According to Paul Kelly’s book ‘How to Make Gravy’, this song came from Paul just singing psalm 23, and inserting into it a line that has been ‘floating around for more than a hundred years in blues, gospel and spirituals’. That ‘line’ comes from 1Thess 5: 16-17, which says “The Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the middle of the air”.

This song wonderfully weaves together Psalm 23 and the concept described in Thessalonians, bringing together the Christian comfort and assurance of God travelling on the journey with them in the here and now, and the ultimate Christian goal of being re-united with those who have gone before, for a life in eternity.