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!

Preparing to be married eight years ago, my future wife and I discussed music for our wedding. Millions of songs, thousands of hymns, but which to choose? One hymn was certain, Chisholm and Runyan’s “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.”

I’m an emotional guy, but as time has unwound I find myself crying less and less. On that day in May as I stood before the woman I loved, this hymn played, encapsulating every thought I had about God’s goodness. I bawled out the words somehow. How wonderful they are! The witnesses of God’s own making, His very creation, each man and woman, all attesting to the faithfulness of the Lord—a God who never changes, never fails, who has been and always will be.

Yesterday I wrote about dust, and that we are. But even as God breathed life into the dusty bones lying strewn across a terrible battlefield (Ezekiel 37:1-14), He can take us, dead and destroyed as we are, and breathe His vital Spirit into us, raising us up and making us to stand, redeemed and ready.

God took a weeping prophet, whose lamentations stained the earth with tears, and allowed him to see that nothing and no one is too far gone for Him to resurrect. And so in his wailing, God showed Jeremiah that His faithfulness is great:

My soul is bereft of peace;
I have forgotten what happiness is;
so I say, “My endurance has perished;
so has my hope from the LORD.”
Remember my affliction and my wanderings,
the wormwood and the gall!
My soul continually remembers it
and is bowed down within me.
But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:
The steadfast love of the LORD never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.”
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.
It is good for a man that he bear
the yoke in his youth.
Let him sit alone in silence
when it is laid on him;
let him put his mouth in the dust—
there may yet be hope;
let him give his cheek to the one who strikes,
and let him be filled with insults.
For the Lord will not
cast off forever,
but, though he cause grief, he will have compassion
according to the abundance of his steadfast love;
for he does not willingly afflict
or grieve the children of men.
—Lamentations 3:17-33 {emphasis added}

We who are dust, are born from dust and return to dust, have a hope. That hope lies in God’s great faithfulness. He does not cast off forever, and though He may seem far away in times of trouble, His compassion is boundless, His forgiveness limitless, and His peace enduring.

So let us praise Him! All we have needed His hand hath provided. The strength we need for today is there for the taking. His hands are open with blessings—all mine and all yours—with ten thousand beside.

Thank you, Jesus, thank you!