Speaker 1: 0:01

Welcome to the Daily Blade. The Word of God is described as the sword of the Spirit, the primary spiritual weapon in the Christian's armor against the forces of evil. Your hosts are Joby Martin and Kyle Thompson, and they stand ready to equip men for the fight. Let's sharpen up.

Speaker 2: 0:20

All right, guys, good to have you back. This week on the Daily Blade, we're looking at five of my favorite hymns of all time and we're digging into the lyrics and the biblical truths therein. Also, I'm giving you, guys, my picks for the best versions of each of those songs. So yesterday we did my favorite hymn, how Great Thou Art. And today we're actually looking at my wife's favorite hymn, come Thou Fount. So this hymn was written in 1758 by a young English preacher and theologian named Robert Robinson. So Robinson became a Christian at the age of 20 after hearing the preaching of the great George Whitefield, and he wrote Come Thou Fount just two years later, at the age of 22, as an expression of his gratitude for God's grace. So the best version that I've ever heard of this hymn is actually from Shane and Shane on their Hymns live album from 2019. So they do Come Thou Fount, and as it ends they literally transition right into above all else. I mean it is just chillingly amazing.

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So here are the full lyrics here 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. Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues. Above. Praise the mount I'm fixed upon it, mount of thy redeeming love. Here I raise my Ebenezer hither, by thy help I come, and I hope, by thy good measure, safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God, he, to rescue me from danger, interpose his precious blood. 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. Oh, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above. I mean, there's just so much good stuff here. So let's actually start with praise for the grace of God. So the lyric is. So I'm going to keep reading in the King James Version. It just seems appropriate for these next couple of Psalms.

Speaker 2: 2:17

So, ephesians 2, verse 8, so, guys, we don't work our way of yourselves. It is the gift of God. So, guys, we don't work our way to salvation. We can never be good enough. We can never be baptized enough. Our good deeds are not weighed against our bad deeds. Our salvation comes from God and we are given grace through faith. So now let's actually talk about the Ebenezer reference here. Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither, by thy help, I'm come of the lyric here I raise my Ebenezer hither, by thy help I'm come.

Speaker 2: 2:49

So in 1 Samuel 7, we see Israel has repented of their idolatrous actions and they turned back to God because of the leadership of the prophet Samuel. And while they were worshiping at Mizpeth they were attacked by the Philistines. So Samuel prayed, offered a burnt offering, and God intervened in the battle and caused victory for Israel. So if in 1 Samuel 7, starting in verse 12, or I'll actually just read verse 12. Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpeth and Shin and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. So Ebenezer, or Ebenezer, or Eben-Ezer, it means stone of help. So this became a memorial stone or a memorial site to commemorate God delivering Israel from the Philistines in this battle.

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So then the hymn goes into our human inability to keep ourselves on the straight and narrow right. So the lyric, I mean guys, all of you can understand this. Prone to wander, lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love. So Isaiah 53, 6, I mean guys, this isn't just you. So if you're thinking I'm talking about you, no, this isn't just you, this is me, this is all of us. But there is good news. Here's another lyric. So Ephesians 1, verse 13 says this If we give God our heart, it is sealed with God, and so are we. See you back here tomorrow, guys, so we can wrap up the week.

Speaker 1: 4:30

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