“Here I raise mine ebenezer, hither by thy help I 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.”
-”Come thou Fount of Every Blessing” by Robert Robinson
This has been one of my favorite songs for years.
I sang it growing up in church as a child. I heard the David Crowder Band version in high school. I wrote my own arrangement for it. I forgot about it for a few months at the beginning of college. I fell in love with it again in December when I heard the Sufjan Stevens version.
And now, I have gained an entirely new perspective on it. Why? Because I finally understand what the heck an “ebenezer” is.
I was completely confused and figured scholars had lost the translation many centuries ago.
But now it all makes sense, and the song has suddenly gained a new beauty. An ebenezer, it seems, is a monument raised to remember what God has done. Simple. Beautiful. And incredibly important.
“Here I raise mine ebenezer.” Here, in this moment, I remember what God has done. He’s brought me to this place. And he’ll bring me home to heaven one day. I once was lost; a stranger far from God. But he rescued me from that danger by shedding his blood on the cross.
Now, whenever I sing that verse, it will have new meaning. It will remind me of the things God has brought me through, and all the things he’ll bring me through in the future.
He’s rescued me.
What’s he done for you?
