“I work very hard to stimulate and keep people’s attention. Music ought to be an enjoyable journey for the listener.” - Mack Wilberg’’
Written in the 18th century by Robert Robinson when he was 22, “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” is a beloved Christian hymn. The song has been included in most Protestant hymnals in England and the United States and was also included in the hymnbook of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints until a new version was issued in 1985.
The lyrics reference 1 Samuel 7:12, which records that the prophet Samuel “took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” The word Ebenezer, meaning stone of help, appears in the lyrics of hymnal versions.
Mack Wilberg’s arrangement of “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” is a fan favorite, and the video for the song is currently one of the most viewed video on the Choir’s YouTube channel. Wilberg captivates audiences and keeps their attention through his unique arrangements. He once said, “I work very hard to stimulate and keep people’s attention. Music ought to be an enjoyable journey for the listener.” The current arrangement for the hymn was written by Wilberg while he was director of the Brigham Young University Men’s Chorus. His many musical works have been performed by artists and choral organizations around the world and are now performed weekly by The Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square, for which he is the director.
In the video above, the Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square perform Wilberg’s arrangement of “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” from the album Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing: American Folk Hymns and Spirituals. Here are the lyrics as sung by the Choir:
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.
Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I come,
And I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home.
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.
Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God.
He, to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood.
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 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.
Seal it for thy courts above.