Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing by Robert Robinson, 1758.

Verse 1

Come, thou fount of ev’ry 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.

“Fount,” a contraction of the word “fountain,” aptly describes the ever-flowing streams of mercy issuing from God’s throne of grace. With the boldness of our Spirit assured faith, we with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” (Hebrews 4:16, ESV).

Confidently fixed on the “mount of God’s unchanging love,” we join countless multitudes in praise. And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and … they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except (all) those (who) had been redeemed from the earth.” (Revelation 14:2–3). We don’t know the “melodious sonnet” yet, but in eternity we will, and we’ll sing it together to our unchanging, glorious God.

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, wand’ ring from the fold of God:
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.

Ebenezer means “stone of help.” After Israel foolishly lost the Ark of the Covenant to the Philistines in battle, Yahweh afflicted the Philistines, and they returned the Ark to Israel. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us. (1 Samuel 7:12). Samuel did not want Israel to forget, and we must not forget that we were estranged from God until Jesus “interposed his precious blood” between God and us. Reconciled by Christ, we raise our Ebenezer to commemorate God’s grace then and His grace now that helps us in and through these trials.

Verse 3

O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be;
let that grace now, like a fetter, bind my wand’ ring 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.

A fetter is a chain or leg cuffs that prevent a person from walking. As redeemed but not fully conformed to Christ, our fallen desires and actions that proceed from the “heart,” the seat of our being, want to draw us back to our old ways. Robinson’s hymn describes God’s grace as a fetter whose lock is sealed by the Spirit. Paul writes it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, and who has also put his seal on us and given us his Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. (2 Corinthians 1:21–22).

Fettered by grace, and sealed by the Spirit in love. With confidence, we, straighten up and raise our heads, because our redemption is drawing near. (Luke 21:28b).

Blessings, Pastor Don