How Sweet the SoundNäide

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

What has God done for you?

Provided the check in the mail when you had an unexpected bill? Introduced you to someone who became a true friend? Had your brakes stop you within an inch of that other car? When was the last time you thanked Him for those things?

Why do we forget the incredible ways God has been there for us? The ways He’s saved us?

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, Prone to leave the God I love.

How do we hold tight to all the ways God has provided for us?

Some of the folks in the Old Testament used rocks. Were they on to something?

In 1 Samuel 7 the nasty Philistine army advanced on the Israelites ready to attack. But God spoke with a voice like thunder totally disorienting the Philistines. The Israelites swept in and knocked them out, easy peasy. God saved the Israelites, and they knew it.

The Israeli prophet Samuel did something that day to remember God and what He’d done. Samuel set up a monument, nothing fancy, he just used what he had—a rock. Samuel took this large stone, set it upright, and named the stone Ebenezer (which means the stone of help).

Jacob did something similar after he wrestled with God—set a rock upright and poured oil on it to mark the spot—to help Jacob remember his crazy face-to-face encounter with God (Genesis 28:18). Moses also erected these memorials at the bottom of Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:4-6).

This is the pulse of the hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” written by Robert Robinson in 1758[1]. It is a monument in song to what God has done for us, a way to remind us of how He has helped us and saved us in the past, to reset our wandering hearts so we won’t wander away from Him in the future.

Here I raise my Ebenezer; Here by Thy great help I’ve come.

Do you have some sort of “Ebenezer” in your life—probably not a rock, but something you do to remember God’s faithfulness?

Maybe you journal and highlight answered prayers. Maybe there’s a picture on your wall that reminds you of the home God provided and each time you see that photo you thank God. Perhaps you let your calendar prompt your praise—writing out gratitude lists near Thanksgiving, spending Advent meditating on hope, love, joy, peace, and faith, and thanking God for freedom, and for the people who fought for it around the Fourth of July.

Or maybe you’re random like me. Wanting to remember God, and thank God for all the things on all the days, but yet sometimes forgetting His faithfulness.

Prone to wander. Lord, I feel it.

But the hymn “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” resets me.

It’s an Ebenezer for me. When I hear it, I remember what God has done. This hymn helps me remember all of God’s goodness. The fullness of who God is and all the ways he’s been there for me. My silly gripes and concerns evaporate as the remembering resets my soul. Because when I remember God, He’s all I need and all I want. And I want to cling to that, remember it. Forever more.

Here’s my heart, O take and seal it, Seal it for Thy courts above.

Questions:

Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us”( 1 Samuel 7:12).

When was a time God did something amazing for you? Describe it:

How often do you remember what God did, go back and thank Him for it?

What will you use as your “Ebenezer” this week to recall how God has cared for you in the past?

*This devotion is taken from Laura L. Smith’s book How Sweet the Sound: The Power and Promise of 30 Beloved Hymns.

[1] https://hymnary.org/text/come_thou_fount_of_every_blessing accessed March 2, 2019.