Christ Lutheran Church
Cleveland, Ohio
June 21, 2026
by: Rev. Dean Kavouras
Pentecost 4
Great Is Thy Faithfulness
“He will cover you with his pinions; and beneath his wing you will find refuge. His faithfulness will be a shield and buckler.” (Psalm 91:4)
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It is no accident that for the last 100 years Christians have had a strong preference for the hymn: Great Is Thy Faithfulness. A piece authored by the Reverend Thomas Chisolm who born in 1866 and died not all that long ago in 1960. What was so endearing about this piece? The striking title to be sure: “Great Is Thy Faithfulness.” It is a hymn that has lifted God’s people from the depths of sorrow to heights of the heavenly choirs above as often as they sought its refuge.
This theme “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” is found throughout Scripture’s liturgies, prayers and hymns. And most wonderfully by countless examples of God’s people being miraculously rescued. We need only think of their miraculous rescue at the gaping mouth of the Red Sea. Or the substitute sacrifice and God provided Abraham so that his long-promised son Isaac could continue on to fulfill God’s promise that – you will be the father of many nations, and your descendants more than the stars of the sky and the sands of the seashore. Women received back their dead, the diseased were made well, those possessed by cruel demons were made free – because God is constant. In a world where nothing else is, that fact alone should make us shout for joy!
But the chief sign of our God’s devotion to us is stated in John 3:16. For God loved the world in this manner, that He gave his One and Only Son that whoever should believe in him will not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16) Now to say things plainly Christ crucified is the embodiment of God’s constancy – his fidelity Personified. And … all the defensive implements mentioned in Psalm 91:4 – pinion, wing, shield and buckler are but figures of Christ crucified, resurrected and ascended high above the heavens for us.
Pinion And Wing
The eagle’s pinions refer to the outer, primary flight feathers and the corresponding sections of its wings. Pinions are stiff, powerful feathers that control the eagle’s lift, drag, and thrust, and allow the eagle to soar at dizzying speeds and maneuver with military precision. And so when Scripture assures us that God will cover us with his wings, we are to understand that these impregnable divine defenses keep us safe from the very real enemies that make our knees knock and our teeth chatter.
Shield and Buckler
But the Psalmist does not stop there. He goes on to call God’s constancy our SHIELD and BUCKLER, so that we might obtain great confidence and clarity of all our senses, to walk with Christ come what may. Come what may because “may” always comes.
Yes there are good and blessed times in our lives that call forth our highest praise and thanks, and that we hope will last forever. But they do not. And so as if to sober us up Job writes under the Spirit’s inspiration that:
“Man who is born of a woman Is of few days and full of trouble.” (Job 14:1)
And our Lord Jesus himself warns that “through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. (Acts 14:22)
But we need not fear or suffer a moment’s anxiety because Jesus is our Shield and Buckler. The shield here referenced is very large, enough to cover the warrior’s whole body, and constructed of materials suitable to defend the man who carried it against spears thrust at tremendous speeds and with great power to kill. And against swift arrows traveling at dazzling speeds that apart from such defenses mean certain death.
The “Buckler” on the other hand is a small, circular shield employed for close quarters battle. It can be used defensively against sword or knife thrusts, and offensively delivering staggering blows to the enemy. This is Saint Paul’s reference when he says, “Take up the shield of faith by which you will quench the fiery darts of the devil.” And so do not think you can live in this world, or the next for that matter, without a firm faith founded on the gospel of Jesus Christ.
God’s Faithfulness
Now as we said earlier, all the defensive implements referenced today are figures of our Lord Jesus Christ, he who EMBODIES the steadiness of or God.
But let us be sure to know that God’s loyalty to us is not merely a talking point. Not at all. But like all things having to do with the Holy Christian Religion Jesus came to us in the flesh. In the flesh to offer his stainless life as the “ransom for many” (Mt. 20:28) you are those many!
What he did once, become incarnate among us, he still does as he feeds His baptismally-purified Bride with the Bread of Heaven – his own Body and Blood. And will do so till the “end of the age” because his “faithfulness is Great.”
But he saves the best for last, Beloved!
He will yet make one more appearance. He will “come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,” and that will be history’s final, but finest day! A “Day” that will never end, for “night will be no more.” (Rev. 22:5)
Because God’s fidelity is Great – Saint John the Divine writes, “He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him, even those who pierced him, and all tribes of the earth will wail on account of him. Even so. Amen.”
Because God’s allegiance is Great! Saint Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:51-52 “Behold! I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we shall be changed.
Because God’s faithfulness is Great! Jesus himself says: “Truly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming, and is now here, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself. And he has given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this, for an hour is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who have done good to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil to the resurrection of judgment.” (John 5:25-30)
Because God’s faithfulness is Great he enter into the Holiest Communion of all with us, joining his own Living Flesh with our dead Flesh and thereby giving us life!
Great is thy Faithfulness, Lord unto me! Amen