Acts 17 contains Paul’s address to the philosophers of Athens at the Areopagus - the New Testament’s most sustained argument for the living God delivered to an audience with no prior Scripture.

Full sung version coming soon.

Lyrics

Now while Paul waited for them at Athens His spirit was provoked within him As he saw the city full of idols So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews And the devout persons

And in the marketplace every day Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers Were conversing with him Some said what does this babbler want to say Others said he seems to be advocating foreign deities

Because he preached Jesus and the resurrection They took hold of him And brought him to the Areopagus saying May we know what this new teaching is Which you are speaking about

For you bring certain strange things to our ears We want to know therefore what these things mean Now all the Athenians and the strangers living there Spent their time in nothing else But either to tell or to hear some new thing

Paul stood in the middle of the Areopagus and said You men of Athens I perceive that you are Very religious in all things For as I passed along and observed The objects of your worship

I also found an altar with this inscription To an unknown God What therefore you worship in ignorance I announce to you The God who made the world and all things in it

Being Lord of heaven and earth Doesn’t dwell in temples made with hands He made from one blood every nation of men To dwell on all the surface of the earth That they should seek the Lord

If perhaps they might reach out for him and find him Though he is not far from each one of us For in him we live move and have our being Being then the offspring of God We ought not to think that the Divine Nature

Is like gold or silver or stone The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent Because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world In righteousness by the man whom he has ordained

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Acts 17 sung by Psalm Selah. The whole Bible, one chapter at a time.

Published 2026-05-22 · Last updated 2026-06-06
Written by Reid Wender, Editorial Director at Psalmody Press