Jamieson, Fausset and Brown on Ephesians 5:19

19. (Col 3:16).

to yourselves--"to one another." Hence soon arose the antiphonal or responsive chanting of which Pliny writes to Trajan: "They are wont on a fixed day to meet before daylight [to avoid persecution] and to recite a hymn among themselves by turns, to Christ, as if being God." The Spirit gives true eloquence; wine, a spurious eloquence.

psalms--generally accompanied by an instrument.

hymns--in direct praise to God (compare Ac 16:25; 1Co 14:26; Jas 5:13).

songs--the general term for lyric pieces; "spiritual" is added to mark their being here restricted to sacred subjects, though not merely to direct praises of God, but also containing exhortations, prophecies, &c. Contrast the drunken "songs," Am 8:10.

making melody--Greek, "playing and singing with an instrument."

in your heart--not merely with the tongue; but the serious feeling of the heart accompanying the singing of the lips (compare 1Co 14:15; Psa 47:7). The contrast is between the heathen and the Christian practice, "Let your songs be not the drinking songs of heathen feasts, but psalms and hymns; and their accompaniment, not the music of the lyre, but the melody of the heart" [Conybeare and Howson].

to the Lord--See Pliny's letter quoted above: "To Christ as God."