The Story Behind the Song
This song can be viewed on YouTube by clicking here.
Question: What do you get when a committee designs a horse?
Answer: A camel.
So, then, what do you get when five accomplished musical theologians (or are they theological musicians?) get together to write a song? If those five are Keith Getty, Matt Boswell, Jordan Kauflin, Matt Merker and Matt Papa, you get “Christ Our Hope in Life and Death,” their first collaborative effort as a songwriting team. Click here to hear the men describe in their own words the process through which they worked.
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“Christ Our Hope in Life and Death” was birthed from a desire to have the Church sing about its source of hope, Jesus Christ. Its first lyric, “What is our hope in life and death?,” is inspired by the first question in the Heidelberg Catechism, “What is your only comfort in life and death?” (A catechism is a teaching tool, a summary of the major tenets of a religion in the form of question and answers. The Heidelberg Catechism was formulated in 1563 and explains Reformation understandings of God and salvation.)
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The song follows the same format of questions followed by answers. The three stanzas are comprised of a series of queries followed by responses as shown in the chart below:
The stanzas are interwoven with a chorus that acts as a doxology of praise which wells up within us as we sing the great truths of the verses. The only appropriate response to the revelation found in the first verse, that God combines unstoppable power with unquenchable love to provide us an unshakable salvation, is “Hallelujah!”
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How should we respond to God’s constant care and protection throughout this earthly existence as detailed in verse two? “Our hope springs eternal!”
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And after this life on earth is ended and its trials, and death itself, have been destroyed, what is our final and eternal response? “Now and ever we confess Christ our hope in life and death.”
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It’s been said that a person can live up to 40 days without food, about 4 days without water, around 4 minutes without air, but not even 4 seconds without hope. Thanks be to God, we don’t have to attempt to exist without hope, for as believers we have a sure Savior (“Christ Jesus our hope” [1 Timothy 1:1]), a constant companion in this life (“On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again” [2 Corinthians 1:10]), and a fixed future (“hope of eternal life” [Titus 1:2]).
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“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope” (Romans 15:13).
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Anastasia Music 