Sunday, March 16, 2008

Sunday Hymn



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.

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!

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!

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!


Words: Thom­as O. Chis­holm, 1923. Ac­cord­ing to Chis­holm, there were no spe­cial cir­cum­stanc­es which caused its writ­ing—just his ex­per­i­ence and Bi­ble truth. The hymn first ap­peared in Songs of Sal­va­tion and Serv­ice, 1923, com­piled by Wil­liam M. Run­yan. It is the un­of­fi­cial “school hymn” of Moo­dy Bi­ble In­sti­tute in Chi­ca­go, with which Run­yan was as­so­ci­at­ed for a num­ber of years.

William M.Run­yan wrote the mu­sic spe­ci­fic­al­ly for these words; it ap­peared in the 1956 Bap­tist Hymn­al:

This par­ti­cu­lar po­em held such an ap­peal that I prayed most ear­nest­ly that my tune might car­ry its mes­sage in a wor­thy way, and the sub­se­quent his­to­ry of its use in­di­cates that God an­swered prayer.