The characters in “Psalms 40:2” may be low right now, but they know that’s where you start your climb.

Track: “Psalms 40:2”
Album: The Life of the World to Come (2009) and The Life of the World in Flux (2009)

“Psalms 40:2” builds as it goes. John Darnielle’s voice vibrates over the very first line and he bares his teeth over even simple turns of phrase like “checked into a Red Roof Inn.” He almost speaks, more than sings, some of the lines in the opening verses, but you can feel the tension through words like “shrapnel.” It escalates so slightly, line by line, until the explosion at the end with the exultation that “he has raised me from the pit and he will set me high.”

The delivery, and the drums, especially, tell you this is getting worse and worse. It’s directly about some people, young people, who are driving around and destroying things. They feel bad, but not too bad, and that’s something most of us can relate to at that point in our lives. Darnielle has said before it’s about a specific chapel in Missouri. I haven’t been there and you probably haven’t either, but you’ve been to the one in your mind. When you’re young you feel extreme. You feel like everything matters, and it kinda does.

The verse is about that ending line, but there’s a lot going on there. Darnielle once gave an interview where he mentioned that this one is about an idea of closeness to God through opposition. It is when you are at your lowest — when you’re in that pit — that you can be raised the highest. It doesn’t feel that way in the moment, but it’s a nice thing to keep in mind if you can.