Desire To Live

So I am very particular of thinking about the song lyrics as I sing the song. Well, yesterday I was at the Gospel Coalition and the song, "Come Thou Fount" was sung. Well, the beginning of the second verse stopped my singing. The lyrics said,

"Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
Hither by thy help I come.
And I hope by thy good pleasure
Safely to arrive at home"

What the heck does that mean? The only thing that popped into my head was Ebenezer Scrooge, and I didn't recognize that name from the Bible at all. So who's Ebenezer and how is he helping me to come. So as I am a peculiar person and must know what I sing, I had to look it up. So here's what I found out.Well, there is a passage in the Bible that sheds some light on what Ebenezer is.

1Sa 7:12 Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.

Ebenezer is a place in Palestine. The Hebrew word used to translate this word literally means, "a stone of the help." That is why it says that the place was called Ebenezer because the Lord, the cornerstone, the solid rock, helped them there. The philistines had captured the ark, and God's judgment was on them. It killed a whole lot of people. Finally the Philistines sent the ark out, up to the house of Aminadab. However, The Israelites, with the help of the Lord were able to take back their land. To remind themselves of how the Lord helped them get their land back, they put up this stone, perhaps a pillar to commemorate this place.

So, when it says to 'raise mine ebenezer', the hymn writer is saying that it means that we are raising our stone of help, which is the Lord Jesus, to help us overcome our enemy. Now I can sing this song peacefully, knowing that I am singing about my Lord and not about a cartoon duck that was stingy with his money.