One of my favorite U2 songs is Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses. It is a very personal song for me. It is literally about my first love. When we broke up, I made him sit down while I read him the lyrics. I couldn’t have written a more perfect song for the way I felt. I have never thought about Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses in religious terms, until now. The lyric “Well you left my heart empty as a vacant lot for any spirit to haunt” may have been referencing Luke 11:24-26 “When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house swept clean and put in order. Then it goes and takes seen other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first.” Later in the song “Hallelujah! Heaven’s white rose the doors you open I just can’t close” may be referencing God as ‘heaven’s white rose.’ Dante depicted paradise as a white rose where God was at the center and saints surrounded him. The white rose symbolizes purity, divine love, and perfection – all characteristics of God.

You’re dangerous, ‘cos you’re honest.
You’re dangerous, you don’t know what you want.
Well you left my heart empty as a vacant lot
For any spirit to haunt.
You’re an accident waiting to happen
You’re a piece of glass left there on a beach.
Well you tell me things
I know you’re not supposed to
Then you leave me just out of reach.
Who’s gonna ride your wild horses?
Who’s gonna drown in your blue sea?
Who’s gonna ride your wild horses?
Who’s gonna fall at the foot of thee?
Well you stole it ‘cos I needed the cash
And you killed it ‘cos I needed revenge.
Well you lied to me ‘cos I asked you to.
Baby, can we still be friends?
Who’s gonna ride your wild horses?
Who’s gonna drown in your blue sea?
Who’s gonna ride your wild horses?
Who’s gonna fall at the foot of thee?
Ah, the deeper I spin
Ah, the hunter will sin for your ivory skin.
Took a drive in the dirty rain
To a place where the wind calls your name
Under the trees, the river laughing at you and me.
Hallelujah! Heaven’s white rose
The doors you open I just can’t close.
Don’t turn around, don’t turn around again.
Don’t turn around your gypsy heart.
Don’t turn around, don’t turn around again.
Don’t turn around, and don’t look back.
Come on now love, don’t you look back.
Who’s gonna ride your wild horses?
Who’s gonna drown in your blue sea?
Who’s gonna taste your saltwater kisses?
Who’s gonna take the place of me?
Who’s gonna ride your wild horses?
Who’s gonna tame the heart of thee?

To me, Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses is still a song about a relationship gone bad, but now I know some of the lyrics are inspired by God and the Bible.