From My Faithful Lord, track 14
Hymn Reflections-“Great is Thy Faithfulness”
Hope is something that is felt in the heart. If a person is lacking hope, he or she will begin to feel sorrow and sadness. Sorrow, without hope, will lead to self-pity, which focuses on the negative. This will often lead to depression.
The book of Lamentations is full of reasons for depression and discouragement on the part of the people of God. Their country had been given over to idolatry, they had just finished being attacked by a terrible enemy, and most of the people were exiled or they had perished. The remnant of the people were left with Jeremiah the prophet. Jeremiah knew what to do and where to go, he remembered the loving-
kindness of God and reminded the people:
Lamentations 3:21 This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.
22 It is of the Lord‘s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. 23They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.
24 The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.
25 The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.
26 It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.
These past many months, I have had some very difficult times personally. I often go from hour to hour leaning wholly on the Lord. Uncertainty continues to describe my future. God brings strength for each day and bright hope for tomorrow. During these days, the words to “Great is Thy Faithfulness” are precious to me,
“Morning by morning new mercies I see, all I have needed the Lord hath provided”
He is indeed my faithful Friend filled with mercy and love. I trust you too, will meditate on these words and focus on the positives in your life. Do this with gratefulness and love to God for His steadfastness and unfailing compassion, which He gives to us constantly and without measure.
Thomas Chisholm/William M. Runyan, 1923 (My Faithful Lord album, track 12)
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.
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!
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.
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!
Valerie Ann Knies, June 27, 2017, East Troy, Wisconsin
**************************************************************
The hymn history of Hymn Reflections-“Great is Thy Faithfulness” : A native of the small Kentucky town of Franklin, Thomas Obadiah Chisholm (1866-1960) was born in a log cabin. He lacked formal education. Nevertheless, he became a teacher at age sixteen and the associate editor of his hometown weekly newspaper, the Franklin Advocate, at age twenty-one.
In 1893 Chisholm became a Christian through the ministry of Henry Clay Morrison, the founder of Asbury College and Seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. Morrison persuaded Chisholm to move to Louisville where he became editor of the Pentecostal Herald.
Though he was ordained a Methodist minister in 1903, he served only a single, brief appointment at Scottsville, Kentucky, due to ill health. Chisholm relocated his family to Winona Lake, Indiana, to recover, and then to Vineland, New Jersey in 1916, where he sold insurance. He retired in 1953 and spent his remaining years in a Methodist retirement community in Ocean Grove, New Jersey.
By the time of his retirement, he had written more than 1200 poems, 800 of which were published. They often appeared in religious periodicals such as the Sunday School Times, Moody Monthly, and Alliance Weekly. Many of these were set to music.
Hymnologist Kenneth Osbeck provides the background for “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” Chisholm had sent a number of his poems to the Rev. William H. Runyan (1870-1957), a musician with the Moody Bible Institute and one of the editors of Hope Publishing Company in Chicago. Runyan wrote of the hymn: “This particular poem held such an appeal that I prayed most 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.” Excerpt from: https://www.umcdiscipleship.org/resources/history-of-hymns-great-is-thy-faithfulness
