Michael W. Smith - Above All Lyrics
Lyrics
Above all powers
Above all kings
Above all nature
And all created things
Above all wisdom
And all the ways of man
You were here
Before the world began
Above all kingdoms
Above all thrones
Above all wonders
The world has ever known
Above all wealth
And treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure
What You're worth
Crucified
Laid behind a stone
You lived to die
Rejected and alone
Like a rose
Trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all
Above all powers
Above all kings
Above all nature
And all created things
Above all wisdom
And all the ways of man
You were here
Before the world began
Above all kingdoms
Above all thrones
Above all wonders
The world has ever known
Above all wealth
And treasures of the earth
There's no way to measure
What You're worth
Crucified
Laid behind a stone
You lived to die
Rejected and alone
Like a rose
Trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all
Crucified
Laid behind a stone
You lived to die
Rejected and alone
Like a rose
Trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all
Like the rose
Trampled on the ground
You took the fall
And thought of me
Above all
Video
Michael W. Smith - Above All (Live)
Meaning & Inspiration
I was listening to this from that 2001 Worship album, and it’s strange how it starts by just listing things God is over—kings, nature, human wisdom. It feels like those opening verses in John, where everything that exists was made through Him, nothing apart from Him. It captures that sense of His pre-existence, that He was there before the world began. It’s heavy, thinking about Him being high above everything we consider important, wealth or kingdoms or whatever. Then the song shifts, and it gets really personal, really fast. It moves from this massive, cosmic view of God to Him being "crucified" and "laid behind a stone." That’s where my head starts spinning a bit. The imagery of the "rose trampled on the ground" is beautiful, I guess, but I keep wondering if it’s a bit too soft for what actually happened. The prophets talked about Him being a root out of dry ground, despised and rejected, and when I think about the actual scene—the nails, the isolation, the complete abandonment—it feels way grittier than a trampled flower. Yet, the point the song makes about Him thinking of me while He was suffering, that’s where I get stuck. Is it really true that He had me in mind right then, in that agony? Romans says He died for us while we were still sinners, so there’s this weird tension between His total sovereignty over the universe and Him choosing to stay on that cross specifically because of people like me. I’m not sure I even fully grasp what that means, or if I’m just projecting my own need for worth onto the Creator of everything. It’s hard to hold those two things together—the God who is above every power and king, and the God who let Himself be crushed like that. Maybe that’s the point, but it still feels like a massive, uncomfortable mystery I’m trying to wrap my brain around.