A Concert of Sacred Metaphors — Come Thou Fount

This song starts the second half of the concert — which featured hymns.

The first hymn of the concert was Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. This is one of those hymns that has been tampered with on its words — and when it is, it loses its punch.  On the recording you will hear me use all the “ancient words.” After all, this was a concert about sacred metaphors, and most of the word swaps rob the song of its metaphors.

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 y flaming tongues above;

Praise the mount — I’m fixed upon it — Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Where they replace the last line with:

Praise His name — I’m fixed upon it — Name of God’s redeeming love.

They eliminate the mountain.

But the second verse is the one they really change. The original is:

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 Wand’ring from the fold of God;

He to rescue me from danger Interposed His precious blood

Most people don’t know what an Ebenezer is, so they decide to remove it. See below:

Hitherto Thy love has blest me; Thou hast bro’t me to this place;

And I know Thy hand will bring me Safely home by Thy good grace.

Jesus sought me when a stranger Wand’ring from the fold of God;

He to rescue me from danger Bought me with His precious blood.

The translation itself isn’t bad. But it loses the whole allusion, and the whole story.

If you read I Samuel 7:11-12 you learn about the story of Ebenezer:

And the men of Israel went out of Mizpeh, and pursued the Philistines, and smote them, until they came under Beth-car. Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Eben-ezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.

So their line about being brought to this place isn’t bad, but it misses the whole story of Ebenezer. It was a memorial of God’s goodness to the Israelites, and the song encourages us to raise similar memorials in our lives to help us remember His goodness.

Which of course leads us into the third verse:

O to grace how great a debtor Daily I’m constrained to be!

Let Thy goodness 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.

 

And with that the second half of the concert began….