I love the hymn "Come thou Fount", it's one of my very favorites. Every time we sing this song as a church family or our own family worship, I am overcome with emotion as I ponder the words of the hymn. I often have to stop singing.
However, I'm disappointed when some editors of hymnals have changed the words: "Here I raise my Ebenezer, hither by thy help I'm come and I hope by thy good pleasure safely to arrive at home". Ebenezer is a big word and can leave some puzzled in it's meaning, we don't often use it in conversation. It's worth recovering.
The line from the third verse "Let that grace now, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee" is often changed as well.
Fetter is a “chain/shackle usually around the ankle to hold a prisoner”. To be shackled to Him by His grace, what a beautiful picture...
Ebenezer is a Hebrew word for "stone of help".
In 1 Samuel 7:12, after being saved from an attack by the LORD's thundering mightiness, Samuel took a "stone and set it up" calling it Ebenezer and declaring, "til now the LORD has helped us".
The editors of our current hymnal used the words, "hither to thy love has blest me". I stumbled over the words for the first year or two. It wasn't what my heart had memorized. For me, the rich meaning is lost. It's not that "thy love has blest me" isn't true, it just has a completely different connotation for my life.
I have been delivered over and over by the Lord's thundering. I set up stones or "raised my Ebenezer" for remembering the times that the Lord has reached down in my circumstances and provided a way when I saw no way. I've journaled, blogged and told our children the stories. I point to the turn in the path saying, "there...". It was there that He used that time of trouble, loss, grief, or disappointment to guide, shape and direct me. Here’s where I waited with bated breath to see how the Lord was working. So that I never forget what He has done in the past and faith is built for trusting him more in future times. We are told often in scripture to remember. By remembering, I know and trust those things are necessary for me to be drawn more and more to Him so that I "safely arrive at home".
The trouble and heartbreak came and will come again, the things that threaten to undo us will visit over and over throughout this life... but God's grace and mercy have sought us and will bring us safely home.
Raise your Ebenezers!
(Original post on Facebook 2017)
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