Acts 16:25

At midnight. Since sleep was out of the question, Paul and Silas passed the night in devotional exercises.

Prayed, and sang praises. Or, “praying, they were singing hymns,” for the Greek expresses one continuous act rather than two. The missionaries’ well-established devotional habits surmounted the most discouraging circumstances. Even when in a dungeon, and fettered so that they could not kneel in prayer, they continued to praise the Lord. The hymn may have been one of the prayer-psalms, but whatever they sang, Tertullian’s words were true: “Though the body is shut in, though the flesh is confined, all things are open to the spirit. . . . The leg does not feel the chain when the mind is in the heavens” (Ad Martyras 2; ANF, vol. 3, p. 694).

Unto God. They were servants of the most high God, they were suffering for His sake, and they genuinely praised His holy name. God, in turn, gave them His comfort and strength in a manner incomprehensible to those who do not serve Him.

Heard them. Rather, “were listening to them.” The inner prison held other occupants, outcasts and criminals who had never before heard such sounds in a place that usually echoed to wild curses and foul jests.