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.

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.