Sorrowing I shall be in spirit,
Till released from flesh and sin,
Yet from what I do inherit,
Here Thy praises I’ll begin;
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
By: Robert Robinson, 1735-90

Listen as you read.  This version from In Reverence by David Tolk.

I wonder how many a confused worshippers over the years have found themselves asking that question?  So, what is it, you ask.  What is an Ebenezer?

Ebenezer Explained

This is a great example of using an image and story from the Old Testament to inject tremendous weight and meaning in just a few words.  The story Robinson borrows from is found in I Samuel 7 and has the prophet helping the people find their way back to God.  Having been long subdued by their enemies, they begin to turn back to God.  Samuel makes an offering on their behalf, during which time the Philistines attack and are routed.

To commemorate the victory, Samuel erects a stone of remembrance and names it Ebenezer, which means, “stone of help” and says, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” [I Samuel 7:12] And so marks the beginning of a period of rest for the people of God.  The remembrance works two ways: to remind the Israelites what God has done, and to remind God that their eyes were on Him.

Ebenezer Exampled

How often has that happened for you?  When you took a moment to look back over what you have just come through and you said, “Thus far you have helped me Lord”?  And how often have you realized it was not because you deserved it.

How will you remind yourself of God’s past provision, and how will you allow that to encourage your faith as you look forward?  Maybe you will not set up a stone which will remind you, every time you look at it, that God helped you through a particular difficulty.  Maybe you will.  Maybe it is a note or Scripture verse you keep before you.  Maybe it is a piece of ribbon tied around a door knob.  Whatever it is, let it be something.

Ebenezer Expected

So the people of God probably become accustomed to counting on God to be there, forgetting they had a part to play in this.  We are guilty of the same expectation.  So we must remember that we have to keep deciding to look to our Stone of Help.

Because it also has another layer of meaning.  God is our Stone of help.  Not only the help, but the stone as well.  He is firm and unyielding.  Never-changing.  He is our Rock.  Let’s keep looking to Him, until we safely arrive at our final destination, His glorious, eternal Presence.

Faithful God, You are our Ebenezer, our Stone of Help.  As we work and wait through these sorrowful days, empower us to look to You.  Remind us of Your work in the past, and keep our eyes on You today, even as we peer into the future.  Bring us safely home.

Do you have practical ways you remind yourself of God’s help?  Please share as we continue to build a community who encourages each other to resonate 7 days a week.

Podcast, Come Thou Fount – Episode 1.2

More Podcasts like this one are available in our Free Member Content Library.  Click here to find out more about it!

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.

Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing
By: Robert Robinson, 1735-90

I think it is imperative as we begin that we make it clear who started this.  It was God.  He called out across the vast chasm of our hearts birthing a genesis, a new beginning, out of nothing.  He created something out of nothing, so calling worship out of rebellion or life out of death really is not inconceivable.  

Do not misunderstand for a moment that our song writer is proposing we initiated.  Inviting God to the party is kind of like inviting the President to the White House.  He already lives there, that would be kind of silly.  Essentially what we are doing is responding to God’s invitation with one of our own.  “Yes, I would love to come to the party, since you are the Guest of Honor.”

Our response quickly acknowledges not only that God is present, but that He is the source of every good thing, and I accordingly want to give Him the praise He deserves.  I love how the writer here asks to sing even the very song that the angels in Heaven sing even now, flaming tongues above.  He concludes affirming that he is fixed on the immoveable reality of God’s redeeming love.

And there is the crux, right?  We can not even praise this perfect One if we are not redeemed, bought back to rightness from our place of wrongness.  In those clever words, the song declares two powerful truths 1. I needed redeeming, a truth every honest heart will admit, and 2. His love has done it.

Great 250 year old words, right?  But how do we interact with them?  How do we make them our own?  First, we must understand what they mean, we must learn their message, like we long to learn the “melodious sonnet” from above.  We have we have quickly considered their meaning, but now we must make them our own.  And just in case you are still wondering, the entire idea of singing is both literal and figurative in this context.  We must sing, but our lives must also become a song.  More than an anthem of praise, we must live lives which declare His glory.

I would encourage you to personalize a simple paraphrase to God, something like this.

God I acknowledge You as the Giver of all good things and I welcome You.
I want to live my life in response to Your grace, and I need Your help to do it.
As I become aware of Your mercy poured out every day on me,
Help me to respond to it by living the reality of it before You and others.
As the angels praise You, so I long to praise You,
Not only as Your servant, but as Your remade son/daughter.
I commit to live my life, speak my words, think my thoughts, from a place of rest in You,
As the only fitting response to Your love that has redeemed me.

So, how are you going to do that?  If you were to take an inventory of Your life, is it generally characterized by praise, or something else?  Are you tuning your ears to hear the heavenly song, and your soul to echo it?  Now down to earth…When that difficult person walks around the corner tomorrow, will you decide now how you will respond, with streams of mercy, or rivers of contempt?  When challenges come will they wash away at your faith, or will reveal how solid it is?

Jesus, You are that Rock on whom we have fixed our faith.  Too often we live unaware of Your Presence.  Change that today.  Heighten our awareness to the reality of You, and then enable us to walk in it, until that day our weaker songs give way to those being sung around Your throne even now!

How are you going to act on this?  Decide now.  Comment here.  It may inspire someone else.  Respond to what the “Fount of Every Blessing” is doing even now as you have invited Him into your day.

Podcast, Come Thou Fount – Episode 1.1

More Podcasts like this one are available in our Free Member Content Library.  Click here to find out more about it!

O For a thousand tongues to sing
My dear Redeemer’s praise!
The glories of my God and King,
The triumphs of His grace!

O For a Thousand Tongues to Sing
By: Charles Wesley, 1707-1788

Listen as you read.  This version is from Together for the Gospel.

My dear, or as it has sometimes been altered to, great Redeemer is indeed worthy of praise.  Check.

My God and King certainly is glorious. Check.

His grace has absolutely triumphed over all. Check.

Two thoughts

Really the most thought-provoking, pondering worthy line in the opening stanza to this beloved hymn is the first.  Herein we understand the longing of the writer to have a thousand tongues to sing the praises of our God.  I have often wondered if he meant both of the things that immediately come to mind for me and I am certain many others, worshippers across the more than two centuries this song has been sung.

1000 actual tongues

My single tongue simply is inadequate to declare the praise, glory and triumph of my King.  I wish that I had 999 more, or while I am at, maybe 100,000, though in essence this would still not be enough to adequately, or throughly tell His worth.  Though I must admit I would agree with St. Catherine that any number of of tongues breaking the silence would be far superior to those same tongues remaining stilled.

That quote got me thinking about how many of us are often tricked into constraining our praise for any number of reasons.  Not the right moment.  Not the right crowd.  Not the right place.  Lord, have mercy on us for holding our tongues in times we should have loosed them, especially when it comes to using them to bring you praise.  When we speak the praises of God we breathe “life and health and peace” [quoting a later stanza] to an otherwise dying, sick and strife-filled world.  I think rotten pretty much some up any place where the praise of God has been squelched.

Jesus, cause me to be unwilling to allow my praise to stay silent.  Empower my tongue that it may erupt with unceasing adoration for  Your Name.  When it does, push back a bit of the rot of this weary world, and in that moment and place, establish Your kingdom! Begin in my soul, as I speak within, but cause it to grow, until it bursts without.

1000 different languages

My single language simply is insufficient to speak the inestimable worth of my dear Redeemer, my glorious God, my gracious King.  Oh, that I might be able to speak 1000 different languages.  Each has not only unique sounds and articulations, but certainly expressions that are idiomatic and colloquial as well as guttural, managing somehow to expound on the magnanimous character of our God.  This brings to mind some memories…

• Traveling abroad and being in awe as I heard God’s praises sung in multiple languages at once.
• Learning the Dvorak Biblical Songs in their original Slovakian, with the help of a native speaker and marveling at the beauty of the unfamiliar sounds.
• Talking with a tour guide in Europe who spoke six languages and envying him not because he could converse with so many different people, but because he could express his praise in so many different ways, not to mention the possibility of dreaming of praising God in a language not my first.

This thought also reminds me of the Day of Pentecost, and allows me to see the blessing hidden initially in God’s working at the Tower of Babel.  We began to think to highly of ourselves so God muddled our ability to communicate with all people by creating distinct languages.  This curse comes full circle and essentially becomes as blessing when at the Day of Pentecost people from all over the world each heard the disciples speaking their native tongue.  I do not even need to broach the controversial and divisive subject of the gift of tongues to make the point that having other means to praise God is a reasonable desire for every believer.

Holy Spirit, whether I develop the ability to speak another language or You supernaturally give me such utterance, enable me to use every capacity I have at any given moment to give praise to God.  I long for the greatest ability possible, whether in number or  skill, to sing the glories of my God, but instead simply ask that You help me to make the very most of the one tongue I currently possess.  May I ever and only use it for this highest of purposes.

Joyful Thinking!

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