I Bless Your Name

Acts 16:23-25 

The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten with rods. After they had been severely flogged, they were thrown into prison, and the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully. When he received these orders, he put them in the inner cell and fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening to them.

 Flogging. Imprisonment. Darkness. Feet in stocks. And…singing? Paul and Silas did not know the rest of the story. They had no idea that an earthquake would loosen the chains and burst open the doors. They had no idea that the jailer and his family would enter God’s family as a result of their testimony. They had no idea that they would eventually walk out of that prison to continue the work to which God had called them. And yet they prayed and sang in that inner prison cell, giving glory to their Lord and Savior.

On January 12, 2010, a powerful earthquake hit the country of Haiti. Trapped under the rubble of the Hotel Montana was a man named Dan Woolley. A graduate of Azusa Pacific, he was visiting Haiti on an assignment to gather stories about Compassion International’s work with poverty-stricken mothers and babies. Immediately following the earthquake, Dan was confined to the “inner cell” of an elevator for 65 hours before his miraculous rescue. He writes about his experience over these 2 and a half days in his book Unshaken and on his personal blog.

Somewhere between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning, my first night after the earthquake, I was trying to calm my spirit and align my heart with God’s heart. I knew worship would help, but I was having trouble getting my mind there, so I indulged in an hour of iPhone battery power and listened to worship songs, there in my broken elevator.

The chorus of the song “My Savior, My God” was encouraging to Dan that night. He writes:

Then the chorus is one of my favorite sing-at-the-top-of-your-lungs-in-the-car choruses

“My savior loves, my savior lives, my savior’s always there for me…My God He was, my God He is, my God is always gonna be…”

Can you imagine how encouraging those words were to me in my situation? I literally had to force myself to hold back my voice, because I was afraid i’d spook the others trapped with me (just picture me absolutely rocking out at the top of my lungs at the bottom of six stories of rubble–they’d think I lost it!). *

After reading this story, I wondered if Dan eventually found himself singing those praise songs in that dark inner cell of the broken elevator. So I was able to reach him by phone and I asked! He said that yes, singing hymns and songs of praise really ministered to him during that time. 

Imprisoned under six stories of rubble, trapped in the darkness, injured and in pain. And giving praise and glory to his Savior, not knowing that he would eventually be pulled from the ruins of the Hotel Montana.


Bill and Julie Davis, a young couple who used to attend PFB but are now living in the San Diego area, are currently walking through a time of unknowns - waiting and praising in that "inner cell." On November 26, Bill was mountain biking with friends from church when he hit a rock, flipped his bike, and landed on his head and back. He immediately couldn’t feel his legs. In surgery, it was discovered that there was damage to his spine, with an unknown prognosis for future mobility. Now, 2 months later, he is in intensive therapy in an attempt to regain muscle strength and control in his legs. Three days after his accident, his wife (Julie) wrote this: 

Bill is giving God glory in the midst of this horrible accident and choosing to Praise God when He gives and takes away…

About two weeks after that, while Bill was still intubated in the hospital, she wrote:

The amazing thing is Bill is very much awake and communicating via a sheet that has the alphabet on it. He just spells out the words with his thumb. It is good because it makes him focus. He keeps hugging everyone who comes in his room and he had me and Julia tell them that the hug was from Jesus because He loves them. He also had us play some worship music and he was lifting his hands and praising the Lord. Such an amazing man he is. I am so blessed by him. He is at total peace about the tubes because as he typed out… "it is God’s will." **

Imprisoned by tubes and paralysis, facing daily pain and the darkness of an unknown future. And giving glory to God.

Wow. Only a God who consumes our very being, who changes us from the inside out could bring beautiful music from a dark place. Only a God who has the power to move mountains could stir our souls to sing in spite of the chains of physical and emotional pain.

Psalm 47:6-7

Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. 

For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise.

Nehemiah 9:5 

…Stand up and praise the LORD your God, who is from everlasting to everlasting. 

Blessed be your glorious name, and may it be exalted above all blessing and praise.

Click here to see a video of the Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir singing I Bless Your Name.

* Excerpt from Dan's blog found here.

** Excerpt from Bill's blog found here.