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Artwork for At Midnight Paul and Silas Sang

Acts 16:16-40

At Midnight Paul and Silas Sang

Lyrics · Acts

At Midnight Paul and Silas Sang

Acts 16:16-40

Lyrics

About this song

About this song

This song belongs to the Acts collection. One recording is available to play here, with the complete lyrics below.

Bible book
Acts
Collection
Acts
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Uncategorized
[Street Cry] A captive voice followed for many days, Profitable bondage dressed up as praise. Paul turned grieved and commanded the chain, In Jesus' name the spirit left her frame. [Verse I] Her masters saw all of their profit depart, Dragged Paul and Silas to rulers in wrath. Rods struck their bodies, the jailer received, Feet locked in stocks where the wounded still breathed. [Chorus] At midnight Paul and Silas sang, Prayer through the prison, praise through the pain. Foundations answered, the doors opened wide, Every man's bands were loosed inside. At midnight Paul and Silas sang, Not to escape, but to honor the Name. [Verse II] The jailer awoke and drew out his sword, Supposing the prisoners had fled through the doors. Do thyself no harm, for we are all here, The cry through the darkness interrupted fear. [Bridge] What must I do to be saved, he said, Believe on the Lord Jesus, the answer was given. He washed their stripes, heard the word in his home, And baptism marked where despair had been known. [Final Chorus] At midnight Paul and Silas sang, The household rejoiced and the prison was changed. The magistrates learned they had beaten Rome's men, And begged them in daylight to leave once again. [Coda] The doors were open, But mercy kept everyone there.

Named in this songPaulJesusSilasRome

About the passage

Acts 16: Closed routes lead to an open house and an opened prison

The Book of Acts, chapter 16, advances by closed routes as much as open ones. Timothy joins the mission without undoing the Jerusalem decision, proposed journeys into Asia and Bithynia are blocked, and a vision redirects the company to Macedonia. At Philippi, the first named welcome comes through Lydia and her household, while the next major encounter begins with the destruction of a profitable form of exploitation and ends in a beating and prison. The midnight earthquake opens every door, yet the prisoners remain, preserving the jailer's life and creating a new household of instruction and hospitality. The morning release then becomes a legal reversal when Paul invokes Roman citizenship, requiring the magistrates to acknowledge publicly what they had done publicly.

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