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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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Randfontein, Gauteng, South Africa
6 years in remission. One of the hymns sung at our Sunday service and reminding me once again reminding me how faithful and merciful the LORD is. PRAISE THE LORD.
St. Louis, MO, United States
I grew up with this hymn among many others. Listening to this hymn reminds me how much I have left my relationship stagnant with my Lord, and let myself get carried away by the troubles of this short life. It's such a powerful reminder of the greatness of Him who is there for me, even when I fail to acknowledge His presence and mighty works.
Buhl, Idaho, United States
Thank you for our faith - depending on God's faithfulness. This is a wonderful prayer....Each phrase has meaning. I'm reading an exercise from The Road to Heaven..."Pause after each phrase and consider what it means. Then write down below...Allow whatever response that rises in you to flow out to your Heavenly Father...enjoy a time of praise. Great Is His Faithfulness to YOU.
Canada
Amen and Amen!
United States
This song has always been a reminder to me of God's faithfulness - even when we are not faithful to Him. It is a comforting song when times are stressful.
Thank You, Lord for Your faithfulness.
Paonia, CO, United States
I like this song because it speaks of God's greatness... not man's. Reesie: I so enjoyed what you wrote. Sorry about your mother, but I'm so glad for what God has done in your family. I attend a church that still uses a hymnal. I can imagine how starved you get for the good old hymns written by people who knew what they were talking about. Those hymns had something to say! God bless you. I love that song, too.
London, United Kingdom
Any time I sing this song, I always feel the presence of the Holy Spirit around me. This makes me to believe that this song was inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is soul inspiring.
Jacksonville, FL, United States
James 1:17
Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows.
Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.
Jacksonville, FL, United States
I love this song and miss hymns being sung in church. I hope church music directors will see these comments and see that we are starving for hymns that were written by the annointing of the Holy Spirit. They have SO MUCH MORE meansing that singing the same phrase over and over and over and the new music is usually us singing about ourselves and what we're doing instead of singing about the Lord Jesus' and Jehovah God the Father's AWESOME POWER, MIGHT, JUSTICE, KINDNESS, FAITHFULNESS, etc! I read the comments here and was moved to tears seeing comments from people all over the world who are searching, hungry for hymns. And reading Betty's comments about her son and how GOD answered her prayers and brought reconciliation. My faithful, beautiful mother went on to be with the Lord in Heaven on April 1 and I am so grateful and thankful that she suffers no more with dementia and health problems and being helpless anymore. She is young, healthy, happy, and with the ONE who never left her nor forsook her. Her life was a witness, especially in her weakness, to the Lord and my brother got saved because of it. Praise to the Almight God, The Great I AM, Immovable Rock, Omnipotent, Powerful, Awesome Lord!!!! God bless you all and I'll meet you all one day in Heaven with the Lord and my Mother and all those believers who've gone before us, and those who have suffered persecution and death for the name of the Lord Jesus.
Cardiff, United Kingdom
Haven't heard this hymn for years and have been reminded of it today by an old friend at a time when I feel far from God and very alone. Believe it is Him reminding me He is there even though I have strayed far from Him. The Lord is truly great.