He liked the original so much, that he wanted more. That’s probably the very shortest way to tell the story of why Thomas Miller came to write “Come Thou Fount, Come Thou King”; the where was most likely a church called Gateway, in a northeast Texas place called Southlake (see map). Perhaps the story of the hymnist from two and a half centuries earlier struck him in a way that made Thomas yearn for more, as he thought about the old hymn’s and its creator’s message. This must have been one of Thomas’ favorite methods for song development, one that he would use again in a few years. It helped connect him to his musical predecessors, in a way that underscored and lifted the contribution of his ancestors in the faith, while drawing a contemporary audience into the relationship with the One to whom all people of all eras can sing. Thomas’ words, added to Robert Robinson’s 250-year-old words, also imagined a future that we can celebrate today in expectation.
Although Thomas Miller doesn’t share what precisely motivated his 21st Century version of ‘Come Thou Fount…’, there are several clues that draw the attention of someone who chooses to investigate. Miller tells just a few years beyond 2005 what spurred his re-casting of another old hymn (see Tom Miller's version of Doxology in 2008), so we could guess that his method was similar in both episodes. If it was an insightful moment in personal worship and reflection that helped Thomas reimagine Robinson’s classic hymn, then that would be consistent with what happened three years later (in New Doxology). Thomas evidently wanted to capture the theme of Robinson’s poetry, and really his life-experience too. Robinson called himself a wanderer; he admits as much in one of his verses, which Thomas repeats (in v.3 of the 21st century version of the hymn). So, don’t try to hurry past that dirty linen, that ugly secret, Thomas reasons. Let that admission of weakness blossom into a new verse (verse 2), which Thomas describes as ‘utter darkness’, a place where he was ‘bound…by sin’. It’s the pit from where’s he’s lifted that allows Thomas to exult in a ‘new song’, never again to ‘be alone’. It’s also from there that Thomas launches into a refrain that addresses God in many synonyms – ‘Fount’, ‘King’, and ‘Prince of Peace’. But, it’s the way that Thomas sees himself and his fellow believers that really captures the song’s heart, the emotion that Robinson seemed to have, but did not say quite as explicitly. Thomas says we Christians are His ‘bride’, His love object. This ‘bride’ is undoubtedly wedded only to Him, in a monogamous relationship. Perhaps that expression also helped spawn the title of the live performance album Living for You (2006), on which ‘Come Thou Fount…’ appears. It’s like Thomas is inviting all who sing his version of the old hymn to feel as if they’re reciting a vow, and putting a ring on one finger. Was Thomas also reading about the husband of which Paul spoke (1 Cor. 11:2), or how about John’s revelation upon seeing a bride (Revelation chapters 18, 19, 21, and 22)?
What other words could speak more intimately and powerfully to the lost person, to someone who feels beaten and unwanted? If you’ve felt the sting of rejection, or you feel like an emotional amputee in the wake a spouse’s death, Thomas’ words are for you. Our earthly marriages are often lauded in television commercials. Remember the one for a diamond ring, which concludes with the wife choking back tears because she’s been loved so deeply by her husband? What if that marriage didn’t last – the husband died? There is a realm in which this happens, but then the husband miraculously comes back to take his beloved bride, because He treasures her so much. Would you want such a marriage? That marriage would be ‘Oh, so divine’, as some commercials might say. He’s waiting at the altar.
See biography of the author here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Miller_(pastor)
See here the 11/20/2011 song scoop of the classic hymn on which the new hymn is based: https://songscoops.blogspot.com/search/label/Robinson
See here a 2011 video of a live performance of the song at the church where the song was created: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dhd5dUVxOJ8
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