I thought for our next song, we'd look at one that many of us are familiar with. Many who grew up in a Christian context probably encountered this song. My home church where I grew up leaned toward more contemporary worship, but even we sang this classic hymn. If all our technology suddenly quit working some Sunday morning, I bet most of our congregation could sing this song from memory. It's a classic for a reason. With familiarity, however, it becomes easier to disengage from the depth of this song when we sing it. Though many of us could recite the text of this hymn in our sleep, we couldn't tell someone what that text really means. I hope that through our exploration of the song, you'll be able to sing this classic song with renewed meaning.

Before we look at the hymn itself, a little backstory on the man who wrote it: Robert Robinson. Truth be told, there isn't much record of Robinson's life. At best, we have a handful of stories from his life, some of which may or may not be true. What we do know is that Robinson was born in 1735 in Suffolk, England; that he lost his father at the age of 8; and that in his teenage years he ended up in London, where he fell in with a gang. The story goes that around the age of 17, he and his friends were harassing a Romani fortune-teller when she singled him out and told him, "You will live to see your children and grandchildren." For whatever reason, this encounter had a profound effect on Robinson, because shortly after, he wandered into a tent revival where none other than George Whitefield, the great Methodist evangelist, was preaching on the words of John the Baptist in Matthew 3. This set of circumstances led to a three-year period of transformation, culminating in Robinson finding the "full and free forgiveness through the precious blood of Jesus Christ" (his own words) at the age of 20. Two years later, he penned the poem that would become the text for "Come Thou Fount."

But Robinson's story doesn't end at the age of 22. He moved from the Methodist church to Congregationalism, eventually settling in the Baptist tradition, where he became a preacher for close to thirty years. Throughout his life and ministry, however, he seemed to struggle deeply with his faith, though the exact details of his struggles are unclear. Out of this period of Robinson's life comes a very powerful story. (This particular story may only be a legend, but it is still impactful.) The story goes that Robinson was traveling by stagecoach with a woman he didn't know. This woman started humming the tune to "Come Thou Fount," which piqued Robinson's interest. Not knowing who he was, she asked him how he felt about the song, to which he is said to have responded, "Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then." Hearing the heartbreak in his response, the story goes that the woman replied, "Sir, the streams of mercy are still flowing." Now, whether the various stories of Robinson's life are historical fact or not, they illustrate the message of the hymn well. Here was a man who knew firsthand the reality of struggling and wandering, even after having his life changed by Jesus, and the need to rely on him more and more every day.

 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 Thy redeeming love

Though it contains a lot of flowery language and poetic imagery, at its core this verse is a reflection on the joy of salvation. About a year ago at the time of writing, I preached a sermon on worship from Romans 12:1-2. One of my main points was that worship is our reasonable response to God. What I mean is simply that, if we truly recognize who God is and what he has done for us, worship is the only appropriate response. When we are confronted with the majesty of God and the abundant blessings he has poured out on us through Jesus, any other response would simply be unreasonable. But in order to arrive at that response, we must constantly remind ourselves of the truths that should lead us to worship. So it's appropriate that this song begins with a reminder of who Jesus is. He is the "fount of every blessing" - the ultimate source from which all blessing flows. From him flow "streams of mercy, never ceasing." His mercy and grace toward us are unending. No matter how far we fall or how empty we feel, his grace is more than sufficient to meet our needs.

But even when we recognize these truths, worship may not come naturally or easily. We may recognize that worship is the only right response, but we may not feel that we have anything to offer in return. Often, it's when we come to Jesus in our time of greatest need that we have little to give back in worship. But this song also reminds that, in those moments, worship might look like asking God to help us worship. When our hearts are out of tune with God, he is the one who tunes them and brings them back into harmony with himself. When we don't have a song to offer, God is the one who teaches us a new song. The grace that inspires us to worship is the same grace that enables us to worship. Jesus is the beginning and the end of all our worship.

Here I raise my Ebenezer
Hither by Thy help I've 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

Let's start by addressing the elephant in the room: What the heck is an Ebenezer? I admit that most of my life I never questioned or thought about this line. Only recently did I decide to do a quick Google search to figure out what it meant. Apparently the line comes from a story in 1 Samuel 7, and it's likely that Robinson wrote this poem to accompany a sermon on this passage. In the passage, the Israelites come to Samuel and promise that they will stop worshiping foreign gods (we've heard that one before, right?) if God will help them defeat the Philistines. Samuel agrees to pray and make sacrifices on their behalf as they go out to battle. In the end, the Israelites win a decisive victory and drive the invading Philistines out of their land. In commemoration of the even, Samuel sets up a stone at the site of the battle and calls it Ebenezer, which means "stone of help." So an Ebenezer has come to mean a reminder of what God has done in the past which encourages obedience and hope in the future.

So what's the Ebenezer that this song wants us to remind us of? Simply put, it's Jesus. It reminds us that, while we were strangers wandering away from God, Jesus sought us out and rescued us by shedding his blood on our behalf. It's only through Jesus that we are restored to God and called his people. And it is only through Jesus that we can endure to the end. The power that rescued us and brought us victory is the same power that will carry us safely to the end. As another great hymn proclaims, "'Tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home."

Oh 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 Lord
Take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above

Before we get too far into this verse, I want to invite you to take a step back with me and just observe how odd these words are for a worship song. In general, human need for God is not an uncommon theme in our worship. We often sing about our weakness prior to following Jesus in order to further demonstrate God's grace and mercy. But what's unusual in this instance is the honesty about struggling to remain faithful to God even after beginning to follow Jesus. Very rarely in worship do we sing about how, even as followers of Jesus, our hearts are still inclined to wander from God.

Maybe now you can see why I think that this song is such a beautiful reflection of not only Robert Robinsons' life, but the life of every believer. No matter how much we recognize that we ought to worship, no matter how much we remind ourselves of who God is and what he's done, we are in a constant state of need for Jesus. Our need for him doesn't end when we receive forgiveness or start following him. Our hearts are in the process of being transformed, but precisely because this is a process we will never outgrow our need for grace. All three verses of this song are true at the same time. We have experienced God's grace through Jesus and been restored to him in the past, but we still have a daily need for that same grace in order to remain in him. And in remaining in Jesus, our greatest need is met. What is that need? For that, let's look at the final section of the song.

My restless heart finds rest in You

At this point, some of you will be confused why we didn't finish with verse 3. Even if you remember this version of the song from our own worship services, you might already know that this section of the song is not original to Robert Robinson. These words were only added in a very recent arrangement by a group called the Worship Circle, along with Charlie Hall. Their inspiration, however, is far older than even the hymn. They come from the fourth century AD, from the pen of St. Augustine of Hippo. In his Confessions, an autobiography of sorts and arguably one of the greatest pieces of Christian literature outside of the Bible, Augustine tells the story of his early life and his conversion to Christianity. He begins this work with a prayer that in many ways sums up his own life. In this prayer, he pens the famous line, "You have made us for yourself, and our hearts are restless until they find rest in you." I don't have the time or space to recount Augustine's life for you here, but trust me when I say that this line is a beautiful summary of his journey, and indeed of every believer's experience coming to follow Jesus. 

Restlessness is a fundamental part of the human experience, and it manifests in many ways. The most obvious ways are in the sinful desires that the Bible warns against. We are dissatisfied with what we have, and want what we do not have, so we covet and steal. We build up wealth and possessions for ourselves to give us a sense of security or comfort. But the more we have the more we realize how unfulfilling material gain actually is, so we amass more and more. But even if we set aside sinful desires, restlessness manifests in other ways. We want to be part of something bigger than ourselves, so we commit ourselves to causes intended to make the world a better place. Or on a smaller scale, we want to feel accomplished so we pursue a new hobby, a new experience, a new relationship. The exponential growth of the self-help industry in my lifetime is a sign that people simply want to feel fulfilled. And this is not a bad thing. In fact, it's what we should expect if we believe the story of the Bible.

Scripture teaches us that humanity wasn't an accident. Much more than that, we were created with a purpose in mind. Sometimes in philosophy, we talk about a thing's telos - Greek for "end" or "goal" - the purpose for which a thing is intended. This purpose is fundamental to what it means to be that thing. A fundamental aspect of what it means to be a hammer is to drive nails, and a hammer that has lost its ability to do so would cease to be a hammer in the fullest sense. Likewise, Christianity witnesses to the fact that humanity was created with a telos, and that losing it means losing a fundamental aspect of what it means to be human. What is this telos? That has been the subject of much Christian thought over the last two millennia, so I won't presume to have the definitive answer. But if I had to sum it up, I would say that it is to walk in communion with God, as we did in Eden in Genesis 1-2. The problem is that in Genesis 3 we have lost the ability to fulfill this purpose. And this is the core of restlessness according to Christianity - losing our telos, losing a fundamental part of what it means to be human. Luckily, God didn't leave us unfulfilled and broken. He provided a solution to our restlessness: Jesus.

Jesus is the ultimate source of rest. He is Lord of the Sabbath. (Matt 12:8) He brings rest to the weary, offering a new way of life that is neither burdensome nor heavy. (Matt 11:28-30) Even more, he solves the problem of our restlessness. Humanity lost its communion with God. We were separated from him. But Jesus proclaims that, in him, the Kingdom of Heaven has come down to earth. (Matt 3:2; 4:17) God has come to walk with his people and commune with them again. Through his death and resurrection, we are reunited with God in Christ and his Spirit comes to dwell with us. In Jesus, humanity's telos is restored to us. We know once again what it means to be fully human. In Jesus, our restless hearts find rest once again.