When writing letters of consolation, Showalter was inspired by the phrase in the Book of Deuteronomy 33:27, "The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms".

[2] There is an alternate version of the refrain, typically sung by basses: It has been performed and recorded by such artists as Roy Clark, Iris DeMent, Mahalia Jackson, George Jones, Twila Paris, Selah and Norbert Susemihl.

The Carter Family performed the hymn during their time on Mexican Radio Stations in the late 1930s and early 1940s.

The song has been used in several movies, including The Human Comedy (1943), Native Son (1950), The Night of the Hunter (1955), Phase IV (1974), Wild Bill (1995), Next of Kin (1989), True Grit (2010) (of which it forms about a quarter of the score[3]) and First Reformed (2017).

It was also used in a Guinness beer commercial titled "Empty Chair" which was produced by Human Worldwide Inc. and in a 2014 Sainsbury's ad regarding the World War I "Christmas Truce" of 1914.