own criteria of truth and righteousness.… Churches have sometimes been in bondage to culture rather than to the Scripture.”

Denominations within the church are typically cultural divisions before they are theological. They have to do with conflicting folkways. A Presbyterian pastor made this observation: “Part of the problem in coming into unity is that we have recruited people into personality distinctives of our own congregations and traditions, rather than into Christ. As a result, their loyalties are more to these distinctives than to Christ’s Kingdom.” In the spirit of Lausanne, we need to evaluate our traditions of worship—whether historic traditions or more recent renewal traditions—in light of Scripture to see if we are adherents of an approach to Christ or of Christ himself.

Toward Understanding Divine Preferences

Music powerfully communicates culture. That’s why the church’s music is so vital in communicating its life. Even the effects of a vibrant sermon can be canceled out by lifeless music. Some would observe that the music more accurately reflects the life of the congregation than do the words spoken.

What are we communicating culturally? What kinds of songs should we be singing? What are the parameters of biblical worship? Do our biases keep us from a fuller expression of worship? The easy answer to these kinds of questions goes something like this: “God is only concerned with the attitude of our hearts, not the forms of our expressions.” Granted, the heart’s disposition is primary, but should we not allow God to transform and enlarge our forms as well as our hearts? It’s not that our worship traditions are intrinsically wrong … just incomplete.

Consider these three statements as beginning points in this discussion of biblical patterns of worship:

  1. True worship is both spiritual and intellectual. “True worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth” (John 4:24).
  2. Heavenly worshipers worship the God of the past, present, and future. “Day and night they never stop saying: Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, who was, and is, and is to come” (Rev. 4:8, see also Rev. 1:4, 8).
  3. In the New Testament, God endorses three primary song forms: psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you … sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God” (Col. 3:16, see also Eph. 5:19–20).

Spirit and Truth

Today some segments of the church specialize primarily in spirit. Favorite teaching topics in the churches would likely include “Hearing God” and “Being Led by the Spirit.” Leaders encourage followers to develop intuitive skills. Worship is generally spontaneous and Spirit-led.

Other segments of the church specialize primarily in truth. Among these groups, biblical scholarship and critical thinking are held in high esteem. Here worship is more orderly and structured.

Each tradition is suspicious of the other and often reinforces its own uniqueness to justify its existence. Facing these tendencies is very difficult but very necessary. But Jesus said that true worshipers must worship in spirit and truth … not one or the other. If we love to “flow in the Spirit” but are impatient with the process of making careful observations, we are not yet the kind of worshipers God is looking for. If we are diligent students and yet we can’t make room for someone to base a claim on revelation, we are not yet the worshipers that please God.

If the worship in our congregation only attracts critical thinkers, it’s time to do some critical thinking about our own cultural preferences. If our congregation is attracting only the intuitive or feeling types, it’s time to ask the Spirit to lead us into all truth. Biblical worship is to be spiritual and thoughtful. These two components are implied in Romans 12:1 in the phrase logikos latreia, which is translated in the NIV as either “spiritual act of worship” or “reasonable act of worship.”

Past, Present, and Future

Some of us are more familiar with what God is saying than what God has said, to the point that we disdain any reference to history. I have heard this referred to as “the cult of contemporaneity.” Others are well versed in what has gone on before us and yet out of touch with what is going on now. One pastor confidently told me that nothing of any significance has happened in the church in the last 250 years. Most likely the church he pastors will be populated with those who are friendly to that point of view.

Still others of us are so future-oriented that we fail to worship the God of the past and the present. We must not try to confine God’s kingdom exclusively to past, present, or future reality. Each is only partial reflections of God’s glory.

Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs

Some charismatic churches tend to sing choruses to the exclusion of hymns. Some traditional churches sing hymns to the exclusion of choruses. And a very small percentage of churches have any significant experience with spiritual songs. In contrast, God’s Word invites us all to express our gratitude through all three song forms.

To sing a psalm is not necessarily the equivalent of singing from the book of Psalms. A psalm is a song. The term psalm, like song, can be used in a general or a specific sense. In general usage, it would include a hymn, just as there are hymns included in the book of Psalms.

In the specific sense, however, a psalm would contrast with a hymn. Similar to what we today call choruses, a psalm, or song, is generally simpler, shorter, more testimonial, and less theological than a hymn. A hymn would usually carry a greater sense of reverence; a song would be more personal. The psalm is more contemporary and has a shorter life span.

The spiritual song is even more of a song-of-the-moment. The spiritual song that consists of spontaneous melodies around a chord or a slowly moving chord progression, has been referred to as the “song of angels” because of its mystical, otherworldly quality. Even as the Spirit is the believer’s down payment on the future age, the spiritual song must be a foretaste of heavenly worship itself.

The genius of these three song forms is that each is uniquely appropriate to express a dimension of God’s nature and each will speak for a different kind of personality, as well as the different facets of the individual. The hymn corresponds to the God who was—the God of history; the psalm corresponds to the God who is—the God of the now, and the spiritual song corresponds to the God who is to come—the God of the future. The hymn will satisfy our hunger for truth and depth of understanding; the psalm will speak to our need for encounter and experience, and the spiritual song will stimulate the prophet and visionary in us.

The command to employ psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs requires greater cultural flexibility than we have had in order to enjoy the variety of worship expressions. For instance, the youth of the church will probably prefer a more contemporary style of worship than the older members. The common solution to this cultural problem is to segregate the youth church from the adult church. But the psalms-hymns-and-spiritual-songs paradigm begs for a different solution: diversity within unity. This new paradigm allows the contemporary and the historic to stand side by side and challenges our hearts to greater love. It means being both reverent and celebrative, objective and subjective, structured and spontaneous, testimonial and theological.

Instead of affirming our own strengths and acknowledging the limitations of other traditions, we must begin to recognize the limitations of our own traditions and affirm the strengths of others. The result will be that our own preferences will be enjoyed by others, as well as enlarged by others. Like an onion in the stew, we will both flavor the other ingredients and be flavored by them—all the while, remaining an onion.

Paradigm for the Future

The church of the future must become transcultural. The evangelical church must learn to sing spiritual songs; the charismatic church must rediscover the hymns, and the traditional church must begin to sing a new psalm. The young church must respect the older church and vise versa. Bridges of cooperation and counsel must be built between black and white churches. The stagnating pools of our cultural prejudices must be flooded by the river of God’s divine purposes. Accepting and practicing God’s standard of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs in our worship is a simple but challenging exercise designed to break us loose from our idols of ethnocentrism.

Where will all of this lead us? To the most exciting celebration imaginable: the international, interdenominational, multilingual, multiethnic celebration of Christ Jesus, the Son of God! After this I looked and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people, and language, standing before the throne and in front of the Lamb. (Rev. 7:9)

Dare we look upon what John saw: representatives from every culture, nation, tribe, people, and language, declaring their praises together with a loud voice, overwhelmed with gratitude for this majestic King who has made them into one people (Rev. 5:9–10)? If we can see that, we can see our destination. The heavenly vision is that of worshipers of many different stripes who are more conscious of the greatness of Jesus Christ than of their cultural distinctions.

If worship styles have been the source of divisions among us, let’s turn the tables and allow God’s design for worship to be a source of unity among us. Let’s pray that heaven’s worship will overtake earth as we sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs.

Music Making in the New Testament

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Although the New Testament says little about music making, it is clear that the worship life of the early church was characterized by the use of psalms and other forms of song.

Superficially the New Testament appears almost to disregard music. Outside of the book of Revelation, in which music is a part of a rich eschatological drama, not more than a dozen passages in the entire canon shed light on music-making. Of these, five mention music only metaphorically (Matt. 6:2; 11:17; Luke 7:32; 1 Cor. 13:1; 14:7–8). The remaining cast important light, especially when seen in a broader context—that of the rich heritage of temple and synagogue worship known and practiced by the early Christians.

There are four passages in the Gospels, two of which are parallel. Matthew 26:30 and Mark 14:26 mention the use of a hymn by Christ and his disciples at the conclusion of the Last Supper. Although there is debate as to the exact nature of the Last Supper with regard to its full content and relation to Jewish traditions and practices, as well as the attendant possibilities of adaptation and change by Jesus himself, it is probably true that the words and music that were used were traditional. This is the only specific mention in the New Testament of Jesus himself singing, although it is highly likely that when he read in the synagogue (Luke 4:16–20) he chanted the lesson in an accustomed manner.

The other two passages in the Gospels mention instrumental music and dance: the mourning for the death of a girl (Matt. 9:23) and the merriment upon the return of the Prodigal Son of Jesus’ parable (Luke 15:25). Finally, when Paul and Silas were jailed for their activities, they spent some of the time singing (Acts 16:25). It can be readily seen that in all these examples nothing is said about how the music was performed or how extensive was the musical activity. Nevertheless, the basic concept present in the Old Testament still remains: music accompanied the varied activities of the Jewish community.

Instructions for music-making are found in the Epistles, embedded in the general instructions and principles that were set forth for the various churches. All but one are given by Paul. They are conceptual rather than literally musical. In 1 Corinthians 14:15 Paul seems to be calling for a balance between ecstasy and discipline in music-making (as well as praying) by asking that singing be done with the mind (or understanding) as well as in the spirit. He asks also that singing (as well as teaching, revelations, and speaking in tongues) be done for edification (1 Cor. 14:26). Two other passages (Eph 5:19; Col. 3:16) are somewhat similar. The Ephesians are encouraged to address one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs as a sign of being filled with the Spirit. The Colossians are encouraged to do the same as a sign of being indwelt by the word of Christ (Col. 3:16). The apostle James insists that cheerfulness should lead to singing (James 5:13).

Though Paul brings three terms together with particular force (psalms, hymns, spiritual songs) it is almost impossible to determine any musical or textual difference among them. The safest conclusion would be that Psalms are those of the Old Testament, although not without the possibility of Christian additions. Hymns, or songs of praise, would perhaps be those newly composed texts directed to Christ. Songs (the most inclusive of the types, comprising all kinds of songs, secular or sacred, accompanied or unaccompanied) are distinguished by the adjective spiritual, which seems to set these apart from all other songs as inspired by the Spirit and perhaps composed spontaneously.