Ebenezer

Today, I was listening to the David Crowder Band song “Come Thou Font”, and I was reminded again of a word that I have never understood in the lyrics of that song. The lyrics are:

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 mine 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
Wondering 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, Lord, take and seal it,
   seal it for Thy courts above

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
Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it,
   seal it for Thy courts above
O Here's my heart, Lord, take and seal it,
   seal it for Thy courts above


The word I was having trouble with was “Ebenezer”. In context, the line is:

“Here I raise mine Ebenezer”.

Now, just about everyone is familiar with Ebenezer Scrooge, but I was pretty certain that fictional character of Dickens was not what was being referred to in the song, so… it was off to the internet for some research. In a quick synopsis of 1 Samuel 7, here’s what I found:

Samuel and the Israelites were under attack by the Philistines. Fearing for their lives, the Israelites pleaded with Samuel to pray for them. Samuel offered a sacrifice to God and prayed for God's protection. God listened to Samuel's prayers causing the Philistines to lose the battle and retreat. After the victory Samuel took a stone and placed it between Mizpah and Shen and called the stone Ebenezer proclaiming, "Thus far the Lord has helped us". Ebenezer means "Stone of Hope".

A stone… Samuel lifted up a stone to remind us that it is not by our strength, but by God’s grace and mercy that we are rescued from danger.

How often do the attacks of this world and the sins of others harden our hearts to stone? Now, every time I hear this beautiful song, I will lift my stony heart in HOPE to God in the firm assurance that He will bring me to victory over the Philistines in my life.

It is only by God’s mercy and grace that I am… your brother in Christ.

Dave