Jesus, Hope of the Nations

I try to do a weekly post about some modern worship song we sang in our church service at Bethlehem on Sunday. This week’s time of praise was wonderful! We sang two of my favorites that I have already blogged on: In Christ Alone, and Before the Throne of God Above. Yet it was a song we sang in our Sunday School class which I would like to highlight today.

The song is entitled, “Jesus, Hope of the Nations”. Here are the words:

 

Hope of the Nations

by Brian Doerksen
Jesus hope of the nations
Jesus comfort of all who mourn
You are the source of Heaven’s hope on earth

Jesus light in the darkness
Jesus truth in each circumstance
You are the source of Heaven’s light on earth

In history You lived and died
You broke the chains You rose to life

Chorus:
You are the hope living in us
You are the rock in whom we trust
You are the light
Shining for all the world to see

You rose from the dead conquering fear
Our prince of Peace drawing us near
Jesus our hope living for all who receive
Lord we believe

 

The song is repeated twice, and the chorus will be repeated once or twice more. It is very moving, and really lifts one’s soul to Christ. One of the features of modern praise and worship songs is that they lend themselves well to expressing emotion. Much more so, in my opinion, than many of the older hymns. Emotion is clearly important in praise, yet it should not be merely created by the music. Rather, it should be participated in and experienced in the heart and soul of the true worshipper.

You can see a projection screen master sheet of this song here, and also a chord sheet here. For a sample of the music’s melody, click here and scroll down to where you see the song’s title and pick your audio player version of the mp3 file to listen to.

This song was written very soon after September 11. It was a fitting time for such a song to have been born! God certainly was behind that, as you can see by reading a little of the story behind the song here. Also, you may be interested in a brief bio of the author, Brian Doerksen. And try checking out the author’s website, BrianDoerksen.Com.

I hope the song encourages you to trust and hope more fully in Jesus Christ. He alone is the Hope of the nations!

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∼striving for the unity of the faith for the glory of God∼ Eph. 4:3,13 • Rom. 15:5-7

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