Great is Thy Faithfulness is one of the most popular Christian hymns, written by Thomas Chisholm and composed by William M. Runyan. In this lesson, we’ll cover the chords you can use for this song, sheet music for the melody including tabs, and finally look at a fingerstyle guitar arrangement.
Grab your guitar and let’s get started!
How to read the guitar chord charts
To clarify how to read the chord charts, the top horizontal line represents the high E string and the bottom horizontal line represents the low E string. The vertical lines separate each fret. The numbers in the blue dots tell you which fingers to use on the fretting hand.
For example, on the C Major chord, you use the:
- 1st finger on the 2nd string, 1st fret
- 2nd finger on the 4th string, 2nd fret
- 3rd finger on the 5th string, 3rd fret
- Circles represent open strings
- X means to avoid the string
You can check this link for more on how to read guitar notation symbols.
Great is Thy Faithfulness guitar chords
The guitar chords we’re using for this song are G Major, C/G, C Major, G/B, A7, D Major, C Major 7, C# diminished 7, G/D, E Major, A minor. You can click on the chords with links to learn different ways of playing that chord.
Try the following chords one at a time until you feel comfortable switching between them. These chords will be written above the melody in the next section.
Here are some other resources on chords:
- 6 tips to get better at switching between chords on guitar
- How to play chord inversions on guitar
- How to play the essential 7th chords on guitar
- How to play diminished chords on guitar
Great is Thy Faithfulness guitar tabs and chords
Here are the guitar tabs for Great is Thy Faithfulness in the key of G Major. For the sheet music below, keep in mind that the chords and melody are meant to be played as separate parts. We’ll look at how to connect these parts later in the arrangement section of this lesson.
You can refer to this simple guide to understanding music symbols if needed.
By the way, you can get all the PDFs of this song below.
Also, try out the finger-style arrangement after the lyrics section below.
Great is Thy Faithfulness lyrics
Verse 1:
Great is Thy faithfulness, O God my Father.
There is no shadow of turning with thee.
Thou changest not, thy compassions, they fail not.
As Thou hast been Thou forever wilt be.
Chorus:
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Great is Thy faithfulness!
Morning by morning new mercies I see.
All I have needed thy hand hath provided.
Great is Thy faithfulness, Lord, unto me!
Verse 2:
Summer and winter, and springtime and harvest,
sun, moon, and stars in their courses above,
join with all nature in manifold witness
to Thy great faithfulness, mercy, and love. (Chorus)
Verse 3:
Pardon for sin and a peace that endureth,
Thine own dear presence to cheer and to guide,
strength for today and bright hope for tomorrow;
blessings all mine, with ten thousand beside! (Chorus)
Reference: Great is Thy Faithfulness. Hymnary.org
Great is Thy Faithfulness – guitar arrangement
In this section, we essentially put different parts together using a finger picking style method of playing. Keep in mind that some chords are changed in the following fingerstyle arrangement.
The numbers next to some notes on the top staff indicate which fingers to use on the fretting hand.
You can check out this lesson to learn how to finger pick on guitar.
If you like this style of playing, you can check out this other lesson to learn how to connect a melody and chords on guitar.
📘 Get the free guitar practice guide here!
Want to learn more songs? Check out the sheet music with guitar tabs resource on this site.
All the best,
JG Music Lessons
