Thomas O. Chisholm
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 Lord is my portion,’ says my soul, ‘therefore I will hope in him.’ The Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul that seeks him.
Lamentations 3:22-25
Great Is Thy Faithfulness WOV 771
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.
Refrain
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. Refrain
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! Refrain
Text: Thomas O. Chisholm, 1866-1960
Thomas O. Chisholm lived a life of bad health. After serving a single year as a Methodist minister, the stress was too much for his fragile health and he resigned. He was forced to support himself the rest of his life selling insurance. But he also wrote hymn lyrics. Because his poor health was a lifelong burden, it is no stretch to imagine what the lyrics to his most famous hymn, meant to him and others facing mortality. The words of this hymn were derived from Lamentations, not a book you often find used as a source hymn. Lamentations was traditionally the song the prophet Jeremiah sang in sorrow as he beheld Jerusalem and its temple burned to the ground by the Babylonians, and its people carried into exile in Babylon.
Yet he found solace there, and at the age of 57 wrote this hymn. When he improbably reached his 75th birthday, his poor health notwithstanding, he wrote; “My income has never been much…in fact poor health has followed me since my earliest years, but I must not fail to record that the unfailing faithfulness of our covenant-keeping God has given me many wonderful displays of providential care, for which I am eternally grateful.”
And he remained so until his death in 1960, at the tender age of 94!
Prayer: Morning by morning, Lord, we awaken to new challenges and new opportunities. In spite of things that afflict us, make each of our days pregnant with possibility and overflowing with praise. We may not know what the future holds, but we know who holds the future! Amen.