Singing "new songs" - OT vs NT context

Originally Posted by larryjf on the Puritanboard

Quote:

Originally Posted by FrielWatcher 1 Thess 5:21 - why could you not use it as regulatory BECAUSE we are given a spirit of discernment to find what is good and to hold fast to it. Our expounding on the scriptures in pulpit - why not just get up and read the scriptures and say "Amen." Could not a lyrically written sermon be turned into verse with music accompaniment? I just don't see how we can see one aspect under one precedent but another not? Why is the the sermon given up to fallibility and interpretation and okay yet the music has to be the psalms? Music has to be the psalms but the liturgy and the sermon is not held to the same precedent - purely biblical.

The Scripture regulates all of these elements...and as written in an earlier post (found here), Prayer is regulated to include things outside of Scripture, and Preaching is regulated to include using our reason to make Scripture clear.

Granting the synonym useage for the Psalms (grudgingly - I still think Paul was referring to 3 forms common to the culture), the EP'er (holds to only Psalms sung in worship) continues to overlook that we are commanded to be taught by the Psalms, that the Psalms teach us to sing a new song, so we must understand what that means in context for the NT priesthood of believers worshiping apart from the temple in spirit and truth.

In the OT - the new songs were written by David and others in priestly office, compiled and closed for that covenant period. So the command to sing an entirely new song was closed to the OT worshiper, except in the sense that the Psalms themselves contained "new songs" written for the Davidic type of OT temple worship.

In the NT - the Psalms - just as the entire OT - are renewed and refreshed in light of the revealed (and named!) Messiah. We are commanded to worship in spirit and truth freed from the requirement of temple worship, but not from the commanded elements that remain (preaching\teaching, praying and singing) and the new ordinances.

So, in context, we, the NT, new covenant church, are commanded to be taught by the Psalms. The Psalms command that we sing a new song. So, just as preaching and praying may have "uninspired" yet regulated content, so may our song.