About the Song

Romans 8 has long been one of my favorite chapters of scripture. There’s so much lovely doctrine there, that it’s worth constant revisiting.

For years I have wanted to write a song based on some of the things you find in that chapter, especially the final five verses. Alas, setting scripture to music verbatim isn’t my strong suit. So though this song is based on some of the concepts found in chapter 8,  if you’re looking for a verbatim setting, well, keep looking.

In this chapter, Paul declares himself persuaded that nothing shall come between us and the love of Christ. He lists quite a number of examples: tribulation; distress; persecution; famine; peril; sword; death; powers; height…

Height? That one made me stop to think.

I know that when I ascend to the heights of mortal life, I sometimes start putting mortal gods before Him. I delight in transient things; I love “the garish day and spite of fears,” and pride rules my will. Everything is sunny so I forget to thank the One who made the sun shine.

I don’t know why it should be harder for me to keep Christ’s love for me and mine for Him at the forefront of my mind during times of smooth sailing than it is during all-out tempests. I guess it just feels more urgent in the depths than on the heights. So maybe a greater awareness of that is what I’m supposed to take from Paul’s words.

Since I’ve mused on this one for so long there are quite a few other thoughts which I shall mercifully not inflict on you. Nor did I inflict them on the text. Well, not many of them. 😉

Here’s the song I finally landed on, for Solo (the lower setting.) and for Solo w/optional treble duet (the higher setting). It’s just my take on a chapter I love.