#ABOVE ALL CHORDS FULL#

He is the one whose streams of mercy never cease, and will be new again tomorrow (Lamentations 3:22–23). He indeed is the fountain of every blessing. Yet as we live in the tension of this moment called the present - where the rapids of the future rush at us and collect behind us into the pool of the past - we know who our God has shown himself to be. And we know our hearts apart from the tuning and sealing of God’s grace. Many more threats await us and will assault our faith. Our stories are not yet over, and we are not yet out of the woods. So it is today with us, as we sing Robinson’s hymn and remember Samuel’s prayer. “Till now the Lord has helped us.” And because God’s people weren’t yet out of the woods, the Ebenezer had a part to play in reminding the nation to keep the faith in the days ahead. Samuel raising the “stone of help” was in no way a declaration that the final victory had been won, but that up to that point God had helped them. Many more dangers, toils, and snares were to come. Of course, this would not be the end of Israel’s story. And yet in his gracious fidelity to his convent people, God intervened with thunder to throw Israel’s enemies in confusion and turn their enemies into the vulnerable nation. They were vulnerable, with their enemies approaching, and they did not deserve God’s help, having been chronically unfaithful. Samuel wanted the people to remember, not just for a few days, but for years, for decades, for generations, how God had come to the rescue of his people when they humbled themselves before him.

In Hebrew, Ebenezer means “stone of help” ( eben=stone ezer=help).

And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. Then, to commemorate God’s mighty intervention on behalf of his people, Samuel 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.” So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel. God heard the cries of his people through Samuel and came to their rescue. And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them” (1 Samuel 7:10–11). “The Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel. But God heard Samuel and answered with a magnificent display of power. Samuel responded by sacrificing a lamb to God on behalf of the people, and as he did, the Philistines began to attack. They pled to the prophet, “Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines” (verse 8). But when the Philistines heard that Israel had gathered at Mizpah, they took it as an opportunity to march against them - and when Israel heard they were coming, the people panicked. There the people would fast and confess their collective infidelity to God (“We have sinned against the Lord,” 1 Samuel 7:6) and Samuel would pray for them (verse 5). When the time came, Samuel gathered the people at the town of Mizpah. It took twenty years for the people to be sufficiently humbled to turn to Samuel to lead them in restoring their relationship with God.

#ABOVE ALL CHORDS FULL#

Sadly, even with the loss of the ark, the nation was not yet ready to come before God in full repentance. So distressing was it to lose the ark that when news of it had come to Israel’s judge Eli, he fell backwards from his chair, broke his neck, and died (1 Samuel 4:18). The meaning of Ebenezer originates more than a thousand years before Christ, during the ministry of the prophet Samuel, who played a pivotal role at a key juncture in the history of God’s people.ĭuring Samuel’s early days as a prophet, Israel received back the ark of the covenant from the Philistines after seven months, having lost it in war. Baptist minister Robert Robinson (1735–1790) wrote “Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing” at age 22, not long after his conversion, which was influenced in part by the preaching of evangelist George Whitefield. The Hebrew word Ebenezer may be the least known lyric among all our most beloved English hymns. Samuel took a stone and set it up.and called its name Ebenezer for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us.” (1 Samuel 7:12)

Above all chords