Here I raise my Ebenezer…?

Have you ever sang through a song and wondered; ‘What was it that song was saying?’  We sing but do we really know what it is we are saying?  Look at this old hymn that dates back more than 250 years.  A song where we ask God to let His goodness be like a fetter; a song where we say we’ll ‘raise our Ebenezer’.  What does that all mean?  What are you saying as you sing this old hymn.  Let’s look into this hymn from the mid 1700’s.

Robert Robinson wrote a song of praise simply entitled, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing”.  His original song had 6 verses where as today we typically only sing three.  Perhaps the drawing force for me is the old English, the thoughtful poetry that isn’t necessarily easy to interpret but beautiful when we come to understand it.  Just remember ‘I will sing with the Spirit and I will sing with the mind also.’ (I Cor. 14:15)

Learn more about the message within this old hymn!

1. 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, (more recently we sing ‘Teach me ever to adore Thee’
Sung by flaming tongues above. (May I still Thy goodness prove,)
Praise the mount, I’m fixed upon it, (While the hope of endless glory)
Mount of Thy redeeming love. (Fills my heart with joy and love.)

2. 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; (This is referring to a ‘stone of help’, NOT the scrooge.)
Here by Thy great help I’ve come; (see I Samuel 7:12 for Biblical clarity…)
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.

3. Jesus sought me when a stranger, (These next four lines have become the last few lines
Wandering from the fold of God; (of OUR second verse…in most hymnals)
He, to rescue me from danger, (A strong, Biblical reminder of the saving grace…)
Interposed His precious blood; (through the blood of Christ.)
How His kindness yet pursues me
Mortal tongue can never tell,
Clothed in flesh, till death shall loose me
I cannot proclaim it well.

4. O to grace how great a debtor (Follow the thought process here…)
Daily I’m constrained to be! (I’m indebted to the grace of God so much that I should…)
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter, (want the goodness of God to chain my heart to Him.)
Bind my wandering heart to Thee. (The fetter is another word for ‘shackles’!)
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, (Some hymnals read, ‘Never let me wander from Thee,)
Prone to leave the God I love; (…never leave the God I love.‘)
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it,
Seal it for Thy courts above.

5. O that day when freed from sinning,
I shall see Thy lovely face;
Clothèd then in blood washed linen
How I’ll sing Thy sovereign grace;
Come, my Lord, no longer tarry,
Take my ransomed soul away;
Send thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless day.

Would that we sing with the heart AND sing with the mind also.  (I Corinthians 14:15) Perhaps singing with the mind is actually understanding what it is we’re singing!  Now, next time you sing this hymn you’ll remember; ‘Here I raise my Ebenezer, here by Thy great help I come; and, ‘Let Thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to Thee.