here i raise my ebenezer (pillars of remembrance)

By Rebecca Vickery
​Ever since I can remember, songs have spoken to my heart.  I remember one time when I was sitting in Church as a child feeling restless.  My father told me, you need to pay attention to the lyrics of the hymns, because they are rich with meaning.  It was something that stood out to me and would begin to connect music with something higher.

Since becoming a believer, I have at various points in my life used songs to remind myself of what God has delivered me from, or what he was speaking to my heart at various times in my walk.  Eventually, I plan to go through and write a little story about each of these momentous songs and how they ministered to my heart at the time of their hearing.  But for now, I want to introduce you to one of my favorite hymns of old. 
Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, by Robert Robinson is a hymn I’ve known since I was a child.  After I became a follower of Jesus, it became a theme of my heart:

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 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
 

So 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 Lord take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above

I love the jubilation of the first verse.  It is so good to find ourselves overcome with love and admiration for the God who is the source of our every blessing, and the streams of mercy that never cease.  Could you not just bathe yourselves in the streams of mercy?  And I find myself inclined to worship as I think about such things.  And in that first verse, he’s fixed upon that Mount of his redeeming love. 
The beginning of our relationship with Jesus can be filled with these high highs that you think will be all that there is to be in your relationship.  In fact, we used this song in our wedding ceremony.  It is a wonderful song to remind us of our allegiance to God and also to one another. 

Much like marriage, when you first start out, you think it will always be a precious and wonderful thing.  But we are nothing if not fickle.  We don’t tend to stay in this place of exaltation either in our relationship with the Lord or our relationships with other people. 
And yet, as we move into the second verse, we have a resolution.  Here I raise my Ebenezer.  Hither by thy help I come.  What is that all about?  Well, in 1 Samuel, the Philistines were rising up against the Israelites.  This is right after the Israelites had turned back to God.  (We are fickle, aren’t we?)  They say to Samuel, PLEASE don’t stop praying to God on our behalf.  So he does.  And the Lord answers his prayer and throws the Philistines into confusion so they do not defeat the Israelites.  In response to this, Samuel takes a stone and sets it up and names it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”  (Read from 1 Samuel 7:1-10) Thus far the Lord has helped us, or Hither by thy help I come.  The Ebenezer or stone of remembrance is there for the people to remember what God has done for him.  It is then a prayer that God will continue helping until he is brought home.  Until WE are brought safely home to God, we depend on His grace and mercy to get us from our first confession of faith until the end. Lord God, remind me that you have helped me so far, and that you will continue to be my help.

“Jesus sought me when a stranger wandering from the fold of God.”  This is one of my favorite lines, because I do remember so well how he adopted me into his fold.  I was a different person, but he still is the one who guides me and rescues me from danger.  He still rescues me from danger on a regular basis. 
 
“So to grace how great a debtor daily I’m constrained to be.”  What a relatable phrase.  It is so easy for us to fall into sin.  “Let thy goodness like a fetter bind my wandering heart to thee.”  I have prayed this over and over again through the seasons.  Let your goodness by my heart to you.  Chain my heart to you Lord.  Bind me.  “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it.  Prone to leave the God I love.”  Oh Lord, again, I know how fickle I can be.  I know that I am prone to wander.  I am prone to leave the God I love.  Why?  Because sometimes being a Christian is hard.  Demanding standards for myself that apart from his grace and mercy are hard to attain, the easy road is far more tempting.  You want me to love when I don’t feel anything in return?  That’s not an easy ask.  But I know what I know.  Jesus redeemed me.  And HE is the one who can keep my feet from stumbling, and place me before his throne blameless at the last day.  “Here’s my heart Lord, take and seal it, seal it for thy courts above.” 
 
This song has taken on so much more meaning for me since we sang it at our wedding all those years ago.  Jesus is still the One who seeks and saves the lost.  Jesus seeks those who as a stranger wander from the fold of God.  But I can remind my heart again and again and again that He is the God who rescues—not only me but everyone who I love as well. 
​
Jesus, thank you for seeking me even when I was far off from you.  Lord, I ask that you would seek and save those who are wandering from the fold of God.  Rescue them from danger and cover them with your precious blood.  Tune my heart to sing your grace Lord.  Strengthen us with the hearing of your word and by the grace and mercy of the Holy Spirit in our Lives.  Take our hearts Lord, take and seal them for your courts above.  Amen.  

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