The beloved hymn “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” is widely known and claimed as a favorite hymn by many Christians. The entire hymn is a tremendous testimony to the immutability of the God that we serve. The first stanza contains these famous lines:
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 wilt be.
The refrain reinforces the truths of the stanza:
Great is thy faithfulness,
Great is thy faithfulness,
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed thy hand hast provided;
Great is thy faithfulness,
Lord unto me.
As well-known as this hymn has become, it is surprising how little that we know of the author of this text. Yet this is not the only hymn that he wrote. Thomas Chisholm was the author of approximately 1,200 hymns. Of these, the most famous include “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” “Living for Jesus,” and “O to Be Like Thee!”
Thomas Obadiah Chisholm was born on July 29, 1866, only a year after the War Between the States ended. The log cabin in which he was born was in the rural farmland outside of Franklin, Kentucky, near the Tennessee border.
Thomas was a sickly child. During his entire life, he was plagued with ongoing physical weakness. He attended a one-room schoolhouse in rural Kentucky near the family cabin. At the age of 16, he became a teacher of younger boys and girls.
Due to a shortage of teachers in rural schoolhouses, Thomas filled an important role, despite the fact that he was not very well-educated himself. He taught the boys and girls how to love God, how to serve their fellow man, how to read and write, and how to do practical problems in arithmetic that they would encounter in life at home and on the farm.
In 1893, when Chisholm was twenty-seven years old, a spiritual revival swept through his hometown and county in Kentucky. A visiting preacher named Henry Clay Morrison, the man who later became famous as the president of Asbury College, preached a series of revival meetings. Chisholm responded, repenting of his sins and trusting in Jesus Christ as his Savior and Lord.
In spite of his physical weakness, Chisholm dedicated himself to the spread of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus. Dr. Morrison asked the young man to become the editor and manager of a Methodist periodical publication called The Pentecostal Herald. Chisholm moved to Louisville and took up this service for the sake of the Lord he loved.
In 1903, after several years of study and preparation, he was ordained to the Gospel ministry in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Active service as a pastor in Scottsville, Kentucky, was very hard on Chisholm’s health. Preaching took a toll on his voice and lungs, and he was forced by circumstances to resign his charge. He moved to the North for the sake of his health, and took up residence near Winona Lake, Indiana, where his family owned some land.
Chisholm worked as an insurance salesman in Winona Lake. At some point, Chisholm began writing poetry. One of his first poems was the text that became the hymn “O to Be Like Thee,” a prayer that he might become like the Lord Jesus Christ.
Chisholm wrote periodically throughout his long life. His ill health prevented him from engaging in active pulpit ministry, so he made his ministry one of poetry. Throughout the ups and downs of his poor health as well as his changing circumstances, he often marveled at the unchanging character of God. Lamentations 3:22–23 became a favorite Scripture passage for him. “It is of the LORD’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not. They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.”
In that particular hymn he noted how creation reflects a faithful God:
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.
Although we know that Thomas Chisholm had a wife and family, little is known of these personal aspects of his life. After living in Indiana for many years, he moved to New Jersey. He lived in Vineland for several years, continuing to write and serve the Lord as God gave him strength.
In 1915, a friend named Henry Lowden had a tune without a good text. He shared the melody with Chisholm, who could possibly write fitting poetry to go with it. Chisholm asked his daughter to hum the melody to him. He then composed the text, and the resulting song became “Living for Jesus.” The hymn was published in 1917, during the tumultuous times of the First World War (WWI).
Thomas Chisholm spent his final years in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, living at the Methodist Home for the Aged. Everyone who knew him remembered his kind and gentle ways. His most famous hymn was first published in 1923. It was relatively obscure until 1954, when George Beverly Shea made the song famous by singing it at a Billy Graham Crusade in the presence of millions all around the world.
Thomas Obadiah Chisholm, in spite of ill health, lived well into his nineties! He was born in the days of the horse and buggy. He died in the age of rockets, space travel, and nuclear weapons. Yet, the God of the Bible never changed. Thomas Chisholm died in 1960, leaving to the world this lasting testimony in song of an immutable God:
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 and ten thousand beside.
Sources and Further Reference:
Johnson, Guye. Treasury of Great Hymns and Their Stories. Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 1986.
Morgan, Robert. Then Sings My Soul: 150 of the World’s Greatest Hymn Stories. Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2003.
