“Great Is Thy Faithfulness” is one of the most requested hymns of the twentieth century, and the story of how it began is quieter than most people expect. A Methodist minister who sold life insurance mailed a batch of poems to a composer, the composer picked a few, and the hymn spread slowly for years before a Chicago Bible school and an evangelistic team carried it around the world. This guide separates what is documented from what is repeated.
Quick Answer
“Great Is Thy Faithfulness” was written by Thomas O. Chisholm (1866–1960) and set to music by William M. Runyan (1870–1957) in 1923. The refrain is built on Lamentations 3:22–23, “they are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness”. Chisholm himself wrote in 1955 that the hymn had no special circumstances behind it. It spread through the Moody Bible Institute and then through the Billy Graham crusades, where George Beverly Shea sang it. The words and tune are in the public domain in the United States, because works published in 1923 entered it in 2019.
The Man Who Wrote It
Thomas Obadiah Chisholm was born on 29 July 1866 in a log cabin near Franklin, Kentucky. He was teaching school at sixteen. Around 1893, at about twenty-seven, he had a conversion experience during a revival in Franklin led by the Methodist preacher Henry Clay Morrison. He was ordained in 1903 but served as a pastor for only a year before poor health forced him to resign. From 1909 he worked as a life insurance agent, first in Winona Lake, Indiana, and later in Vineland, New Jersey.
Writing was his steady sideline. Chisholm wrote more than 1,200 sacred poems for Christian periodicals and edited The Pentecostal Herald in Louisville for a time. “Living for Jesus” (1917, music by C. Harold Lowden) is his other widely sung text. He spent his last years at the Methodist Home for the Aged in Ocean Grove, New Jersey, and died there on 29 February 1960, aged 93.
How the Hymn Came to Exist
Most hymn stories grow more dramatic with each retelling. This one is better documented than most because both men answered questions from the hymnologist William J. Reynolds in the 1950s, and the Hymnology Archive quotes their letters.
In a letter of 9 June 1955, Chisholm said the hymn had no special circumstances behind it. He had sent “a number of lyrics” to Rev. W. M. Runyan in 1923, while living in Vineland, and Runyan used several, this one among them. Chisholm added that it “went rather slowly for several years” until Dr. William Houghton, then president of the Moody Bible Institute, took it up. Houghton told him the hymn was not the school’s official theme song but was “by long odds the most popular”.
Runyan, writing on 3 August 1954, said the poem held such an appeal that he prayed his tune would carry its message worthily. He wrote the music in Baldwin, Kansas, in 1923, and first printed it in his own song pamphlets. Its first appearance in a songbook was Runyan’s Songs of Salvation and Service, published in Chicago in 1923.
A small correction. Some websites say Hope Publishing Company issued the hymn in 1923. The letters and the Hymnology Archive point instead to Runyan’s own pamphlets and songbook as the first printings, which is the version of events used here. The tune name FAITHFULNESS was added later, for the 1956 Baptist Hymnal, at Runyan’s suggestion.
What the Words Are Drawing On
Chisholm’s text is a catalogue of Scripture rather than a narrative. The refrain comes straight from Lamentations 3:22–23 (KJV): “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.” That passage was written after the fall of Jerusalem, which is part of why the hymn’s calm is not naive.
The first stanza’s “no shadow of turning” echoes James 1:17, and “as Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be” recalls Hebrews 13:8 and the “who is, and who was, and who is to come” of Revelation 1:4 and 1:8. The second stanza, where sun, moon and stars “join with all nature in manifold witness”, draws on the creation psalms such as Psalm 19:1 and Psalm 98:7–8. The third stanza turns personal and practical: pardon, peace, strength for today and hope for tomorrow.
Literary scholar Leland Ryken points out that the first line sets up everything that follows. It names one attribute of God and addresses him directly, so the whole hymn is a prayer of thanks that lists evidence rather than explaining a doctrine. The poem also uses a rare shape: the metre is dactylic 11.10.11.10 with a refrain.
How It Spread: Moody to Billy Graham
In Chisholm’s words the hymn “went rather slowly for several years”. The Moody Bible Institute in Chicago was the turning point. George Beverly Shea (1909–2013), who later became Billy Graham’s regular soloist, learned the hymn there. Shea and the rest of Graham’s music team introduced it to Christians in Great Britain during their 1954 services, and Graham used it often on international crusades.
It has stayed in the repertoire in several styles. Cairn University in Pennsylvania has used it as its university hymn since the mid-twentieth century. Gaither Vocal Band recorded it for a 2007 album, and Carrie Underwood and CeCe Winans sang it as a duet on Underwood’s 2021 gospel album My Savior. Because the tune is simple, a band, a choir or a single voice can all carry it. For another example of a worship leader who shaped how a generation sang, read our piece on Cliff Barrows and the Billy Graham crusade music.
Using It in Worship
Match the tradition. Many congregations sing it with all three stanzas and the refrain after each. The refrain is the part most people know, so a short intro that lets the room find the key helps.
Credit the right people. List “Thomas O. Chisholm, music William M. Runyan, 1923” in your notes. The text and tune are public domain in the US, but a modern arrangement or recording can still be protected, so check the licence for the arrangement you use. Our worship song credit checklist explains how to do this.
Place it deliberately. The hymn fits a Sunday of thanksgiving, a harvest or new-year service, and a funeral or memorial where trust matters more than triumph. Our guide to building a worship set covers where a hymn of this weight sits in a service.
Teach the Scripture behind it. Reading Lamentations 3:22–23 aloud before the first stanza gives the refrain its context.
If You Like This Hymn
Other hymns with a documented past are on this site: Be Thou My Vision, To God Be the Glory, How Firm a Foundation and In the Garden. For why old words keep working, see why ancient hymns still matter. Related song pages: It Is Well with My Soul and How Great Thou Art.
FAQ
Who wrote “Great Is Thy Faithfulness”?
Thomas O. Chisholm wrote the words and William M. Runyan composed the music. Both date the hymn to 1923.
What Bible verse is “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” based on?
Lamentations 3:22–23. The refrain follows the phrase “great is thy faithfulness” in the King James Bible.
Is there a true story behind it?
Chisholm said there were no special circumstances behind it. It was one of several poems he sent Runyan in 1923, and Runyan chose it. Their own letters to Reynolds are the best evidence, and neither describes a dramatic origin.
Is “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” in the public domain?
In the United States, yes. Works published in 1923 entered the public domain on 1 January 2019. Some modern arrangements and recordings are still under copyright, and copyright terms differ outside the US.
What is the tune called?
FAITHFULNESS, a name given to Runyan’s tune for the 1956 Baptist Hymnal.
Sources
Hymnology Archive: Great is Thy faithfulness (Chris Fenner, 2018, rev. 2023)
Wikipedia: Great Is Thy Faithfulness
Wikipedia: Thomas Chisholm (songwriter))