The Song of the Heart
D. F. Jarman, M. A. Ephesians 5:19 Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; But whilst we believe that there is some expression of joy and praise which God peculiarly desires, and which in His Word is called "singing," yet we shall fall into most serious and fatal errors, unless we strictly understand what is principally meant by the term. And here our text will altogether assist us. It must, first, be an expression of joy having the heart as its source of utterance. "Making melody in your heart," says Paul. But this "singing" must not only come from the heart, and a new heart too, but it must also come from a believing heart in a particular state's state of joy. The very term indicates the required temperament of the soul. Singing implies gladness. "The ransomed of the Lord," says the prophet, "shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting icy upon their heads." True, there are such things as dirges; but the Christian must never attempt them. His work is "psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." But, yet further, this song of the heart must have for its constant and invariable theme its Lord and Redeemer. Music is often very varied. You will often find page after page of notes all as different and widely distinguished each from each as possible. There are a thousand chords, and runs, and combinations, and movements; and yet all are variations on one short air, included perhaps in two or three lines. Just so with your Redeemer. He must be your theme, running through all the variations of business, or pleasure, or domestic cares. But, lastly, in this song you must remember, that it is only the Spirit who can teach you either the love of spiritual music, or its true expression. "Man is born to sorrow as the sparks fly upward." So many tears, so many evils, so many sins around us — oh! what a place for song! Not Babel's stream, all lined with willows, was half so unsuitable a place as this wilderness of a world, Not they that led the chained captive of Judah from his dear home were half so unreasonable in their demand for melody, as are men who can expect songs from the sin and trouble-choked sons of Adam. How can we sing the Lord's song? We are in a strange land, and a land of darkness and sorrow. Yea, we ourselves are voiceless and tuneless as the dull clay itself. Sin has taken away our faculty of song, and sorrow has put us out of heart for music. What can we sing? We can mock song it is true; we can excite ourselves to an unnatural and bacchanalian imitation of melody. Paul alludes to something of this kind, when he says, "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be ye filled with the Spirit; speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." As though he had said, "Go to the true source of joy; drink in the spirit of song from Him who is the Lord of bliss; be filled with the Spirit; and avoid the false, excited, drunken mirth of the world. It is only music created by the fumes of wine, and doomed to expire in weeping and wailing." What a delusion is such mere noise! What a counterfeit of the heart's music! We had intended to show you that this music must not be confined to the heart, though it must commence there. You must let others hear it, and be cheered by its cadence. "Speaking to" or among "yourselves," says Paul, "in psalms." He makes his meaning still clearer in a parallel passage. "Teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs." Your singing must always be designed to influence others. (D. F. Jarman, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord; WEB: speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing, and making melody in your heart to the Lord;