Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.
—Colossians 3:16
We have to do more than just memorize Scripture for it to teach us God’s truth. For the Word to make a difference we have to receive it by faith in our hearts. God’s Word has to dwell—it has to abide—and it has to remain in us “richly in all wisdom.” This occurs as the Holy Spirit guides and quickens our understanding of God’s Word and reveals how to apply it in our lives. One of the major ways the Holy Spirit reveals God’s truth is through “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” that we sing in our hearts.
In this verse, the word “richly” was translated from the Greek word “plousios.” This word means “copiously” (Strong’s Concordance). “Copiously” is defined as “yielding something abundantly” (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). Jesus came to give us abundant life (John 10:10). As Jesus yielded His life to God, we yield our lives to Him to receive His abundant truth in our hearts.
When we sing “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” to the Lord, we let the Word of Christ dwell richly in us as Colossians 3:16 describes. We “yield” gratitude to Him. “Singing with grace” in our hearts is speaking of singing with gratitude in our hearts to God for all the wonderful things God has done for us.
This verse also shows that “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs” are one of the ways we teach and admonish. Many people view the praise-and-worship service at a church as just leading up to the preaching to come. But anointed praise and worship is just as much a part of the ministry of God’s Word as anointed teaching and preaching. The Holy Spirit quickens the Word of truth in our hearts. Just as the Holy Spirit quickens the spoken Word of God in our hearts, He also quickens the Word in our hearts through singing “psalms and hymns and spiritual song.” To receive what the Holy Spirit wishes to reveal to us, we need to change our attitude toward praise and worship and open our hearts with expectancy to receive from Him.
The early church was a singing church, Before the New Testament was ever put into written form, “psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs” were a key source of teaching God’s truth. It is still one of the church’s most effective ways of communicating to us the truth the Holy Spirit teaches. The Holy Spirit has inspired praise and worship throughout the centuries, and He continues to inspire us in praise and worship. Every move of God throughout history has produced an incredible amount of spiritual songs to sing in praise and worship.
Praise and worship music—praising God in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs—helps us recall and meditate on Scriptural truth. It opens us to receive the abundant wisdom God wishes to bestow in our hearts. It helps the Word of God to dwell “richly” in all wisdom in us.
“But as it is written:
‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard,
Nor have entered into the heart of man
The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’
But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God” (2 Corinthians 2:9-12).
We have received the Spirit who is from God so we might know what God has given to us in Christ. The Holy Spirit wishes to reveal the truth and the power of God’s truth in us. He not only reveals it through the spoken Word heard in our hearts but also through singing with thankful praise and gratitude in our hearts to the Lord.
The sword of the Spirit is the Word of God (Ephesians 6:17). Praising God is wielding the two-edged sword of God’s truth against the enemy whose purpose is to steal, kill, and destroy the abundant life you yield your heart to receive (Psalm 149:6, (John 10:10). Praising the Lord takes the natural you see with your mind and reveals God’s supernatural truth—that incorruptible seed—He has planted in your heart.
Praise the Lord! All that has breath, praise the Lord! Never forget His benefits! Sing with the grace of Jesus in your hearts to the Lord!
© 2023 Lynn Lacher
www.lynnlacher.com/2023/10/singing-with-grace.html
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