Come Thou Fount Of Every Blessing

I had to write about a religious song for my Philosophy of Religion class and I wanted to share what I wrote with all of you! I love the idea of digging deeper into what the hymns we sing every week mean. Comment below and let me know your favorite Hymn.

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

It’s funny how something written by a 22 year old pastor to enhance his sermon in the 1700s is a song we still can relate to today. Come Thou Fount of Every blessings is in hymnals, and sung by modern Christian artists today because it has timeless themes.

On the musical Analysis  side it is very easy to learn because it uses chords that are easy to sing in tune and find. It starts on tonic, and directly goes to the dominant chord. You also get the subdominant chords and that is the variety you get in most hymns. Singability is important in a good hymn because the congregation needs to be able to sing it  

The song is about grace, Christ’s love for us and the fact we are human and are going to be tempted by the world. In a church liturgy you could find this song year round. It’s a great opening hymn and also fits nicely after confession or the sermon depending of the denomination of the church. It is also covered by popular Christian rock and worship bands with the addition of drums ( and a more upbeat tempo)bass, keys and guitars.  

“Come thou fount of every blessing tune my heart to sing thy praise,  words of blessing never ceasing calls for songs of loudest praise ”

The first part of verse 1 is based on 2 verses in Revelations 7:14 and the last sentence in 21: 6. They speak about the spring of life or living waters. This is symbolism for the holiness of Holy Spirit. In the song we are inviting the Holy Spirit to come and pour blessings on us like water flows from a stream.  I love the use of “tune” because tuning a heart is not something that can be done based on math such as equal temperament tuning of a piano. Only God can tune your heart, he knows what needs to be pulled one way or another. It’s beyond our comprehension to be able to tune something that we don’t think of as an instrument. I think pluralist and philosopher John Hicks would support my thoughts here because he too thinks God is outside of our ability to fully understand. Also You can’t simply just say tune my heart and have it done, there are steps that have to be taken to make your heart ready for tuning. You must be open for God to come and help you, God gives us free will so we must choose what we want. Once we are ready and open God can begin to fine tune things and shows us where we need to be.

Non Christians often take songs like this to paint God as a god who demands glory, and praise.  I don’t think that is the case here at all. When someone does something nice, you say thank you. When someone does something extraordinary  you find a way to show your gratitude. This song expresses that gratitude over and over. God gave us his one and only son, and even though we are tempted and make mistakes he still forgives us. We turn our backs and do things we know we shouldn’t do, but God doesn’t focus on that, he is not that type of God he is a God of forgiveness and love.

“Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above! Praise the mount I’m fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love”

The flaming tongues could be talking about the Holy Spirit or angels in heaven. When you think about it, who better then one of those to know the perfect songs of praise. The mount is like a firm foundation or rock. God is the rock that you can cling to no matter what the conditions. It is what you can build your building on so that it will not crumble or fall.  The last line is powerful because it speaks of God’s sure foundation and redeeming love. We all need redemption because we all fall short of God’s glory and praise is exact what you do when you receive it.

“Prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love”

This is the timeless line that I feel everyone regardless of personal beliefs can relate to. In almost any situation you are tempted to do something you are not suppose to do. Just because one is christian it doesn’t mean they are not tempted by the many things that are not allowed. Sin is one of those things we will never fully escape from. The Bible says we all fall short of the Glory of God, and no one is without sin. So the best we can do is try.

The fact that no christian is perfect might actually make some give in to sin more because they know that perfection is impossible. That is where it would be easy to go down a path of wandering and not realising that you have walked away from your relationship with Christ until you are far away. Thankfully our God is always there one step behind so when we do discover that we have wandered away he is right there waiting for us with forgiveness.

That unending forgiveness is the reason why so many Christians want to praise God with every part of their soul and thank him for his gift. If God were the vain God that other’s claim he is why would he offer the forgiveness he does. Why would so many be willing to give up things that are sins to please him? I don’t think so many would feel called to do all that we as christians do In God’s name if he was  a vain God.

Full Lyrics

          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.

2. Here I raise mine 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.

3. 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.