Remember We Are Dust

Lyrics

Verse 1
You molded dust to make a man (Gen. 2:7, I Cor. 15:47, Job 10:9)
A head, a heart, a tongue
But he was not a living soul
Until You filled His lungs (Gen. 2:7)
Without Your power all we have is death
Remember we are dust and give us breath (Ps. 103:13-14, Gen. 3:19, Ecc. 3:20, Ezek. 37:5-6)

Verse 2
We till the sod and reap the thorns (Gen. 3:18)
They tear and scar our skin
Reminding us that blood must be
The sacrifice for sin (Heb. 9:22, Gen. 3:21, Matt. 26:28, Mark 14:24, Eph. 1:7, Col. 1:14, I John 1:7, Rev. 1:5)
You sympathize with what we’re going through (Heb. 4:15)
Remember we are dust, for so were You (Ps. 103:13-14, Gen. 3:19, Ecc. 3:20, Heb. 2:17, Phil. 2:7, John 1:14)

Verse 3
The tree of life still grows today (Rev. 2:7, Rev. 22:2, Rev. 22:14)
Beyond the reach of man (Gen. 3:22)
We long to touch and taste its fruit
But no one living can
We’ll never reach forever on our own
Remember we are dust, and call us home (Ps. 103:13-14, Gen. 3:19, Ecc. 3:20)

Verse 4
We long to leave this earthly clay (Rom. 8:23, Phil. 1:23)
When we are dust no more (I Cor. 15:44-49, I Cor. 15-53-54, Phil. 3:21)
We’ll walk with You at cool of day
Like Adam did before (Gen. 3:8)
But while You keep us here, Lord, keep us strong
Remember we are dust, but not for long (Ps. 103:13-14, Gen. 3:19, Ecc. 3:20, Ecc. 12:7)

Release Information

Released on Somewhere East of Eden (CD/streaming, 2020).

Author & Composer

Words and Music by Daniel J. Mount

Publishing Information

Completed on February 20, 2015.

CC BY-NC-ND 4.0

This song is also released for free non-commercial use under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license. Here’s a little more about what that means.

Sheet Music

Lead Sheet

Song Story

(Written in 2024.) In the 25 years since I started writing songs, I’ve finished 767 songs. This one’s my favorite.

It comes from Psalm 103:13-14: “As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust.”

When I lived in North Carolina, I became friends with Jim Hendrix, an older Christian in my church. He was in his late 70s; though his health was declining, he still had the spirit and zeal of a young man.

His favorite Psalm was Psalm 103. I can’t count how many times he would quote to me his favorite verses, 13 and 14: “Like as a father pitieth his children, so the LORD pitieth them that fear him. For he knoweth our frame; he remembereth that we are dust.”

We talked about that passage so much that it started to seep into my soul. I tried to capture some of the heart of this passage in this song, “Remember We Are Dust.”

I wish I had the right words to capture what I learned from him as I watched him start to come to terms with the “to dust we shall return” part of the life of the believer. I don’t. But the lyrics to this song are the closest I’ve come.