God's promise to the wanderer, the outcast: Neh. 1:9. Thank You, Father for "Streams of mercy, never ceasing."

This hymn starts with “ Come thou fount of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing thy praise”. The theme is to come to the Lord, and to “meet” our Lord in a personal way. Second stanza goes

“O to grace how great a debtor

  Daily I’m constrained to be!

Let that grace, Lord, like a fetter,

  Bind my wand’ring heart to Thee.

Teach me, Lord, some rapturous measure,

  Meet for me Thy grace to prove,

While I sing the countless treasure

  Of my God’s unchanging love. ”

“Meet” here is very meaningful. The writer is asking the Lord to teach him some rapturous measure in his praise, specifically he desires to “meet” with the Lord, to come face to face with the Lord, and to be joined with the Lord. Such an encounter with the Lord is indeed rapturous! By fully opening to the Lord as the all-sufficient one, the Lord can then dispense Himself into us to “meet” our needs in all our situations (prone to wonder, prone to leave the God I love, and walking on this earth as a stranger - stanza 3), so we can prove that we live because of the grace of God.

This theme of desiring to “meet” with the Lord, to come face to face with the Lord, even to join ourselves with the Lord, is richly expressed in other parts of the hymn, such as “Let that grace, Lord, like a fetter, Bind my wand’ring heart to Thee”, and “Take my heart, oh, take and seal it, With Thy Spirit from above”.

Oh Lord develop such a strong desire in me to meet with You every day, to come to You face to face, even to be joined as one with You!

"He, to save my soul from danger,

Interposed His precious blood"

"Rescued thus from sin and danger,

Purchased by the Savior’s blood,"

THE BLOOD OF JESUS kills covid and covers us with HIS everlasting unconditional Love, Grace and Mercy. We are purchased by THE BLOOD OF JESUS and HE saved us from our sins. JESUS overcame the world, nothing can hurt us. HE never leaves us nor forsakes us and HE knows all things.

JESUS IS THE ANSWER FOR EVERYTHING.

PRAISE AND THANK THE LORD FOREVER.

Today, I played this hymn on the organ as a processional for a wedding, to the tune Normandy. I was overwhelmed by the sheer force of the wordings:

‘O to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be; let that grace, Lord, like a fetter, bind my wand’ring heart to thee’.

Teach me, Lord, some rapturous measure,

Meet for me Thy grace to prove,

While I sing the countless treasure

Of my God’s unchanging love.

This is my absolute favorite song. I sang it at a talent show in February. My performance could have gone better, but ever since then it's always been my song. And I hadn't messed up then I probably wouldn't be this good at playing it on my ukulele. Since I was singing this on my tablet just now, I couldn't see all the words without scrolling down. So the Lord told me to close my eyes, and play and sing it from memory, just like at the talent show. And I did it. Twice. Sure I made a few mistakes but I just kept on going and I had sounded better than I ever had before. So just as a reminder, had things happen for a purpose. God's purpose. This "awful" pandemic is so that we can redeem the time, praise Him and focus on Him. All had things happen for a reason. He will rescue us from sin and danger, He has purchased us by the Savior's blood. And when this is over, we will walk on earth, a stranger, as a son and their of God.

The lyrics are not same as in The United Methodist Hymnal.

In his youth, Robert Robinson was apprenticed to a barber in London and lived a wild and reckless life. But one day he heard a sermon by George Whitefield on the stern words of John the Baptist to the Jewish leaders of his day, “Brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? ” (Matt. 3:7). The Spirit of God convicted the wayward young man and he put his faith in Christ.

Associated with the Wesleys for a time, Robinson served as a pastor in several churches. He wrote a number of works on theology, and two hymns that we know of, Mighty God, While Angels Bless Thee, and Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing. The latter hymn begins:

Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,

Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;

Streams of mercy, never ceasing,

Call for songs of loudest praise.

The song is autobiographical in its confession of a proneness to wander away from the Lord. Though a man of intellectual brilliance, Robert Robinson was, in the words of Scripture, “unstable as water” (Gen. 49:4). In his later years he drifted away from God. This weakness is reflected in a later stanza of the hymn above:

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.

In a spiritually backslidden condition, the author was traveling in a stage coach one day. His only companion was a young woman unknown to him. In the providence of God, and not realizing who it was she spoke with, the woman quoted Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing, saying what an encouragement it had been to her. And try as he might, Robinson could not get her to change the subject.

Finally, he said, with tears in his eyes, “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 then had! ” Gently, she replied, “Sir, the ‘streams of mercy’ are still flowing. ” He was deeply touched by that. As a result of the encounter he repented. His fellowship with the Lord was restored through the ministry of his own hymn, and a Christian’s willing witness.

Source: wordwisehymns

I praise God for this and other old hymns. Though I enjoy modern hymns, when I am burdened it is the words from the old hymns that comfort best and send my spirit flying back in the heavenly realms. This morning I was repenting for myself and my country in how we squandered God’s Grace and Mercy. We had financial prosperity but deep spiritual impoverishment. For myself, though I love God and seek to be a fully devoted follower of Christ, I still manage to sin against God and my fellow man, offending Him and sullying my Holy God’s reputation before an unholy culture that desperately needs to see His True Character. As I was journaling that confession the words of this hymn came to mind: “Oh to Grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be. Let Your Grace, Lord, like a fetter bind my wand’ring heart to Thee” became my prayer. Thank you, God, for the great hymn writers, old and new!

Thank God for this and other inspiring hymns.

The soundtrack drew my attention to it, same soundtrack as the Baptist hymn 'Ka to sun Olugbala wa... '

One question always come to my mind and that is, The hymn writers contributed to the spiritual growth of the Church of God and are remembered with fond memories, what am I doing to the Church of God and how will I be remembered?