| Musical Instruments & The Church |
In some Christian circles today they teach and practice that the church is not to have musical instruments as part of their worship because nowhere in the New Testament can one find a reference to a single musical instrument (excluding the human voice). This is very true, yet it is also deceiving because the New Testament does speak of using musical instruments in corporate worship as I’ll show you.
Look at the next two verses and see if you can find it for yourself:
Ephesians 5:19
19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; (KJV)
Colossians 3:16
16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. (KJV)
Did you find where in these two verses it refers to musical instruments? If not, that’s fine, I’ll show you. For those who believe that they have found it, check below to see if what you have found is correct.
If we look up the word psalms in both verses in the Greek (Strong’s) we will learn:
5568 yalmo,j psalmos {psal-mos'}
Meaning: 1) a striking, twanging 1a) of a striking the chords of a musical instrument 1b) of a pious song, a psalm. This word comes from psallo (5567) meaning to play on a stringed instrument (celebrate the divine worship with music and accompanying odes).
Spiros Zodhiates says that psalmos refers “to actually a touching, and then a touching of the harp or other stringed instruments with the finger or with the plectrum; later known as the instrument itself, and finally it became know as the song sung with the musical instrument. In all probability the psalms of Ephesians and Colossians are the inspired psalms of the Hebrew Canon.”
Let’s look at another place in the New Testament which speaks of playing with musical instruments.
James 5:13
13 Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms (KJV)
The word psalms here is the Greek word psallo (5567) which I mentioned earlier but now will give the definition of the word:
5567 ya,llw psallo {psal'-lo}
Meaning: 1) to pluck off, pull out 2) to cause to vibrate by touching, to twang 2a) to touch or strike the chord, to twang the strings of a musical instrument so that they gently vibrate 2b) to play on a stringed instrument, to play, the harp, etc. 2c) to sing to the music of the harp 2d) in the NT to sing a hymn, to celebrate the praises of God in song
Origin: probably strengthened from psao (to rub or touch the surface, cf 5597);
Again we see that musical instruments were a part of the early church and should still be a part of the church’s worship. As shown in this article all that we had to do was look at the Greek definition of a couple words to find that musical instruments are mentioned in the New Testament. Check it out again for yourself and be set free!
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