“One thing you quote from the NT refers to Psalms & hymns & spiritual songs. Referring to Psalms (multiple times) in the NT Could also mean to reference the Book of Psalms, in their entirety, for insight into appropriate worship, so the musical instruments Could potentially be considered appropriate for NT based worship.”

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It could, it’s a potential possibility, so it’s certainly worth exploring further, to find out whether there is any Scriptural support for that possibility.

Suppose we stipulate that the psalms being referenced are indeed from the Book of Psalms.

Of the 7 verses in the NT referencing singing in worship, here are the 3 which referenced psalms:

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“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)

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“Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;” (Ephesians 5:19)

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“Is any among you afflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms.” (James 5:13)
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In each case, is the instruction not to sing?

Is there any mention of musical instruments of any kind?

I hope that no one would get the impression that this subject or controversy is of my own conception, it is quite ancient.

I will start with a few secular encyclopedias, a Roman Catholic encyclopedia, and then the founders or founding documents of several denominations, and then the words of early church leaders, back to the time when there was living memory of the Apostles.

I will include the words of Justin Martyr, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, Eusebius, Augustine, Chrysostom, Aquinas, Luther, Erasmus, Calvin, Beza, Spurgeon, Wesley and Clarke, for those who are interested in the comments by these influential men.

They are not Authoritative because their comments are not inspired by God, but it is interesting to see the source of their objection to musical instruments, and how strongly they opposed it.

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“The Christian community held the same view, as we know from the apostolic and post-apostolic literature: instrumental music was thought unfit for religious services; the Christian sources are quite outspoken in their condemnation of instrumental performances. Originally, only song was considered worthy of direct approach to Divinity.” (New Oxford History of Music: The Music of Post-Biblical Judaism I, 135)

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“There can be no doubt that originally the music of the divine service was everywhere entirely of a vocal nature.” (Emil Nauman, The History of Music)

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“If instrumental music was not part of early Christian worship, when did it become acceptable? Several reference works will help us see the progression of this practice among churches: “Pope Vitalian introduced an organ in the church in the seventh century to aid the singing but it was opposed and was removed.” (James Hasting, Encyclopedia of Religion and Ethics.)

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“The church, although lapsing more and more into deflection from the truth and into a corrupting of apostolic practice, had not instrumental music for 1200 years (that is, it was not in general use before this time); The Calvinistic Reform Church ejected it from its service as an element of popery, even the church of England having come very nigh its extrusion from her worship. It is heresy in the sphere of worship.” (John Giradeau, Presbyterian prof., Columbia Theological Seminary, Instrumental Music, p. 179)

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“This species, which is the most natural, is to be considered to have existed before any other… Instrumental music is also of very ancient date, its invention being ascribed to Tubal, the sixth descendant from Cain. The instrumental music was not practiced by the primitive Christians, but was an aid to devotion of later times, is evident from church history.” (Fessenden’s Encyclopedia of Art and Music, p. 852)

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“Pope Vitalian is related to have first introduced organs into some of the churches of Western Europe about 670 but the earliest trustworthy account is that of one sent as a present by the Greek emperor Constantine Copronymus to Pepin, king of Franks in 755” (American Encyclopedia Vol 12, p. 688)

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“The organ is said to have been first introduced into church music by Pope Vitalian in 666. In 757, a great organ was sent as a present to Pepin by the Byzantine Emperor, Constantine, and placed in the church St. Corneille as Compiegne.” (Chambers Encyclopedia, Vol. 7, p. 112)

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“…the first Christians were of too spiritual a fibre to substitute lifeless instruments for or to use them to accompany the human voice. Clement of Alexandria severely condemns the use of instruments even at Christian banquets. St. Chrysostum sharply contrasts the customs of the Christians when they had full freedom with those of the Jews of the Old Testament.” (Catholic Encyclopedia Vol 10, p. 648-652.)

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“The rejection of all musical instruments for Christian worship is consistent among the Fathers. They were associated with pagan, orgiastic rites.” (New Catholic Encyclopedia: History of Sacred Music, X, 106)

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“For almost a thousand years Gregorian chant, without any instrumental or harmonic addition was the only music used in connection with the liturgy. The organ, in its primitive and rude form, was the first, and for a long time the sole, instrument used to accompany the chant… The church has never encouraged and at most only tolerated the use of instruments… She holds up as her ideal the unaccompanied chant, and polyphonic, a-capella style. The Sistine Chapel has not even an organ.” (Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 10, p. 657-688)

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And now the words of leaders and influential men of many churches, all the way back to Justin Martyr, circa 139 AD.

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CHARLES H. SPURGEON, 1834-1892AD, Baptist: “Praise the Lord with the harp. Israel was at school, and used childish things to help her to learn; but in these days when Jesus gives us spiritual food, one can make melody without strings and pipes. We do not need them. They would hinder rather than help our praise. Sing unto him. This is the sweetest and best music. No instrument like the human voice.” (Psalms 42:4 commentary)

SPURGEON: “David appears to have had a peculiarly tender remembrance of the singing of the pilgrims, and assuredly it is the most delightful part of worship and that which comes nearest to the adoration of heaven. What a degradation to supplant the intelligent song of the whole congregation by the theatrical prettiness of a quartet, bellows, and pipes! We might as well pray by machinery as praise by it.”

Charles Spurgeon preached to 20,000 people every Sunday for 20 years in the Metropolitan Baptist Tabernacle. Never were mechanical instruments of music used. When asked why, he quoted 1st Corinthians 14:15. “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.” He then declared: “I would as soon pray to God with machinery as to sing to God with machinery.”

ALBERT H. NEWMAN: “In 1699 the Baptists received an invitation from Thomas Clayton, rector of Christ Church, to unite with the Church of England. They replied in a dignified manner, declining to do so unless he could prove, “that the Church of Christ under the New Testament may consist or . . . a mixed multitude and their seed, even all the members of a nation, . . . whether they are godly or ungodly,” that “lords, archbishops, etc., . . . are of divine institution and appointment,” and that their vestments, liturgical services, use of mechanical instruments, infant baptism, sprinkling, “signing with the cross in baptism,” etc., are warranted by Scripture.” … ”

NEWMAN: “It may be interesting to note that this church (First Baptist Church of Newport, organized in 1644) was one of the first to introduce instrumental music. The instrument was a bass viol and caused considerable commotion. This occurred early in the nineteenth century.” (A History of the Baptist Churches in the United States, American Baptist Publication Society 1915, p. 207, 255)

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PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH:
“Question 6. Is there any authority for instrumental music in the worship of God under the present dispensation? Answer. Not the least, only the singing of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs was appointed by the apostles; not a syllable is said in the New Testament in favor of instrumental music nor was it ever introduced into the Church until after the eighth century, after the Catholics had corrupted the simplicity of the gospel by their carnal inventions. It was not allowed in the Synagogues, the parish churches of the Jews, but was confined to the Temple service and was abolished with the rites of that dispensation.” (Questions on the Confession of Faith and Form of Government of The Presbyterian Church in the United States of America, published by the Presbyterian Board of Publications, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 1842, p. 55)

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Methodist Church — ADAM CLARKE, 1760-1832AD, Methodist and Bible Scholar: “But were it even evident, which it is not, either from this or any other place in the sacred writings, that instruments of music were prescribed by divine authority under the law, could this be adduced with any semblance of reason, that they ought to be used in Christian worship? No; the whole spirit, soul, and genius of the Christian religion are against this; and those who know the Church of God best, and what constitutes its genuine spiritual state, know that these things have been introduced as a substitute for the life and power of religion; and that where they prevail most, there is least of the power of Christianity. Away with such portentous baubles from the worship of that infinite Spirit who requires His followers to worship Him in spirit and truth, for to no such worship are these instruments friendly.” (Clarke’s Commentary, Vol. II, pp. 690-691)

CLARKE: “I am an old man, and I here declare that I never knew them to be productive of any good in the worship of God, and have reason to believe that they are productive of much evil. Music as a science I esteem and admire, but instrumental music in the house of God I abominate and abhor. This is the abuse of music, and I here register my protest against all such corruption of the worship of the author of Christianity.” (Commentary, IV, 686, on Amos 6:5)

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JOHN WESLEY, 1703-1791AD, Methodist, a founder of “Methodism”: “I have no objection to instruments of music in our worship, provided they are neither seen nor heard.” (quoted in Adam Clarke’s Commentary, Vol. 4, p. 685)

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THEODORE BEZA, 1519-1605AD, successor to John Calvin: “If the apostle justly prohibits the use of unknown tongues in the church, much less would he have tolerated these artificial musical performances which are addressed to the ear alone, and seldom strike the understanding even of the performers themselves.” (Girardeau’s Instrumental Music, p. 166)

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JOHN CALVIN, 1509-1564AD, influenced Presbyterianism & Reformed Baptists: “Musical instruments in celebrating the praises of God would be no more suitable than the burning of incense, the lighting of lamps, and the restoration of the other shadows of the law. The Papists therefore, have foolishly borrowed, this, as well as many other things, from the Jews. Men who are fond of outward pomp may delight in that noise; but the simplicity which God recommends to us by the apostles is far more pleasing to him. Paul allows us to bless God in the public assembly of the saints, only in a known tongue (1 Cor. 14:16) What shall we then say of chanting, which fills the ears with nothing but an empty sound?” (Calvin, Commentary on Psalms 33)

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MARTIN LUTHER, 1483-1546AD: “The organ in the worship is the insignia of Baal… The Roman Catholic borrowed it from the Jews.” (Martin Luther, Mcclintock & Strong’s Encyclopedia Volume VI, page 762)

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DESIDERIUS ERASMUS, 1466-1536AD: “We have brought into our churches certain operatic and theatrical music; such a confused, disorderly chattering of some words as I hardly think was ever in any of the Grecian or Roman theatres. The church rings with the noise of trumpets, pipes, and dulcimers; and human voices strive to bear their part with them. Men run to church as to a theatre, to have their ears tickled. And for this end organ makers are hired with great salaries, and a company of boys, who waste all their time learning these whining tones.” (Erasmus, Commentary on 1 Corinthians 14:19)

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THOMAS AQUINAS, 1225-1274AD: “Our church does not use musical instruments, as harps and psalteries, to praise God withal, that she may not seem to Judaize.” (Aquinas, Bingham’s Antiquities Vol 3, p. 137)

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AUGUSTINE, 354AD: “…musical instruments were not used. The pipe, tabret, and harp here associate so intimately with the sensual heathen cults, as well as with the wild revelries and shameless performances of the degenerate theater and circus, it is easy to understand the prejudices against their use in the worship.” (on singing at Alexandria under Athanasius)

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JOHN CHRYSOSTOM, 347-407AD: “David formerly sang songs, also today we sing hymns. He had a lyre with lifeless strings, the church has a lyre with living strings. Our tongues are the strings of the lyre with a different tone indeed but much more in accordance with piety. Here there is no need for the cithara, or for stretched strings, or for the plectrum, or for art, or for any instrument; but, if you like, you may yourself become a cithara, mortifying the members of the flesh and making a full harmony of mind and body. For when the flesh no longer lusts against the Spirit, but has submitted to its orders and has been led at length into the best and most admirable path, then will you create a spiritual melody.” (Chrysostom, Commentary on Psalm 41)

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EUSEBIUS, 260-340AD “Of old at the time those of the circumcision were worshipping with symbols and types it was not inappropriate to send up hymns to God with the psalterion and cithara and to do this on Sabbath days… We render our hymn with a living psalterion and a living cithara with spiritual songs. The unison voices of Christians would be more acceptable to God than any musical instrument. Accordingly in all the churches of God, united in soul and attitude, with one mind and in agreement of faith and piety we send up a unison melody in the words of the Psalms.” (Psalm 91:2-3)

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TERTULLIAN, 200AD “Musical concerts with viol and lute belong to Apollo, to the Muses, to Minerva and Mercury who invented them; ye who are Christians, hate and abhor these things whose very authors themselves must be the object of loathing and aversion.”

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CLEMENT of ALEXANDRIA, 150-216AD: “Leave the pipe to the shepherd, the flute to the men who are in fear of gods and intent on their idol worshipping. Such musical instruments must be excluded from our wingless feasts, for they arc more suited for beasts and for the class of men that is least capable of reason than for men. The Spirit, to purify the divine liturgy from any such unrestrained revelry chants: ‘Praise Him with sound of trumpet,” for, in fact, at the sound of the trumpet the dead will rise again; praise Him with harp,’ for the tongue is a harp of the Lord; ‘and with the lute. praise Him.’ understanding the mouth as a lute moved by the Spirit as the lute is by the plectrum; ‘praise Him with timbal and choir,’ that is, the Church awaiting the resurrection of the body in the flesh which is its echo; ‘praise Him with strings and organ,’ calling our bodies an organ and its sinews strings, for from them the body derives its Coordinated movement, and when touched by the Spirit, gives forth human sounds; ‘praise Him on high-sounding cymbals,’ which mean the tongue of the mouth which with the movement of the lips, produces words. Then to all mankind He calls out, ‘Let every spirit praise the Lord,’ because He rules over every spirit He has made. In reality, man is an instrument arc for peace, but these other things, if anyone concerns himself overmuch with them, become instruments of conflict, for inflame the passions.”

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“The Etruscans, for example, use the trumpet for war; the Arcadians, the horn; the Sicels, the flute; the Cretans, the lyre; the Lacedemonians, the pipe; the Thracians, the bugle; the Egyptians, the drum; and the Arabs, the cymbal. But as for us, we make use of one instrument alone: only the Word of peace by whom we pay homage to God, no longer with ancient harp or trumpet or drum or flute which those trained for war employ.” (190AD, The instructor, Fathers of the church, p. 130)

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CLEMENT of ALEXANDRIA, 150-216AD: “Moreover, King David the harpist, whom we mentioned just above, urged us toward the truth and away from idols. So far was he from singing the praises of daemons that they were put to flight by him with the true music; and when Saul was Possessed, David healed him merely by playing the harp. The Lord fashioned man a beautiful, breathing instrument, after His own imaged and assuredly He Himself is an all-harmonious instrument of God, melodious and holy, the wisdom that is above this world, the heavenly Word.” … “He who sprang from David and yet was before him, the Word of God, scorned those lifeless instruments of lyre and cithara. By the power of the Holy Spirit He arranged in harmonious order this great world, yes, and the little world of man too, body and soul together; and on this many-voiced instruments of the universe He makes music to God, and sings to the human instrument. “For thou art my harp and my pipe and my temple” (185AD, Readings, p. 62)

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And finally, from approximately 40 years after the Apostle John is thought to have left this world, within the timeframe of living memory of people who KNEW JOHN the Apostle *personally*:

JUSTIN MARTYR, 139AD: “The use of [instrumental] music was not received in the Christian churches, as it was among the Jews, in their infant state, but only the use of plain song…. Simply singing is not agreeable to children [the aforementioned Jews], but singing with lifeless instruments and with dancing and clapping is. On this account the use of this kind of instruments and of others agreeable to children is removed from the songs of the churches, and there is left remaining simply singing.”

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And yet, despite ALL of the above, even after showing it to people, you might be amazed at the resistance you are likely to encounter, if you suggest that it would be well to stop using musical instruments in worship.

Even though the FOUNDERS of *their own denomination* say they should not be doing it, or Thomas Aquinas in the case of the RCC, or early church members like Eusebius, Tertullian, and Clement, and Justin, in writing (as quoted above), often it won’t matter.

In the end, it’s usually not facts or evidence or reason that matters, at least not the first couple times one is exposed to something. In that regard, is it any different than the frustration and difficulty we have all experienced with friends and family who won’t look at the truth about the vaxx, no matter how we try to show them?

If their heart is hardened, or if their eyes and ears are closed, what can we say that will open them?

It’s the same thing with Christian topics. I can’t change anyone’s mind, but I don’t have to. If the opportunity is presented, all I have to do is present the truth to the best of my ability. Plant the seed. Maybe this is the first time someone here has thought about this subject.

There is always the possibility that someone will look at the entirety of the evidence, and decide to make a change to be in accordance with Scripture, in accordance with God’s will, and we never know unless we try.

Even if it’s just one person who does, that person matters.

And if no one does, that’s okay too.

People have a tendency to want to do what they want to do, we all do, and once error gets a foothold, once it is established or becomes “tradition”, it can be very difficult (or nearly impossible) to put a stop to it.

Which is one of the reasons it’s so important to guard against error in the first place.

And it can be hard to bring a subject up, anytime some practice or belief is not according to Scripture, so oftentimes people don’t. Nobody wants to be disliked for bringing up things people would rather not examine.

But a Christian should, if the opportunity is presented. If we care about God’s Word, and if we care about our brothers and sisters in Christ, or those who might become brothers and sisters in Christ, we should. We should at least try.

And if he (or she) gets called out for doing so — and in my experience we always will, so just expect it — just be prepared to stand on God’s Word, let God’s Word to the heavy lifting, and reason directly from the Scriptures, as we are given many examples in Scripture to do.

It always comes back to Authority.

Is our Authority for Christian belief and practice the inspired Word of God?

Or is our authority the doctrines, commandments and traditions of men?

Men cannot save us.

God can.

So who (or Whom) should we listen to and obey?

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“Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.” (Acts 5:29, KJV)
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If there is any context wherein that verse is not true and applicable, what could it be?