The lyric turns on a sober double meaning. Its narrator faces an earthly trial — a courtroom, a prison cell, the judgment of other people — but reminds himself that this is not the trial that matters most. His “main trial,” the reckoning of his soul before God, is still to come. That stark contrast between human and divine judgment gave the song real weight.

Sung in the close, mournful Stanley harmony, the song became part of the brothers’ deep body of sacred material.