Unless stated otherwise, my source for hymn texts and tunes is The Lutheran Service Book.

Wednesday, October 31, 2018

LSB #435 "Come to Calvary's Holy Mountain"

Biblical citations in the hymnal:  Zechariah 13:1, Hebrews 9:14, Matthew 27:33-35, Isaiah 25:6-8

Zechariah 13:1:  "'On that day there shall be a fountain opened for the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, to cleanse them from sin and uncleanness.'"

Hebrews 9:14:  "how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without blemish to God, purify our conscience from dead works to serve the living God."

Matthew 27:33-35:  "33 And when they came to a place called Golgotha (which means Place of a Skull), 34 they offered him wine to drink, mixed with gall, but when he tasted it, he would not drink it.  35 And when they had crucified him, they divided his garments among them by casting lots."

Isaiah 25:6-8:  "6 On this mountain the LORD of hosts will make for all peoples a feast of rich food, a feast of well-aged wine, of rich food full of marrow, of aged wine well refined.  7 And he will swallow up on this mountain the covering that is cast over all peoples, the veil that is spread over all nations.  8 He will swallow up death forever; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from all faces, and the reproach of his people he will take away from all the earth, for the LORD has spoken."

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The text is public domain:
Come to Calv'ry's holy mountain,
Sinners, ruined by the fall;
Here a pure and healing fountain
Flows for you, for me, for all,
In a full, perpetual tide,
Opened when our Savior died.
Come in poverty and meanness,
Come defiled, without, within;
From infection and uncleanness,
From the leprosy of sin,
Wash your robes and make them white;
Ye shall walk with God in light.
Come in sorrow and contrition,
Wounded, impotent, and blind;
Here the guilty, free remission,
Here the troubled, peace may find.
Health this fountain will restore;
They that drink shall thirst no more.
They that drink shall live forever;
'Tis a soul-renewing flood.
God is faithful; God will never
Break His covenant of blood,
Signed when our Redeemer died,
Sealed when He was glorified.
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"Calv'ry's holy mountain" in the first verse seems to be the mountain described in Isaiah 25, and the "pure and healing fountain" comes from Zechariah 13:1.  The purifying blood of Christ from Hebrews 9:14 is in the second half of the first verse ("a full, perpetual tide, / Opened when our Savior died").  "Wash your robes and make them white" in the second half of the second verse is related, but it actually comes from the second half of Revelation 7:14:  "'They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.'"

Similarly, verse three combines the fountain mentioned in Zechariah 13:1 ("Health this fountain will restore") with the story of the woman at the well in John 4.  "They that drink shall thirst no more" and "They that drink shall live forever" from the beginning of the next verse paraphrase a section of John 4:13-14:  "13 Jesus said to her, 'Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.  The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.'"

I don't see any evidence of Matthew 27:33-35 in the hymn, unless it's cited in order to point out the contrasts between Calvary's holy mountain and Golgotha, between the "soul-renewing flood" of the "pure and healing fountain" and the wine mixed with gall, and between the clean, white robes and Jesus' garments' being divided among the soldiers.