Lyrics Page
City On A Hill
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Oct 30, 2026 updated
The Mercy Room album
Verified editorial review
Song Meaning
Darkness is where "City on a Hill" begins: dancing with it, walking "straight into the wind," spinning with shadows and unable to find the way home. The pre-chorus names the low point exactly, "midnight skies of disappointment" and a valley "pitch black deep within," but it pivots on "I still believe that."
The chorus gives that belief an image, "a light of a city on a hill" that did not burn out in the storm. The rescue comes from outside the singer: "Somebody was pulling the darkness apart." Verse two adds "life within the ashes" and "forgotten embers" that guide from a distance, and the bridge turns the dark around: "The darker the night gets, the brighter the morning is," so whatever is coming "must be something beautiful."
The central image comes from Jesus' words in Matthew 5:14, and the hope in the dark reads alongside John 1:5 and Psalm 30:5, where weeping may last for a night and joy arrives with the morning.
Lyrics Verified by Editorial Team
I've been dancing with the darkness
Walking straight into the wind
I've been spinning with the shadows
Can't find my way home again
Under midnight skies of disappointment
I can barely see
From the pitch black deep within the valley
I still believe that
Somewhere inside there's a light of a city on a hill (a city on a hill)
And if it didn't burn out in the storm then I know it never will (I know it never will)
Even though I thought all the hope I had been lost in me
Somebody was pulling the darkness apart, reminding me that
Somewhere inside there's a light of a city on a hill
A city on a hill
A city on a hill
A city
There's still life within the ashes
Where forgotten embers glow
Moving towards it from a distance
And it guides me where to go
Under midnight skies of disappointment
I can barely see
From the pitch black deep within the valley
I still believe that
Somewhere inside there's a light of a city on a hill (a city on a hill)
And if it didn't burn out in the storm then I know it never will (I know it never will)
Even though I thought all the hope I had been lost in me
Somebody was pulling the darkness apart, reminding me that
Somewhere inside there's a light of a city on a hill
A city on a hill
A city
The darker the night gets
The brighter the morning is
So whatever's coming must be
Something beautiful
The darker the night gets
The brighter the morning is
So whatever's coming must be
Something beautiful
Somewhere inside there's a light of a city on a hill (a city on a hill)
And if it didn't burn out in the storm then I know it never will (I know it never will)
Even though I thought all the hope I had been lost in me
Somebody was pulling the darkness apart, reminding me that
Somewhere inside there's a light of a city on a hill
A city on a hill
A city...
(There's a light
There's a light
There's a light
Of a city)