Saturday, February 12, 2011

"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 wilt be.

Summer and winter and spring-time 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,
Thy own dear presence to cheer and to guide;
Strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow,
Blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside!

chorus:
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!

This beautiful, inspiring hymn was written by Thomas Obediah Chisholm. He was born in a humble log cabin in Kentucky in 1866. At the age of sixteen he began teaching in that same school.

He became the associate editor of "The Franklin Favorite", the local newspaper, when he was twenty-one. Six years later he received Christ as his Savior at a revival and went on to become a Pastor. Poor health forced him to give up the pastorate, and his later years were spent at The Methodist Home for the Aged in New Jersey where he died in 1960.

In his lifetime, Mr. Chisholm wrote over 1200 poems and hymns. He based this hymn on verses found in the Old Testament:

"His compassions fail not. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness."
Lamentations 3: 22,23

These words were found in a letter he wrote in 1941;
“My income has not been large at any time due to impaired health in the earlier
years which has followed me until now, although I must not fail to record the unfailing faithfulness of a covenant-keeping God, for which I am filled with astonishing gratefulness.”

Blessings,
Linda