Ebenezer

I recently attended a church music conference. One of the subjects that came up during a seminar was the question of updating archaic language in hymns. Some brought up the updating of archaic usages like "thee" and "thou," while others noted that their denominational hymnals occasionally changed lyrics to match the theology they espoused. There was a spirited discussion as to how far you can go in changing lyrics without doing an injustice to the original intent of the lyricist.

One example brought up came from a different perspective. The questioner asked about the term "Ebenezer" in "Come Thou Fount." This is a bit different, since the changes that are made to this term are designed to bring out a meaning that may not be evident to the singer. The original line is, "Here I raise mine Ebenezer, hither by Thy help I've come." One example of change I have seen is "This my glad commemoration that 'til now I've safely come." The desire of the editor is to make sense of the original line for the modern Christian.

However, I would argue in this case, and in some others, the effort is a failure on two fronts. First, it may be simply catering to the Biblical ignorance of those in the church, when what is needed is further teaching on the Biblical imagery. This issue may be a little more sensitive for me, since I happen to love to teach on the Old Testament. I don' think it's an exaggeration to say that many contemporary Christians are much less conversant with the Old Testament than the New. What we need to do in the church is to use occasions such as the singing of a hymn (or even a worship chorus!) to elevate the Biblical understanding of the congregation.

Once I was on the worship team of a church that wanted to use this hymn for worship. The pastor insisted that before we sing it, we explain the meaning of "Ebenezer" to the congregation so that they understood what they were singing. We did so, and several people commented that they had not understood the line before and appreciated learning what it really meant. This is one way we can use music to advance the teaching ministry of the church (which is another very large topic I won't get into right now).

The second way this effort to rewrite lyrics fails is that often the Biblical imagery is much richer than the modernized lyrics. Take the example I wrote above. While it catches part of the meaning of the phrase, it leaves out some important concepts. The background of the name "Ebenezer" is found in 1 Sanuel 7, where Samuel sets up the "stone of remembrance" (which is what the Hebrew name means). What is he commemorating? Ebenezer is a reminder that the Lord has helped Israel "thus far," following a rousing victory over the Philistines when they attacked during a ceremony of repentance before the Lord. It was to remind Israel that it is only by God's help that they had the victory, and that remaining in a proper relationship to Him was critical to their future. The change made above leaves out the entire idea of arriving safely only through the help of God. (And I double-checked the context of that version; the idea doesn't come up in the next line, which only refers to the future, not the past.) I think that eliminates a very significant point Robert Robinson, the original lyricist, wanted to make.

I'm not opposed to modern editing of hymn lyrics in general. I do think that we need to be careful that we do make every effort to retain the original meaning of the writer, which makes me cautious about changing lyrics for theological reasons. I also believe that we need to let the Biblical imagery of the song speak for itself, and if that means we need to teach people about that meaning then let us teach.