We sang the hymn Great is Thy Faithfulness at our wedding on a hot, muggy July day 29 years ago, and it became our family refrain, sung at every defining moment.
We’ve sung it loud in gratitude. We’ve sung it haltingly in desperation, we’ve sung it in harmony and with hope. With tears of pain and tears of joy.
This past year I’ve had the incredible privilege of worshipping with believers on five continents. Singing “Great is Thy Faithfulness” side by side with folks who were raising their voices in tribal tongues like Tonga, or Aramaic, French, Japanese, Hebrew, Spanish…
In a packed mud church in Zambia where praying for daily bread isn’t an empty phrase and people thirst for living water.
Great is Thy Faithfulness.
Alone in abandoned cathedrals in Italy where God is still present and you hear the echoes of followers long gone.
Great is Thy Faithfulness.
In the Swiss Alps where believers are a minority like a tiny flame trying to bring light to the darkness.
Great is Thy Faithfulness.
In Brazil where girls need to be reminded they are beautiful, beloved children of God first and foremost.
Great is Thy Faithfulness.
In the Bethlehem where Christians pray for peace and refuse to be enemies even as bullets fly.
Great is Thy Faithfulness
In Sri Lanka where everyone helped bury the dead after the tsunami and the sound system squalks and squeals and people fan themselves in the sweltering heat and humidity as they sing.
Great is Thy Faithfulness.
I write these words fearing they won’t communicate the power I feel. I am not an emotional worshipper, but when I come before the Lord with people of every language, people with burdens I cannot imagine, and faith I cannot fathom, I’m wrecked. I’m a puddle.
I wonder if you’ve experienced anything like this. It’s hard to express, and yet, I feel the Lord says to me over and over again “Ascribe to the Lord the glory due His name” from Psalm 29 and I have to try.
I think of this as a small glimpse of heaven written about in Revelation 15:9 “All nations will come and worship before You, for your righteous acts have been revealed.”
What moves you in worship?
