Over the last handful of weeks, I have been presenting my apology for the study of the books of the Chronicles at this present season. As we look around us at the difficulties we face as a nation, And as the church and the people of God living in the midst of the nation, I do believe that there is much in Chronicles that is seasonable, that is just right for the situation in which we find ourselves. My grand theme and the thing that drew me to these books during this present season is the kingship of Christ, His royal majesty and glory. Of course, every Christian confesses and professes that Jesus Christ is Lord, that he is a king. But as we observed earlier on, when we begin to analyze the assertion, when we work to get to the bottom of what is meant, And especially when we view it practically, we begin to find that while we acknowledge his kingship with our lips, in our practice, we are actually denying him. So over the past few weeks, we've been looking at the kingship of Christ over the church. Certainly, among American Christians, the doctrine pertaining to his kingship over the nation as a nation is more difficult, but you would expect a lot of agreement and ready agreement to the idea that he is king in his church. But when we begin to analyze it once again into its particulars, we find that our king has given us a form of church government. He has told us to maintain that form of church government exactly as it has come from his hand. But now we look around us and we find that Every church, every congregation seeks its own way and feels absolutely free to alter Christ's form of government at will. Certainly a disturbing thing, and it's no wonder that we seem to live with such a small sense of the kingship of the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, as we started last week to work on the regulative principle of worship, we find that his kingship is also expressed when it comes to the worship of his church. If you'll remember, we spent some time in the book of Deuteronomy chapter 12, Moses' explanation and application of the second commandment against idols and graven images to the new context of the promised land. And Moses left us with a principle. Deuteronomy chapter 12, verse 32. What things whoever I command you, observe to do it. Thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it. So the commandment with respect to worship is to worship as God has commanded. The things that he's told us to do in worship, we are not free to omit or subtract any of those, but neither are we free to add anything. Almost all Christians will acknowledge that God was pretty strict concerning his worship in the Old Testament, but what many will plead, under the unhappy influence of dispensationalism, is that those old requirements don't pertain to us anymore. But it is not so. We took a briefly look at Matthew chapter 15. Jesus refused to require ordinances of human invention upon his disciples. And he himself did not do them. It's interesting, if we're trying to meet with Jesus in worship, don't we want to meet with him in things that he will do? So here you have the strange things. The Jews were trying to meet with God in the ceremonial baptism of the hands in their houses, and yet the incarnate God says that he doesn't do that. He doesn't enter into that. He calls their worship in that regard vain or empty. they might believe that God is in it, but it is empty. We looked also at similar thoughts from Paul in Colossians chapter two. So this is a big issue for the chronicler and turn with me to second Chronicles chapter eight, beginning in verse 12. Because of course, if you remember the context for Chronicles, the chronicler is writing post restoration. So the Jews have returned from Babylonian captivity. They have rebuilt the temple. Its worship is up and running again. And so the chronicler is looking back upon the history of the kings, looking for lessons on how to worship God in a manner that is pleasing to God. So 2 Chronicles 8, beginning in verse 12, and this goes back to the very first building of the temple. Then Solomon offered burnt offerings unto the Lord on the altar of the Lord, which he had built before the porch, even after a certain rate every day, offering according to the commandment of Moses, on the Sabbath, and on the new moons, and on the solemn feasts, three times in the year, even in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles. So I want you to notice that as under Solomon, the temple has been built and worship is being conducted in it according to the commandments of the Lord as they came through Moses. So the Mosaic feast days, the Mosaic holy days are being observed. And also, The sacrifices that were attached to those are also being observed, and I want you to notice there in verse 13, according to the commandment of Moses. Very important. They are not just doing whatever they want with respect to worship or whatever they think is pretty attractive, wise, and so on. In their worship, they're doing what God commanded. In verse 14, he goes on, and he appointed, according to the order of David, his father, the courses of the priests to their service, and the Levites to their charges, to praise and minister before the priests as the duty of every day required, the porters also by their courses at every gate, for so had David the man of God commanded. And they departed not from the commandment of the king unto the priests and Levites concerning any matter or concerning the treasures. And we're going to look at this in just a few moments, but let me make a few assertions about things that are in the background of this text to help you understand. Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and we'll see that expressly stated in Chronicles, David reordered and reorganized a few things concerning the priests. Mostly he set them in 24 courses, so they weren't going to minister all together most of the time. They would come up by turns to Jerusalem to perform priestly duties. You can see this with Zacharias, the father of John in Luke 1. He comes up by turn, as it were, by course, and performs his priestly functions. Much more profoundly, he reordered the order of the Levites. The Levites are going to be put in 24 courses as well. The Levitical duties are much more drastically changed. The priests are going to do pretty much what they did before. But the major duty of the Levites while there was a tabernacle was to care for and move a tent. But now they're dealing with a physical fixed structure, the temple. And so they are reorganized to that end. So some of the things will be the same. They are priestly assistants, if you will. So they do a lot of the background work that helps the priest to move in an orderly and efficient manner through their duties. They care for the physical structure. Here you read about porters who keep the gates, and that's not simply to open and close the gates, but to examine the people who are presenting themselves for admission to holy ordinances. Are they both ritually and morally clean and prepared for participation? But also, for the first time in history, we're going to come to this in just a moment, a regular service of song has been given to the people of God. The church is now, at the time of David, been in the earth for three millennia, but it is only now given a regular service of song. Some Levites are set apart and are actually designated prophets and seers. So you might think of Asaph, Jedathan, Heman, They are involved with David in the inspired composition of the words and certain Levites are set apart and trained for singing those words and other Levites are set apart for the playing of musical instruments. And if I might say so, not just any musical instruments, but specifically the instruments of David, or rather the instruments that the Holy Spirit had indicated to David. Those are the things that will be played. So this brings us, well actually before moving on, so I just want you to notice this patterning of proper worship being according to the commandment of Moses and according to the order or commandment of David You will see this repeated frequently throughout the Chronicles. This is a confirmation of the regulative principle as we looked at it last time. The chronicler is looking for divine warrant for the things that are being done in worship, and worship is approved when it's according to the commandment of Moses and according to the commandment or order of David. And this brings us to a special issue, and I want to devote the rest of our time to this special issue, the service of song. Certainly, worship song is precious. What a precious gift this is to the people of God. And in contemporary Christianity in the West, I think we have to acknowledge that this is taken on gigantic proportions. it would be interesting to think about and reflect on why that is. If you were to go back to the time of the Westminster Assembly, so we're traveling back to the mid-17th century in the British Isles to that great collection of theologians, perhaps the greatest that the world has ever seen as far as getting together a company of really superlatively excellent theologians together in great numbers for a long period of time. There might not have been anything quite like it. But when they drafted for the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland a directory for public worship, most of the time would have been spent in the reading and preaching of God's word and prayer. With respect to song, at the very beginning of the service, it simply says, let the psalm be sung. And then at the end, it says that another psalm can be sung if it's convenient. Right, I suppose that the other ordinances haven't run over long. So what does that amount to? Maybe five minutes of music. No less precious to be sure of where it's brevity, but five minutes. But what do we find now if the people of God get together for a worship service of an hour or maybe a little more? It's not an unusual thing for 30 minutes or more to be devoted. Why the great change? That really is something to think about. especially in a culture that is so devoted to entertainment. I'm going to leave that there, but I hope that you will think about it. Now, not only is there a big focus upon worship music at the present day, But I think most people who have been around the church for some period of time will have been privy to, and usually firsthand, divisions in the church over music. Sometimes those divisions can be quite disruptive. Maybe there was a church split over music or some such thing. Sometimes it can be more subtle. One of the favorite methods for handling it is to actually divide the congregation. So you'll have like a traditional service and a contemporary service. And what's the main difference between those? It's the music. So you have congregations that in a peaceful way are actually divided over the music. And no doubt when controversy comes over these things or when there's tension, conflict, different ideas, you will begin to hear people's reasons about these things. At the university, I have had the privilege to teach hundreds of students. This comes up almost every single semester, and I will ask the question. So here we have students by the hundreds who have heard Christian people controverting church music. And almost all of the arguments that they have heard are practical or pragmatic ones having to do with the filling of the pews. Can we use music kind of as bait to bring people in? So then the idea is that we will then share the gospel with them. But then I will go on and I will ask, how many of you have ever heard a biblical argument that music ought to be one way as over against another. In other words, a biblical defense for church music in a particular way. And out of those hundreds and hundreds, and I don't know, maybe more than a thousand by now, I don't know, students, I had one hand go up when I raised that question. One student who had heard a biblical argument, and then it really just resolved itself back into the end of the practical argument. It was thought to be helpful in evangelism. I think that there's a reason that we never hear a biblical argument, and it has to do with the complete neglect of the Chronicles. When it comes to church music, of course, the book of Psalms will give you the matter or what they sang, and of course it's a very long book, but it's the book of Chronicles that tells you how they did that, where they did it, how it was performed, how it was authorized, and so on. And so it's an interesting situation. You'll have to judge for yourself. But if the portrait I've painted for you is accurate, We have masses of Christians controverting an issue about which they know next to nothing, at least biblically considered. And that's troubling, isn't it? Like children fighting in the dark or something. We don't know what. what it is that we're talking about, at least not biblically. So this brings us to the Chronicles, and of course, I can't do everything. As a matter of fact, there's so much in Chronicles about music that many interpreters have speculated that perhaps the author was a Levitical musician. Isn't that interesting? I don't know if he was or not, but the response of interpreters down through the ages is interesting. There's been so much material on song that they begin to think, could it be that he's a Levitical musician, and that's why he is so interested. But be that as it may, let me give you something of a sketch. Of course, we're going to be coming back to this time and again. So if your mind is not fully satisfied by what you hear this morning, we're not done with it. And I would beg your patience and hope that you would just keep listening. But here's the basic sketch. From the first fall of mankind until David, In Biblical chronology, about 3,000 years, or half of the visible church's history on planet Earth, there was no regular service of song. There were a couple of songs that were sung upon extraordinary occasions, and those songs, very much like the Psalms, were given by special inspiration through a prophet. This is first done by Moses at the Red Sea, so about 500 years before David, when Israel crosses the Red Sea, Moses, a prophet, is given a song for them to sing, and he is assisted in that by Miriam, who is also a prophetess. There was at least one other song, although it's hard to tell if it was a worship song, but they did sing up, sing in joy in the book of Numbers, spring up a well. And there, once again, Moses' involvement is highlighted. It was given by the hand of a lawgiver. That may or may not have been a worship song. Moses was given one other song at least. It was a catechetical song. at the end of Deuteronomy. That is not so much a worship song, but a teaching song, a song for remembrance. And finally, Psalm 90 was written as a prayer during the time of Moses, whether or not it was ever song or written with the initial intention for singing is not clear, but it will make its way into the Psalter for singing at some point. Interesting historical connections. The next song that you hear, some hundreds of years removed from Moses, is Deborah. And Deborah upon Barak's victory as a prophetess is also given a song that they sing upon that occasion. And interestingly enough, she served as prophetess in the very same place and region where Samuel will. When Samuel begins his career, the word of God is precious. There is very little in the way of prophetic voice. But Samuel, Samuel's ministry is going to change that. He's going to erect these schools of the prophets. And we find something different, something wonderful, something extraordinary going on. You've got these sons of the prophets who are moving about the countryside. They play musical instruments and they prophesy. Once again, this does appear to be a distinctively prophetic function at this point. And in the midst of Samuel's normal circuit in the interior of the country, there is a little town of Bethlehem where the sweet psalmist of Israel will be born and he will grow up with this changing situation going on around him. It's very interesting that the scripture itself does not make any sort of hard and fast connection, but it is interesting that under the inspiration of the Spirit, David sets apart men, and I mentioned earlier Asaph, Jennethan, and Heman, and it appears that there were others who are specifically and especially designated as prophets, seers, and so on, for the composition of the songs themselves. So with David, there is a decisive change. It is a watershed event. the church is going to be given for the first time a regular service of song, a service of song that's not just gonna be sung like at the Red Sea we sang one time or at Barack and Deborah's victory we sang one time or some such thing, but a regular service, something that is happening over and over again in the regular course of the worship of the people of God. So turn with me in your Bibles to First Chronicles 28. There's something I want to make abundantly clear, and this will help you see why sacrificial elements in their worship are going to be constantly traced back to Moses, but worship song elements are going to be constantly traced back to David. and those prophets that surrounded him. Another indication that there was no regular service of song before David. So look with me at First Chronicles chapter 28. Then David gave to Solomon his son the pattern of the porch, and of the house thereof, and of the treasuries thereof, and of the upper chambers thereof, and of the inner parlors thereof, and of the place of the mercy seat, and the pattern of all that he had by the Spirit, of the courts of the house of the Lord and of all the chambers round about, of the treasuries of the house of God and of the treasuries of the dedicated things. Let me pause for just a moment and back you back up to verse 12. Remember when the tabernacle was constructed? Twice in Exodus chapter 25, God insists with Moses that he make it according to the pattern that Moses had seen on the mount. That was very important. Uh, here you get a similar sort of thing that the, this is a pattern. This is not even in, in transforming the tabernacle into a temple. David didn't use his imagination or exercises, creativity, the pattern of it. as well as its form of government and its form of worship are all going to come from God himself, the king reigning and presiding in their midst. So it's not just the physical structure that's given by the spirit, but if you look down to verse 13, also for the courses of the priests and the Levites and for all the work of the service of the house of the Lord, And again, let me just interrupt myself. That would include the service of song. That's part of the service. And now we proceed. And for all the vessels of service in the house of the Lord, he gave of gold by weight for things of gold, for all instruments of all manner of service. silver also for all instruments of silver by weight, for all instruments of every kind of service, even the weight of the candlesticks of gold, and for their lamps of gold, by weight for every candlestick, and for the lamps thereof, and for the candlesticks of silver by weight, both for the candlestick, and also for the lamps thereof, according to the use of every candlestick. And by weight he gave gold for the tables of showbread, for every table, and likewise silver for the tables of silver. Also pure gold for the flesh-hooks and the bowls and the cups, and for the golden basins he gave gold by weight for every basin. and likewise silver by weight for every basin of silver, and for the altar of incense refined gold by weight, and gold for the pattern of the chariot of the cherubim that spread out their wings and covered the ark of the covenant of the Lord. All this, said David, the Lord made me understand in writing by his hand upon me, even all the works of this pattern. And in the midst of that, the Levitical services, it's expressly said here, and it said twice, that these things ultimately came from the Lord himself. And that brings us back to 2 Chronicles 8, right? The pattern that is given to David, he passes on to Solomon so that Solomon can actually implement it. It's very interesting. In the history, David makes all of the preparations for the temple. Everything's in readiness, but it does not belong to him to build it and then to implement its worship. That really belongs to Solomon. But hopefully that helps you to understand why The new Levitical arrangements, including the service of song, are constantly traced back to David, right? So, sacrifice according to the commandment of Moses, Levitical song according to the pattern that was given by David. But I want you to see that David, not even as the sweet psalmist of Israel, is David just making these things up. This is given to him by God himself. It is interesting, and again, I'm just going to give you some samples. But during the times of Reformation, as you know, during the period of the kings, there are times of religious declension, which also includes declension and idolatry in their worship. they fall away from the forms of worship as they had been given by the Lord. But in Chronicles, there's a lot of emphasis upon the times of Reformation and the things that they did during those Reformations. So after the dark days of Athaliah, the priest Jehoiada begins a Reformation. Turn with me to 2 Chronicles chapter 23. 2 Chronicles chapter 23, beginning in verse 18. Also Jehoiada appointed the officers of the house of the Lord by the hand of the priests, the Levites, whom David had distributed in the house of the Lord to offer the burnt offerings of the Lord, as it is written in the law of Moses, with rejoicing and with singing, as it was ordained by David. So you see that same coupling and that same pattern, the things that Moses had given, they continue to do. The new elements that had been given to David, now Jehoiada is several centuries removed from David by this point, and they return to the services that had been given by the hand of the Lord through David. Flip forward with me to 2 Chronicles chapter 29. Here we have notices concerning Hezekiah's great reformation. And I can't wait until we get here in our regular exposition of the book. So rich, so lovely, and some things about it that are so very encouraging as we wait upon the Lord for the Reformation of the Church in the present age. 2 Chronicles 29, beginning in verse 25. Here we have a description of some elements during Hezekiah's Reformation. And he set the Levites in the house of the Lord with cymbals, with psalteries, and with harps, according to the commandment of David, and of Gad the king's seer, and Nathan the prophet. For so was the commandment of the Lord by his prophets, right? So I want you to notice there that in the authorization of this, David's witness was not alone, but God blessed them with the concurrence of multiple prophets so that the people would be well assured of the legitimacy of David's changes, that they did indeed come from God himself. But the description goes on, verse 26. And the Levites stood with the instruments of David and the priests with the trumpets. I want you to notice that that expression. We need to understand that when Levitical musicians were appointed. They did not just play whatever instruments they wanted to play or whatever instruments they happened to be good at. the Lord had also given to David specific instruments that were to be played. Unhappily, like we will get some references to them, we already had some in this very chapter, cymbals, psalteries, and harps back in verse 25, but the The terminology dealing with ancient Israel's musicology is so old that no one really knows exactly what these instruments were anymore. And if you think about it, sometimes the names of the instruments are very suggestive of what they were, like a stringed instrument with 10 strings or something like that. anyone who's ever so if you've played a regular guitar Um, I play a six string bass guitar and they don't sound anything alike. Um, and, uh, you know, an electrical instrument over against an acoustic instrument, the design of the body, a harp is a stringed instrument, but even producing the very same notes, it doesn't, it doesn't have the same tone that a guitar will have. And so I'm so unhappily, um, these instruments are lost. But we can know this, that they were not left at random or at will, but specific instruments were assigned by God through David. And the priests played the trumpets, and that went back to Mosaic institution, the silver trumpets that had been given to the priests. Verse 27, And Hezekiah commanded to offer the burnt offering upon the altar. And when the burnt offering began, the song of the Lord began also with the trumpets and with the instruments ordained by David, king of Israel. See, there it is again. And all the congregation worshiped, and the singers sang, and the trumpeters sounded. And all this continued until the burnt offering was finished. And when they had made an end of offering, the king and all that were present with him bowed themselves and worshipped. Moreover, Hezekiah the king and the princes commanded the Levites to sing praise unto the Lord, with the words of David and of Asaph the seer. And they sing praises with gladness and they bowed their heads and worshiped." Right, so in keeping with everything that we've already said, it's not surprising to find the king and the princes exhorting the Levites to sing their praise with the words of David and of Asaph, the seer. Asaph is not just mentioned, but his prophetic role is brought into bold relief to remind us. So they weren't free to just sing anything that they wanted. And part of this particular reformation was to say to it, that the inspired words, the songs that God had given through his prophets, that this is what was being sung. One other text that I wanted to look at this morning, turn with me to 2 Chronicles chapter 35. Here we have Josiah's Reformation, and we get a similar notice. 2 Chronicles chapter 35, beginning in verse 15. And the singers, the sons of Asaph, were in their place, according to the commandment of David, and Asaph, and Heman, and Jeduth, and the king Seir. And the porters waited on every gate, they might not depart from the service for their brethren, the Levites prepared for them. Right? So you, you find the singers in their, in their places. And that's according to the commandment of the prophets and even a mention to the porters and so on. So a couple of things, well, maybe one thing to add to this history, Now, even somewhat removed in time from Josiah, maybe as much as a couple of centuries, the chronicler is pressing this earlier service as normative for the post-exilic community. In other words, he's writing the Chronicles to teach how this was supposed to be done. And what we find is that the musical service was given by God, but he didn't just say in an abstract way that they should have worship song. But when we look at how he regulated this ordinance, he provided the words through the prophets. He provided also the instruments. So the words and the instruments were not left at will or left at random, but they were regulated. So when we come to the New Testament, what are we to make of this and how does it apply? Interestingly enough, with the with the close attachment to the temple, we might suspect that there was a total abrogation of the service of song with the temple. In other words, if you remember what we did in 1 Chronicles 28, how tightly knit the new Levitical arrangement, they are Levites, they are temple functionaries, but how tightly that's knit into the fabric of the temple, as it were. But now that the temple has been taken away, as the Lord Jesus says to the woman at the well. When she when she asks the question, are we supposed to are we supposed to worship at the temple at Gerizim? Are we supposed to to worship at the temple in Jerusalem? So, you know, she's a Samaritan. Her fathers have taught her to worship at Gerizim. Jesus says the Jews were right about that, but pretty soon there's coming a time when that's not going to matter. The where is not going to matter anymore. But people everywhere will worship in spirit and in truth. Interestingly enough, it does appear that the musical instruments were abrogated indeed with the temple. those musical instruments and that musical service was performed by the Levites and only by the Levites. And it only appears to have been done, it appears to have been done regularly in the temple and occasionally during solemn processions. But this was a Levite thing. And of course, that order has passed with the temple. Also, we couldn't recreate the instrumental service if we wanted to. We couldn't reproduce the instruments themselves, much less much less the music, all of this God has been pleased to bury in the past. So it does appear that those things were attached to the temple. But the words were not abrogated. This is already indicated in the Psalter itself. The content of the Psalms, some of them will allude to performance in the temple, to be sure, but that's not the only arena of performance with respect to them. You have very, very public worship in very, very public places, to be sure, so you might think of Psalm 150 or some such thing, but also From the most public to the most private places, you might think about Psalm 6 and David weeping and delivering the psalm upon his bed, right? The musical instruments were attached to the Levites in the temple, but the words themselves transcended that. And then interestingly enough, the Jews appear to have understood this as well, because although the Levitical musical service with full instrumentation was only performed in the temple, the Psalms were sung not just in the temple, but in their synagogues. But when in their synagogues without musical instrumentation, they were sung in their families and they were sung in private, right? So the full instrumental service was only in the temple. When we turn to the New Testament, we find a similar sort of thing. And when we look at the very few references that are made to singing in the New Testament, we need to make sure that we are doing the historical part of grammatical historical exegesis. There's no evidence of anything like what we know as a man-made Christian hymn. until about the fourth century. No clear evidence of any Christian hymn until about the fourth century. So when you get references to songs, remembering the context in which they were, these would be the Psalms. That was what they had for singing. And so, interestingly enough, in Corinth, in 1 Corinthians 14, when he's talking about them getting together, this might not be altogether with approval as far as the disorderliness. Each one has a teaching, a word of wisdom, a psalm. You do see that the Psalms are suitable for public worship. And you can see in James chapter 5 that they were suitable for private worship, as anyone merry let him sing a psalm. They also were suitable for small society worship. It's interesting that these very famous words appear in both Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3. In both places, very close to what are sometimes known as the Pauline household codes, the description of how a husband's supposed to relate to his wife, and wife to husband, parents to children, and so on. And turn with me to Colossians 3.16. Paul says this, let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. That's very interesting. You know, people will read Psalms and they'll think of the biblical Psalter. But when they hear hymns, they're going to want to think of. Fanny Crosby or something, and maybe something similar for, for spiritual songs. And they'll even try to say, well, isn't it absurd if this is really reduced to Psalms and Psalms and Psalms. But a couple of things about the words here, there are three Greek terms here. And if you go back and you flip through your, uh, your book of Psalms and you look at the titles, These are the three titles. There's been a lot of debate over what each one of these terms mean. Some think maybe it refers to a style of music, but interestingly enough, um, you know, you will find a Psalm of David, a song of David, a hymn, these kinds of things. What the difference is, is hard to say. Is there any difference? Again, hard to say. But these are the three titles. And in the Greek Septuagint, which the Colossians would have known, frequently more than one of these titles is attached to an individual psalm. So you might get something like a psalm and song of David. And there's one in the 60s, the exact number is escaping me, that actually gets all three Greek terms, a psalm, a hymn, a song, a david, all three. So very interesting, right? And so you can look and see that for yourself. And that's the historical part of exegesis. You can't assume at this point that a psalm refers to the biblical Psalter and hymns to man-made human compositions because there's no evidence historically that any such thing existed. But the Colossians would have had the Septuagint, the Greek Old Testament. And if they had read their Psalms, they would have been familiar with these terms. Something else that is helping, helps us in this regard, the teaching and admonishing in Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs is the concrete manner of the fulfillment of the exhortation to let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. which makes it sound like these songs are inspired songs. The word of Christ is dwelling in us richly, and we promote that by teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. And one final thing, the adjective spiritual in the Greek sequence is actually at the end of the three nouns. So it could be narrowly attached to songs. It could actually modify and qualify the whole sequence. Spiritual psalms, spiritual hymns, spiritual songs. And one other thing about that term in the New Testament, when we hear the adjective spiritual, we tend to think of the human spirit. But in the New Testament, with maybe two exceptions, it almost always refers to the Holy Spirit. So these are songs that are Holy Spirit psalms, hymns, and songs, which makes a lot of sense when coupled with the word of Christ dwelling in them richly. So it does appear that the words of the Psalms continue to be used in public, 1 Corinthians 14, in private, James 5, and in small societies and families, Ephesians 5 and Colossians 3. but without the musical instrumentation. And like I said, it's interesting when you look at the development of this through church history. It's the fourth century before you have the rise of hymns. And, um, In the high Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas is still complaining about the organ as an innovation that for most of that history, the people of God had sung without instrumentation. So there was no instrumentation in the early church for many ages. That was something that was regarded to have passed with the temple. So this is the service of song as given by God in the scriptures. So what's the payoff in studying these things and making sure that we get this right? First of all, just return to the reflections we've already had. If we're just doing whatever we want in song, and especially if we're going to multiply songs and do more and more, of that in our worship services, if we're just doing whatever we want, we almost certainly will lose the sense of living before the face of a king. If the king is present, then we're going to be expected to approach him on his term and follow the rules of his house and of his court. Right. So when when the king is on the throne, then the court comes to order and everything is done in keeping with his mind. So one of the wonderful byproducts of of maintaining the service of song exactly as it's. As it's taught in the scripture is it's more deeply impressed upon the heart of everyone present. We live before the face of the king. Second, in drawing closer to our Jesus, I sometimes have had Christians say to me, well, you know, in singing hymns, we get to sing about Jesus, but most of the Psalter was written a thousand years before Jesus was born. Nevertheless, the Psalter is full of Christ. Consider these relations. It's the Word of Christ. It was inspired by Christ. Go back and read 1 Peter 1, verses 10 through 12. Jesus was speaking. Interestingly enough, these come primarily through David functioning as a prophet. And David might very well be the most eminent Old Testament type of the Christ. Jesus will ever be called the son of David, as it were. And these will be the songs that will be in his mouth and his lips during his earthly ministry. They are most fitting in his mouth. And if you think about singing these songs, it will resolve many difficulties if you think of us as simply singing with him. And the Psalms ultimately are about himself. They're by him and they are about him. And so they are purposefully constructed to deepen our relationship with him. And then one final thing. Jesus wanted to tell us beforehand that the Christian life is hard and it can be hard. It's a taking up of the cross and following him. And if you were to sing through the Psalter and then sing through a hymnal, I think you will have certainly different emphases the Psalter is full of the problems and pains of the Christian life in a way that you won't find in a hymnal. And there's a lot of it because the way of the people of God down through the ages has been hard. It's been difficult. So, Habitual singing of the Psalter will get you ready for the Christian life the way that it really is and will bring you into contact with God in addressing things the way that they really are in a way that a hymnal does not do and probably cannot do because it's not an inspired production. So if you were to ask me, Well, how important is this that I would respond in those ways? How important is it to you that you live with the sense of the presence of the king? How important is it to you that your relationship deepen with him as he speaks to you about himself? And finally, how desperately do you want to grow up in maturity, having a religious training that is preparing you to deal with things the way that they really are. These things are exceedingly precious. So consider what I say, and the Lord grants you understanding in all things.