“Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” (ELW 807)
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.
While the hope of endless glory
fills my heart with joy and love,
teach me ever to adore thee;
may I still they goodness prove.
2 Here I raise my Ebenezer,
“Hither by thy help I’ve 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.
3 Oh, 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, oh, take and seal it;
seal it for thy courts above.
Devotion
My favorite hymn, written by Robert Robinson in the 18th century, has been a source of encouragement to me throughout my ministry. I find myself singing it as a kind of rehearsal of the story of all the things that have happened to me in my life of faith.
The rehearsal starts off with a surprising prayer: “Tune my heart to sing thy grace.” One would perhaps expect something like “praise” here, or maybe “thanks.” But instead the writer asks for the ability to sing the grace of God. Grace is the power that has brought Robinson to where he is: “hither by thy help I’ve come.” He recounts how the grace of God sought him out and rescued him, and how it even offsets his desire to wander away.
I find myself in this hymn, again and again drawn back into the arms of Jesus, forgiven, loved, and held by God’s love and mercy.
Prayer
Come, source of every blessing, tune our hearts to sing your grace. Amen.