Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Ethan has been learning to play some hymns on the piano. Now, he did have a few piano lessons, but then we could not afford them anymore and all his music lessons came in the form of band at the jr. high school (thanks Mr. Mott, you are the best thing that ever happened to the music program).

One of his favorite hymns to play is, "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing". It is also one of my favorite hymns to sing. The tune is one that stays in your head and pops up when you least expect it. It is calming and beautiful. I also love the words. Poems and songs written in previous centuries seem to have so much more depth of meaning to them. They sometimes present their concept in such a way as to convey so much more than surface value- if you are willing to pay attention and sometimes dig for it. Eloquence is the best word I can come up up with to describe it.


Take for instance the second verse of "Come Thou Fount" (Fount in and of itself is one such word):

...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.


What does that mean, Here I raise my Ebenezer?
What does it mean to raise up some guy. Well, I had to do some digging to figure this out.

Now, (and I know this will shock some of you) I found out that I do not know my scriptures as well as I should. I figured that it was some figure in the bible but I did not know who he was or any story about him. Since I do not have my scriptures here at work, I did a simple internet search and this is what I found-


Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Jeshanah, and named it Ebenezer; for he said, "Thus far the LORD has helped us." So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel; the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. The towns that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath; and Israel recovered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites. (1 Samuel 7:12-14 NRSV)

The word "Ebenezer" comes from Hebrew and is actually two words pronounced together: Even Haazer. Written in Hebrew it looks like this:
It is usually transliterated as a proper name by dropping the definite article (Ha) from the Hebrew word for "place" (Ezer) and putting it together with the Hebrew word for "stone" (Even) to create: "Ebenezer." The etymological roots of the word, thus defined, should demonstrate that an "Ebenezer" is, literally, a "Stone of Help."


In 1 Samuel 4:1-11 and 5:1, the Ebenezer is strangely identified with a particular site, about four miles south of Gilgal, where the Israelites were twice defeated by the Philistines and the Ark of the Covenant was stolen. These battles took place, however, before the site was actually named Ebenezer. It was like someone saying that Dinosaurs once lived in Dallas county -- they did, but not when this area was called "Dallas." Likewise, the two battles mentioned in 1 Samuel 4 and 5 took place at Ebenezer, but some time before it was so-named.The site wasn’t named Ebenezer until after the Israelites finally defeated the Philistines, and took back the Ark of the Covenant. To commemorate the victorious battle, Samuel set up a marker-stone, named it "Stone of Help," and thereby the site became identified with the stone and with the place where God’s miraculous help aided them in their victory over the Philistines. The stone, standing up-right, was called "Ebenezer," and the site naturally took on that name as well.Literally speaking, an Ebenezer is a "stone of help," or a reminder of God’s Real, Holy Presence and Divine aid. Spiritually and theologically speaking, an Ebenezer can be nearly anything that reminds us of God’s presence and help: the Bible, the Sacramental Elements, a cross, a picture, a fellow believer, a hymn – those things which serve as reminders of God’s love, God’s Real Presence, and God’s assistance are "Ebenezers." (http://www.revneal.org/Writings/whatsan.htm)

Thus we see that to raise an Ebenezer is to raise a marker of the Lord's great help to us in our time of need.

Now let us turn our attention to the third verse:

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.

The word fetter is another word that is just not used. I know I have read it in books and understood it in context, but I wanted to understand more fully so that I could understand this verse better.

Again to the dictionary:

fetter \FET-uhr\, noun:1. A chain or shackle for the feet; a bond; a shackle.2. Anything that confines or restrains; a restraint.

Wow, either definition is powerful. So do I want my wandering heart to learn and practice restraint? Yes. Or perhaps do I want it bound to the Lord and His ways? Again, yes. And how wonderful that the goodness of the Lord will do that for us if we let it. If we will turn ourselves and our hearts over to Him.

Here is the definition from Wikipedia:

Fetters, shackles, footcuffs or leg irons are a kind of physical restraint used on the feet or ankles to allow walking but prevent running and kicking. The term "fetter" shares a root with the word "foot".
In humans, typically only prisoners will wear shackles. A shackled animal is typically either a dangerous animal or one prone to escape.
Metaphorically, a fetter may be anything that restricts or restrains in any way, hence the word "unfettered".

Now, how powerful is that? ... to allow walking but prevent running and kicking. The Lord knows that if we are allowed to "run with our heart" as it were, we are liable to run straight into danger. However, if we walk with Him, then we have to be slow and thinking in what we do. We won't rush headlong into something that will take us away from Him.

This brings me to the last word from this song that I want to talk about- Fount.

It seems that when someone asks to sing this song (and let me say here, that I am sad that this song is no longer in our hymn book) the name they say is: "Come thou FONT of every blessing"

A font is a receptical for liquid, usually baptismal waters. A font has a limited capacity. There is only so much that it can hold.

Now how about a Fount? Websters tells us that it is a Fountain or a source. I think of my fountain in my pond. My pond is sort of a font- it holds a limited amount of liquid- about60 gallons. However my fountain moves that water over and over and over, unlimited in the amount of gallons it can put back into the pond.

Think about that. The Lord as a source or fountain of unlimited, ever giving supply of blessings if we will recognize that He is our stone of help and allow our wandering hearts to be bound to him.