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Jubilation for Victory in War: If we start by surveying the secular uses of the verb and its noun, we will see just what kind of enthusiasm we are dealing with. Isaiah compares the gladness that Israel will feel at the coming of the Messiah to the jubilation (yagilu) that warriors have when they divide the plunder (Isa. 9:3b). Habakkuk also uses the word to describe the joy that the Babylonians will have (yagil) when they capture the Hebrews like fish in a net (Hab. 1:15). Zephaniah extends this jubilation to Yahweh himself: "Yahweh your God is in your midst, a victorious warrior. He will exult over you with joy; he will be quiet in his love; he will rejoice (yagil) over you with shouts (berinnah) of victory" (Zeph. 3:17). This same meaning applies to the victory celebrations of the enemies as well. David prayed, "Consider and answer me, O Yahweh, my God . . . lest my enemy say, 'I have overcome him,' lest my adversaries rejoice (yagilu) when I am shaken" (Ps. 13:5
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Finally, both in the Old Testament and New Testament, the spirit of song gives birth to ordered modes of public worship. In their earlier expressions the worship of Israel could be heard in joyful outbursts in which song was mingled with shouting and dancing to a rude accompaniment of timbrels and trumpets (Exodus 15:20 2 Samuel 6:5, 14). In later times Israel had its sacred Psalter, its guilds of trained singers (Ezra 2:41 Nehemiah 7:44), its skilled musicians ( 42; 49,.); and the praise that waited for God in Zion was full of the solemn beauty of holiness (Psalm 29:2; Psalm 96:9). In the New Testament the Psalter is still a manual of social praise. The "hymn" which Jesus sang with His disciples after the Last Supper (Matthew 26:30) would be a Hebrew psalm, probably from the Hallel ( 113-118) which was used at he Passover service, and various references in the Epistles point to the continued employment of the ancient psalms in Christian worship (1 Corinthians 14:26 Ephesians 5:19 Colossians 3:16 James 5:13). But the Psalter of the Jewish church could not suffice to express the distinctive moods of Christian feeling. Original utterance of the spirit of Christian song was one of the manifestations of the gift of tongues (1 Corinthians 14:15-17). Paul distinguishes hymns and spiritual songs from psalms (Ephesians 5:19 Colossians 3:16); and it was hymns that he and Silas sang at midnight in the prison of Philippi (Acts 16:25 the Revised Version (British and American)). But from hymns and songs that were the spontaneous utterance of individual feeling the development was natural, in New Testament as in Old Testament times, to hymns that were sung in unison by a whole congregation; and in
Finally, both in the Old Testament and New Testament, the spirit of song gives birth to ordered modes of public worship. In their earlier expressions the worship of Israel could be heard in joyful outbursts in which song was mingled with shouting and dancing to a rude accompaniment of timbrels and trumpets (Exodus 15:20 2 Samuel 6:5, 14). In later times Israel had its sacred Psalter, its guilds of trained singers (Ezra 2:41 Nehemiah 7:44), its skilled musicians ( 42; 49,.); and the praise that waited for God in Zion was full of the solemn beauty of holiness (Psalm 29:2; Psalm 96:9). In the New Testament the Psalter is still a manual of social praise. The "hymn" which Jesus sang with His disciples after the Last Supper (Matthew 26:30) would be a Hebrew psalm, probably from the Hallel ( 113-118) which was used at he Passover service, and various references in the Epistles point to the continued employment of the ancient psalms in Christian worship (1 Corinthians 14:26 Ephesians 5:19 Colossians 3:16 James 5:13). But the Psalter of the Jewish church could not suffice to express the distinctive moods of Christian feeling. Original utterance of the spirit of Christian song was one of the manifestations of the gift of tongues (1 Corinthians 14:15-17). Paul distinguishes hymns and spiritual songs from psalms (Ephesians 5:19 Colossians 3:16); and it was hymns that he and Silas sang at midnight in the prison of Philippi (Acts 16:25 the Revised Version (British and American)). But from hymns and songs that were the spontaneous utterance of individual feeling the development was natural, in New Testament as in Old Testament times, to hymns that were sung in unison by a whole congregation; and in