Silver and gold, silver and gold
Everyone wishes for it
How do you measure it's worth?
Just by the pleasure it gives here on earth

Oh, I'm getting old oh, I'm getting old
Everyone wishes for youth
How have I wasted my life?
Trusting the pleasure it gives here on earth

Lord, come with fire lord, come with fire
Everyone's wasting their time
Storing up treasure in vain
Trusting the pleasure it gives here on earth

Oh, I see the end oh, I see the end
Everyone's waiting for death
How do you measure it's worth?
Justice delivers it's gift here on earth

Silver and gold, silver and gold
Silver and gold, silver and gold


Lyrics submitted by NineMenOnRocks, edited by nemov, Mellow_Harsher, Aragorn224

Justice Delivers Its Death Lyrics as written by Sufjan Stevens

Lyrics © BMG Rights Management

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Justice Delivers Its Death song meanings
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    General Comment

    this song has a lot of parallels to the book of Revelations. "Lord come with Fire" parallels the angles trumpets the spit fire down in earth during the end of the world. The part about wasting time storing treasure also comes from the part in revelations where the Angels have sounded their trumpets and the four horsemen have come, yet there were still people who did not repent and clung to their idols of gold, silver, bronze... These people trusted in their earthly pleasures until the very end.

    Sufjan is calling out for earthly pleasure to end. Earthly pleasure might not always seem to be a bad thing but it is in direct conflict with what God wants for us. So Sufjan is asking for God to finally come and take Earthly pleasure away. Similar concept in his song Angels we have heard on high, where he basically says Christianity is where dreams become your greatest danger. He is saying here that doing whatever you want all the time doesn't fly in Christianity. It's all about God and what He wants for you.

    I love Sufjans music and lyrics so much. I don't like giving a Christian meaning to all his songs because I don't think all his songs have Christian undertones, but this one is pretty blatant with the mention of the Lord.

    alpacas21on January 23, 2015   Link

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