Precious Angel

Angel helps Bob see

The lie his life was before.

Bob asks for more light.

"Precious Angel" is the second song on Bob Dylan's first Christian album, "Slow Train Coming," released in 1979. It's the story of how a woman led him to spiritual salvation, accepting Jesus and so on. It just so happens that he's highly attracted to her. Here's the basic story:

1. She's a precious angel who showed Bob how blind he was, and that he was standing on a weak foundation.

2. There's faith or lack of faith, and you can't be neutral in this spiritual battle.

3. Spiritual truth is in our hearts, but because of a canny enemy, we refuse to believe.

4. He couldn't have brought himself to this point. Only she could have done that.

5. All his friends say everything is fine, but they've not spent any appreciable time considering that they're going to burn in hell, and will be begging for death (and won't be able to die).

6. This other woman he was with is a drag because she talked about Buddhism and Islam and other fashionable religions, but she never paused to think about Jesus.

7. What Bob and the angel get from God can't be stolen. Speaking of things they have in common, did she know that they both are descended from slaves (she from black people, he from the Jews who were imprisoned by Pharaoh in Egypt)

8. She's a hot mama of an angel, and they need to not get distracted as they follow the path to liberation out of Egypt through Ethiopia to a special judgment panel of one: Christ.

While this kind of religion isn't my thing, the song sounds fantastic. It's worth listening to for the lead guitar alone, courtesy of Mark Knopfler of Dire Straits.