Songfacts®:

• Elevation Church worship leaders Chris Brown and Tiffany Hammer wrote this song with Elevation lead pastor Steven Furtick and Bethel Music's Brandon Lake in 2019. They recorded it live at Elevation Church's Ballantyne campus on January 15, 2020, with Brandon Lake supplying lead vocals. Released on August 21, 2020 as the second official single from the album of the same name, it became Elevation Worship's first #1 single on Billboard's Hot Christian Songs chart.
• The song originated from a sermon Steven Furtick preached from 2 Kings 13:20-21 titled The Mystery of Potential. The passage details how after the prophet Elisha died, his good influence remained, causing miracles.
  
  Elisha died and was buried. Now Moabite raiders used to enter the country every spring. Once while some Israelites were burying a man, suddenly they saw a band of raiders; so they threw the man's body into Elisha's tomb. When the body touched Elisha's bones, the man came to life and stood up on his feet.
  
  Chris Brown explained to New Release Today: "Elisha still had a resurrection miracle left in his bones, and God is still in the business of bringing dead things back to life. If we'll trust God even with the seemingly dead areas of our lives, if we'll believe in the power of God, if we'll declare resurrection power over everything we sow, nothing will be wasted. Nothing is over. God can turn any situation around."
• Chris Brown told Apple Music that Brandon Lake has "got this Southern grit to his vocals" and the songwriters wanted to tap into that, plus a Springsteen vibe:
  
  "I think Pastor Steven picked up the electric and kind of launched into that bridge, and when that riff started, it was like, 'Okay, this is game on,'" he continued. "It turned into a whole thing, because it gave us the vision for what the song was."
  
  Brown added they "had been circling the chorus, which is a little bit more chill," but when they created the bridge they came up with a Psalm 30:11 reference, "You turn mourning to dancing, you give beauty for ashes," which then gave them the idea for the "You turn graves into gardens" line. He concluded: "It's got this lyrical depth to it, but then this grit that's there musically."
• This is the title track of Elevation Worship's eighth live album (12th album overall). "Our hope is that this album provides a new perspective that allows listeners to see new life in seemingly dead places," said Chris Brown. "We want the music and message to elevate their faith to believe in the resurrection power of all the dreams, hopes, and promises they've sown. And to be reminded that in every season, and every circumstance, God is able to do more than we could ask or imagine when we trust Him with our present and future. What God breathes on must come to life, and what we may see as a grave, God sees as a garden."
• "Graves" climbed to #1 in its 46th week on Hot Christian Songs, setting a record for the longest journey to the top. It passed Jeremy Camp's "Let It Fade," which reached the summit in its 34th week in May 2008.
  
  Elevation Worship's record was surpassed on the Hot Christian Songs chart dated October 7, 2023, by Chris Tomlin's "Holy Forever." Tomlin's tune took a 59-week journey to the peak position.