The Spiritual Song - Exploring Prophetic Worship by Mike Herron

7 PSALMS, HYMNS AND SPIRIT SONGS

‘ Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. ’ 21 Colossians 3:16 ‘ Instead, be filled with the Spirit, speaking to one another with psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit. Sing and make music from your heart to the Lord. ’ 22 Ephesians 5:18-19 These two passages give us the most significant directions for worship in the New Testament. They are alike in that they both tell us what kinds of music are to be sung in the gatherings of the people of God for worship. They are different in that in the Colossian passage, the inspiration for psalms hymns and spiritual songs comes from the ‘word/message of Christ’ or all of the writings of the New Testament. In the Ephesians passage the inspiration for psalms, hymns and spiritual songs comes from the believers being filled with the Holy Spirit. These are the eternal sources of music for the Christian age, the Word and the Spirit.

In both passages the horizontal relationship is

21 NIV . 22 NIV .