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 unchanging 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,
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.
We sang this last week, and I did not have the words in front of me. I have always been intrigued by this hymn: the idea that I must be taught to worship and bound to my faith by God Himself because my nature is to leave it even when I want to maintain it. There is no way that I can put this into words that do justice to the impact this has on me… Perhaps at some point I will be able to do so, but not right now… It changes the way that I think about my faith. I can stop trying to be “good enough.”
I became fixed on the word “ebenezer.” In my research, I learned that I wasn’t alone. It is not a word I hear in any other context–except Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol.” I understand now how ironic the usage is. Looking it up in some resources gives indication that it refers to the name of a town. This is too simplistic an explanation. Names are descriptive. This is as true in English as it was in Hebrew.. It helps to know the language in which the town was named. In English, the name “Johnsonville” tells us that the town was founded by someone named Johnson. In Hebrew, “ebenezer” tells us that the town was named significantly. It means “stone of help.” The town was named for a stone set up in commemoration of God’s help thus far. Thus an “ebenezer” now is a term used to describe any object that symbolizes recognition of God’s help thus far in a person’s life; and the use of the term in the song recognizes that God has provided help up to the point in the author’s/singer’s life and hope of continued help.
I find it useful–in fact, essential–to remember the ways that God has helped me at various points in my life. Without doing this, my faith too easily turns to doubt. There is then no ebenezer to raise–and no future hope of help. No wonder I am so prone to leave God.
Here’s my heart, Lord. Take and seal it…
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