Acts 2:24 vs. “O Praise the Name (Anástasis)”

Hillsong Worship · checked 2026-08-21

This song is checked more than once. Each proof takes it against one passage, so the findings differ. Also checked against 1 Corinthians 15:3-4.

What we checked

PassageActs 2:24 chapter ↗ 1 more proof on Acts 2 →

Translation shownBSB (Berean Standard Bible)

Presents itself asinspired-by

Categorynot a quote

AlbumOpen Heaven / River Wild · 2015

Words addressed tovaries by section

Teaching or experienceteaching (states truths)

Graded against the standard

Quotation criteria not graded: this song never presents its words as scripture

Applies to every song the Name held holy · God shown holy · true of God · the standard

✓Reverent treatment

✓ What's good

Gives the burial a full verse. Acts 2:31 says the point at issue was that His body did not see decay, and a song that stays in the tomb keeps that in view
Shows death beaten rather than merely escaped, which is the direction verse 24 travels
Christ is the subject of nearly every line in the verses, and the singer appears as witness and beneficiary rather than as the subject
Carries the story past the resurrection to the return, so what gets sung is a whole arc and not one scene
Says it is nothing but a song. There is no citation to check and no translation to verify, so no part of it can be misheard as a quotation

⚠ Cautions

Verse 24's reason, that death could not have kept Him, is not in the song. Repetition will plant the resurrection as a victory won, not as an outcome that was never in doubt
Acts 2:24 makes God the one who raises. The song's grammar has the Son rising, which scripture also says elsewhere, but the Father's part in the resurrection is not what this song will plant
The publisher's own page lists a single scripture reference for the song, Romans 5:8, which is a verse about the cross. Nothing in the rights holder's material connects the song to Acts 2:24, so any resemblance is the shared story rather than the song pointing at the verse

Verse Proof

Acts 2:24

The text in BSB (Berean Standard Bible)

“But God raised Him from the dead, releasing Him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for death to keep Him in its grip.”

Peter is preaching in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, to a crowd of Jews and God-fearers who have just heard the disciples speaking in their own languages. Verse 24 is the turn in his sermon. He has said that Jesus was handed over by God's set plan and put to death by the hands of the lawless, and this is what God did next. Peter does not leave the reason standing as an assertion. In the verses that follow he quotes Psalm 16, points out that David died and was buried and that David's tomb was still in the city, and concludes that David was speaking as a prophet about the Messiah's rising. The impossibility in verse 24 is the claim. Psalm 16 is the evidence Peter offers for it.

What the song says, described not quoted

Four verses and a repeated chorus. The first turns the singer's mind to the cross and to the wounds Christ bore for him. The second stays inside the burial: the body laid in Joseph's tomb, the stone, the stillness. The third is the third day at dawn, the Son rising and death beaten. The fourth looks ahead to His return in glory and to the singer rising among the saints to see His face. The chorus is direct praise of the name of the Lord. Who the words speak to shifts across the song: the verses narrate about Christ in the third person, and the chorus turns and addresses God. No chapter or verse is cited anywhere, and nothing is offered as a quotation.

Nothing is attributed, because nothing is quoted and the song does not present itself as a setting of this verse or any other. What can be measured is how much of Acts 2:24 the song's resurrection verse carries. The verse has three parts: God raised Him, He was released from the agony of death, and the reason, that death could not have kept Him. The song has the event, and it has the release, since death is shown beaten rather than merely survived. It does not have the reason. It also does not have the agency. In the song's grammar the Son rises; in Acts 2:24 God raises Him. Both ways of saying it are scriptural, and the active voice is not an error. It is simply not this verse's voice.

· Not a quote: The song never says it is quoting and cites no reference. It narrates the resurrection without the two things Acts 2:24 adds to the event. The verse says God is the one who raised Him. It says death could not have held Him.

▸ Official upload. Now listen with the proof in mind.

The song sings a victory. Acts 2:24 says something stronger, that death never had a hold it could keep.

Why it matters

Peter is not narrating at Pentecost. He is arguing, in the city where the crucifixion had happened weeks before, in front of people who had watched it. An empty tomb on its own can be heard as a wonder, a thing that happened once and might not have. Verse 24 refuses that hearing. It says death had no hold that could be kept, and Peter turns to Psalm 16 to show the claim was made in advance. A song can carry the whole event and still leave a singer with a rescue where the text gives a certainty.

Is it safe to dwell on?

Sung on repeat, this song fixes your attention on God.

What repetition plants here is the gospel in scenes: cross, tomb, dawn, return. That is a good thing to carry, and the dwelling tag is God because the singer spends the song looking at Christ rather than at himself. Notice what a year of singing it will not plant. It will not plant a reason. The resurrection will settle in memory as the morning the story turned, which it is, and not as the morning when something always impossible became visible. If you want the reason too, read Peter's sermon through to verse 32. The song hands you the scene, and Acts 2 hands you why the scene could not have gone the other way.

Helpful comparison

The finding does not depend on which Bible is open. The BSB says it was impossible for death to keep Him in its grip. The KJV says it was not possible that he should be holden of it. The WEB says it was not possible that he should be held by it. The wording differs and the claim does not: all three name God as the one who raised Him, and all three give a reason. The translation toggle on this page can be moved without changing what the song leaves out. This site also checks the same song against 1 Corinthians 15:3-4, where the missing element is different again.

Sources

Hillsong Worship — O Praise The Name (Anástasis) Lyric Video · (the recording checked for this proof; oEmbed returns author_name "Hillsong Worship", the artist's own channel)
Worship Together — O Praise The Name (Anástasis) · (publisher distribution page: writers Dean Ussher, Marty Sampson, Benjamin Hastings; CCLI 7037787; the one scripture reference listed for the song is Romans 5:8)
PraiseCharts — O Praise The Name (Anastasis) · (same three writers; album Open Heaven / River Wild, 2015; copyright 2015 Hillsong Music Publishing / Small City Music; no scripture references listed)
Hillsong — O Praise The Name (Anástasis) lyrics page · (the rights holder's own page: writer credits, four verses and one chorus, no citation in the song, and the third-day verse in the active voice with the Son as subject)
GodSongs.net — O Praise The Name (Anástasis) · (verse-by-verse content; the song narrates the resurrection without stating a reason for it; the Son as grammatical subject of the rising)
The Berean Test — O Praise the Name (Anástasis) · (line-by-line mapping of the song to more than forty passages; Acts 2:24 is not among them; confirms the song cites no reference of its own)
Song Scoops — O Praise the Name (Anastasis) · (the writers' own account of the writing sessions, and the subtitle as the Greek word for resurrection)

Corrections

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