Summer Song Vol. 3 // "Great is Thy Faithfulness"

So I want to share with you in a little bit the passage of scripture that really was the inspiration of this hymn being written.

It's a really cool story, and researching it has caused me to now have a new name in my head for my next new pet whenever I get a new pet because I love the name Thomas Obadiah.

That is the Thomas Obadiah Chisholm.

That's a good old, am I right, bro?

It is a name right there.

That's a strong name.

So he was born in Franklin, Kentucky in 1866.

This is the guy that pinned the words that Sherry just sang that we've been looking at together.

He became a believer at the age of 27.

He became a Methodist minister and was always a lover of poetry.

But not long after he was married in 1903, he began to experience health issues.

And in 1909, he had to stop being a pastor because of his health problems.

And with his medical bills, he had a lot of financial issues.

It was very difficult for him.

He had uh not only a financial crisis, but in health crisis.

And so you would think that maybe he would struggle and get bitter at God, but he didn't.

He leaned into his poetry during those years.

He ended up writing nearly 1,200 poems throughout his life.

In 1923, he put pen to paper and wrote the most famous of his poems, Great Is Thy Faithfulness.

But it was a poem.

But what he ultimately did is he sent the poem to Reverend William Runyon.

William Runyon was a musician at the Moody Bible Institute, and he was also editor of Hope Publishing Company in Chicago.

So after Runyon got a hold of it, he began to think about what kind of melodic tune to put to this poem.

And once he got it, he introduced it to the students at Moody Bible.

And the hymn was born.

The students loved it.

It became their kind of their official hymn, their official song that they sang all the time when they would gather for chapel and for worship as students and faculty.

But even then, Great Design of Faithfulness really wasn't that known.

It just was kind of the song at Moody.

But eventually, this song made it into the hands of the folks that were working along with Billy Graham and his crusades.

And it was introduced to his crusades in the 1950s and it became amazingly popular.

This simple poem from a simple man in Kentucky reached the ears of millions and has continued to do so ever since.

Still impactful today.

The scripture that was the basis for this poem that he wrote is found in a book of the Bible that I'll be honest with you, we rarely look at it together.

It's the book of Lamentations.

You know, the root word of lamentations is lament, uh, sad, sadness, grieving, mourning.

And so I think because of that, we tend to like, you know what, I'm going to just kind of skip over that book.

I don't need any, uh, I need some encouragement.

I need some joy in my life.

But honestly, uh, we miss so much.

This also is a book of poetry.

Most people believe that Jeremiah the prophet was the one who pinned it.

The inspiration for this hymn begins in the passage that's in verse 22 through 26 of Lamentations chapter 3.

Lamentations 3 · chapter mention

So let me start there.

Verse 22 says, The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.

His mercies never come to an end.

Sometimes when I'm reading scripture, and I've read this passage quite a bit over the years, it's easy to say, that sounds beautiful, and that's true, and we move on.

But do you really catch what it's saying there in just that one verse?

There is a never-ending of supply of God's love.

You it does not run out.

And we probably be like, cool, amen.

I agree with that.

But I think where we really struggle is when that same amount and flow of mercy is considered.

Imagine that the mercy of God never ends.

It's a never-ending supply.

His mercies never run out.

And I think sometimes the enemy, especially when we mess up, wants to make us think your time is up.

You have reached your limit of forgiveness.

You've reached your limit of mercy.

Well, the scripture tells us that's just not true.

His mercy and his love never ever ceases, never ever comes to an end.

Now the next verse is where we get the title of this hymn.

Verse 23, they are new, talking about his mercies.

They are new every morning.

Great is your faithfulness.

I love the concept of God's mercies being new every morning.

I think when I think of this passage and when I think of the hymn, that phrase is what sticks out to me the most.

Like in the morning, it'd be just at least a little bit better.

It's a new start, it's a new day.

And you're gonna wake up and you're still alive and you're still breathing my good air, and I'm still God, and I have not changed, even though maybe a lot of things in your life has changed.

His mercies are new every morning.

That word faithfulness.

Now the Hebrew language is so unique.

It is uh when I studied Hebrew and Greek in college, I kind of leaned more towards the Greek because it just clicked, it made more sense.

There was a lot of connection to the English language that still exists.

But ancient Hebrew is is wild.

I'm like, I tip my hat to all the many Hebrew scholars over the centuries who have worked to help us to have an English translation of the Old Testament.

That word faithfulness there in that verse, the Greek word is hemuna.

And the root word there is where we get our modern word amen.

So when you say amen, you're speaking Hebrew.

Pretty cool, huh?

We have borrowed the root word of hemuna, that means the faithfulness of God, to say amen.

Now, I learned many, many years ago that amen is translated, so be it, or it is true, or it is definite.

So when you say amen, you're saying, that's right, that's true.

Uh-huh.

Preach, brother.

That's what you're saying when you say amen.

Um, and so this word faithfulness, it speaks of something that is absolutely true, absolutely trustworthy, and it is absolutely so.

God is faithful.

Now, my favorite little analogy of this, I've used it before, but I've not used it in a long time.

I want to take a little hand pull here.

I want to ask if you did something to raise your hand.

If you walked in this morning into this room, and before you sat down, you inspected all four legs of that chair to make sure they were intact, that they were going to be able to hold you up well during the service today.

And then once you inspected all four legs of that chair, you took your seat.

Who did that?

Did you do that?

Maybe one.

We have one paranoid person in the room, just teasing.

No, that I expected there'd be zero hands come up because we trust these chairs, right?

We are like maybe a chair has collapsed for you at some point in your life, but that's a very rare experience.

Usually they don't, so we don't worry about it.

And you've, if you've come here for any length of time at all, you've yet to have a negative experience sitting in the chair.

It's held you up fine.

And so because you've not had a failure of chair moment in this room, you didn't inspect it.

You just sat right down.

And if we could put that kind of trust in an inanimate object that has not failed us, you get where I'm going with this, right?

The God of the universe, who, as he spoke it into existence, did it so wonderfully, so beautifully, so miraculously.

I never will forget learning that if the earth, tilting on its axis, were to tilt just one degree in either direction, we would either immediately enter into an ice age or immediately burn up.

It's perfectly held exactly at the right degree on its axis to provide all the seasons that we experience and to sustain our lives on this earth.

That is God's common grace to all people.

Even if they don't believe he exists and that he created all things, it's still true.

He is faithful.

We can count on him.

Verse 24.

Therefore, I will hope in him.

Now there's a phrase I never say about God.

Like he's my portion.

I don't really even use the word portion unless I'm talking about the amount of food I want.

Uh I will maybe say, hey, they serve large portions at that restaurant when I'm telling someone about a restaurant.

That's the only time I ever use the word portion.

Well, in the usage of this word in the ancient Hebrew language, it's actually referring, it's kind of a throwback word to when the Israelites entered into the promised land.

And each of the tribes of Israel, the 12 tribes of Israel, were waiting to find out what portion of land would be theirs.

And they hoped for it, they longed for it.

They wandered in the wilderness for so, so long.

And now they finally entered the promised land, and now they're gonna get their portion of land.

And their portion was security for them.

It meant security, it meant safety, it meant provision.

They can grow their crops, they can raise their cattle, and there was something so safe and secure about having their portion.

And we get this.

It's us having the roof over our head that we have.

That's our portion, that's ours, and and and we belong there, and that's our safe place.

So they long for that, and God had given them that.

But you might know this.

There were 12 tribes of Israel, and one of those tribes did not receive a portion of land.

You might know what it is.

Anyone shout it out?

Any Bible scholars in the room?

The oh yeah, Levites, the Levite tribe, they were the priestly tribe.

Their job was to take care of the temple, to take care of all the items that were involved in worshiping Yahweh God.

And so they had to pretty much live right there where the temple was.

And so they didn't get their own land, but instead God said, I am your portion.

I am enough for you.

You do not need the land, I'm your portion.

It's really powerful, and it's really powerful when you understand the historical context of Jeremiah writing this out.

It was right after the fall of Jerusalem in 586 BC.

The Babylonians had not only conquered them, they had taken them and removed them from their land, their promised land, and brought them to Babylon.

They lost their portion completely.

And yet Jeremiah says, The Lord is your portion.

He is enough.

We can have hope even when we fail, because the Lord will never stop loving us or forgiving us.

He is always enough for us.

Do you catch what I'm saying here?

Even when we fail, the Babylonians came and captured the Israelites as a result of their sin.

God warned them over and over and over and over again.

You need to get rid of your idols.

Because if you don't get it rid of your idols and begin to worship the one true God, then you will end up in exile.

And it happened.

They ended up in exile.

And yet Jeremiah says to them, Nana Nana Boo-Boo, you're making your bed, you made the bed, you're lying in it now.

He kind of says that sometimes to them.

But in this moment, in Lamentation 3, he says, Actually, the Lord is still your portion.

He is still faithful.

And though we have epically failed as an entire nation, his mercies never end.

They are new every morning.

Even when you yourself fail, the Lord will never stop loving you.

He will never stop forgiving you.

He is your portion.

He is enough for you.

So, what do you do when you find yourself in a very terrible place?

Maybe it's because of your own sin.

Maybe it's not.

Maybe it's just going through something difficult or painful that's completely out of your control.

Perhaps it's a season of grief that you're enduring.

Perhaps it's a life-changing diagnosis that you've received.

What do you do when these things happen?

Well, these last two verses, I believe, tell us.

It says, the Lord is good to those who wait for him, to the soul who seeks him.

It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord.

I want to lean into these last two verses with you.

I want to specifically look at that Hebrew word that's translated wait, that first wait in that passage there.

The Hebrew word there is kava.

And as we've said many times in here, when we look at an ancient Hebrew or Greek word, typically the original usage of the word often doesn't make any sense.

And eventually it comes to mean something else that it's commonly used for.

So yes, it means wait.

It means to wait.

But the original usage of that word was to actually intertwine things, to braid something or to intertwine it.

That's weird, isn't it?

It doesn't sound like waiting, but the word picture that conjures up is I don't know if any of you, do any of you all do crochet or knit something?

Do any of y'all do that?

You are the real patient people because I've watched people do that.

Uh, there's a lady who's gone on to be with the Lord who used to volunteer here for many years and help us answer phones.

Her name is Ruby Martin.

And Ruby would knit while she was sitting at the desk to answer phones for us.

And I remember one time I was watching her knit and it was almost done.

And that was at the beginning of the day.

And then I came by her near the end of the day, and it looked like she was just starting.

So I was like, Cool, like you finished that and you're starting another one.

She goes, No, it wasn't quite right.

So I undid all of that and started over.

And she said it with a smile.

And I was like, that would, I would quit forever.

I would never do it again.

If that happened to me, I would say, never again, unless I'm being punished under law to do it.

Uh, but so patient, like I know I gotta get it right.

And so this is the word picture of Kavah.

They took this word of watching someone take different strands and slowly entangle them and weave them in order to create something useful or create something beautiful.

And they said that's the word for wait.

And that's what we're called to do in the Lord.

I think waiting for us sounds terrible because it sounds passive.

Like we just got to do nothing.

We just kind of sit there and we're just kind of like, uh.

And that's not waiting biblically.

Biblical waiting is very active.

Waiting on the Lord is a very active expectation of the fulfillment of his promises and the outcome of his goodness and glory.

And what it says is the Lord is good to those who wait for him, the soul who seeks him, waiting quietly for his salvation.

Now, the Hebrew word that's translated salvation literally meant a physical rescue.

Like pull me out of the waters I'm drowning in, kind of thing.

Pull me out of the prison I've been trapped in.

It was an actual physical rescue that is referred to with that Hebrew word.

And so while we're waiting on him, we expect he's coming.

We watch, we seek, we look around to see what God is doing.

And as Sherry was telling us earlier, we look back on his prior faithfulness.

I don't know how it was for the Israelites in captivity in Babylon.

I hope they had moments where they looked back and they remembered how they were in the promised land and when they were worshiping the one true God, how they experienced his provision for them.

They had shared the stories over and over again in their lives at all the holidays and festivals, and how their ancestors ate the manna that God provided daily for them, how he rescued them out of slavery from Egypt.

Waiting is very active in which we go back to what he's done and we also get in his word and we look at the promises that he tells us are real and we lean into them and we cling to them.

It's an act of holding on, or intertwining ourselves into the presence of God daily while we wait to see what's going to happen next in this thing that I'm enduring.

And remembering that though what I'm enduring isn't good, that doesn't mean he isn't good.

I think that's the hardest thing about the human experience.

That if my situation is bad, then does that mean God isn't good?

And I know even as we're saying this, because we're here on a Sunday morning during worship hour, we know we're supposed to say, no, he's good.

No, he's good.

But when we're getting the diagnosis that we're hearing, when we're experiencing the financial crisis that we're in, when we experience the relationship crisis, and we feel sad about that, when we're in the midst of terrible grief and we don't know how we're gonna make it through, that's when we question.

And I just want to say his mercies are new every morning.

He takes our questions very well.

He can handle it.

God's shoulders are big enough to handle it when we question, when we doubt, even when we get mad about what we're going through.

But friends, we can't stay there.

He wants to shower you with his love in the midst of that.

He wants to help you to experience and even see and feel how his mercies are new every morning.

There's a song, I've not heard it recently on the radio, but I really love it.

I I love me some Tarn Wells on the Christian radio, and he sings a song called Joy in the Morning.

And one of my favorite phrases that he sings over and over again in that song is if it's not good, then he's not done.

No, he's not done with it yet.

And I say that over and over again.

I think about that when something is not good, because we are going to face things that are not good.

That is part of living in this place before the new heaven and the new earth that will be our eternal reality in Jesus Christ.

Until then, though I love the world and Jesus Christ died for the world and he loves it too, it's still a difficult world to live in.

It has disease, it has temptation, and even evil sometimes seems to reign in it.

But he's still good, even when it's not good.

And so, therefore, we have the promise that God doesn't waste the pain, he doesn't waste anything we're enduring, he's intertwining it into a story that will reveal his glory.

And I will tell you, I've seen it over and over and over again.

People that were going through something bad, but trusted in the good God.

Honestly, Thomas Obadiah, I never got to know him, but that was his story.

He couldn't even serve as a pastor because of his health, but he clung to the goodness of God.

I've seen it with family members, my mamma, my dad, and my mother in law all had cancer, and watching them hold to their faith, even on the really, really tough days, and man, they were tough.

They still believed.

Well, our church secretary Diane Courtney, she's been on staff with us for 47 years, actually.

Earlier this month with their 47th anniversary, and just kind of out of the blue found out that her husband Donald was diagnosed with leukemia.

And it's like their life is turned on a dime.

Like all of a sudden, that's a full-time job.

Just going to UC Hospital for appointments and things like that.

And they've got cattle they're raising, they got things they got to do.

And all of a sudden, that looks a lot different in their life.

And it turned like that, ever-changing.

But yet God doesn't change, even though our situations do.

We talked, I talked about this several months ago, but one of my really, really good friends, uh, Dan Ziggler, who suddenly passed away in a snowplow accident, and I'm really close to their family, and his wife Cindy's such a dear friend, and we talk about what her grief is feeling like right now.

And it's like I have a front row seat to a kind of grief that I can't fathom and I can't imagine.

And those days are hard, those nights are hard.

And yet, to see my friend cling to the goodness and the mercy and the love of God has impacted my life deeply.

I try to remind myself of this, and I'm gonna have to remind myself of this when my next storm comes.

But that's why it's called faith, isn't it?

That's why it's faith that we still cling to him even when things aren't good.

We believe in his faithfulness and his goodness and his mercy and his love.

Not only when things are out of our control and they're not good, but even when we were the wrong one and we messed up and we are not good, he is still good, and he is still faithful, even when we are not.

Man, that's the gospel of Jesus Christ right there.

When we gather together, we don't gather together and say, I'm good.

We gather together and say, Man, we are not good, and we need a savior, we need forgiveness, we need mercy, and man, my stuff isn't good, but I still show up because I need him and I need my family praying for me and there for me.

That's what it means to be a part of the family of God.

No matter what you're going through, he's still your God.

And he's still good.

Hold tightly to him, stay in his word, keep running to him in prayer, keep the faith, fight the good fight, and that's how you wait.

That's how you kava.

You intertwine those things together in your life.

I want to say this before we begin to wind down together.

It could be today that your next step is to simply run to the Father and say, Ah, God, I need you.

I need to remind myself of your goodness and your faithfulness.

But also, perhaps today is supposed to be your very first step of faith.

I've seen God use difficult circumstances to finally bring someone into his saving grace.

That all this time you've been battling whether or not you actually believe in Jesus Christ, whether or not you really want to declare him as your savior and Lord, and now you're going through something difficult, and believe it or not, that could be the very thing God is using to say, but even though that's hard, I love you.

Will you just finally, finally, finally turn to me?

Let me have you.

Let me carry you through this.

Let me show you how faithful I am and how good I am.

So in that moment when I pray, if you've never placed your faith in Jesus Christ, call upon his name in prayer.

Ask him to save you, ask him to forgive you.

The Bible says whoever calls upon his name will be saved.

That's Romans 10, 13.

Jesus Christ said that whoever believes in me will not perish, will have everlasting life.

All you have to do is trust in him and he will do it.

Also, after I pray aloud, and I'll remind you of this again in a moment, we've done this a few times before recently, but uh rather than Missy and I just being in the next step's corner over there to greet people that have a next step, you might be going through something really hard and you're in waiting right now.

You're waiting for something to help and it's been a struggle.

Well, we have some folks who are gonna make themselves available to just pray with you, to pray over you.

They'll be on this side, they'll be on that side, and they're gonna come forward in a moment and be standing there.

And just you don't have to utilize that if you don't want, but if you're like feeling very moved today to let someone know what you're going through and let that someone pray for you, we wanted to make that available to you today, all right?

But before we do that, let's go to Him now together in prayer.

Will you bow with me?

Father, you are faithful, you are good, you are powerful, you're so merciful, and Father, that has changed my life forever.

God, I pray right now that there might be someone here that you've been using a difficult circumstance to finally bring them to the very edge of their salvation.

And maybe this is the moment that they will finally call upon you and say, Okay, I'm waving the white flag.

Jesus, I believe in you.

Take my life, rescue me.

I believe you died for me.

I pray right now that you'll forgive me of my sins and make me your child forever.

Father, if someone's praying that prayer, help them to know that today is the first day of the rest of their eternal life walking with you every day.

Father, all over this room, there's so many stories.

There might be someone going through something so terribly difficult.

And maybe it's because of their own failures, even.

Father, we're a family and we're here to pray for one another.

And if someone here could use someone praying over them, may we take that step today as well, Father.

Move in our hearts to do whatever it is you've called us to do next.

And we pray this in the name of your son Jesus.

Amen.