Excerpt from Sunday Mornings: An Introduction to Biblical Worship by Pastor Brian Phillips
In Colossians 3, Paul addresses the Colossians with practical instruction about what it means to live as the Church, as a congregation of believers. He tells them to “put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering” (v.12); to “bear with one another…forgive one another” as Christ forgave us (v. 13). Summing all of this up, Paul says believers must “put on love, which is the bond of perfection” (v. 14). Believers are to be ruled by the peace of God, be thankful, and to live as one body (v. 15).
The life of the body is expressed and found in what it values. So, in verse 16, Paul says that the body, the Church, is to love and value the Word and music. The Church is to let “the word of Christ dwell in (them) richly” (verse 16), resulting in rich “wisdom, teaching and admonishing.”
But how are members of the body to teach and admonish one another? We do that by “singing” (v. 16). Not all members of the body preach, not all lead, but all sing and, in singing, they admonish and teach the body. All of us know that music is a teacher, a very powerful teacher. We learn what we sing. We learn from the music used in our singing.
And, the last part of verse 16 tells us about what the body is to sing together – “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs…” Now, before we go into the specific terms used there, we should note that Paul is giving a command to the whole congregation. The pronouns “you” and “your” are plural pronouns and are referring to the whole congregation that received this letter. So the congregation, the collected body, is to sing “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” Three terms that are similar, but do refer to different kinds of songs.
First, Paul calls for the singing of “psalms.” This is a reference to the Old Testament Psalms, and Scripture everywhere commands the singing of Psalms (1st Chronicles 16:9; Psalms 33:2, 57:8, 71:22, 81:2, 92:3, 95:2, 105:2, 108:2, 144:9, 150:3; Ephesians 5:19; James 5:13; many verses in 1st & 2nd Chronicles, Nehemiah 12:27; 2nd Samuel 6:5; 1st Kings 10:12).
The Bible commands the singing of Psalms. This is why the Westminster Confession of Faith says, “The singing of psalms with grace in the heart (is a part) of the ordinary religious worship of God” (XXI.5). There are numerous arrangements of the Psalms, compiled in a variety of forms throughout the ages. It’s not an option, but it is a privilege to sing God’s Word, His Psalms, back to Him.
Next, Paul says we are to sing “hymns.” Hymns are simply songs of praise to God. There are sections of the New Testament that are actually believed to be early hymns – Philippians 2:6-11, Colossians 1:15-20, Ephesians 5:14, and 1st Timothy 3:16 are among them. Upon reading through all of those passages, what stands out most starkly is the deep doctrinal emphasis. They added these “hymns” to the Psalms because they taught specifically about Christ. The hymns offered in worship ought also to be doctrinally rich and pure. The great church hymns have never been “fluff” songs designed merely to evoke emotional responses. They taught biblical truth through music, a wonderful tool for worship and memory.
Finally, Paul mentions “spiritual songs.” Now, some of our brethren have insisted that this refers to songs that the Holy Spirit inspires you to sing directly – your own personal theme music from God! But, the word “spiritual” here literally means “non-carnal” or regenerate. In other words, “spiritual songs” are songs that are appropriate for worship and it is intentionally a general term. Because of the general nature of the term, a decent case for concluding that songs like the doxologies, the Gloria Patri, and perhaps instrumentals are covered here. These spiritual songs, however, were congregational in nature, included under the commands given to the Colossian church.
Music is an integral part of worship and Scripture consistently commands us to sing to the Lord. It is a part of the life of the body. And, because singing and music are integral parts of worship, God has given us precepts and principles to follow for what we offer. As with every other detail of worship, God protects us from ourselves and gives us direction for what we should sing and how we should sing it.