Come THou Fount

The next song we are going to sing is one of my favorite Hymns called Come Thou Fount. In the second verse there’s a line that says, “Here I raise my Ebenzer. That name Ebenezer is now most famoulsy known as the first name of Ebenezer Scrooge. But Ebenezer has a rich biblical meaning.

It comes from the book of 1 Samuel. Israel of course has a history of failure and having to call out to the Lord for help. Sadly because of Israel’s failures they had lost the Ark of the Covenat to the Philistines. And yet even then the ISralites did not repent and come back to God. It took them 20 years for them to repent and return to the Lord.

So Samuel gathers the people in the twon of Mizpah where they could confess and repent their sins to God. But the Philistines had heard that Israel was gathering together and they took it as an opportunity to march on their enemies.

The people pleaded with the prophet and said Do not cease to cry out to call out to the Lord our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines. So Samuel sacrfices a lamb and calls out to GOd and we see the Lord’s response in 1 Samuel 7:10–11 it says. “The Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel. And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them down.”

God had heard their cries and saved them from their enemies. So Samuel according to 1 Samuel 7:12 “took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us.””

Ebenezer was a monument to the faithfulness of God. A remenider to the coming generations that the Lord was faithful then He will be faithful now. HE was faithful then despite your sin he will be faithul now despite of your sin.

Here I raise my Ebenezer Here by Thy great help I've come

This morning raise the faithfulness of God to your mind. Remember the faithfulness of God in your life. Despite your unfaithfulness to God the Lord has been faithful to you. Despite your failuers the Lord has not grown tired of hearing your call for help.

Here is raise my Ebenzer Here by they great help I’ve come And I hope by Thy good pleasure Safely to arrive at home

God had been faithful then, he will be faithful now, and he will be faithful until by His good pleasure you make it home.

Let’s Sing