A Devotional “Come, Thou Fount of Every
Blessing”
Pastor Linus Lau
In the 1960’s, there were a lot of one-song artists, who became famous because of one popular hit, but then were heard from no more. Such is the case with Robert Robinson, who wrote only one hymn. But his single hit became one of the noblest, most inspiring, and well-loved, hymns. Although he was a Methodist turned Baptist pastor and in the last part of his life, became a Unitarian, one can find this hymn in many major hymnals of different denominations. As a matter of fact, a recent issue of Leadership Journal reported that this hymn, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” has become a favorite among young Christians and is being sung on college campuses around the country. That really testifies to the hymn’s timeless theme.
Robert Robinson was born into a poor family in Swaffham, Norfolk, England, on September 27, 1735. He was raised by his mother who was widowed shortly after he was born. At the age of fourteen, he was sent off to London to learn the barbering trade. There he associated with a notorious gang and led a life of debauchery. One legend has it that one night he and his wicked companions wanted to have some fun with a gypsy fortune-teller and so they got her drunk. Turning to the young Robinson, the bleary-eyed gipsy pointed a quivering finger and prophesied, “And you, young man, you will live to see your children and your grandchildren.” At which the young Robinson paled and turned to his companions and said, “You are right. She’s too drunk to know what she’s talking about. Leave her alone. Let’s go.” But her words haunted him for the rest of the day. “If I’m going to live to see my children and grandchildren,” he thought, “I’ll have to make something of myself, for the sake of my unborn descendants.”
That very night, half in jest and half seriously, he took his gang to an open air revival service nearby where the famous evangelist, George Whitefield, was preaching. “We’ll go down and laugh at the poor deluded Methodist,” he explained. But God used Whitefield’s sermon on “the wrath to come” to convert Robinson that night. At the age of twenty, Robinson made his peace with God, and “found full and free forgiveness through the precious blood of Jesus Christ.”
Joining the Methodists, and feeling the call to preach, the self-taught Robinson was appointed by John Wesley to the Calvinist Methodist Chapel, Norfolk, England. Later, he had a brief tenure with an Independent congregation in Norwich. Then, he became the pastor of the Stone Yard Baptist Church, Cambridge, from 1761 until his retirement in 1790. In that same year, he died in Birmingham, England. (He was succeeded by Robert Hall who later became the mentor of Charles Spurgeon).
Though lacking in formal schooling, Robinson became a scholar by the power of his mind. He published several volumes, and became known as an able theologian. His sermons were practical and full of common sense. (He had to take up farming to supplement his measly pastoral income).
Robinson wrote this famous hymn at the age of 23, while he was pastoring the Calvinist Methodist Church. There, for the celebration of Pentecost (Whitsunday), he penned what many believe to be his spiritual autobiography. Many commentators have pointed to an expression in the third stanza, “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love,” as prophetic. For as another legend would have it, he allegedly returned to his former lifestyle of sin. Then one day as he was riding a stagecoach he saw a woman deep in thoughts with a hymn book. Striking up a conversation, he found out that she was reading his own hymn and she spoke of the blessings it had brought to her. Upon this Robinson burst into tears and exclaimed, “Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who composed that hymn, many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.” Given the fact that Robinson stayed on as pastor of the Stone Yard Baptist Church until the end, I really doubt the authenticity of this anecdote. I’m more inclined to believe that his prayer was answered, and that our Gracious Lord had taken his heart and sealed it for His courts above.
The Text
This is a devotional poem written by someone who truly knew and appreciated the height and depth of Christ’s love. He was completely awed by the revelation of his own total depravity and that salvation is completely of the Lord.
In the first stanza, not only does he realize that he cannot save himself, but also he cannot even sing praises in a worthy manner. He knows that God must be the initiator of even his worship of Him. So he begins by calling upon the Fount of every blessing (Rev. 21:6; 7:17; Ps. 36:9; Zech. 13:1) to come, to prepare (tune) his heart and to teach him to sing. All these three active verbs denote actions of the Lord. Right away, we are taught a wonderful lesson on how to worship. Unless God enables us, we are not able to worship Him in spirit and in truth. We love God only because God has first loved us, that while we were yet sinners, He sent His Son to die for our sin. We can come to Jesus because the Holy Spirit has first opened up our hearts and made us willing. And so we can worship only if God comes to prepare us and teach us how to worship. Jesus is the Alpha and Omega, the First and the Last, the Author and Finisher of our faith, and He must initiate the act of salvation as well as the act of worship. The Spirit must be our leader in worship. Therefore we have the invocation at the beginning of each worship service. We must bid Him to come so that we may worship Him aright.
Thus, the writer turns his focus first to Christ, the “fountain of life,” from whom streams of mercy, never ceasing, come flowing to him. His immediate response is to sing songs of loudest praise. But he fears that earthly tunes and human words would not be sufficient. So he implores the Lord to teach him some melodious sonnet from above, songs that he has read probably in the Book of Revelation. And even as he learns to sing, he gets the blessed assurance that nothing can separate him from the love of Christ. He dwells on the wonderful doctrine of the “perseverance of the saints” – that he is immovable from (fixed upon) Christ’s redeeming love.
In the second stanza, Robinson elaborates on what Christ has done for him. Following the example of Samuel, he exalted the Lord, his Ebenezer, his “stone of help.” He remembers how the Lord has remained faithful, that the Sovereign One of Israel has fought his battles and provided the blessings, even in his times of rebellion. He knows he owes his security to God and that “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and his grace to me was not without effect” (1 Cor 15:10). And so he sings, “Here I raise my Ebenezer; hither by Thy help I’m come.” Encouraged by such confidence in the Lord, he looks forward to the future goal of arriving home safely to Jesus: And I hope, by Thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home. Surely, he remembers here the words of Paul, “I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Phil 3:14).
But before he goes forward, Robinson again rhapsodizes about how Jesus came to seek him while he was yet a stranger to His love: Jesus sought me when a stranger, wand’ring from the fold of God. “And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight” (Col 1:21-22). He is grateful that now he has received God’s mercy, that He, to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood. He is grateful that the high priest in the order of Melchizedek has secured his eternal destiny through the once-for-all sacrifice of Himself on the cross: “But when this priest had offered for all time one sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God” (Heb 10:12).
And so Robinson carries this attitude of gratitude into the third stanza: O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be! He understands the doctrine of irresistible grace, that apart from the sovereign choice of God, he would forever be lost. “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast” (Eph 2:8-9). Therefore, in light of such great mercy, he is willing to “take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ” (2 Cor 10:5). Yet he knows the weakness of his flesh, and so he asks the Lord to “Let that grace now, like a fetter, bind my wand’ring heart to Thee.” It is by grace that we are saved, and it is by grace that we persevere. We begin with grace, we continue with grace, and we will finish with grace. Apart from Jesus, we can do nothing.
So we cannot place any trust in our own strength, and we need to recognize and confess our weaknesses, as Robinson does here: Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” Having walked on the wild side in his younger days, Robinson knows full well the unstable conditions of the human heart. He keeps reminding himself by using the word ‘wander’ or ‘wandering’ three times in this hymn. He takes seriously Paul’s warning in 1 Cor 10:12: “Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” But there is hope. Just as the Good Shepherd left His ninety-nine sheep behind to go look for the one sheep that had wandered off (Matt. 18:12-13), so he knows that the Lord, who is “my Shepherd,” will come for him. “For the Son of Man has come to save that which was lost” (Matt 18:11). So he ends the hymn with this prayer of dedication and supplication: Here’s my heart, O take and seal it; seal it for Thy courts above. It is a desperate but magnificent cry for help. And as another sinner that is prone to wander, I have to trust in God’s promise that He would never leave me or forsake me. For so Paul has reminded us: “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come” (2 Cor 1:21-22). Amen!