"15 Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, 16 making the best use of the time, because the days are evil. 17 Therefore do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is. 18 And do not get drunk with wine, for that is debauchery, but be filled with the Spirit, 19 addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, 20 giving thanks always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, 21 submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ."
Ephesians 5:15-21
Before we leave these verses something should be said about the 'psalms and hymns and spiritual songs' that Paul mentions in 19. Some maintain that the words refer to different divisions of the Psalter. This is a possible interpretation, but the Apostle would hardly have used three distinct Greek words to describe these divisions. Archbishop Trench, in what is still, after so long a time, a standard work, 'New Testament Synonyms', maintains that each of these words 'must have had a meaning which belonged to it more, and by a better right, than it belonged to either of the others', and goes on to point out that the word 'psalm' comes from the Greek 'psao' which means 'properly a touching, and then a touching of the harp or other stringed instruments with the finger or with the plectrum, was next the instrument itself, and last of all the song sung with this musical accompaniment'. This last is certainly the meaning attached to Paul's use of the word in the New Testament, and the reference is just as surely to the Old Testament Psalter.
But the word 'hymn' has a different connotation. The essence of the Greek word is that a 'hymn' should be addressed to, or be otherwise in praise of, God. A hymn is essentially a song about God. A psalm could speak - and often did - of the Psalmist's experience - how often we see him in the depths or rising to the heights! - but a hymn 'must always be more or less of a Magnificat, a direct address of praise and glory to God'. The Te Deum is a superb example of this ascription of praise and glory to the Triune God. We shall look at the third term, 'spiritual songs', in the next Note.