Oosterhuis wrote the text in Dutch, "Zolang er mensen zijn op aarde"[1] in 1959,[2] when he was a priest for students.
[2][4] Dieter Trautwein's translation from 1966, revised in 1972,[2][4] was included in the German Catholic hymnal Gotteslob as GL 425,[1] in the section "Leben in Gott - Vertrauen und Trost" (Life in God – trust and consolation).
[7] It alludes to the promise from Genesis 8:22: "While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
The second stanza reminds of God's word calling for peace ("solang dein Wort zum Frieden ruft").
[7] The fourth stanza addresses God as Light and giver of life, with his Son the bread uniting the believers.