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Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Lyrics by Robert Robinson; Music by John Wyeth

Welcome back!  I hope this Lenten season is fostering a deeper and deeper intimacy with Christ as you prepare for Easter–Resurrection Sunday!

My reflection today is on a wonderful old hymn called “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” and it fits my purpose with this whole project really well because some of the lyrics here are especially difficult to understand.  Let’s get started so I can unpack some of those for you–I hope the truths nestled within this great hymn nurture your faith like spring rain!  

I’ll provide the lyrics (verse by verse) then offer a paraphrase, and lastly a brief reflection on each.   Here’s a video link to today’s hymn:  Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing | Christmas Lyric Video | Reawaken Hymns

Verse 1:

Come Thou Fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of God’s unchanging love.

Paraphrase:

Come, O Lord, You who are the Fountain of every blessing, and tune my heart like a musical instrument that I may sing of Your grace!  From this Fountain never-ending streams of mercy flow and call forth from me loud songs of praise!  Would You teach me, please, some silvery, sweet-sounding lyrics sung by Holy Spirit-inspired words of praise!  O praise the mount of Your crucifixion–my eyes are fixed upon it, this mount displaying Your unending, unchanging love!

Reflection:

What a wonderful image!  Every blessing we have, however rich and abundant, is a mere drop from God Himself, the Author, Source, and Fountain of never-ending blessings!  How can we become fit to sing His praise?  Where will we find the words?  Our whole life should be a song of praise to the One who made us, bought us, and saved us.  Lord, You alone can teach us to sing such songs, and every time I look upon Your cross I’m inspired again to praise You and live for You!

Verse 2:

Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Hither by Thy help I’m come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.

Paraphrase

Here I build my altar of remembrance–I could only have come this far with Your help.  And with Your favor, I hope to arrive safely at my heavenly home.  Jesus, You sought me out when I was a stranger wandering from Your fold like a lost sheep!  Your precious blood stood between me and danger, separating us and saving my life. 

Reflection

Like most of us, I only knew an “Ebenezer” as Scrooge in Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.  And it sounds funny to sing it in worship, but what an awesome word it is!  The word itself means “stone of help.”  In 1 Samuel 7 after Israel was saved by God from the Philistines, Samuel set up this stone, this Ebenezer as a reminder of God’s faithful love, as a reminder that He alone was strong enough to rescue them from every danger.  We all wander, and left to ourselves we’ll never find our way, but when we come upon our Ebenezer–the blood of Jesus–we can be sure one day we’ll arrive safely at our eternal home.

Verse 3:

O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothed then in blood-washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.

Paraphrase

A glorious day is coming when I will see Your lovely face and be set free from sinning.  I will stand before You that day, singing of your mighty grace and clothed in pure linen washed by Your cleansing blood.  Come soon, O Lord, don’t wait, don’t linger!  You bought me for Yourself, take me away with You!  Send Your angels to carry me to the never-ending daylight in Your Kingdom! 

Reflection

When I sing these lyrics I think of 1 John 3:2-3 which reminds us that one day “when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is. And all who have this hope in him purify themselves, just as he is pure.”  To see Jesus’ face is the only way to know lasting freedom and perfect joy.  To wear that perfect, clean, pure linen; to know the cleansing of His blood; to sing the praise of His grace!  Come, Lord Jesus, come soon, and take us home where darkness, night, and sin reign no more–only perfect, endless day!

Verse 4:

O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let that grace now like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

Paraphrase

Day by day forever I am indebted to your grace!  Let the chains of Your grace bind my wandering heart to You forever!  Lord, I know how prone to wander I am, how prone to walk away from You–the God I love so dearly!  So here is my heart, O Lord, take it!  Keep it for that day when I dwell in Your courts forever!

Reflection

This verse paints a great picture of what I call “the etiquette of grace.”  This phrase helps me understand the link between God’s free, abundant, unmerited grace, this great gift of salvation on the one hand, and my freely offered, my weak and inadequate, but deep, heartfelt, loving adoration of Him on the other–a freewill offering of praise and thanksgiving for such boundless, undeserved grace.  He is a Fountain of grace and love!  What image could better describe it?  My humble offering has nothing at all to do with earning favor or salvation or blessing–it only serves to make my whole life, all of my thoughts, words, ideals, dreams, purposes and relationships one endless “Thank You, thank You, forever and always, thank You!”

Now listen again, and sing God’s praise!

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing | Christmas Lyric Video | Reawaken Hymns