Everybody lives out of some sort of hope. Hope for a better life. Hope that our lives will have meaning. Hope that kids will have success. Hope that we will have enough for when we are old. Hope for friends or family or recognition.

Too often what we’ve been trained to do is to pray to God to help us attain what our hope is. We see Jesus as a powerful helper. With his help, we reason, we can get to where we are supposed to be, we can attain what our desires are.

This song stands against seeing Jesus as a helper to attain your hopes. It proclaims that Jesus is our hope. He is our rock, our foundation, our solid ground. Our life is out of the hope we have in Christ, not toward a hope that Christ helps us attain.

Our hope in Christ is life-changing because it is based on his finished work, in all he’s done. Our hope is that we are significant, we have value and meaning and purpose in his finished work, not in ours. So our other hopes, over time and dwelling in the gospel, become lesser, dimmer, not identity crushing.

We stand, but we stand on Christ. That standing isn’t to a greater work or a more important purpose, it is rather a glorious affirmation that our lives are already on the rock, already wholly blessed, already being used by God.

Jesus isn’t the wood by which we build the boat; he is the boat. He isn’t the sand by which we make sandbags to hold out the flood, he is the rock that keeps the flood away. He isn’t the coach pushing us to improve, he’s the athlete who has won it all and gives us the prize. He is our hope when all other hopes are gone, the hope that is founded on his unshakable faithful love.

If you have been broken, if you aren’t sure you can stand, this song is for you. We will stand. Because of the Promised One who loves us and never fails.

“Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has called us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead…. “ (1 Peter 1:3).