The present paper addresses the use of high level languages, symbolic mathematical tools and code generation in an implementation of the finite element method, using a nonlinear hyperelasticity equation as example. Advantages of the software development method that will be demonstrated include closeness to the mathematics, enabling high human efficiency with easy to use high level languages, while still keeping a high computational efficiency by generating tailored inner loop code for the problem at hand. The application we have in mind for the equations presented here is the simulation of the passive elastic properties of heart and blood vessel tissue.