Faith Practice, the Exercise

Stop and Think About a Hymn

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Come, Thou Fount of every blessing

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 Thy redeeming love.

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve 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;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

O to grace how great a debtor Daily
I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, 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.

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.

Text by Robert Robertson
The hymn text is in the public domain.
Source: http://www.cyberhymnal.org/htm/c/o/comethou.htm

  • Who does the hymn writer consider to be the “fount” from which blessing flows? What does he want?
  • Why is the hymn writer sorrowful? Do you feel sorrowful about the same things?
  • The word Ebenezer means “Stone of help.” How does that definition clarify the second half of the second verse?
  • What is the hymn writer’s image of Jesus in verse 3? How does the “precious blood” rescue him from danger? How would a Muslim Background Believer imprisoned for apostasy see Christ’s precious blood?
  • What goodness will have the effect of keeping the hymn writer from wandering away from his faith? What force will hold him close and seal him as belonging to God?
  • Where does the hymn writer long to go, and why? Do you have the same feeling? Why or why not?
  • What do you see as the most important theme in this hymn? Please share your answer in comments?

 

 

2 thoughts on “Stop and Think About a Hymn”

  1. Love this hymn since I was a little girl wiggling between my parents in worship Sunday mornings. Then I learned to play it on the piano a few years later, and even played it in church on a Sunday night for junior high choir. It has remained one of my favorites because Jesus is the fount of my every blessing. I would be nothing without Him in my life. At 68 years, I still rejoice in knowing His unconditional love!

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    1. I completely share your enthusiasm for this hymn. It was the first hymn I learned to play on the piano, too. When I started lessons at the advanced age of 15, my teacher told me that in addition to her own curriculum, she wanted me to pick pieces along the way that I liked personally. I chose to learn hymns. This was the first one I picked, and I loved introducing it to my teacher. She was a wonderful Christian woman who went to a different church than we did, and her church had never sung this hymn. After I learned to play it, she looked in their hymnal, and there it was! She asked the pastor about including it in worship, and they did.
      Thank you for stopping by and sharing your experience.

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