The Greek word psallo means “to play on a stringed instrument, to play the harp.” The Greek word for “psalm” refers to “a striking the chords of a musical instrument” (Thayer’s Greek Lexicon). To sing psalms therefore means to sing “to the accompaniment of a harp” (Arndt and Gingrich). That would seem to end the argument about whether to sing psalms with accompaniment.

But this argument is “one of the most enduring errors” in biblical interpretation. “In this view, meaning is determined by etymology; that is, by the root or the roots of a word” (D. A. Carson, Exegetical Fallacies, 28). Any dictionary shows that most words have a range of meanings. Word meaning depends upon context.

Isaiah 55:8 is an example. “‘For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,’ declares the Lord.” The note in the New Geneva Study Bible reads: “My thoughts are not your thoughts. Specifically, God’s thoughts concerning grace exceed human imagination.” But an examination of the context indicates a different interpretation.

Isaiah 55:7 exhorts, “Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts; and let him return to the Lord, and He will have compassion on him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon.” The wicked have wicked thoughts. The unrighteous have unrighteous thoughts. God’s thoughts and ways are holy and righteous.

Isaiah 55:8, then, is not a text teaching God’s transcendence. It is a text speaking about God’s righteous thoughts and conduct. The immediate context indicates this is the case. We derive the proper meaning of the words “thoughts” and “ways” from that context. The note in the New Geneva Study Bible is misleading.

The root meaning of the word psalm is not an argument for the use of instrumental accompaniment in singing the Psalms.

This is true with the word “psalm.” A quick review of the titles to the Psalms in the Old Testament reveals that 54 of them are called “A Psalm of David.” Sixteen psalms are called both “a psalm” and “a song.” Six psalms are called “hymns” in the Greek version of the Old Testament. Psalm 67 is titled “a song and a psalm among the hymns.” In each of these cases, the titles refer to the content of the psalms. The psalms and songs are the lyrics given in each of the psalms. You can certainly sing these lyrics—these psalms and hymns and songs—with or without instrumental accompaniment.

Colossians 3:16 enjoins, “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God” (ESV). Since the Old Testament refers to psalms as songs and hymns, when Paul speaks of “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,” he most likely has in mind the Psalms of the Old Testament.

His grammatical construction also points in this direction. Paul’s Greek underlying our English is without the conjunctions. Paul packs the three terms together, psalms, hymns, songs. He uses a figure of speech, asyndeton. This is a rhetorical device used to emphasize a single idea. Paul has one thing in mind, the Psalms of the Old Testament. He thus outlines the content of our singing.

In their celebration of the Passover, Christ and His disciples went out to the Mount of Olives “after singing a hymn” (Matt. 26:30). Their hymn was a selection from Psalms 113 through 118, the Egyptian Hallel. We know the content of this hymn because of the Passover context. In Scripture, the word “psalm” most often refers to the content of our songs. The root meaning of the word is not an argument for the use of instrumental accompaniment in singing the Psalms. Context is king.

reformedvoice.org/rptsprof