Come Thou Fount

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us.”

— 1 Samuel 7:12

Jadon Lavik’s “Come Thou Fount” is often heard on Family Life Radio and is a moving remix of a hymn written in 1758 by the British Baptist Robert Robinson.

Robinson was just a small boy when his father died. Expected to help support his family, his mother sent him to London to apprentice with a barber. Soon after, this uneducated and unusually outgoing young man fell in with a notorious gang of hoodlums. Then one night, he heard the word of the Lord preached. Robinson left his old ways and became a prominent preacher and scholar who served the Stone Yard Baptist Church at Cambridge for 30 years.

All songwriters tend to weave their life experiences into their lyrics, but scholars believe the phrase “prone to wander, Lord I feel it, prone to leave the God I love” from the hymn was especially autobiographical for Robinson. The young preacher had extreme joy in his new life in Christ, but he also struggled to let go of his old ways.

We understand Robinson’s struggle. It’s his ability to remain committed to his faith that puzzles us. How did he do it?

The key is found in the song’s mention of an unusual word . . . Ebenezer or Stone of Help. Samuel erected a monument of stone to remind him of the Lord’s continual help and presence.

Robinson’s Ebenezer wasn’t an actual stone monument but rather a humbling recollection of everything the Lord had done for him. His lyrics recount how Jesus sought him, rescued him with His own blood and promised him heaven. Gratitude for this overflowing fountain of grace is what binds him to the Savior.

Today’s One Thing

Place a physical object in your home to remind you that Christ has sought and redeemed you so you’ll never forget God’s presence.

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