MAY 27, Psalm 47:7

“Do you have any funny stories for us today, Auntie Kim?” Isabel asked one evening when her aunt and uncle were over for dinner. Auntie Kim, who was a kindergarten teacher, smiled. “Well, my class has been learning the first verse of ‘God is so good’.” she replied. “One little girl thought God was only good to her because of the words ‘God is so good, He’s so good to me.’”

“That reminds me of myself,” said Uncle Don. “I must have been at least ten years old before I realized the true meaning of the hymn In the Garden.’ The chorus says, And He walks with me, and He talks with me.’ I always thought it said, Andy walks with me; Andy talks with me.’ To me, that meant the nice church warden whose name was Andy. He always talked with us kids.”

Dad nodded. “I remember him,” he said. “It’s sad to think that people often don’t really know what they’re singing about in church.” “But some songs have hard words,” said Isabel. “Like when we had that old-fashioned hymn sung a couple weeks ago. One song had something about raising an Eb… Eba…” “Ebenezer,” said Mom. “Well, what’s an Ebenezer?” Isabel asked.

“I wondered about that, too,” said Isabel’s brother, Elliot. Dad smiled and reached for the family Bible. “In Hebrew, the word literally means stone of help.’ The prophet Samuel built a stone monument and named it Ebenezer because, as he said, the Lord had helped them win a battle,” Dad explained. “We read about it in First Samuel.” Dad turned to the passage and read some verses (see 1 Samuel 7:12). “So to raise an Ebenezer means to declare the Lord is our helper,” continued Dad. “Does that make sense to you?”

“Yeah, I get it,” said Elliot. “That helps me understand that hymn.” “Me, too,” agreed Isabel. She was glad she had asked the question.

Thought: Do you understand the words you sing in your church? Perhaps you sing some of the old hymns. They’re great, but some may have words you don’t often hear anymore—and new songs may also have words you don’t understand.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, thank you for so many wonderful hymns and I pray that I’d be able to understand more of the meaning of the words in these hymns! In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.