March 29
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Hymns Explained: Come Thou Fount
Do you have a favorite song? Why do you like it? What's the song about?
Sometimes we sing worship songs, and we don
’ t know what they mean. How can we really worship
God in a song if we don't understand what it's trying to say? How many of you have heard Come
Thou Fount? Who can tell me what it means? (Give students time to answer)
Verse 1-Come, Thou Fount of every blessing - What is a fount? Why is God referred to as this?
Think of it as short for fountain. God pours out blessings on us.
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy, never ceasing -
Call for songs of loudest praise
Teach me some melodious sonnet
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God
’ s word tells us repeatedly to worship Him. For example:
Read: Psalm 150:1-6
Psalm 100:4
Sung by flaming tongues above - whoa! That's weird! Flaming tongues? What's that referring to?
Read: Acts 2:1-4
These verses refer to when The Holy Spirit first showed up after Jesus went back to heaven. It says that when the Holy Spirit rested in them it looked to everyone else like tongues on fire. So this line of the song refers to the joy of worship (the melodious sonnet) when we become Christians and let God rule our lives.
Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it
Mount of Thy unchanging love
Verse 2-Here I raise my Ebenezer - what do you think of when you hear that word Ebenezer?
Probably Scrooge and the Christmas Carol. The meaning of Ebenezer is that of a rock or stone set somewhere to serve as a reminder of God's faithfulness. Just like God's people built altars to God at significant times to remind them of God's love and faithfulness, we too can "raise our Ebenezer" and remember The times where God has helped us.

Hither by Thy great help I've come
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home - what are these lines saying? It's only with God's help that we have done anything worthwhile. It's also simple because of Gods "good pleasure" - his grace and mercy that we can go home to heaven one day.
Read Ephesians 2:8-9
Jesus sought me when a stranger
Wandering from the fold of God
He, to rescue me from danger
Interposed His precious blood - what do these lines mean?
Read: Romans 5:8 - while we were strangers/sinners God still wanted to rescue us!!
Verse 3- O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be what's a debtor? Somebody who owes something to another. Why are we debtors to grace?
Everyday we sin and mess up. Everyday God's grace is right there to provide healing, rescue & safety. Without grace, we'd be pretty hopeless.
Let thy goodness, like a fetter - who knows what a fetter is? Take a guess. Webster defines it as chains or shackles.
Bind my wandering heart to Thee
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love - why would we want to be chained? Why do we have a wandering heart?
Read Romans 7:15
This song and this verse is saying we want to do right and please God but sometimes we just can't.
We sin and mess up. So in those moments, this song is saying chain me to you so I can't abandon you in my sinfulness.
Here's my heart, O take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above - these last lines means what?
It's the final summary of the whole song. Because of your grace God, we can worship you. We receive grace even when we sin. Your salvation has sealed our hearts and we will get to go to heaven one day!!
Hopefully you've learned more about this song. Next time you hear it, try to remember it's meaning and sing it to God as a prayer of thankfulness.