“Abstract (Psychopomp)” according to the artist in an interview for Belfast Telegraph is written by a person who is Sphinx-like from an autobiographical point of view and is a mixture of different memories. One is watching an animal being hit by a car in Greystones (this happened to Hozier when he was young). Another memory is coming across a dead sheep at some point as a kid and a memory of being in love as well.

In Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, a sphinx appears in the 8th Circle of Hell, specifically in the 9th pouch known as the Pouch of the Sowers of Discord or Schismatics where souls are punished by being split and wounded. In the study of religions and mythology, a psychopomp is a being who guides spirits from the world of the living to the afterlife or underworld. Its use in the title of this song is a reference to the being who he describes as rushing to dying animals to comfort them.

The track was teased on June 28, 2023, when Hozier sent some of his fans who had pre-ordered the album a postcard previewing the lyrics and revealing that the track was the fourteenth on the album.