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TUNE MY HEART TO SING THY GRACE!
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This is one of my favorite hymns. In everyday talk we could say that it is "loaded" with Christian aspirations, concepts, and strivings. It is good poetry. If one quietly sits down and contemplatively reads each set of phrases, he/she will be greatly moved.
"Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God..."
"Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it---mount of Thy redeeming love."
"Streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise!"
This hymn reminds us of the story in the Old Testament (1 Samuel 7: 7-12), when a memorial stone--- "EBENEZER" ("Stone of Help"), was erected by Samuel to commemorate divine assistance in the victory of the Israelites in their battle against the Philistines at Aphek. The hymn writer symbolically compares this stone to our battles of life:
"Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I'm come."
"Come Thou fount," a Christian hymn by the 17th century pastor and hymnist Robert Robinson, was written in 1757, when he was age 22. It shows surprising spiritual maturity in such a young man, who perhaps had not yet experienced the vicissitudes of life, to any great extent. When we sing this hymn, we are voicing the thoughts and aspirations of more than 250 years ago.
In the
In the
There have been a number of version-variations of some of the stanzas over the years---some by individuals and some by hymnal committees. Committees will usually select the best three stanzas, and may alter them slightly for poetic or doctrinal reasons.
Here I'm quoting the original text of the hymn by Robinson. Note, even the generally unused or unknown stanzas, seem to have good merit.
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 Thy redeeming love.
2.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 mine Ebenezer;
Hither by thy help I'm come;
And I hope by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
I never hear this hymn that I don't remember when I was thirteen and working out in the wheat harvest at our Ranchvale farm, during the middle of that critical time in June, when farmers were helping each other harvest their wheat---a Christian friend of ours had a combine break down. I helped him as he took the broken part off, and having a welder in his garage, we drove several miles over there, and he began welding.
While this setback might have made many men angry and uptight, our friend was singing to himself softly: "O Beulah land, sweet Beulah land..." and then he went into---"O to grace how great a debtor, daily I'm constrained to be..."--- all the while, doing his welding. He is gone now, but what an example to set for a thirteen-year old!
"Oh that day when freed from sinning, I shall see Thy lovely face..."
Mormon Tabernacle Choir
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BY MIL
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