Seal My Heart

This post has been waiting a month or so.  I took notes in general conference  and several of them were actually about the words from the hymns that were sung.

"Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing"  is one of my favorites and has kind of made a come back over the last few years.  Even though it's not in our current hymnbook,  I hear it fairly often.  I sang it myself as a solo a few years ago.  It's the background score for the movie about the life of Emma Smith, and for some reason, it just seems to run through the veins for days after hearing it.   Lucy even learned it on the guitar and played it for her class.

Here are the words:  (As they appear in the old blue LDS hymnbook)

1.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.

2.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.

When I heard this, my thoughts immediately focused on the last 2 lines--here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.

It reminds me of all the hundreds of verses about the heart in the scriptures.  We are to have a broken heart and a contrite heart.  Next to one of those passages I have written "broken--like broken open."  I think a figurative breaking does really open us up to let spiritual things in.  In this hymn, the writer is speaking to God--the fount of all blessings and begging for help to be in tune with the spirit.  He's asking for the humility to know that grace is the biggest of all blessings.  He's asking for a beautiful way to share his praises because his words just don't do it justice.  Maybe if angels sang a sonnet, it could be worthy for God to hear.  He says he's fixed upon the mount.  He's facing the right way.  He has an eye single to the glory.  This is someone who has just been born again--had the mighty change of heart if you will.

He's admitting that the debt he owes can never be paid and that  he wishes he could always be faithful, even though he knows his own weaknesses and tendency to stray.  In the end he wants to be forever connected to God.  The word he uses is fetter, but that's like a shackle.  I think  maybe a safety line gives a better image--that would be great huh, to have the Lord be your belayer? 

He says here's my heart, please seal all the good inside it, so I'll never lose any of it, so I'll never forget anything.  Sanctify it with fire.  Cauterize it for me so when I get there with you, I'll be yours. 

I really get this.  I feel it.  Plus the traditional music that goes with it is gorgeous.

Here's a clip of MoTab singing it.  There are additional verses, but somehow I think they are clutter.