We Made It

John P. Kee keeps this one short and testimonial rather than building toward a big finish — "we made it through hard trials, we made it through the pain," stated plainly as fact rather than worked up to gradually. The second verse names the cost of staying: "many tire along the way, they had no vision, no desire to stay."

What kept the ones who stayed isn't described as willpower: "we kept praying, we stood strong; my life is in God's hands." The vamp that follows repeats a single support structure until it's the only thing left standing in the song: "He upholdeth me, He holds me up... with His right hand."

Isaiah's promise to uphold with a righteous right hand, and the psalmist's confidence that God's right hand specifically is what holds a person steady, both sit directly behind the vamp's repeated claim. Paul's instruction not to grow weary in doing good backs up the song's honest admission that some people didn't make it to the end of the road — not everyone stays, which is exactly why the song insists on naming who held the ones who did.