Take a Stone and Lift it High

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)

More so even than this verse, many of us are familiar with the term “Ebenezer” because of the great hymn by Robert Robinson, Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, in which we sing, “Here I raise my Ebenezer.”

What is an Ebenezer?

The word itself simply means “stone of help” (ebhen “stone” + ezer “help”). In practice, an Ebenezer is essentially a one stone altar.

First lifted high above your head in praise, the stone would then be set into the ground to mark the place it stands as a place of special significance, a place where God showed up and showed mercy, a place where God’s help had been especially evident.

Imagine you are living in the ancient world and you’re standing on a field as your undersized army nervously prepares for a battle you really shouldn’t win. Imagine God then brings you miraculously through that battle and–somehow, someway–your little army emerges victorious.

In such a case, you would find a stone—an Ebenezer–you would hold it up in praise and then set it in the ground as a sign not only to yourself, should you ever find your way back to that particular battlefield again, but also as a sign to any who might come after you, that on this spot, in this place, God showed up and miraculously rescued one nervous soldier. So, maybe he’ll show up and rescue another.

Or imagine, again, you’re in the ancient world. But this time you’re on a long journey and a storm hits and you huddle under a cliff for safety, worried this storm might just end your life. Imagine that as you take cover, you look down and see an Ebenezer that some fearful traveler before you had left in the ground.

You would know because of that Ebenezer that God had saved one weary traveler in this very spot. So, maybe he’ll save another.

These 52 songs have been my Ebenezer. They are songs that tell a story; they tell my story.

To be honest, some of the songs have been really difficult to hold up because of the battle or storm God helped me through. At times, it has felt less like the lifting of a stone and more like the opening of my chest: “Here’s all my insides–the good, the ugly, all of it.”

I have shared these songs nervously, but I shared them nonetheless. Because God has indeed brought me safely through the last forty-four years.

God has proven himself faithful again and again and again.

So, I have held high my Ebenezer this past year and have placed it in the ground with the hope that some part of my story at some point in time might be of some encouragement to some other traveler stumbling their way through their own battle or storm. That’s one of the best things about our creative efforts, whether it be a poem or song, a painting or just a good conversation. Art has a way of connecting story to story, soul to soul.

So, I pray: may my Ebenezer be a sign, a sign that God was, and is, faithful. Therefore, dear traveler, you can trust He’ll be faithful once again.

Credits

Words & Music: Bill Wolf
Produced: Collin Brummette