Morning by Morning, New Mercies I See.
If
you have spent any amount of time in Baptist circles, chances are you are very
familiar with hymn number 346, "Great is Thy Faithfulness."
While it might occupy a different number in your hymnal, the hymn is one of the
most sung hymns in traditional evangelical circles. The man who penned the lyrics, Thomas Obediah Chisholm, was a prolific author with more than 1,200 poems to his
credit. Nothing traumatic happened that
urged Thomas to write the poem that was later set to music by William
Runyan. He simply wrote it based on what
he knew was true about the God he served.
The God
Thomas served is one of great compassion and mercy. A scriptural reference point for the hymn is found in Lamentations 3:22-23: "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." While the words of the hymn carry great
importance, I think placing them against the context of the 21 verses before
this passage makes them pop against the backdrop of some pretty
serious lamenting. Writing as a
representative of Jerusalem and in response to her destruction because of sin,
in verses 1 through 21 of chapter 3, the prophet Jeremiah speaks of having his
bones broken, of being surrounded with bitterness, of crooked paths, of being
mangled, of being the target of arrows, of being the laughingstock of his
people, of broken teeth by gravel, and of being deprived of peace. These items certainly qualify as laments! While it is easy to shift quickly to painting
God as an angry person ready to beat us over the head with a club of
condemnation, Jeremiah reminds us that the cause of the lament was not an angry
God but the sins of the people. God,
because of who he is, acts in accordance to justice as much as mercy.
In verse 39, the question is posed: "Why
should any living man complain when punished for his sins?" I can think of a few reasons for complaining,
but I think the point of the question targets the inherent unwillingness of my
heart to follow God. Disobedience brings
about consequences that are not pleasant, but the good news is that God doesn't
pour upon me what I deserve--if so, I'd be in more trouble than I could ever
dream up.
Directly
after offering the laments and directly before declaring that because of the
Lord's great love we are not consumed, Jeremiah says this in verse 21: "Yet this I call to mind and therefore
I have hope." His hope just didn't
appear or somehow remain steadfast during the lamenting. No, this guy lamented and made a choice to call
to mind what he knew was true about God.
It was an "and" approach and not an "either/or" approach. He didn't try to pretend to have hope and
ignore the laments--nor did he simply lament at the expense of recalling hope.
What I love about this guy is that he was real about where he was, what he
felt, and what he had decided to do about it.
Yes, life was tough given the sins that abounded all around him and in
him. Yet, what made it bearable was that
he was not consumed by it all because God is compassionate and his mercy is
never ending. I once heard someone say
that he was sure glad God's mercy was new every morning because he uses it up
every day. I'm definitely on the daily plan
of 100% consumption of God's mercy! As
we go about life today, let's take a cue from Jeremiah and say, "Yet this I
call to mind and therefore I have hope."
