He Never Failed Me Yet

Call me old fashioned, but I love traditions.

I think my love for traditions is a side effect of the fact that I really don’t love change. I’ll be the first to admit it: if I were a character in a Dr. Seuss book, my line would be, “I do not like change, Sam I Am, nor do I like green eggs and ham!”

I like routine and predictability. I like a schedule and a well-organized meeting agenda. I like a prioritized to-do list and a color-coded calendar.

And right now, I have none of those things.

Instead, I have change – and like so many others, I have a whole lot of it.

One of the reasons I love traditions so much is because they offer consistency and an anchor onto which our lives can hold: no matter how much change occurs throughout the course of a year or a season, traditions hold fast.

At the same time, I love traditions because they are flexible. No matter how much change occurs throughout the course of a year or a season, the things that are most important to us, like traditions, still happen – even if they look a little different than before.

One tradition that I’ve missed quite deeply in this season of change is Campbell University Divinity School’s final chapel service of the year. Each year, the final service, led by and dedicated to the graduates, is a celebration of all that God has done in the course of the academic year. As a 2020 graduate, I had anticipated that particular chapel service since my first semester of divinity school.

It isn’t the chapel service itself that I’ve missed. No, I’ve missed a specific part of the service, and my very favorite divinity school tradition. To close the service, the choir assembles and invites anyone present to join them by the stained glass window at the front of Butler Chapel. Squeezed in tightly, student and professor and faculty all side-by-side and shoulder to shoulder, our divinity school family joins one last time for the year in our beloved sacred space to sing “He Never Failed Me Yet,” a soulful gospel song praising God for His faithfulness and provision.

Even though it isn’t quite the same this year, I’ve found this tradition to be especially meaningful over the last few months and wanted to share it with you. Along with being stuck in my head on a nearly constant loop, “He Never Failed Me Yet” has become an anthem of praise, hope, and promise in such a challenging and uncertain season.

The chorus of the song is a powerful reminder of the truth that as Christians, we have every reason to praise God:

I will sing of God’s mercy

Every day, every hour

He gives me power

I will sing and give thanks to Thee

For all the dangers, toils and snares

That He has brought me out

He is my God and I’ll serve Him

No matter what the test

Trust and never doubt,

Jesus will surely bring you out

He never failed me yet

The verses recall promises and stories of God’s provision in Scripture as a testament to His unfailing care:

Verse 1

I know God is able to deliver in times of storm

And I know that He’ll keep you

Safe from all earthly harm

One day when my weary soul is at rest

I’m going home to be forever blessed

Trust and never doubt

Jesus will surely bring you out

He never failed me yet

 

Verse 2

Didn’t my God deliver Moses from King Pharaoh?

And didn’t He cool the fiery furnace

For Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego?

When I think of what my God can do

He delivered Daniel

I know He will deliver you

Trust and never doubt

Jesus will surely bring you out

He never failed me yet

As the uncertainty of this season continues, I pray that we each find comfort in remembering God’s provision in the past and clinging to His promises for the future. Many things in life may have changed or even be changing right now, but “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever” (Heb. 13:8), and He’s never failed us yet.