I WILL SING WITH THE SPIRIT

llo] with the understanding also (I Cor. 14:15).

A good translation of this scripture would be: I will make a psalm with the

Spirit; and I will make a psalm with the understanding also. I will offer my praise to

God by the Spirit.

Paul joins praying and singing together and says, "Else when thou shalt

bless by the spirit" (verse 17). Therefore, the purpose of tongues is to bless by

the Spirit. My prayer and my praise are to bless. Speaking in tongues is prayer

and psalming to God in order to bless, and the interpretation is for men that they

might share the blessing of my thanksgiving and say amen at my giving of thanks.

In his letter, James likewise admonishes the Christians to pray and to sing:

Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any

merry? let him sing psalms [psallo] (James 5:13).

James uses the same word that Paul used. This concept of singing with the Spirit,

or blessing with the Spirit by offering your thanks to God, is beautifully echoed in

the following two scriptures:

And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but

be filled with the Spirit; Speaking to yourselves in

psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and

making melody [psallo] in your heart to the Lord;

giving thanks [eucharisteo] always for all things unto

God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus

Christ (Eph. 5:18-20).

and

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wis-

dom; teaching and admonishing one another in

psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with

grace in your hearts to the Lord (Col. 3:16).

In Ephesians, Paul admonishes us not to try to find escape in wine but to be

filled with the Spirit, speaking to ourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual

songs, singing and making melody (psallo) in our hearts to the Lord. We are

singing, making melody, and giving thanks to the Lord, but we are speaking to

ourselves. So, when we are filled with the Spirit, what do we do? We make a

psalm in the Spirit to the Lord (he that speaks in tongues speaks to God, verse 2),

but we speak to one another (the interpretation of the tongue is for men, verse 5).

We make psalms. We are speaking to ourselves, but we are singing and making

melody to the Lord. This is singing with the Spirit and with the understanding.

We are singing and making melody (by the Spirit in tongues) to the Lord, but we

are also speaking to one another (by interpretation) in psalms, hymns, and spiritual

songs.

In Colossians, Paul says almost the same thing when he tells us that we are

"teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs,

singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord." We are singing (by the Spirit in

tongues) to the Lord, but we are admonishing and teaching one another (by the

interpretation). We are singing to the Lord but teaching and admonishing one

another. This was rather puzzling to me until the Spirit seemingly said, "Why

don't you read the Song of Moses?"

THE SONG OF MOSES

Moses spoke a song to God, and He told Moses to write the song down and

teach the children:

Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach

it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that

this song may be a witness for me against the chil-

dren of Israel...Moses therefore wrote this song the

same day, and taught it the children of Israel...And

Moses spake in the ears of all the congregation of

Israel the words of this song, until they were ended

(Deut. 31:19,22,30).

God told Moses to write the song down as a witness for the children, to

teach and admonish them. After Moses wrote the song, he spoke it to the Chil-

dren of Israel.

After reading this scripture, I began to understand better what Paul meant

by the scriptures, about singing or psalming in the Spirit. We make a psalm to the

Lord, (tongues are to God), and then the interpretation of the psalm is given for

teaching, for admonishing, or for encouraging one another. The song is spoken to

the Lord, but in the interpretation we are speaking to one another. I believe this is

why so many utterances in tongues seem to be spoken to people instead of unto

God. They seem to be a message to men, not a psalm to God. If the Spirit

desires that we use the psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to teach and admon-

ish, we can understand why we may believe that tongues and interpretation are

the same as a prophecy.

Next, the Spirit asked me to read Paul's song book. And I thought, "What!

Read Paul's song book? What is that?" He said, "The Book of Psalms." I thought

that if Paul said, I am going to sing in the Spirit, I should look in his song book (the

Book of Psalms) to find out what his concept of a song was. As I began to read

the psalms; I realized that many of the interpretations that I heard in the church

after an utterance in tongues paralleled the psalms. I found that the interpreta-

tions that blessed the people also seemed to echo the psalms. The

Spirit, through tongues and interpretation in the form of a song, was giving to the

body of Christ new psalms for today.

I began to study the variety of psalms that were written and spoken to God.

It was amazing how many different kinds of songs there were. The psalmists

wrote about things that we might not think would be appropriate for a song to

God. There were around twenty seven psalms of prayer. These are songs that

David or others sang or spoke as prayers to God. Fourteen psalms were psalms of

praise. Even though they were singing to the Lord, the songs were written down

to bless the people. I concluded that in singing or psalming through tongues and

interpretation God is giving to the church up-to-date psalms. In other words, we

do not always have to go back to the twenty-third psalm to receive comfort; God

can give us a psalm for today that blesses us and refreshes us in the now--a psalm

for today.

I also found that there are twenty one psalms of exhortation. It seems

unusual to sing an exhortation, but that is what they did. These psalms of

exhortation probably sounded like prophecies. Then there are twelve "country and

western" psalms, songs of complaint, the "He done me wrong kind of songs."

The psalmist complained to the Lord about how his enemies had wronged him. I

estimate that there are twenty one psalms that make a statement, thirteen psalms

of description, two of thanksgiving, and about seven psalms of declaration. Notice

how widely the psalms vary. Often when we read a psalm, we feel that it is a

message to the people; however, they sang or spoke them to the Lord. I believe

that what happens in tongues and interpretation is that a psalm, according to the

pattern of the Book of Psalms, is sung or is spoken to God, while the interpretation

of the psalm is given for the teaching and admonishing of the people.

Most of the psalms were spoken or chanted, but there were also songs with

melody. We sing hymns, spiritual songs (any song that is brought forth by the

Spirit), and psalms. Three kinds of songs may be given by the Spirit. Some songs

may be interpreted, some may not. When they are not interpreted, the singer is

edified by his own singing of them. When they are interpreted, not only is the

singer edified in the singing, but the understanding of the hearer is illuminated in

the hearing.