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 your faithfulness.
“The Lord is my portion,” says my soul,
    “therefore I will hope in him.”
Lamentations 3:22-24, NRSV

The book of Lamentations is not one we ordinarily associate with hope and joy. The book is called Lamentations! But, contained within this book of lamenting, there is this moment of hope. Even though everything is crumbling, there is a voice that cries "Great is Thy Faithfulness." It can be hard right now to stand and proclaim that God is faithful. People are grieving and mourning, there is sickness and there remains injustice, oppression and poverty. We join a long line of people that have wondered the same thing: how can it be that God is faitfhul when the world appears to be crumbling?

One of my favorite hymns is "Great is Thy Faithfulness," and the version linked above might be one of my favorite versions of it. The hymn proclaims that the faithfulness of God is steadfast through "summer and winter and springtime and harvest." If we can sing that God is faithful in every season of the year, then we can also proclaim that God is faithful in every season of our lives. That includes this season of waiting and grieving and sorrow. Like the winter, it can feel right now as if everything has been stripped bare and many of us are left longing for the heat and sun of the summer. While the literal summer might not bring relief, we can look forward to a day when there will be.

Let us proclaim today that we know that God is faithful. God was faithful to Israel in the wilderness and in the trial, and Jesus - God incarnate - was faithful to us from the grave into resurrected life. We can rejoice in God's faithfulness today as the long line of people who came before us have done. And, so too, will people look back on us and say "Great was their faithfulness."