HYMNS IN WORSHIP (3)

“Speaking to one another in psalms and HYMNS and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord” – Ephesians 5:19

The Revival of HYMNS in WORSHIP will come from the overflow of the Spirit: “Speaking to one another in psalms and HYMNS and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord, giving thanks always for all things to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph.5:19-20). Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs are three distinct departments for moving in realms of Worship. The new songs that God has for His people, will flow from: the depth in our soul (as psalms); our depth in the Word (as hymns); and the depth of our spiritual experience (as spiritual songs).

Psalms emphasize the area of the soul and personal life. For example, virtually all the psalms that David sang flowed from what his feelings were. Hymns relate more to the theological aspects of our lives; the knowledge and understanding of the Word. Hymns are songs that cause us to align with the Word. While psalms have the tunes and melody content, hymns speak comprise Word content. Spiritual songs deal with spiritual experience content. We can never sing more than what our spiritual experiences are. For someone who knows only the born-again experience, all his songs would revolve around the new birth – stagnant in songs.

Music as a universal language, cuts across boundaries. No matter the culture or country, there is a commonality of expression with the speed of the tune. For example, expressions of sadness usually come with slow tune. In every race, creed, and culture across the globe, people hardly express sadness by singing loudly and quickly; they go slowly. We all carry a tune within all the time. That’s why when children are happy, they don’t need to be taught to sing; they tend to hum some tunes. When we walk down the street filled with gladness, we feel like whistling a tune that seems to come from nowhere. It may not be an audible song. It is something deep in the soul. There is Music in every soul – the vibrations of sound waves in an orderly harmonic pattern.

The psalmist commands everything that has breath to praise the Lord (Psa.150:6). Meanwhile, the heavens and the earth praise God endlessly. All the atoms and molecules in creation are in a constant state of harmonious oscillation and vibration – all are making Music to the Creator. Inside each one of us, there is always a certain vibration of our soul; dead in the sinner, awoken in the Believer! Sometimes that note goes down; sometimes it goes up. We need to learn to sustain the note of Victory in our lives by cultivating a lifestyle and an atmosphere of Worship. Singing Hymns in Worship is a guaranteed strategy.

When John Newton, a wretched sinner for so long, was born again, he composed the hymn “Amazing Grace,” the last stanza of which says, “When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun. We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise, than when we’d first begun.” He was able to sing the greatness of God’s Grace because he knew he was saved by grace. Whenever he sang that song, he must have remembered how God was merciful to him, rescued him from the miry clay and clothed him in the garments of righteousness. Even though John Newton is gone, when that song is sung today, we all re-live his experience.

Ultimately, Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs – melodies that we make in our hearts to the Lord – come from being filled with the Spirit; the overflow of the Spirit: “And do not be drunk with wine, in which is dissipation; but be filled with the Spirit” (v.18). The Holy Spirit fills us with melody and activates the tunes within us. One could have knowledge of the Word but without being Spirit-filled, would not be able to express it in a tune or melody that carries God’s presence! Being Spirit-filled helps us to tap into heaven’s storehouse of tunes and melodies. That’s the Source of New Psalms, New Hymns, and New Spiritual Songs.