Fixed upon it

Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

I was reflecting upon these words from Robert Robinson’s hymn, “Come Thou Fount”. These two lines are very often sung now as “Praise the name, I’m fixed upon it” which strikes me as… shifting emphases.

Now, I don’t know what sense Robinson intended “fixed” to have, but I think it’s pretty good odds that it wasn’t the modern sense. The modern rendering sounds very much like, “I have mentally directed my thoughts and feelings towards your name”, e.g. “I’m fixated”.

But there’s at least two other meanings possible, are there not? At least in the original version. “Fixed” in the sense or “repaired”, though I suspect this is also unlikely for the period. And then “fixed” as in “rooted and unchangeable in location”, possibly stronger “fastened/attached”, perhaps with a further sense of trans-fixed in reference to the cross.

It’s impossible to be certain, but when you change lyrics you are almost always going to be semantically flattening them. And the general direction of modern Christian songwriting is towards the flatter, the more explicit, the less rich, and the more banal.