Songfacts®:

• This modern hymn tells the story of Christ's final hours before the cross, which St. Matthew describes in Matthew 26:36-45. Written by Northern Irish composer Keith Getty and veteran English songwriter Stuart Townend, it is set in Gethsemane, a garden on Jerusalem's Mount of Olives.
  
  To see the King of heaven fall
  In anguish to His knees,
  The Light and Hope of all the world
  Now overwhelmed with grief
  
  Jesus was overcome in Gethsemane with sorrow at the prospect of the agonies he was about to go through. But because of His love for us, the Son of God allowed himself to go through the horrors of being crucified. He knew that in taking up on the cross the curse of every sin that has ever been committed, mankind would be reconciled with his Father.
• Keith Getty came up with the melody first. Stuart Townend then came up with the words after hearing a sermon from American minister C J Mahaney on the theme of Jesus in the Garden.
• Keith Getty and Stuart Townend are best known for writing together "In Christ Alone," which in 2010 was named by a BBC Songs of Praise survey as the second best hymn of all time.
• Keith Getty and Stuart Townend wrote "Gethsemane" in 2009. Three years later, Getty recorded the song for his album Hymns for the Christian Life, which he laid down in Nashville with his wife Kristyn.