The writer of that familiar hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness wrote from firsthand experience. As a young adult, Thomas Obadiah Chisolm had fragile health and spent many months in bed, too ill to work. At the age of 27 he gave his life to Christ and was overwhelmed with God’s faithfulness. He needed God’s strength on a daily basis, but in reality, don’t we all? He wrote the poem that would later be set to music, as a way of offering his overwhelming thanksgiving to the God who sustained him every single day.
Chisolm’s favorite bible verses were found in Lamentations 3: 22-23 – “Because of the Lord’s great love we are consumed, for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”
When I think of these verses I remember the Israelites receiving God’s manna every morning. They were sustained daily, just like Thomas Chisolm. And if they tried to store up manna for the future it spoiled. God wanted them to depend on Him daily.
Isn’t it the same with His mercies? Aren’t they meant to be new every morning so that we will put our trust and our hope in the God who faithfully cares for us day by day? He only gives us enough strength for the day and then He wants us to come back to Him again tomorrow for more. He has enough to last a lifetime! Thomas Chisolm lived to be 94 and wrote more than 1200 poems and songs in his lifetime, because he was able to trust God for the strength for each day.
God wants to meet us each morning and pour out His mercies on us. If Thomas Chisolm was able to trust God daily for 94 years of life, we can be encouraged in these trying days in 2021 to do the same. Read the words of this hymn and let God speak to your heart. Great is Thy Faithfulness, O Lord!
- Great is Thy Faithfulness
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 will be.
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.
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!