Within its traditional seven verses, this soulful, powerfully moving, yet nobly restrained spiritual encapsulizes the entire story of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus as described in the four Gospels of the Bible's New Testament. It is one of several spirituals, such as "Hammering," "He Arose", "They Led My Lord Away," and "He Never Said a Mumblin' Word", in which the people who suffered through the tragedy of American slavery would draw a dramatic parallel between their experience and that of the persecution and torture of the great spiritual master and man of peace.

The song opens in the traditional "lining out" style of American country congregations in which the preacher or choir leader sings the first line and the choir or congregation responds. Thus, the (usually) solo voice sings "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" (In some arrangements, there is an immediate echo in harmony "Were you there?"). Then the chorus responds in full harmony echoing the same words but their melodic line follows the higher notes of the chords and curves downward at the end of the phrase. (Some arrangements then add a wordless humming or brief musical gesture on "oh" or "ah.")

In the next line, the singers express their intimate reaction to their overwhelming memories and mental images: "Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble...." On each "tremble," the melody slowly descends and holds at each two steps to steady itself and reflect.

Once again the question is asked "Were you there when they crucified my Lord?" the melody beginning with a large skip and then settling to the cadence by simple whole steps.

The following verses draw the imagery of the crucifixion and subsequent resurrection from the tomb, leaving the singers and hearers with positive hope for deliverance from their sorrows: (2) Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree? (3) Were you there when they pierced Him in the side? (4) Were you there when the sun refused to shine? (5) Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb? (6) Were you there when they rolled the stone away? (7) Did you know He is risen from the dead? (repeat) Oh! Sometimes I want to shout, "Glory, Glory, Glory!," Did you know He is risen from the dead?

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