Our first point initially then helps us see the rich blessing of corporate worship. This spirit-fullness requires the church and is not an individualistic experience. This singing is addressing one another, namely other people. The style of worship where you blend into a faceless crowd in a dark auditorium and feel a sense of euphoria is not Spirit-filled worship because it minimizes knowing other people. Spirit-filled worship is you singing truth to other people. This helps us see why singing in general is important, namely for someone else’s encouragement, not your personal experience.
But what songs are we to sing? Often, Paul’s phrase “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” gets loaded with assumed but less-than-exegetical definitions. The Greek translation of the Old Testament, known as the Septuagint, is helpful on this point. In Ephesians 5:19, Paul used the Greek words psalmois, hymnois, and odais pneumatikais, the last word being related to our English word “ode.” Interestingly, each word basically means “song,” so we need to understand these as different sorts of songs. Where did Paul get these sorts of songs? Read more»
Harrison Perkins | “The Sweetness of Psalm Singing” | August 5, 2022.
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Harrison Perkins
Harrison Perkins (PhD, Queen’s University Belfast; MDiv, Westminster Seminary California) is pastor of Oakland Hills Community Church (OPC), a member of the of the Heidelberg Reformation Association, a Senior Research Fellow at the Craig Center for the Study of the Westminster Standards, online instructor in church history at Westminster Theological Seminary, a visiting lecturer in systematic theology at Edinburgh Theological Seminary, and author of Reformed Covenant Theology: A Systematic Introduction. You can read more from him at Pastor Perks.
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