What A Beautiful Name It Is

Hillsong Worship's “What A Beautiful Name It Is” moves through the story of Christ in order. It begins before creation with “You were the Word at the beginning, one with God the Lord Most High,” and goes from there to the incarnation, “You didn't want heaven without us, so Jesus You brought heaven down.” A short comparison carries the personal part: “My sin was great, Your love was greater.”

The chorus repeats the title phrase as a kind of acclamation, with the Name of Jesus Christ called a King, and the bridge supplies the cross and resurrection in four lines. “Death could not hold You, the veil tore before You, you silence the boast of sin and grave.” Then it turns to heaven's response, “The heavens are roaring the praise of Your glory.” It ends with the line that gives the final version of the chorus its edge: “What a powerful Name it is, nothing can stand against.”

The opening comes straight from John 1:1, and the torn veil is the event in Matthew 27:51. “Yours is the kingdom, yours is the glory” echoes the closing of the Lord's Prayer, and the name above all names is Philippians 2:9.