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[Editorial Note: I have become increasingly more frustrated with the current status of the Church, especially as it pertains to the utilization of differing genres in the corporate worship service. My personal understanding of the matter leaves little room in my mind that we ought to be singing the word of God and not some man made "love tune" that is better suited for a camp-fire sing-a-long. Certainly these are my personal opinions and should not be construed as an attack or response to any particular church. The matter can be debated and I welcome it. Feel free to do so by utilizing the link at the bottom of this article. This series contains 14 articles that will be taken in order until completion. If interested in reading ahead you may do so at: http://members.aol.com/RSISBELL/psalms1.html -- W. Hill]

Worship Song and Prophecy (Continued)

Full of interest is the outbreak of prophetic song just before David. The band of prophets associated with Samuel were engaged in musical prophesying. In I Sam. 10:5-7 (cf. 10:9-13), Samuel gives Saul a sign of his call to be king: "After that thou shalt come to the hill of God, where is the garrison of the Philistines: and it shall come to pass, when thou art come thither to the city, that thou shalt meet a company of prophets coming down from the high place with a psaltery, and a tabret, and a pipe, and a harp, before them; and they shall prophesy: And the Spirit of the Lord will come upon thee, and thou shalt prophesy with them, and shalt be turned into another man. And let it be, when these signs are come unto thee, that thou do as occasion serve thee; for God is with thee." E. J. Young observes that "the actual act of prophesying took some form of singing or ecstatic utterance."(124) Later, when David seeks refuge from Saul, he associates himself with Samuel and the company of the prophets prophesying (I Sam. 19:18). Heman, one of David's Levitical temple singers, was the grandson of Samuel (I Chron. 6:33-38; cf. I Sam. 1:1, 8:2). Later, in the incident in II Kings 3:11-16 when King Jehoshaphat seeks divine counsel, Elisha calls for a minstrel to play, so that he may deliver the word of the Lord. Geerhardus Vos draws an interesting connection between the musical prophesying among the group-prophets, and revelatory tongue-speaking in the New Testament, and remarks concerning the phenomena of Samuel's day: "That the collective bodies were recipients of supernaturally-communicated truth is plain, nevertheless. They 'prophesied,' and this can scarcely mean anything else than that they had been touched by the Spirit in a supernatural manner. As regards music, it is interesting to note that, according to I Chronicles 25:1, the temple-singers by their singing 'prophesied'."(125)

A prelude to this musical activity is found in the days of the Judges, when Deborah appears as a prophetess (Judg. 4:4), and delivers the song recorded in Judges 5. Consistent with this overlap of worship song and prophecy, several of the prophets outside the temple service have psalms in their inspired literary production, as, for example, Nahum 1 and Habakkuk 3 (cf. verse 19). And when we go back to the earliest worship song in Israel, we find that Psalm 90 bears the title "A prayer of Moses the man of God" (cf. Deut. 31:19-22). Moses of course stands at the head of a series of prophets (Deut. 18:15-19); the term "man of God" is used of Moses when reference is made to his prophetic utterances (Deut. 33:1, Josh. 14:6, II Chron. 30:16, Ezra 3:2), and is also found in connection with the prophetic oracles in such passages as I Sam. 2:27-30, 9:6-10, I Kings 12:22-24, 13:1-5, 17:24, II Kings 5:8, 6:8-12, 7:17, 8:7-13, II Chron. 11:2-4, and 25:7-10.(126) At the commencement of song in Israel, Exod. 15:20-21 tells us that Miriam, who led the women in song after the deliverance at the Red Sea, had the status of a prophetess (cf. Num. 12:1-2, 5-8; Micah 6:4).(127)

The New Testament canon includes no book of collected worship song. Any worship song given by the Spirit in the New Testament church is either unrecorded in Scripture, or is remarkable for its sparsity there, in contrast to the great wealth of the Psalter. Nevertheless, the New Testament does confirm what we have learned in the Old Testament about the source of worship song. The one passage in the New Testament which provides any extensive context for the question is I Corinthians 14.

When the apostle exhorts his readers in Corinth to use the gift of tongues for the edification of one another, he speaks of praying, singing, blessing God and giving thanks (I Cor. 14:14-17). Because tongues are unknown to the hearers, they must be interpreted in order that this praise may be understood by fellow worshippers. In using the word "mystery" (I Cor. 14:2), Paul alerts us that tongues are a mode of divine revelation, "for the term is a central one in Paul's vocabulary for revelation. It emphasizes that what is revealed is inaccessible to human effort and disclosed by God unilaterally. Consequently, 'mysteries' specifies the inspired, revelatory nature of tongues as well as prophecy."(128) It was by revelation that God made known to Paul the mystery of Christ, now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit (Eph. 3:2-6; cf. 3:8-10, Rom 16:25-26, 11:25, Col. 1:25-27, I Cor. 2:7-10, 13:2, 15:51-52). Richard Gaffin concludes that "for tongues, as well as prophecy, a revelatory aspect is at the core of the gift and inseparable from it."(129)

Tongues are a form of prophecy (Acts 2:4, 16-18; 19:6). George W. Knight comments that prophecy itself appears in I Cor. 14:29-31 as the same phenomenon known to the Old Testament prophets, and he observes: "Not only does Paul use the key term 'revelation' within his discussion of prophecy, but he uses it as the key word to describe the entire phenomenon of prophecy in verse 26."(130) It was the Spirit of God who spoke through the New Testament prophets, just as with prophecy under the old covenant (Luke 1:67; Acts 2:4, 16-18; 11:27-28; 13:1-2; 19:6; 21:10-11; I Cor. 2:10-13; Eph. 3:3-5; I Pet. 1:10-12; II Pet. 1:19-21). "Prophetic proclamation," writes Gaffin, "is Spirit-worked speech of such a quality that its authority resides just in that inspired origin."(131) Gaffin finds confirmation of this in I Cor. 14:14 (cf. 14:2, 15-16), endorsing a translation which identifies the Holy Spirit as the originator of the words of prayer and song: "the Spirit in me prays, but my intellect lies fallow."(132)

Gaffin has also noted the functional similarity between this singing in the Spirit and the Book of Psalms: "Paul says that 'one who speaks in a tongue does not speak to men, but to God' (I Cor. 14:2) and that tongues involve 'praying,' 'singing,' and 'giving thanks' to God (14:14-17). An argument sometimes raised against the revelatory nature of tongues at Corinth is that this Godward direction of tongues is not the direction of revelation. Such an appeal, however, overlooks the Psalms and other doxological portions of Scripture. Are we to say that because they are addressed to God and not to men, they are therefore not revelation? On the contrary, with their Godward direction they are inspired revelation and recorded in Scripture in order that they may edify his covenant people, and this is precisely what (interpreted) tongues also are to do (14:5)."(133)

The apostle's teaching in I Corinthians 14 attributes the same revelatory character to worship song as belonged to the song texts which the Spirit gave through temple singers, seers and men of God under the old covenant. Respecting other worship ordinances, the New Testament tells us about speech that is not revelatory. There are pastors expounding a text that has already been deposited by prophets (II Tim. 1:13-14; 2:2, 15; Titus 1:9; 2:1). Even at Corinth, not all believers were given revelatory gifts for prayer and prophesying (I Cor. 12:4-11, 15-19, 27-30; cf. Rom. 12:3-8). But wherever the New Testament refers to the reading in the synagogues or in the churches (Luke 4:16-19, Acts 13:14-15, 15:21, Col. 4:16, I Thess. 5:27, Rev. 1:3), it is from inspired literature.(134) And wherever New Testament writers comment on the source of worship song, it is the singing of canonical literature, or singing which arises from prophecy. It is sometimes suggested that the doxologies by Elisabeth, Mary, Zacharias, Simeon and Anna, recorded in Luke 1 and 2, were intended for use as worship song in the churches. Whether or not this be so, Luke represents these men and women as prophesying by the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:41-42 with 67; 2:25-28, 36-38).

At the conclusion of this study we will examine Eph. 5:19 and Col. 3:16. Suffice it to say at present that the Scriptures themselves provide the most relevant data for determining the identity of the worship song to which the apostle refers in those texts. The New Testament's allusions will be misapprehended if we overlook what both testaments alike tell us about worship song as prophecy. Just as the household baptisms (Acts 16:15, 33; I Cor. 1:16) are not to be explained apart from the long-established status of children as recipients of the sign of the covenant of grace, so Paul's allusions to psalms, hymns and spiritual songs scan a history of revelation in which the words used in worship song are nothing less than the oracles of God. In that long history, worship song is as much the Word of God as are ethical legislation, historical narrative and prophetic oration. Though apologists for uninspired hymns disconnect the Psalter's biblically-assigned function as a book of worship song from its divine inspiration, the only worship song which the Bible knows is that which comes by prophetic revelation. Accordingly, when the apostle calls for the use of such songs of praise as he designates "spiritual," he enlists a word which in all but one of its twenty-five occurrences in the New Testament refers to what belongs to or is determined by the Holy Spirit; never does the word designate merely a religious function, or what is produced by the human spirit.(135) When the word is used of men, as in I Cor. 2:15, 3:1, and Gal. 6:1, it indicates men savingly renewed and led by the Spirit. But when the term is applied to words and texts, as it is in Rom. 7:14 and I Cor. 2:13, it plainly denotes Spirit-indited, in the sense of revelatory prophecy;(136) the only other instances in which it is used with respect to words and texts are Eph. 5:19 and Col. 3:16.

Notes
(124) Young, My Servants the Prophets, p. 70; cf. p. 86.
(125) Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1948), p. 219; cf. William Binnie, The Psalms: Their History, Teachings, and Use, new ed., rev. and enl. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1886), pp. 23-24. Cf. Joseph Blenkinsopp, Prophecy and Canon: A Contribution to the Study of Jewish Origins (Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, 1977), p. 134: "The emphasis in the Chronicler's work on liturgical poetry and music as an aspect of prophecy links up with the ecstatic nebi'im in the early days of the monarchy who sang and danced to the sound of pipe and drum in the country shrines and, in due course, in the temple of Jerusalem." Blenkinsopp, pp. 134 and 186 (n. 40), goes on to observe that "this kind of liturgical prophecy" is also reflected in I Corinthians 14.
(126) Rolf Rendtorff, " Nabi' in the Old Testament," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, ed. Gerhard Kittel and Gerhard Friedrich (Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
1964-76), 6:809.
(127) Cf. Young, My Servants the Prophets, pp. 42 and 49.
(128) Gaffin, Perspectives on Pentecost, pp. 79-80; cf. pp. 60-62.
(129) Ibid., p. 81; cf. pp. 80-82.
(130) George W. Knight, Prophecy in the New Testament (Dallas: Presbyterian Heritage Publications, 1988), p. 12. Cf. pp. 10-14; Gaffin, Perspectives on Pentecost, p. 60; Oscar Cullman, Early Christian Worship (London: SCM Press Ltd, 1953), p. 20.
(131) Gaffin, Perspectives on Pentecost, p. 72. On the nature of prophecy, cf. O. Palmer Robertson, The Final Word: A Biblical Response to the Case for Tongues and Prophecy Today (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1993) and Victor Bugden, The Charismatics and the Word of God, 2nd ed. (Durham, England: Evangelical Press, 1989).
(132) Gaffin, Perspectives on Pentecost, p. 77; cf. pp. 73-78.
(133) Ibid., p. 80. Cf. Beckwith, Old Testament Canon, p. 64. It is just this edifying role among the people of God which Paul ascribes to psalms, hymns and spiritual songs in Col. 3:15-16.
(134) Cf. Herman N. Ridderbos, Redemptive History and the New Testament Scriptures, 2nd rev. ed. (Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, 1988), pp. 23-24.
(135) Benjamin B. Warfield, "Notes on Pneumatikos and its opposites in the Greek of the New Testament," Presbyterian Review 1 (1880): 561. The occurrences are Rom. 1:11, 7:14, 15:27, I Cor. 2:13, 2:15, 3:1, 9:11, 10:3-4, 12:1, 14:1, 14:37, 15:44, 15:46, Gal. 6:1, Eph. 1:3, 5:19, 6:12, Col. 1:9, 3:16, and I Pet. 2:5.
(136) John Murray, The Epistle to the Romans (London: Marshall, Morgan and Scott, 1967), 1:254.