Here I Raise My Ebenezer…
One of my favorite hymns is Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing written by English pastor Robert Robinson in 1758 (very close to when our house was originally built amazingly enough). Here are the lyrics:
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.
Here I raise my Ebenezer; hither by thy help I'm come; and I hope, by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God; he, to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood.
O to grace how great a debtor daily I'm constrained to be! Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee. Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here's my heart, O take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.
It is a hymn about God’s amazing grace and his amazing faithfulness…that he seeks us out when we are not seeking him, showers us with his mercy in Jesus, and holds onto us no matter what, especially when we are not faithful ourselves.
I thought it appropriate this Memorial Day as we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom as a nation. No matter what town you live in there is most likely a memorial somewhere remembering those who died in one of the many wars our country has fought throughout its relatively young history…markers that honor them and thank them for their sacrifice. Memorial Day is a beautiful and powerful thing we do as a nation to remind ourselves what it cost so many to get us to this place as a country.
In this hymn we sing about raising “our Ebenezer.” I had only heard that word in the context of A Christmas Carol and Scrooge McDuck in the Saturday morning cartoon Duck Tales before learning this hymn. I learned that it referred to 1 Samuel 7 when the prophet Samuel interceded on behalf of frightened Israel as they were faced with one of their primary enemies in the Old Testament, the Philistines. As the Philistines attacked “the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day…and threw [the Philistines] into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel” (1 Samuel 7:10). Samuel memorialized God’s faithfulness to his people by setting up a stone in that place and called it Ebenezer, which means “stone of help.”
I often forget. I often lose perspective when dealing with the difficulties and frustrations that may pop up in my day to day. I can very quickly feel lost and alone…afraid that whatever I am faced with is too much, and I will surely be overcome. I need my Ebenezer, the memorial, the reminder of all that God has done to save me, forgive me, and set me free. I need the reminder of his promises that I am never alone (Deut. 31:6), that I am hidden in Christ (Colossians 3:3), and that no one can ever take me from his hand (John 10:27-29). He is my stone of help, my rock, my fortress (Psalm 18:2).
AND he is yours this day. These promises are for you. God’s grace and mercy are for you in Jesus Christ. You are forgiven. You are not alone. You are safe in his hands. He promises.
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