Great is Thy faithfulness

B19 C13 CB19 D19 E19 F218 K13 LSM5 P15 R15 T19
1
"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!
2
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.
3
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!
1411
Felix

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Great is the faithfulness of God indeed. For He has fashioned me with His grace. For He that sits in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.


Steve Miller

Detroit, Michigan, United States

Without the benefit of high school or advanced education, Thomas Chisholm somehow began his career as a school teacher at the age of 16 in the same country school where he had received his elementary education. After accepting Christ as Savior, he became editor of the 'Pentecostal Herald'. Later he was ordained as a Methodist minister but was soon forced to resign because of poor health. He began working as an insurance agent and continued until he was 87 years old. Then he spent the remaining years of his life at the Methodist Home for the Aged in Ocean Grove, NJ. Shortly before his death at the age of 94, Mr. Chisholm wrote, "My income has never been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier years which has followed me on until now. But 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 which have filled me with astonishing gratefulness."

In 1923, Mr. Chisholm sent this text and several of his other poems to W. M. Runyan, a prominent gospel musician and teacher associated with the Moody Bible Institute and an editor at the Hope Publishing Company.

Mr. Runyan was so enthusiastic about 'Great is Thy Faithfulness' that he promptly composed appropriate music for it. He explained, "This particular poem held such an appeal to me that I prayed most earnestly that my tune might carry its message in a worthy way; and the subsequent history of its use indicates that God answered my prayer."

What is it about a hymn such as this that ministers so effectively to us as Christians? Perhaps it is because whenever we have taken time to review the pleasant as well as the difficult experiences that have occurred in our lives, we simply must respond with overwhelming gratitude - "Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me."

Or perhaps when we enjoy the sights of nature during changing seasons of the year, once again we are awed by God's majesty. We realize anew that all natures gives "manifold witness to His great faithfulness, mercy and love."

With Thomas Chisholm may we respond to God's "morning-by-morning faithfulness" with these words of praise, "All I have needed Thy hand hath provided - Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me." - '52 Hymn Stories Dramatized' by Kenneth W. Osbeck


Francis

Manila, Quezon City, Philippines

God is always a good provider. He will help us... Thank You Mighty God and our Lord Jesus.. help us to all our problems.. Amen.


Patricia A Detally

Redding, CA, United States

Reading Lamentations 3: 22-23. As I read this "The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases; His mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness." The hymn came to mind and I sang! I looked it up for the words and music!


Tammy

Denver, CO, United States

Thank You Lord Jesus for Your unfailing love and mercy. Great is Thy faithfulness.


RosaLinda

My favorite Christian song. I agree with one of the people on the board. The moment I heard it for the first time 20 years ago.


Linda Cothren

Catlamet, WA, United States

He gives songs in the night! Woke up singing this song and had to read the lyrics!


Bolgtom

Thank You for Your mercies in trillion and uncountable times Lord.


Anonymous

Thank You Christ Jesus.


Judi

Geelong, Victoria, Australia

Reading Isaiah 40 and this wonderful hymn came to mind.

Thankful to God for His strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow.

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.

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