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"Great is Thy faithfulness," O God my Father, There is no shadow of turning with Thee; Thou changest not, Thy compassions, they fail not As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be. |
| "Great is Thy faithfulness!" "Great is Thy faithfulness!" Morning by morning new mercies I see; All I have needed Thy hand hath provided— "Great is Thy faithfulness," Lord, unto me! |
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Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest, Sun, moon and stars in their courses above, Join with all nature in manifold witness To Thy great faithfulness, mercy and love. |
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Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth, Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide; Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow, Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside! |
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© 1923. Ren. 1951 Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream, IL 60188 www.hopepublishing.com All rights reserved. Used by permission. |
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Although we are unfaithful, God is faithful. Lamentations 3:23b says, "Great is Your faithfulness." The chorus of a well-known hymn on God's faithfulness (Hymns, #19) says, "'Great is Thy faithfulness!' 'Great is Thy faithfulness!' / Morning by morning new mercies I see; / All I have needed Thy hand has provided—/ 'Great is Thy faithfulness,' Lord, unto me!" We may understand what the Bible says and what this hymn says about God's faithfulness either in a natural way or in a spiritual way. When you sing this hymn, how do you understand the word faithfulness? If you understand God's faithfulness in a natural way, you may think that He is faithful primarily in the matter of material provisions or physical blessings. When some say that God is faithful, they mean that He is faithful to take care of their material needs. However, in 1 Corinthians 1:9 Paul says, "God is faithful, through whom you were called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord." God is faithful in this matter, but He may not be faithful to provide you a large house or a well-paying job. I would not deny the fact that God is faithful in caring for our welfare. My point is that God's faithfulness is not according to our natural understanding.
Consider the sufferings of the apostle Paul. He was called, commissioned, burdened, and sent by God, but wherever he went he had troubles. For example, as soon as he began to preach Christ, he began to suffer persecution. He even had to escape from Damascus by being lowered down the wall in a basket. Does this mean that God was not faithful to Paul? No, it means that God's faithfulness is not according to our natural understanding.
When we believed in the Lord Jesus, we might have expected to have peace and blessing. But instead we might have had many troubles and might have lost our security, our health, or our possessions. When some Christians experience such things, they may question God's faithfulness and ask why He did not prevent hardships from happening to them.
We need to realize that in allowing us to have troubles, God is faithful in His purpose to turn us from idols and bring us back to Himself. Our peace, safety, health, and possessions may become idols to us, and God is faithful to take these things away so that we may drink of Him as the fountain of living waters. If our house or our possessions become idols to us, we drink of them and not of God. God's faithfulness is a matter of dealing with these idols and causing us to drink of Him.
God is faithful in leading us into His economy, and His economy is for us to drink Christ, to eat Christ, to enjoy Christ, to absorb Christ, and to assimilate Christ that God may have His increase with us to fulfill His economy. This is God's faithfulness.
Instead of drinking of God as the fountain of living waters, Israel drank of their idols. Therefore, God used the Babylonians to deal with these idols and also to destroy Jerusalem and even the temple, which had become an idol to them. We need to see that we are not better than Israel. Anything can become an idol to us. But God is faithful in fulfilling His economy. In His faithfulness He deals with our idols that we may drink of Him. We all need to drink of God as the fountain of living waters, receiving Christ into us and assimilating Him, so that He may increase for the fulfillment of God's economy to have His expression through His counterpart.
Whereas God is faithful, we are neither faithful nor chaste but go to many other husbands. After failing God, we may receive some mercy and grace and therefore repent and weep, saying, "How pitiful I am! For a long time I have not loved the Lord very much, and I have not attended the meetings." While we are repenting and weeping, God is rejoicing. However, if we repent and weep too much, even our repentance may become an idol. We may testify in a meeting, saying that we have thoroughly repented to God. But this may be a matter of self-boasting and be a self-made idol. Therefore, after repenting, we should begin to drink of the living waters, praising God, giving thanks to Him for everything, and enjoying Him. This is what God wants. God is not interested in anything other than our enjoyment of Christ.
Jeremiah's speaking in Lamentations 3:22-26 is another pattern of prophesying: "It is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness. The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord." Jeremiah told us that it is of the Lord's mercies that we are not consumed. This is not foretelling but blessing, well-speaking. He told us that the mercies, the compassions, of the Lord are new every morning. We need to learn to prophesy in this way. Jeremiah told the Lord, "Great is thy faithfulness." There is a well-known hymn based upon this verse (Hymns, #19). Jeremiah also said that the Lord was his portion. It is marvelous that there was a prophet in the Old Testament who knew that the Lord was his portion. When we tell others that the Lord is our portion, we are speaking the Lord to them.
Piano Hymns
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Port Harcourt, Rivers, Nigeria
This poetic hyme is ministering hope, strength and revival to my soul, especially at the time of this piece my life was disorganized without direction, failure, betrayal, disappointment, wrong decision and mistakes beseeched my Life with confusion, But God showed me mercy and gave me direction. Thank you Jesus.
United States
Thomas Obadiah Chisholm was born in a log cabin in Franklin, Kentucky, on July 29, 1866. Even though he didn’t receive a a higher education, he began his career as a school teacher at the age of sixteen in the same school house where he had received his elementary training. At twenty-one, he became the associate editor of his home town weekly newspaper, “The Franklin Favorite. ” Six years later he accepted Christ as his personal Savior during a revival meeting given in Franklin by Dr. H. C. Morrison. Thomas was invited by Dr. Morrison to become office editor and business manager of Morrison’s publication, the “Pentecostal Herald, ” in Louisville Kentucky and he accepted! Later Chisholm was ordained pastor of the Methodist Church but was forced to resign because of poor health. After 1909 he became a life insurance agent in Winona Lake and later in Vinland, New Jersey. Thomas Chisholm retired in 1953 and spent his remaining years at the Methodist Home for the Aged in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. He passed away on February 29, 1960.
This hymn is based on James 1:17 “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow cast by turning. ”
Out of all the hymns written on the theme of God’s goodness and faithfulness, this one is the favorite of many believers. It was birthed not from the author’s dramatic experiences but from a day by day realization of God’s faithfulness.
In a letter dated 1941, Mr. Chisholm writes, “My income has not been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier years which has followed me until now. Although I must not fail to record here the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God and that He has given me many wonderful displays of His providing care, for which I am filled with astonishing gratefulness."
In 1923 Mr. Chisholm sent several of his poems to Rev. W. M. Runyan, a musician associated with the Moody Bible Institute and an editor with the Hope Publishing Company. My Runyan wrote this comment about Chisholm’s poem:
“This particular poem held such an appeal that I prayed more earnestly that my tune might carry over its message in a worthy way, and the subsequent history of its use indicates that God answered prayer." It was written in Baldwin, Kansas, in 1923, and was first published in my private song pamphlets.
This hymn was the favorite of the late Dr. Will Houghton who became the fourth president of Moody Bible Institute. It has since been an all-time favorite with students at the school. Bev Shea states that this hymn was first introduced in Great Britain in 1954 by the Billy Graham Crusades and has been a favorite as well.
Thomas Chisholm is also the author of “Living for Jesus.”
Port Harcourt, Nigeria
This hymn ministers strength and hope to me especially at this time.
Lagos Island, Lagos, Nigeria
God is great and faithful... I really love this medium of singing hymn to God.
Nairobi, Kenya
Great is our GOD! Hallelujah!
Beijing
Praise our Father! Your faithfulness and greatness!
Ikorodu, Lagos, Nigeria
Great is God faithfulness
Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria
Great is thy faithfulness
All I have needed his hands has truly provided. 🙌🙌
Great is your faithfulness, dear God
Bothell, WA, United States
Prayers going out to you, Marsha Bailey! I pray that the Lord pours out His love on you on this day and every day. I pray that your son returns to you and that you feel peace that could only come from God. May the Lord bless you, Marsha.
I came here to sing this song, and I'm glad that I did. Praise the Lord. Great is His faithfulness! I cannot wait to praise Him in eternity! How awesome that will be.
London, England, United Kingdom
This is one of the songs that is keeping me going. My son Malachi has been missing since November 18th he is 17 and very vulnerable. I just want him home.