Coming out of the exposition of God's holy word and congregation, let's take our Bibles out together. And we're going to turn to Acts, Acts chapter 16. Acts chapter 16, as we continue on our exposition, here, this record, this history of the work of God in redemption at the early church. And we read of the marvelous acts of the Lord Jesus, through his apostles in the extension of the kingdom and the advancement of the gospel. Last time, of course, we considered in the previous text the record that we have as it relates to that work of spreading the gospel and as we read of the arrest of Paul and Silas. Why were they arrested? They were arrested because they had exorcised that slave girl who had a demon. And now we read in verse 25, as they are in prison, what were they doing when they were incarcerated? And I just want to read verse 25. Here it says, about midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Let's now join together in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we bow before you as we open your word. And Father, as we come before your word today, we pray that you would grant to us that ministry of your spirit, that he would open our eyes to see and our hearts to believe and to trust and do what your word says. Father, we rejoice in the truth of your word. In a world that is mixed with error and sin and falsehood and lies, we are thankful that we can turn to your word and we can read with absolute confidence the inerrant and infallible word of God. Father, we pray that we would be both hearers and doers of your word today, enabled by your grace. And we pray that if there are those who do not know Christ, who have not bowed their knee to King Jesus, that you would be pleased, in accordance with your sovereign purpose, to grant them eyes to see and ears to hear, and enable them that they might put their trust in Jesus Christ, who is the only Savior and deliverer from sin. And Father, we pray all of this in his holy name, amen. As we look here at our text, we of course led last week the larger context. It is the story of the conversion of the Philippian jailer, he and his household. And of course, as we said just a moment ago, the circumstances that led to Paul and Silas' imprisonment was that they were doing the work of the gospel, they were showing acts of kindness and mercy, and yet they were thrown in prison for that very reality. As we look in verse 25, the subject of our text today, we read a very important record of what they were doing when they were so incarcerated. Notice in verse 25, it says that they were doing two things. It says that they were praying and singing hymns to God. And then notice, if you will, in verse 25, it says, the prisoners, that is the fellow prisoners, they were listening to them. Congregation, as we consider this text, here we have Paul and Silas. They were wrongly imprisoned. They had not committed any crime. They were not guilty to have this as a consequence of their service to Christ. And yet, how did they react to being wrongly imprisoned? Did they start questioning God? Did they have a full-blown pity party about their situation? Did they start complaining, God, why have you abandoned us? Why have you put us in this situation? No, what we read is a very different record, isn't it? We read that instead they were communing with God in prayer and they were praising God in their singing. This is a wonderful example of how we as God's people are to react in even difficult situations. They were praying and they were praising the Lord. Calvin said this in his commentary. He said, quote, we observe the general rule that we cannot pray properly as we ought, without praising God at the same time," end of quote. That is, praying and praising go together. Now, many of us probably have been taught in our prayers to follow the acronym of ACTS. Probably everyone here has heard of that. And the letters of ACTS represent different elements that we should include in our prayers. The A stands for adoration. That we are to praise God, to adore God, to exalt God in our prayers. We approach God in our prayers and the first thing that we do is not God give me this and God do that. No, we begin with God, you are God. And you deserve my service, my praise, and you are to be exalted. In Acts, the letter C represents confession. It is an acknowledgment that we are sinners and that inherently of ourselves we don't even have a right to approach the throne of grace. And it is agreeing with God concerning our sin. The letter T is Thanksgiving. Our prayers should be filled with thanksgiving. We should be thanking God for his blessings. We should be, as the song goes, we should be counting our blessings and naming them one by one unto the Lord and expressing our gratitude for them. Then, of course, the letter S in Acts is the idea of supplication, the idea of bringing our requests to the Lord, both our petitions and our supplications, praying for our needs and praying for the needs of others. That is all to be included in what pleases God in our prayers. And so what do we see here? We see joined together that they were praying and they were singing hymns that is praising the Lord God. These two things go together. It was midnight and they were not asleep, they were praying and praising God. Now, congregation, I want us to consider some questions about this text because it is a very interesting illustration and example to us. And so what I want us to do today is to ask and answer some questions about what we read in verse 25. And the first question is this. It is, what exactly were they singing? Have you ever wondered that? We are not told exactly what they were singing, but do we have any idea of what we might presume that they were singing? It simply says they were singing hymns to God. And so the first question is, what exactly were they singing? Or can we narrow down what we believe that those hymns would have been? Well, the word there, singing hymns, is the word humneo in the Greek New Testament. That is the verb form of the noun for hymn, humnos. Even in the Greek, it sounds like hymn. Humnos is the word for hymn. This verb, the verbal form of humnos, is found four times in the New Testament. And we're going to look at those today. The noun form, hymn, humnos, is found two times in the New Testament. And so I want us to look at those as we seek to answer the question, what were they singing as they were in this prison? First of all, let's consider this very word. It says that they were singing hymns. Hymneo, the verbal form of the noun hymn. And I would submit that in all likelihood, these hymns that they were singing was the Book of Psalms. They were singing from the Psalter. That's the hymns that they sang. Let's look at the use of this word in other places. In fact, turn with me, if you will, over in Matthew's Gospel. Now, there are four times in the New Testament where that word, humneo, is found. Four times. That is, in the book of Acts, our text, and in three other places. And in Matthew chapter 26, turn to Matthew 26, And I want to read beginning in verse 26. Now we know the context very well. This is the institution of the Lord's Supper. And in Matthew 26 verse 26 it says, Now as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after blessing it, he broke it and gave it to the disciples and said, Take, eat, this is my body. And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink of it, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my father's kingdom and then look at verse 30 here's where our word is it says and when they had sung a hymn they went out to the Mount of Olives, sung a hymn. It's the exact same word, humneo. They hymned, when they had hymned, using that verbal tense, they went out to the Mount of Olives. Now the question in this passage, Matthew 26, 30, is what hymn did they sing? Well, scholars are agreed on this. The hymn that they sung would have been one of the Psalms. J.A. Alexander says this, quote, this refers no doubt to the series of Psalms usually sung or chanted with or at the Passover. It was a part of that observance of the Passover. William Henderson says this, These hymns of praise, that is talking about what Jesus and his disciples sang here, these hymns of praise that were lifted up to God were Psalms 115 through 118. Now when you look at the commentators and you look at this verse, they are agreeing. that what is going on here is that they would have been singing those Psalms in the book of Psalms known as the Hillel. That was the tradition and the practice associated with Passover. It would have included Psalms 113 through 118, perhaps other Psalms as well. So what this tells us is two things. Number one, it tells us that Jesus and his disciples sang the Psalms. That's what they sang. Number two, it tells us that the Psalms are called hymns. Psalms are biblical hymns. Because the word that is used in verse 30 is hymn, but what they were singing is the Psalms. So that is very important to understand. Whenever we see the word hymn in the New Testament, we should not immediately think, well, we know what a hymn is. We have to ask the question, how is it used in the New Testament in the first century world? When the Holy Spirit refers to Psalms, here in verse 30, He uses the word hymns to refer to them singing the Psalms. Very, very important. Now, the parallel passage we're not going to actually turn to, but the parallel is over in Mark 14, verse 26. If you're just taking notes and you want to know where all the places where that verb whom nail is found, it is found in Matthew 26 30 and then the parallel is found in Mark 14 26. There is a fourth place where the verb humneo is found, and I want you to turn with me to that place, that is in Hebrews 2. Hebrews 2. Again, we're seeking to ask the question, what was it that they were singing? Now we don't know exactly what the words were, but how does the Holy Spirit use the word hymn? That's what we're seeking to ask and answer. Whenever we turn to Hebrews 2, and I want to read verses 10 through 12. The actual reference is in verse 12, but notice beginning in verse 10, this of course is referring to the Lord Jesus, and it says, for whom and by whom all things exist in bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering for he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source that is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers this is talking about Jesus And then in verse 12, you have our word. This is quoting from the Psalter, saying, verse 12, I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise. Now that phrase, sing your praise, is the exact same word. Humneo, translated song of hymn, or hymn singing. Here they don't use the word hymn, they just translate it, they sing, or he sings a praise. So, what's going on in this text? Well, the first thing that we should observe is that this fourth and last use of the verb humneo is a quotation from the Psalter. And so that is very important in understanding what's being sung here. If you know the reference, you know that this is a reference to Psalm 22. It's actually Psalm 22, verse 22. What's going on in Psalm 22? Well, that is a prophecy of Christ in His incarnation. It includes His suffering. It includes His work, whereby we have redemption. And so Psalm 22 is what we call a messianic psalm. And here the writer of Hebrews quotes from Psalm 22 to speak of that redemption that Christ procured for us and he says, In the lips of the Lord Jesus, that Jesus will tell of your name to my brothers, and in the midst of the congregation, he will sing God's praise. This congregation, I would submit, was fulfilled at the Last Supper. At the Last Supper, Jesus sang that hymn unto God, did he not? And that him, we are on very good ground as all commentators agree, that him was from the Psalms. In fact, John Gill points out that in order to have a congregation, in the Jewish sense of a congregation, what did you have to have? Well, you had to have 10 people. In fact, that's why the ladies were meeting by the river where Paul met with Lydia. They were at the river because there weren't 10 men to form a congregation. But you see, there at the Last Supper, there were more than 10 men weren't there. And that constituted a congregation. And we read here that in the midst of the congregation, the Lord Jesus will sing praise to the name of the Lord. So congregation when we read this it seems very clear that this is fulfilled on that institution of the Lord's Supper and that this is referring again to the singing of Psalms. So in all other references to that word In the New Testament, Humneo, it seems fairly clear that that is referring to singing the Psalms. What about the use of the word in the normative, that is, in the noun form? It's the word humnos. Humnos is found two times in the New Testament. And I want us to look at those. Terminally, first of all, over in Ephesians chapter 5. Again, just looking at the words that are used. Because it is so easy for us in our 21st century mindset to just read the word hymn and say, oh, I know what a hymn is. And I know what a psalm is. But that would be to be reading into that our experience rather than what the first century meaning of the words were. If you will, in Ephesians chapter 5 verse 19. Let's just take up our reading for context sake in verse 18. This is the first of two references and we're going to look at both of them. They're basically parallel statements. Ephesians 518, it says, and do not get drunk with wine for that is debauchery, but in contrast, be filled with the Spirit. And then verse 19, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart. Here you have three terms that are used in verse 19, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. And that second term is the word hymns, humnos. What does Paul mean by that? Let's look at the parallel passage just for the sake of context. Turn with me, if you will, over in Colossians chapter 3. Again, just looking at all of the uses of the word and how we are to understand the use of humneo and humnos. Here you have Paul writing, and you know very well that Ephesians and Colossians have many parallels in terms of their content. There are many similarities in the topics and even the specifics that are addressed in these two Pauline epistles. And we read in Colossians 3 and verse 16, It says, and let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, that is the word of God, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs with thankfulness in your hearts to God. Here we have those three terms used again. Notice it's just like in Ephesians. Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. Now as we look at these terms, we need to ask the question, what do these terms mean? How are we to understand them? The biggest mistake that we could make would be to import our modern meaning and usage into the first century text. to say, well, I know what a hymn is, and so that's what he means right here. No, what we need to do is ask ourselves, how would Paul have used these terms? Because that really is the author of the text by the Holy Spirit. Not what do I think a hymn is, but how would Paul have used it? If we just simply read this and import our modern meaning into the text, that would be to interpret it anachronistically. Are you familiar with the idea of an anachronism? An anachronism is where we bring a present day understanding into a previous historical situation. And that would be an example of doing that. It would be to read it anachronistically. Just importing our idea, and that's what Paul must have meant here. That we cannot do. We must put ourselves in the place of the first century. And we must interpret it in terms of how Paul would have used these terms. And I believe that Paul, as a first century Jew, would have used all three of these terms to refer to the book of Psalms. All three of these terms to refer to what we call the Psalter. Those 150 Psalms of the Old Testament. You say, well why would you do that? How in the world can you come up with that? Obviously he's talking about Psalms and then hymns and then spiritual songs. That has to be three different things. How do you come up with that, Pastor? Well, let me try to explain it to you. First of all, these three terms in the first century were used to refer to the Psalter. In fact, some of you are aware that the Old Testament was translated into the Greek language. Most of us here are aware of that. It is called the Septuagint. The Septuagint was the Greek translation of the Old Testament. And whenever we see and read from that Greek Old Testament, and we turn to the book of Psalms, what we discover is that the Septuagint uses these three terms, Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, as the titles to the various Psalms in the Psalter. Most people aren't even aware of that. That is, these three terms were used in that Greek Old Testament in the book of Psalms as titles to the various Psalms. Let me give you the specifics on that. It's very interesting. First of all, when you read the Greek Old Testament, the Septuagint, the word Psalms, that is psalmos, the same exact word as here, It occurs 87 times in the Psalms of the Septuagint. And the word psalms, psalmos, is used in the Septuagint 67 times as a title to the different psalms in the Psalter. What about the book of the word hymns, humnos? The word homnos is found in the Old Testament Psalter, the Greek translation, 17 times. That is, the Greek translation of the Psalms uses homnos 17 times. And six times it uses homnos as a title of the psalms, different psalms. What about the word psalm, spiritual psalm? That's the word oude. It is used in the Greek translation of the psalms 80 times. 80 different times. And the word songs is used, ode, 36 times as titles of different psalms in the Greek translation of the Psalter. So all three of these terms were the terms that were the titles of the psalms in the Greek translation of the Psalter. In addition to that, when you study and you look at how it's used, In 12 Psalms, both psalm and song are used as a title in the Septuagint of a psalm. Two times you find that a psalm has the title psalm and hymn used as a title for the psalms. And in Psalm 76 of the Greek translation of the Old Testament, in Psalm 76 the title uses all three of these terms. That is, when you open up a Greek Old Testament and you turn to Psalm 76, you find in the title, this is a psalm, this is a hymn, this is a song. This tells us that the usage of these words must be understood in their first century setting. not coming to these terms with our 21st century assumptions and then reading into them what we think they mean. Again, we have to ask ourselves the question, how would Paul, as a 1st century Jew, have used these terms? Because all three of these terms are very prominent in the Greek translation of the Psalms. Listen to John Gill, the great Baptist theologian, as he gives in his commentary the meaning of these terms, and I quote him. He says, by Psalms, that's the first term, by Psalms are meant the Psalms of David and others which compose the book that goes by that name. For other Psalms, there is none. He says Psalms mean the Psalms. We call it sometimes the Psalms of David, even though David didn't write every single one of the Psalms. That's just kind of a title we use for the Psalter. It's called the hymns of David or the Psalms of David. John Gill says that refers to the Psalter. Secondly, what about hymns, John Gill? And by hymns we are to understand, not such as are made by good men without the inspiration of the Spirit of God, since they are placed between psalms and spiritual songs, made by men inspired by the Holy Ghost, and are put upon the level with them to be sung along with them to the edification of churches. But these, speaking of hymns, these are only another name for the book of Psalms. A running title of which may be well called the book of hymns. John Gill says that this term hymns is referring to the Psalms. And then he says you could actually call the Psalms a book of hymns because that's what they are. And then John Gill says this, he says, quote, and the psalm which our Lord sung with his disciples after the supper is called a hymn. Remember, we just read that, and that is clearly a psalm, yet it's called a hymn. And then he says this as it relates to the word hymn. And so are the psalms called, in general, called hymns by Philo, the Jew, and songs and hymns by Josephus and songs and praises are hymns in the Talmud. So there what John Gill is doing is he is setting for us the historical context of this word hymn. He says whether it is Philo-Judeus or whether it is Josephus, or whether you're reading from the Talmud, in all of these witnesses, that word hymn is referring to the Psalms. So, John Gill says Psalms refer to the Psalter, hymns refer to the Psalter. What about the third word, spiritual Psalms? He says, and by spiritual songs are meant the same Psalms of David, and which are called spiritual because they are inspired by the Spirit of God. They consist of spiritual matter and are designed for spiritual edification, and are opposed to all profane, loose, and wanton songs. These three words, now here John Gill gives his conclusion. These three words answer to the several titles of David's Psalms, from which it seems to be the intention of the Apostle that these should be sung in gospel churches. So congregation, whenever we read this phrase, Psalms, Hymns, and Spiritual Songs, These words were used for the Psalter in Paul's day. These words were used by everyone to refer and even these terms were in the titles of the Psalms that they sang in Paul's day. Some of us may not be convinced by this and you might say something like this, now wait a minute pastor, there are three terms that are used here. And three terms must mean three different things. Yes, I hear all of that about how the Greek, Old Testament, and the Psalter, but I don't, you know, wait a minute, but these are three different terms. They must mean different things. Why didn't, someone might ask the question, why didn't Paul just say Psalms if he just meant the Psalms? Well, the answer to that is that that fails to consider a common literary device that is used in the Bible. The common literary device that is used in the Bible is called a triadic expression. Triadic has to do with three. You can get the word tri there like Trinity. It means three. A triadic expression is stating something in a set or a group of three. Let's look at some examples of that in the Bible, because this is a literary expression found in many places. Turn with me back to Psalm 34. I'm sorry, not Psalm 34. Turn to Exodus 34. Exodus 34. Now in Exodus 34 I would like us to look at verses 6 and 7 and what we're looking at is an example of a triadic expression. That is stating something using three different terms. Psalm, I'm sorry I keep saying Psalm, but Exodus rather, Exodus 34 verse 6 It says, the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, the Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin. but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children's children to the third and fourth generation. The example of this triadic expression is found in verse number seven. It has to do with God here declaring that he will forgive our sins. And yet note that this singular idea God uses three words to express it. Forgiving, verse 7, forgiving iniquity, and transgression, and sin. You say, what do those three terms mean? It means that God forgives all of our sin. And yet there are three different words, and yes, there are nuance to those words, but those three different words are used to describe one idea, and that is God forgives our sin. And yet you have a triadic expression. Look with me, if you will, over in Deuteronomy chapter five, another example of a triadic expression. In Deuteronomy chapter five and verse 31, We read these words, and this has to do with God's law, the fact that we are to obey God's law, all of it. And so we read Deuteronomy 5 and verse 31. He says, but you stand here by me and I will tell you the whole commandment and the statutes and the rules that you shall teach them, that they may do them in the land that I'm giving them to possess. Here, God calls his people to obey his law. God says, I've given you my law and I expect you to obey my law. But notice in verse 31, this basic concept of obeying God's law is stated using a triadic expression. You shall tell them the whole commandment and statutes and rules. Are there nuances to those things? Yes. But they're all declaring one thing. Obey all my law. Obey my law. This is seen again in chapter 6 verse 1. Now this is the commandment and the statutes and the rules that the Lord your God commanded me to teach you that you may do them in the land to which you are going forever to possess it. That's another triadic expression. Three different terms. But it's referring to one basic idea, obey my law. That's an expression, what we call a triadic expression, like psalms, hymns, and spiritual psalms. Let's look at another example, and there are many that we could look at, but turn with me to the New Testament, turn to Matthew 22. Again, just looking at these examples of triadic expressions. Matthew 22 and verse 37. Now this is the words of the Lord Jesus. He used a triadic expression. These very familiar words of the Lord Jesus. Matthew 22 and verse 37. It says, And He said to them, You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. What is Jesus saying in that? He is saying we are to love God with the totality of our being. That's what he means by that. Now he uses a triad expression. He says we are to love God with all of our, in these three different terms, heart and soul and mind. Is the mind different than the heart as it relates to the biblical use of that word cardia? Well, the idea of the heart in the Bible is mind, emotion, and will. So there's this overlap there. They're not different things. It's not like, well, I need to obey God with my heart, but I also have a duty to obey God with my mind. No, this is expressing one idea. We are to obey God with the totality of our being. And yet Jesus uses this very familiar triadic expression to express one simple idea. And that is, we are to obey God with the totality of our being. Now, turn back with me to Colossians 3. So whenever we come to Colossians 3, we, first of all, recognize that all three of these words were used in Paul's day to refer to the Psalter. And to those who would say, wait a minute, but there are three different words there. We say yes, but that's a triadic expression as we see in other places and they all refer to singing praise from those hymns, those songs, those psalms that God has given. But there's one more thing I want to point out there in Colossians and that's why I ask you to turn back to Colossians. In Colossians 16 we read these words that are stated that we are to let the Word of Christ dwell in us richly, that's the Word of God, and that we are to teach and admonish one another in all wisdom, singing Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. And what I want to talk about for just a second is that third word, spiritual songs, the adjective spiritual. Most commentators will point out that in the Greek New Testament, the grammar is that all three terms could go with that adjective spiritual. In other words, even though you don't see it in the English translation, it could be translated spiritual psalms, spiritual hymns, and spiritual songs, ode. And yet that is not immediately recognizable in this text. What does the Holy Spirit mean by spiritual songs? Is he saying we're to be singing songs that have a spiritual nature? Well, obviously that's how we may approach the idea. Obviously we're not to be singing Hank Williams songs, we're to be singing songs that talk about God. But that's again, I believe, a misunderstanding of that phrase spiritual. The term spiritual means inspired by the Holy Spirit. That is those psalms and hymns and songs that have been inspired by the Holy Spirit. He's not saying, you know, well you can sing songs but make sure they're spiritual songs and they're not talking about your dog or talking about your new car. That's not what's going on here. Again, we read that with our 21st century mindset and we just assume we understand what's going on. The Greek grammar, these three words, could all have that modifier, that adjective, spiritual, attached to it. And this was pointed out, as I read just a moment ago by John Gill, how that the word spiritual can attach to all three, and that refers to those songs that are inspired by the Holy Spirit. So again, all of that has to be brought to bear when we think about what does the New Testament actually say about singing in general, the content of that singing, as we think about what Paul and Silas sung in that prison cell. There are two other places I want us to look at where a different word is used, but I think it might be helpful. Turn with me over to Romans 15. Romans 15, and I want to read verse 9. Here we have a very interesting statement about how we are to sing praise to the Lord. And so this is a relevant text. In Romans 15 and verse 9, we read these words. It says, and in order that the Gentiles might glorify God for his mercy as it is written, therefore I will praise you among the Gentiles and sing to your name. The word sing in verse 9 is the word solo. It is the root word from which we get the word song. That's the word that's used, the word for song. Now you would not immediately recognize that because it says, sing, but it's the word from which we get our word, song. It could be translated, I will sing praise, because that's what the word is. This of course is a quotation from the Psalter, isn't it? This is a quotation from Psalm 18 verse 49. And this is the verb form of the noun psalms. You could literally translate verse 9, I will psalm your name. Because that's the word there. I will psalm your name. So it's a quotation from the Psalter saying, I will psalm your name. Very important observation. Another text that I want you to look at, and this is a similar text, over in James chapter 5. Again, this is another use of that word solo. In James 5 and verse 13. Here James is giving very practical words of instruction. James 5 and verse 13, is anyone among you suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful? Let him sing praise. There's our word. It's saleto. It's that word salto as we just said. The same exact word as in Romans 15. Now if you have a King James translation You will note that the King James translators translate verse 13, let him sing psalms. Why in the world did the King James translators translate it as sing psalms? Because it is that word for psalms. So both in Romans 15 and here in James 5, this idea of singing praise, the very word for psalm is used to do that. Let us psalm. Let us sing psalms. The Puritan Thomas Manton said this, in his statement on James 5.13, he said, in the original there is but one word, saleto, let him sing. But because the apostle is pressing them to religious use of every condition, and because this is the usual exception of the word, saleto, in the church, it is well rendered, let him sing psalms, end of quote. So in these two references of singing praise, The very word Psalm is the verb that is used and it's even quoting in Romans 15 from the Psalter in making that expression. So if you will turn with me back to Acts 16 and let's think a little bit more about this text. Whenever we read in this that Paul and Silas There in that prison, at midnight, were praying and singing hymns. And we ask the question, well, what were they singing? We cannot immediately say, well, we know what a hymn is. And we know how Paul would have used that term, hymn. Because Paul would have used that term to refer to the Psalter. John Gill says this in his commentary on Acts 16. He said, quote, what exactly did they sing? Here's what John Gill says. One of David's Psalms, for the book of Psalms is a book of hymns, and several Psalms are called hymns, end of quote. To summarize what we have seen, number one, All the other uses of humneil, the verbal form of hymn, in the New Testament point to singing the Psalms. That's what they sang at the institution of the Lord's Supper. In Hebrews 2, that is a reference to that singing in the midst of the congregation, and that happened at the institution of the Lord's Supper. Secondly, the noun form, humnos, found only two times in the New Testament, Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3.16, those seem to refer in the original context to the Psalms. That was how Paul would have used those three terms. And we must not take our modern understanding and import it into the text because we have a preference for something. or because we like something other than another, and that informs how we understand the Bible. No, we must interpret the Scriptures based upon letting the Scriptures speak for themselves, and letting the Scriptures regulate what we are to understand. J. A. Alexander, in his very, very familiar commentary on Acts, the great Princetonian theologian says this. He says, quote, to the question, what did they sing? Paul and Silas here. He said, quote, it was one or more of the many passages in the book of Psalms, peculiarly adapted and intended for the use of prisoners and others under persecution. Again, we cannot say exactly what those Psalms were. Psalms of praise to God, Psalms that plead for God's deliverance. You think about the beautiful variety of the Psalter. In David and his situations of persecution, how many Psalms would have been appropriate for them to sing in that context? Clearly we note in our assessment of what they sang, clearly we read in verse 25, it was this activity being done at midnight. Now understand this. This was in the middle of the night. In absolute darkness. There were no books. And so what they sang to the Lord was something that they knew from childhood and they had memorized in their hearts. William Binney, in his great work on this topic, says this, quote, The explanation doubtless is that they had been taught to say and sing the psalms since childhood. And that would have been the experience of Paul. That would have been the experience of Silas. They would have known and sung and memorized the Psalter from their earliest days. And so here they are in this dark prison. And there's no light. And they're singing in the darkness. What are they singing? They're singing what they've sung all of their lives. And that is the Psalms of Almighty God. Derek Thomas. Some of us are familiar with Derek Thomas. Derek Thomas is a fine Reformed theologian, and he has written an excellent commentary on Acts. And he says this, he says, quote, answering the question, what did Paul and Silas sing here? He says, the Psalms, or the hymns rather, the hymns were the Psalms of David. And he says that emphatically. So congregation, we ask ourselves the first question here in verse 25, what did they sing? And while we cannot pinpoint exactly what it was, we have every reason biblically to understand they were singing from the Psalms. That is the most natural understanding, and the commentators agree, many on this point. Let me ask a second question here. Not only what did they sing, that is the Psalter, but how could they sing praise to God under such difficult circumstances? Now that's a very good question, isn't it? How is it that here it is, Paul and Silas, they've been beaten, they've been imprisoned, they've been mistreated. This is an injustice. And yet here they're thrown in prison and what do we see that they're doing? They're singing psalms unto the Lord, praising the Lord. How did they do this? In this difficult set of circumstances? Well, the answer is very simple. Because they understood that praising God has nothing to do with our circumstances. Our praise to God is not based on our present situation. Whether our situation is good or bad, easy or difficult, Whatever the situation is, we still can and should praise the Lord. And a lot of Christians, I think, forget this. They approach praise to God as if it has to do with how they're feeling in that particular moment. And that is not biblical. Paul and Silas, on a physical level, had every reason whatsoever to have their mouths shut and to be wondering and doubting. And yet what we see is they're praying and they're praising God. Congregation, we are commanded to rejoice. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again I say, rejoice. Philippians 4. Paul said in 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 16, rejoice always. Not always except when I have a headache or I have a bad day, I don't feel like it or I'm not in the mood or something's going wrong. No, always we are to rejoice. We do not rejoice for every circumstance, but we can rejoice in every circumstance. Because joy is not external and it is not circumstantial. We are to rejoice in the most difficult situations of life. Now, that doesn't mean that we candy coat situations and whenever we're going through something difficult, we kind of put on a plastic smile and act like nothing's wrong. That's not what rejoicing means. But rejoicing means that even though things may be difficult, we still can praise God. How can we praise God? Why are we to praise God? Well, we have been called to do so. In fact, if you will, turn with me and let's just read one passage over in Luke 6. Because in Luke 6, this is exactly what the Lord Jesus commands us to do. In Luke 6, verse 22 and 23, Luke 6 verse 22, blessed are you when people hate you and when they exclude you and revile you and spurn your name as evil on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy for behold your reward is great in heaven for so their fathers did to the prophets. even whenever we are reviled and spurred and excluded and hated and mistreated, Jesus says, in that day, rejoice. And not only rejoice, but realize you're in good company, because that's what they did to your fathers, the prophets as well. This is not an unusual or abnormal or something that is not to be expected. How is it that Paul and Silas rejoiced? They understood that we are commanded to rejoice. They understood that Christ Himself instructed His disciples to rejoice. And because they understood that joy in every circumstance comes from this unshakable assurance that God is in control. Congregation, we need to always be mindful of that. We need to remember Romans 8, 28, God causes all things to work together for good, for those who are the called according to Christ Jesus. Not some things, not most of things, not the good things, all things are being orchestrated by God for our good. and for His glory. That doesn't mean things will not be difficult, but it is to acknowledge that in every circumstance God's hand is on it and in it, and therefore we can rejoice. So we ask the question, what did they sing? Well, very likely it was the Psalms. Second question, how could they sing psalms of praise in difficult circumstance? because they understood that we praise God and that is not dependent upon our circumstances. Question number three, and the final question is this, why is this little detail in verse 25 given and recorded by the Holy Spirit? It's not just to fill words, like you're looking for a certain number of words. No, there is a wealth of practical instruction for us, God's people. And what we need to see in this, not only is a reminder that it is our duty to rejoice and praise God regardless of our circumstances, but it is to remind us that the world is watching. What does it say in Acts 16, 25? It says that they were praying and they were singing praise to God and the prisoners were listening. Hergeshen, we need to be reminded of that. And that is the context in which we serve the Lord. So, in conclusion this morning, as we consider this one small verse, let me just say three lines of application. The lines of application really are the three answers to the three questions. Number one. We learn from our text today that we as God's people should be enthusiastic and passionate about singing the Psalms. Now if you're like me, I did not grow up singing the Psalms. I grew up in churches that sang Fanny Crosby. That's my experience. All of those hymns that were written in that revivalism of the 19th century. And whenever I, in my growing up years, and modern music was coming into the church, I would say, oh, I want to sing the old songs. And of course, what I meant by the old songs are the ones written about 100 years ago. The congregation of the Bible tells us what we need to be passionate about are the really old songs. And when I say the old songs, I'm talking about the Psalter. I'm talking about the book of Psalms. I am not saying and I am not suggesting that there is no place for uninspired songs in the life of God's people. I'm not saying that. But what I am saying is that the Psalms should claim our greatest affection. They should be the songs that we are the most enthusiastic about singing. They should be the ones that grip us because these are the songs that God gave us to sing. The songs, they are the hymn book that God wrote. They are the hymn book that God gave His people to sing. That should mean a lot to us as God's people. They're God's songs. They're God's words. And that should mean an awful lot. We should never be in a situation where we look at the songs we sing in our worship service and say, well, we're going to sing a couple of songs and a couple of hymns, and we kind of go through the songs. But boy, then when we get to that song, that hymn that we grew up with, we're really going to belt that out because we love that one. That is approaching our worship and our singing as if it's all about what we prefer. And the regular principle of worship excludes all of that. Our singing to God is not based on what we prefer. Amen? Our singing is not based upon what we like the most, or what we grew up with, or the song that our granny used to sing to us when we were a child. No, our approach to worship is that we are to have an enthusiasm and a passion to sing the Psalms. The Psalter is the hymn book that God wrote and that God gave the church to sing, and that should matter. Secondly, the Psalter is the hymn book of Jesus and his disciples and the early church, and that should matter. Whenever we sing the Psalms, we are imitating Jesus in our singing. Whenever we sing the Psalms, we are imitating the apostles in our worship. Whenever we sing the Psalms, we are singing what the early church sang in their worship. In fact, you could do a study of the history. Man-made songs were not introduced into the church until the 2nd and 3rd century. And often there was great suspicion because they arose from false teachers. In fact, the Council of Laodicea, 363 to 365 AD, decreed this. Listen to this. The council said, quote, that it forbids to sing uninspired hymns in church and to read from uncanonical books, end of quote. That gives you a kind of idea of how the early church looked at this issue. Whenever we sing the Psalms, we are imitating our Lord, and we are imitating the apostles, and we are following in the footsteps of the early church. Thirdly, not only is the Psalter the hymn book that God wrote and gave us to sing, not only is it the hymn book that Jesus and the early church sang, but singing the Psalms is not an extreme position. Now I realize in our day, it is. Because things have changed so much. Because of revivalism and Arminianism and all the things that have swept through Christianity, singing the Psalms is considered to be almost a bizarre thing. In a day of silly little praise music, I mean, people who sing traditional hymns think they're singing the old Psalms. But singing the Psalms is not an extreme position whatsoever. Singing the Psalms is the historic position of the Reformation. And I want us to be very clear about this point. It's one thing to say Jesus and the apostles and the early church sang the Psalms. But we also look to the Reformation, don't we? And we believe that the Reformers are people who championed a return to biblical worship. And the historical position of the Reformation and the Witness of history is that the Puritans were exclusive psalmist. They sang the Psalms exclusively. And the Presbyterians sang exclusively the Psalms. And the earliest Baptists sang exclusively the Psalms. And it was not until later on in the Baptist tradition that a pastor introduced singing one man-made song at the Lord's Supper that uninspired hymns were introduced into Baptist worship. How many Baptists are aware of that today? That is our history. The historic position of the Reformation, of the Puritans, of Baptists, of the confessional community, is singing the Psalms. Fourthly, the Psalms are the only songs, think about this, the Psalms are the only songs that are divinely guaranteed to be inerrant, infallible, and always doctrinally correct. It is only the Psalms that have that guarantee. Calvin said this, we cannot find better songs than David's songs, which the Holy Spirit has spoken and created. The congregation, when we think about singing, we understand that we are on the most solid ground, doctrinally, theologically, whenever we are singing the Psalms. because those are the words that God gave us to sing. Fifthly, we as God's people are commanded to sing the Psalms. That is what we have sought to implement into our worship. In a tradition of which many of us have come out of, of revivalism and Fanny Crosby-ism and all of that, we are learning to embrace God's hymn book and to say with a passion and with an enthusiasm, we are satisfied and we are enthusiastic with singing the words that God has given us to sing. We see God's hymn book as sufficient as a means of giving him praise. So not only do we see from our text that we should be enthusiastic and passionate about singing the Psalms, we should see, as we thought about that second question, our joy and praise to God is to be maintained regardless of our circumstances. Paul and Silas were praising God there in prison. Our joy is to be maintained even whenever circumstances are bad. regardless of how we feel, regardless of how things are going, our circumstances should never steal our joy. Because that joy is something that is internal and it is far beyond anything external or circumstances around us. Thirdly, we should have a patient endurance and fervent devotion in trials because they are a powerful testimony to others. As they sang those psalms there in that darkened prison, the prisoners were listening. Congregation, let us take that application home with us today as we live our lives, as we conduct our affairs, as we serve the Lord. Let us remember the world is watching. The world is listening. And what do they see? And what witness do we give? That will be as powerful a testimony to the gospel as sharing with them the good news of Jesus Christ. It is not that we live a holy life and not share the gospel. or that we share the gospel and not live a holy life. No, it's a both and, isn't it? Both our lives and our lips are to be a testimony to the world around us. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your word today. as we reflect upon these very critical and very practical words as it relates to our worship, as it relates to our service, and as it relates to our testimony. We confess to you, Father, that often we would admit and confess we are sometimes resistant to do new things or to change things. We are resistant to allow our pre-understandings or our assumptions about the Bible and what it says. We're very resistant sometimes to allow the light of truth to expose what the realities are. But help us, Father, that we would always have a spirit and an attitude which says, Lord, whatever your word says, let that be true and every man a liar. And if Your Word has many sacred cows to crush in our lives, so be it. Let those cows be crushed, because we want to obey what Your Word says. And Father, help us that we would be a people who endure under persecution, that we give You praise in all circumstances, and that we live with a fervent devotion in the midst of trial, realizing that the world is watching. Father, we pray that you would draw those apart from Christ to yourself, that they would come to know by your sovereign grace that indeed Christ is a saving deliverer from sin. And Father, we rejoice in that salvation that you have provided. And we pray all of this in His holy name. Amen.