Not so much a question of being right or wrong..., that is what it says....
The 'eight hundred years' refers to the length of time our country was/is under occupation, and what has kept us going during those troubled times (above the pain, descending.) is as is explained above.
I think that verse speaks directly to the heart, as does the whole song, and the meaning is as deep as you wish understand it.
In other words "You threw everything at us, and we still bounced back"