I first heard Johnny Cash sing this song at a Billy Graham crusade sometime in the 1970s, and I learned it then. It’s maybe more timely today than it was back then. I found several different recordings of this song by Johnny Cash on YouTube, and one of them used the same lyrics as I learned initially. Still, most of the recordings contain a variation of a couple of lines in the second verse. I’m not sure that Johnny Cash wrote this song, but I’m assuming he did, and I couldn’t find any info online contrary to that.

Before anybody says, “What’s the strumming pattern? ” The song is in 4/4 time, so any common 4/4 pattern is fine. I just did what sounded right to me at the time, and it’s by no means THE strumming pattern.