I have heard sermons woven around Paul and Silas’ midnight prayer and worship session in their jail cell at the prison in Philippi.  Acts 16:25 says, “About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the (other) prisoners were listening to them.”

Recently, in reading through Psalm 119, I came across two verses that Paul and Silas may have hidden in their hearts long before having to choose how to respond to this situation in prison. Their prophetic king and ‘sweet psalmist of Israel’ had written in verses 61-62:

“The ropes of the wicked are coiled around me, but I did not forget Your Torah.  At midnight I rise to praise You, because of Your righteous rulings.”

Just reading the account of Paul and Silas bursting into praise while incarcerated, we may marvel that men who had been stripped naked, beaten and thrown into an ‘inner prison’ with their feet fastened in the stocks would be found singing, at midnight!  However, in the Hebrew Scriptures which they had both internalized, we find the above example that could have guided their response.

Yet it’s what came next that really inscribed this Acts 16 incident in the hall of fame of the miraculous. Verse 26 says, “Suddenly there was such a great earthquake that the foundations of the prison were shaken. Immediately all the doors were unlocked, and everyone’s chains came loose.”

Not only has this verse made the incident unforgettable for generations of New Testament readers, but it contains a great lesson and inspiration for us today. At ‘midnight’ – at what might seem like the darkest hour, with literal or figurative ‘ropes of the wicked’ coiled around us – if we arise in that dark and  oppressive environment to praise the LORD and acknowledge His rulings as righteous (Psalm 119:62) then we can expect the ‘sudden’ intervention of the LORD. This is what Paul and Silas experienced, so the story of their midnight-hour singing of praise to God in the hearing of their fellow-prisoners exhorts me to do likewise.

The incident also puts me in mind of Philippians 4:4-5, which says “Rejoice in the Lord always (even at ‘mid-night’) and again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all people (even those who cannot understand why you are singing in prison at mid-night). The Lord is near.”

Yes, the Lord IS near to those who praise and worship Him. Psalm 22:3 (or verse 4 in Hebraic versions) says the Lord inhabits the praise of His people – indeed, that He is enthroned on our praises. Let us set up a throne for Him and create a space for His habitation in our lives 24/7, with praise and worship offered up even at the midnight hour. As God’s Presence inhabits our praises, we will experience the truth of Psalm 16:11 – “Abundance of joys are in Your presence, eternal pleasures at your right hand.” Besides, any chains coiled around us by the adversary to stifle our testimony will definitely be broken and fall away, to the glory of God.

Baruch HaShem! Bless the LORD!