Great Is Thy Faithfulness

There are seasons of life where some songs have a special place in your life more than at other times. Over the past season, Great Is Thy Faithfulness has been one of those. Some days and in some situations, you need the extra reminder that a special song can give you. This week’s hymn is one of those. This classic hymn reminds us of God’s faithfulness.

As you will read in the theology section below, the lyrics of this song are rich in two different ways; they speak to God’s character and speak to the benefit we receive from it. Enjoy this beautiful hymn!

Great Is Thy Faithfulness Lyrics

The Theology

As this song reflects on the faithfulness of God, it does so in two different ways. First, this hymn features God’s character – which is known by His faithfulness. One of the key words in the Old Testament is hesed, which emphasizes God’s covenant faithfulness. In other words, at the heart of God’s character is a commitment to His own covenants. God is faithful – Forever faithful.

In the hymn, you sing about God’s character in the first verse. The lyrics, “There is no shadow of turning with thee. Thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not;
as thou hast been, thou forever wilt be,” remind us that God is always faithful. Theologically, we call this God’s immutability, that is, He never changes. A faithful God is always a faithful God! Isn’t that exciting to consider in the midst of our tough circumstances?

The hymn, secondly, reflects our experience of God’s faithfulness. Again, what incredible reminders for us! “Morning by morning new mercies I see; all I have needed thy hand hath provided.” Pardon. Peace. God’s strength and encouragement. All ways we experience God’s faithfulness to us every day.

With this kind of experience based off of this kind of God, what else could we do than what the second verse reminds us? We must join the seasons and all nature in rejoicing in God’s faithfulness. “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.”

The Author and Composer

Thomas O. Chisholm, author

Thomas Obadiah Chisholm (1866–1960) was an American hymnwriter, poet, and Methodist minister.

Chisholm was born on July 29, 1866, in a log cabin near Franklin, Kentucky. He became a teacher at the age of 16. Circa 1893, aged 27, Chisholm had a Christian conversion experience during a revival in Franklin led by Henry Clay Morrison. Following his ordination in 1903, served as a minister in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, for one year before resigning due to poor health. After 1909 Chisholm began working as a life insurance agent in Winona Lake and later in Vineland, New Jersey.

Chisholm wrote over 1,200 sacred poems over his lifetime, many of which appeared in various Christian periodicals, and he served as an editor of The Pentecostal Herald in Louisville for a period. In 1923, Chisholm wrote the poem “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” which he submitted to William M. Runyan who was affiliated with the Moody Bible Institute and Runyan set the song to music. He also wrote the lyrics “Living for Jesus”, composed by C. Harold Lowden. Towards the end of his life, Chisholm retired to the Methodist Home for the Aged in Ocean Grove, New Jersey. He died on February 29, 1960, in Ocean Grove. [3]

 

William Marion Runyan, composer

William Marion Runyan (b. Marion, NY, 1870; d. Pittsburg, KS, 1957) composed FAITHFULNESS for Chisholm’s text in Baldwin, Kansas, in 1923. Twenty years later Runyan wrote:

Mr. Chisholm and I were devoted co-workers, and I wrote harmonies to some 20 or 25 of his poems. This particular poem held such an appeal that I prayed most earnestly that my tune might carryover its message in a worthy way, and the subsequent history of its use indicates that God answers prayer.

Showing early musical promise, Runyan was a substitute church organist by the age of twelve. He became a Methodist minister in 1891 and served several churches in Kansas but turned to evangelism in 1903; he worked for the Central Methodist Conference for the next twenty years. Following that service, Runyan became pastor at the Federated Church at John Brown University, Sulphur Springs [sic: Siloam Springs], Arkansas. Editor of Christian Workers Magazine, he also served the Moody Bible Institute and was an editor for Hope Publishing Company until his retirement in 1948. Runyan wrote a number of hymn texts, gospel songs, and hymn tunes.

“Great Is Thy Faithfulness” became an unofficial school hymn at Moody Bible Institute, and it was featured in the Billy Graham crusades in England in 1954. Thus it obtained popularity on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

Sing this distinguished gospel music in harmony at a moderate pace.

–Psalter Hymnal Handbook[2]

 

Enjoy This Media

Some groups singing the song from YouTube:

The Gaither Homecoming group sings a beautiful version of this son.

Carrie Underwood and CeCe Winans sing a country version of the song.

Classic congregational singing of all verses.

Here is the earliest published copy of the song from The Service Hymnal, song #50 from 1935 [4]:

 

Here is a more modern version from Favorite Hymns of Praise #148 [6]:

 

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