Lost In Translation

 

You know, I'm all for including contemporary songs in the church hymnal. But what I don't like is when, in their attempt at "modernization" they re-write the lyrics to the old hymns, and in the process lose the scriptural meaning and significance of the original lyrics and even the doctrine behind it. In my opinion they pervert the original to appeal to the dumb-downed theological illiterates the church has birthed. Sad. But true. The conundrum being that after decades of singing the original hymn I usually sing it the way I learned it and find I'm the only one singing the old words because I don't read the hymnal version. (0_o) 

Case in point: Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. (We sang the perverted version in church last week.) Written in 1757 by Robert Robinson at age 22. Hard to imagine someone so young with such an understanding of deep theological doctrine in this day and age. What is even more amazing is that God used a bleary-eyed gypsy fortune-teller in the conversion of Robert Robinson. When Robinson was an 18 year-old teenager, the fortune teller told him that "You, young man, will live to see your children and grandchildren."  His gang of friends said the old gypsy was too drunk to know what she was saying, but for some reason the words lingered in young Robert's mind and weighed on his heart.  He began to think that if he was going to live to see his children and grandchildren, he had need of a change in his lifestyle.  On that very same night he and his friends attended an open-air revival service where evangelist George Whitfield was preaching with the intent to make fun of the poor Methodist preacher.  "We'll go down and laugh at the poor, deluded Methodist," he said to his buddies.  Two years and seven months after hearing Whitfield's sermon that night, Robert Robinson “found full and free forgiveness through the precious blood of Jesus Christ.”  He was later called to preach and was appointed by John Wesley to the Calvinist Methodist Chapel, Norfolk, England.  It was there, in celebration of Whitsunday (Pentecost) in 1858 that he penned his spiritual autobiography in the form of this beloved hymn.  Consider the ORIGINAL Text to this very old hymn:

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. 

Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great 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;
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

O 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, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face,
Clothèd then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.

What is lost in translation:
Eben-Ezer (Hebrew: אבן העזר, Even Ha'Ezer, lit. stone of help). In 1 Samuel 7:2-14), the Israelites defeated the Philistines, after which the Prophet Samuel offered a sacrifice. At the place of victory AND sacrifice, Samuel puts up a stone in memorial and names it Eben-Ezer, and it is THIS monument referred to in the hymn Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. In the Saxon Old English it was called a "henge". Think Stonehenge. Origin: back formation from Stonehenge, or Stanheng, equiv. to stan stone + -heng "hanging" or standing stones.

Also, "Praise the Mount I'm fixed upon it, Mount of Thy redeeming love" and "Interposed His precious blood" are left out of the "new" versions and I could go on about the significance of those as well, but shall save it for another time.

There. I've exhausted this Pet Peeve of mine and hopefully imparted enlightenment (knowledge + understanding) to the masses today.

One final thought:  If God can use a bleary-eyed Gypsy fortune-teller, He can use anybody!

Later dayz,

~Starr