Listen: Come Thou Fount

Read: Psalm 146

Reflect: These verses start out by saying, “I will praise the Lord with all of my life for as long as I live.”  This week’s song, Come Thou Font of Every Blessing brings me to the same place as Psalm 146.  A place to remember what God has done.

This hymn was written way back in the 1700’s by Robert Robinson, a 22 year old man, not long after he met Jesus. The experience of his conversion was so impactful that he wrote a song about it and centuries later, in the year 2023, we are still singing that song!

In the original hymn, Robert Robinson wrote, “Here I raise my Ebenezer.” I wanted to know more about what that meant to Robert Robinson as he wrote those words. Ebenezer in Hebrew means, “stone of help”, in the book of 1 Samuel we read about the amazing rescue of God’s people and how Samuel took a stone, laid it before the people, and called it their Ebenezer to see and remember what God had done.

As I sing this hymn, I am reminded to look at all that God has done in my community, my family, and myself.  Meeting Jesus at the age of twelve was a time of true rescue for me just as it was for the writer of this hymn. Jesus sought me and saved me, I needed Jesus as much as I needed air to breath and all I had to do was whisper his name.  His presence in my life full of disfunction, neglect, and fear was so miraculous that no one can ever tell me that Jesus isn’t real.

Respond: So, what is your Ebenezer? The song writer’s Ebenezer is this hymn, and we are singing it to this day.  What are the stones that you have placed to remember what God has done? Reflecting, I suppose my Ebenezer is the ministry I do every week telling children that Jesus is their Savior too.  As you listen to this song, reflect on what you can point to saying, “God did this, I want others to see it, I want others to know my story.”  I’d love for you share your story with me.  What is your Ebenezer?  What Jesus has done in you is important and a part of the Big God Story that is still going on. I’m cheering for you this weekend as we raise our Ebenezer together!

by Pastor Sharon Rundell