Great Is Thy Faithfulness

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is thy faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.” (Lamentations 3:22-24)

You may recognize these lines from one of the hymns or worship songs that have been written based on these beautiful words.

The context is instructive for how, when, and why we would sing them.

The prophet Jeremiah wrote this in the midst of a time of great distress and suffering. He writes earlier in the chapter that he has “seen affliction under the rod of his wrath” (v1). And then he continues through the rest of the chapter to list all the ways God has afflicted him in this time of punishment.

He has suffered physically, emotionally, mentally, and even spiritually. He feels the heavy hand of God’s discipline on his back. He says God has “besieged” him with “bitterness and tribulation” (v5). He says God has not only not answered his prayers, but has built a stone wall to keep his prayers out of heaven (v8-9).

He says, “I have forgotten what happiness is” (v17) because of the severe nature of God’s affliction.

Then he says,

But this I call to mind,
and therefore I have hope:

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases…

He knows that whatever affliction we bear here on earth, it is temporary, it is ultimately for our good, and it is moderated by the loving hand of our heavenly Father.

Later in the chapter he says this,

Why should a living man complain,
a man, about the punishment of his sins?

Let us test and examine our ways,
and return to the Lord! (Lamentations 3:39-40)

God’s wrath, his anger, his punishment, they have a purpose in the lives of his children, and that purpose is our repentance and return to him.

The next time you feel like the hand of the Lord is against you, stop and examine your own life, let your sin be known to you, repent of it and return to the Lord. If you are his child and he disciplines you, it is in love and for repentance that he does so.

Express your grief and sorrow, mourn over your sin and how you have rejected God and his ways.

And remind yourself, as Jeremiah did in Lamentations 3, that

The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases;
his mercies never come to an end;
they are new every morning;
great is thy faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
“therefore I will hope in him.” (Lamentations 3:22-24)