I well remember them,
and my soul is downcast within me. Yet this I call to mind
and therefore I have hope:
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail. They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The Lord is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.” (Lamentations 3:20-24)
A long-time famous hymn, “Great Is They Faithfulness,” was sung as part of the presidential inauguration festivities. For many years, I have found myself humming the tune of that hymn. It echoes in my mind. Thomas Chisholm wrote the words to it back in 1923, sent them to William Runyan, who was a musician at Moody Bible Institute and editor of the Hope Publishing Company, who put the words to music. The hymn quickly became a favorite of MBI.
The irony, and the history we seek to ignore, is that Thomas Chisholm’s life was filled with crises and valleys. He had health issues that forced him to resign his pastor position. He had financial difficulties as a result of that. Life situations that would have made most people bitter towards God made him more dependent on God. The scripture basis for the hymn was Lamentations 3:23, a pool of hope in the midst of a lake of despair.
As the great hymn was sung this past week, it made me ponder the disturbing and annoying question that pricks me like an itchy pair of winter long johns: Are we willing to sing the hymn when things go our way, or do we have an intimacy with God that believes He is closely with us no matter what the news headlines read? Is His faithfulness evident only when we declare a victory or is it ongoing in the times of plenty and the seasons of drought?
It took the possibilities and the problems of life for Thomas Chisholm to write the hymn, not just the exaltation of a triumph.
I found it interesting that on the day of the inauguration, the College Football Championship Bowl game was played in Atlanta. When Notre Dame marched down the field on their opening drive of the game, a dominant eighteen-play series that had their quarterback, Riley Leonard, diving into the endzone for the score, the camera focused on him. Instead of a touchdown dance routine, he handed the ball to the official and gave a triumphant gesture. However, what I noticed was a scripture reference written on the white athletic tape around his right wrist. The verse was Matthew 23:12.
“For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”
It was a message of humility. I’m sure Riley Leonard was disappointed in Notre Dame’s loss that night. Still, I’m sure that he understood the bigger picture: God is faithful in the difficulty of the valleys as well as the exhilaration of the mountaintops.
Words from WW Blog 