Raising my Ebenezer

Today in church the sermon was on 1 Corinthians 14. Without going into the details of the sermon, the point was made, regarding speaking in tongues and prophecy, that if what is said (or sung) in corporate gatherings is unintelligible to others, and particularly to non-believers, then it’s pointless, unhelpful, and in fact it’s sin. During the question time someone pointed out that in the hymn we were about to sing, Come Thou Fount (see below), there was the line “Here I raise my Ebenezer”, and they didn’t know what it meant, so why were we singing it. Granted, any non-believer walking in off the street isn’t going to understand that line, and most believers aren’t going to either, so perhaps it is best changed, and change it we did to “praise as ever” (or alternatively I have heard “praises ever”). But I happen to like the line “raise my Ebenezer” - the only reason for that being that in the past, after singing that song, I have gone away and looked it up in attempt to understand it. And you can find it in 1 Samuel 7:12. The LORD has just delivered the Israelites from the Philistines, after Samuel cried out to him, and so Samuel set up a stone monument, calling it Ebenezer, saying “Till now the LORD has helped us”. Once you do know what it means it's a fantastic line, meant to encourage us to remind ourselves of how God has helped us (which flows into the following line). So, when I sing that song around the house, to myself (and God), I’m going to stick with “here I raise my Ebenezer”.

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.

Robert Robinson, 1735-1790