"Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of Christ." - Jerome

Thursday, October 18, 2007

Prone to Wander: Hymn for the week

Last weekend, my church had a sanctuary dedication service celebrating the improvements to the sanctuary and the new organ being completed (yes organ, not amp system). The choir accompanied by the organ and with my wife in robes sang my favorite hymn: Come Thou Fount. Written by Robert Robinson, the song contains lyrics I get all emotional over: "Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God." How thankful I am that Christ did not leave everything up to me to figure out. Yet still "prone to wander Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love." Yet we are sealed with the Holy Spirit as to save us for "Thy courts above."

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 God's unchanging love.

2. Here I raise my 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 that grace now 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.

3 comments:

Aaron said...

This hymn is a fav or mine too. I often pray this hymn.

M. Jay Bennett said...

Jared, Aaron, I agree. This is one of the great classic hymns. Definitely one of my favorites. It never gets old. It always moves my affections deeply.

What a blessing the hymns are! As Dr, Hannah says, "They are the poetry of the Christian tradition."

Aaron said...

Michelle's Dad sang this hymn with a group of guys a couple months back at our church. Pastor Jeff quized them on what it means "Here I raise my Ebenezer". Used it as a great teaching moment. You know you got a good hymn when you can teach that kind of stuff from it. I actually remember reading in Christian History where a guy used this hymn and that line as an example of how to teach from hymns. Then it happened at EWO.