{"id":8124,"date":"2022-07-11T10:03:48","date_gmt":"2022-07-11T17:03:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=8124"},"modified":"2022-08-01T13:49:46","modified_gmt":"2022-08-01T20:49:46","slug":"great-is-thy-faithfulness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=8124","title":{"rendered":"
Great is thy faithfulness<\/div>"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Click here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lamentations 3:23<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Lamentations 3:23 is the famous line: \u201cGreat is thy faithfulness.\u201d We know it from the hymn by that name, written in 1923 by Thomas Obadiah Chisholm. He was born in a log cabin in Franklin, Kentucky and grew up to become a Methodist minister. The hymn is not in many hymnals because it is relatively new. But it has become a favorite of many because of the words and the tune.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though the hymn is a favorite, the actual text in Lamentations is even better. There is more breadth and depth in the third chapter of Lamentations and in the wider context. The whole question is: Where is God?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where is God? The whole Old Testament is an answer to this question. In Genesis  12:1-3 the Lord comes to Abraham and says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGo from your country and your kindred and your father\u2019s house to the land that I will show you. And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. . . . and by you all the families of the earth shall bless themselves.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These promises are repeated in Genesis 15:1-6 and 17:1-8 and repeated to Isaac and Jacob. It\u2019s the basic covenant promise. It is what Paul in Galatians 4:5-7, 9, and 28-31 describes as the one-sided covenant. It\u2019s like Psalm 81:10: \u201cI am the Lord your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.\u201d That\u2019s simply what God does. He does it because that\u2019s who he is. He is faithful to himself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul points out that this covenant is different from the covenant with Moses. Exodus 20:1-17 says (paraphrase): \u201cI am the Lord your God who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Obey the Ten Commandments.\u201d A two-sided covenant.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The people were made a great nation. They received a land, Palestine. They became powerful under David and rich under Solomon. Then things fell apart. In 721 BC the Assyrians came and ten of the twelve tribes disappeared forever. The Assyrians stripped the temple and the palace. Then in 587 BC the Babylonians came and took the last two tribes and tore down the city. No more temple. No more palace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the Lord had promised that he would stay with them and he did. In 539 BC  Cyrus the Persian let a remnant go back to Palestine. But it was a small, ragged remnant. We hear about this in Ezra and Nehemiah, which are written about 444 BC. The city wall is flimsy and the temple is tiny. As we know from time of the Maccabees (about 169-164 B.C.), they are once again being overrun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The question is: Where is God and his covenant and his promises? Where is his faithfulness? It\u2019s very similar to Psalm 73 where the psalmist asks: \u201cWhy do the wicked prosper?\u201d And the psalmist points out (selected phrases from verses 4-12):<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI saw the prosperity of the wicked. They have no pangs. Their bodies are sound and sleek. They are not in trouble as other men are. They scoff and speak with malice and they say: How can God know? They are always at ease and they increase in riches.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The psalmist asks himself: \u201cWhere is God?\u201d The text in Lamentations 3 really needs to start with the first verse. It begins with the question: \u201cWhere is God in my situation?\u201d He describes his situation. He\u2019s in darkness, without any light. He says: \u201cI am walled about so I cannot escape. I am shut out from prayer. My paths are crooked. I am desolate. I have become a laughing stock. I am filled with bitterness.\u201d Then in verse 18 he says: \u201cGone is my glory and my hope from the Lord.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lamentations 3:21 is the big reversal: \u201cBut this I call to mind and therefore I have hope.\u201d It all switches. It\u2019s very much like Psalm 73:23: \u201cNevertheless, in spite of it all, I am still with thee. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the context of this reversal? \u201cThe steadfast love of the Lord never ceases.\u201d \u201cSteadfast\u201d is from the King James Version of the Bible. It means unchanging. The text has a tiny footnote which says: \u201cGod\u2019s love does not wander.\u201d It is \u201cstandfast.\u201d It goes on to say: \u201cHis mercies never come to an end. They are new every morning.\u201d This is recalling again that one-sided covenant. What is mercy? Not tit for tat. No, God\u2019s mercy is a one-sided thing; it never ends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGreat is thy faithfulness.\u201d What is this great faithfulness? You might think: \u201cIt isn\u2019t everything.\u201d But it is more than everything. It is that which is the promise of God. And his promises are different from ours because he keeps them. Ours are faulty. But he keeps his covenant, his mercy, and his unchanging love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s really like some other places in Scripture, for example Deuteronomy 33:27: \u201cThe eternal God is your dwelling place and underneath are the everlasting arms.\u201d Or in Psalm 118:6: \u201cWith the Lord on my side I do not fear? What can man do to me?\u201d That\u2019s quoted in the New Testament in Hebrews 13:6, and it\u2019s the same as how Paul sums things up in Romans 8:31: \u201cWhat shall we say to this? If God is for us, who can be against us?\u201d Is that who God is?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then comes the question: What are we supposed to do? The text says: \u201cThe Lord is good to those who wait for him.\u201d That\u2019s striking because it\u2019s not the way we usually think. We usually think it\u2019s up to us to make it happen. It\u2019s spelled out in Isaiah 64:4: \u201cNo eye has seen a God besides thee who works for those who wait for him.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This theme recurs. In Psalm 62:5: \u201cFor God alone my soul waits in silence, for my hope is in him.\u201d In Psalm 46:10: \u201cBe still and know that I am God.\u201d \u201cBe still\u201d means both that I am quiet, and it also means: \u201cDon\u2019t move your feet!\u201d God is doing it, and that\u2019s the way God works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a striking way, in Isaiah 50:10, it describes what we are to do: \u201cWho among you fears the Lord, who walks in darkness and has no light, yet trusts in the name of the Lord, and relies upon his God?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s what faith is about \u2013 \u201cwho walks in darkness and has no light, yet trusts in the name of the Lord.\u201d That means \u201cby faith alone.\u201d He does it in his way, which is hidden from us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul picks this up in Romans 11:33: \u201cHow unsearchable are his judgments and how hidden are his ways!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the sum of it all? What is it pointing to? This brings us to the last point. It says in 2 Cor 1:20: \u201cAll the promises of God find their Yes in him.\u201d All of this which has been stated in Lamentations 3 and also throughout Isaiah and Jeremiah and the whole of the Old Testament is pointing forward to being fulfilled in Jesus Christ. We look back because we know that all the promises of God find their Yes in him.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is stated very concretely in Romans 8:32: \u201cHe who did not spare his own son, but gave him up for us all, will he not give us all things with him?\u201d Obviously, yes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another great hymn, this one by Martin Luther, is \u201cOut of the Depths I Cry to You,\u201d which says many of those things that are said in Lamentations 3. The second verse particularly has these lines: \u201cWe praise the God who gives us faith and saves us from the grip of death; our lives are in his keeping.\u201d This is much the same as Lamentations 3: The Lord is the one who does it. He is the one who gives us faith. He is the one who saves us from the grip of death. He is faithful to himself and therefore to us.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The basic message comes back to us. The message is in music we sing but more profoundly in the text itself: \u201cThe steadfast love of the Lord never ceases. His mercies never come to an end. Great is thy faithfulness\u201d (Lamentations 3:23). \u201cThe Lord is good to those who wait for him. . . . It is good that one should wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord\u201d (Lamentati<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A sermon for the Sixth Sunday after Pentecost<\/p>\n

Lamentations 3:23<\/p>\n

In Lamentations 3:23 is the famous line: \u201cGreat is thy faithfulness.\u201d We know it from the hymn by that name, written in 1923 by Thomas Obadiah Chisholm. He was born in a log cabin in Franklin, Kentucky and grew up to become a Methodist minister. The hymn is not in many hymnals because it is relatively new. But it has become a favorite of many because of the words and the tune.<\/p>\n

Even though the hymn is a favorite, the actual text in Lamentations is even better. There is more breadth and depth in the third chapter of Lamentations and in the wider context. The whole question is: Where is God?<\/p>\n

Select here<\/a> to read more or here <\/a>for a pdf document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8124"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8174,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8124\/revisions\/8174"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}