Take a look at this Bible verse:

“Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God.”

Colossians 3:16
 

Notice how Paul uses 3 different words for musical worship:
     Psalms
     Hymns
     Spiritual Songs

If we’ve got psalms why do we need hymns?
If we’ve got hymns, why do we need spiritual songs?
Anyway what was the difference?

We don’t know completely what the differences were to the Colossians. Psalms probably refers to the Old Testament book of songs. The difference between hymns and spiritual songs may have been their formality, or how long each had been around.

What I want to point out is that there was diversity in the music and worship in the Early Church.

One reason is obvious. Think of how easy it is to say the Lord’s Prayer while simultaneously thinking about pot roast, or football, or your uncle Fred, or anything other than the Lord’s Prayer.

We talked about this at our Elder’s meeting a while back, and thought we’d have some variation in our order of service. Having a more formal service on Communion Sundays (The 1st, 3rd, and 5th) and one that was less formal, more instructive, on non Communion Sundays, sometimes making use of the Psalms, and the Catechism.

We’ll always receive the Gospel, confess our faith in Jesus, and hear His Word. But by having a little variety, the Message will be coming into our hearts before they come out our lips.

God bless,

Pastor Spomer