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What does the Bible say about instruments in the church?

Bible Topic · WEB

The Bible permits and commends musical instruments as fitting aids to the praise of God, while making clear that worship must be heartfelt, intelligible, and ordered by his Word. Psalm 150 calls God’s people to praise him with trumpet, strings, flute, and cymbals, and 2 Samuel 6:5 records Israel’s joyful instrumental worship before the Lord. Instruments also appear in the praise surrounding God’s saving reign in Revelation 5:6-10. Yet the New Testament particularly stresses singing with the heart and understanding, as in Ephesians 5:19 and 1 Corinthians 14:15. Therefore churches may use instruments wisely, not as entertainment or a substitute for faith, but to support congregational praise and glorify God.

Top passages, ranked by readers

Rankings: OpenBible.info Topical Bible (CC BY) · Scripture: World English Bible

  • Psalms 150:1-6 10 votes

    Praise Yah! Praise God in his sanctuary! Praise him in his heavens for his acts of power! Praise him for his mighty acts! Praise him according to his excellent greatness! Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet! Praise him with harp and lyre! Praise him with tambourine and dancing! Praise him with stringed instruments and flute! Praise him with loud cymbals! Praise him with resounding cymbals! Let everything that has breath praise Yah! Praise Yah!

  • Psalms 150:3-4 9 votes

    Praise him with the sounding of the trumpet! Praise him with harp and lyre! Praise him with tambourine and dancing! Praise him with stringed instruments and flute!

  • 1 Samuel 16:23 8 votes

    When the spirit from God was on Saul, David took the harp and played with his hand; so Saul was refreshed and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him.

  • Ephesians 5:19 7 votes

    speaking to one another in psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs; singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;

  • 1 Corinthians 14:15 7 votes

    What should I do? I will pray with the spirit, and I will pray with the understanding also. I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also.

  • Isaiah 38:20 7 votes

    Yahweh will save me. Therefore we will sing my songs with stringed instruments all the days of our life in Yahweh’s house.

  • 2 Samuel 6:5 7 votes

    David and all the house of Israel played before Yahweh with all kinds of instruments made of cypress wood, with harps, with stringed instruments, with tambourines, with castanets, and with cymbals.

  • Revelation 5:6-10 6 votes

    I saw in the middle of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the middle of the elders, a Lamb standing, as though it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God, sent out into all the earth. Then he came, and he took it out of the right hand of him who sat on the throne. Now when he had taken the book, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each one having a harp, and golden bowls full of incense, which are the prayers of the saints. They sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the book and to open its seals, for you were killed, and bought us for God with your blood out of every tribe, language, people, and nation, and made us kings and priests to our God; and we will reign on the earth.”

  • 1 Corinthians 14:7 5 votes

    Even lifeless things that make a sound, whether pipe or harp, if they didn’t give a distinction in the sounds, how would it be known what is piped or harped?

  • James 5:13 5 votes

    Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises.

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