A growing church held a special song service to raise money for their new singles ministry. The worship leader announced that for a $20 donation you could pick out one hymn, and for a $50 donation you could pick out three hymns. “So who’s going to start us off?” he asked. Then a single lady in the back started waving her hand. “I will! I will!” she said. Excitedly, she ran down the aisle and put her $50 in the collection plate. The worship leader said, “Thank you so much. Go ahead and pick out three hymns.” She turned and looked over the congregation and said “All right. I’ll take him, him and him!”
Well, those aren’t the kind of hymns we’ve been talking about the last few weeks; rather, like the worship leader, we’ve been talking about the kind of hymns that you sing!
If you’re like me, then I’m sure you love making a joyful noise to the Lord. In this day of praise choruses and video projectors, hymns have become an endangered species. I spent the first twenty six years of my life in the non-instrumental Churches of Christ, far away from modern innovations like PowerPoint and praise bands. And so, the sturdy old hymns that have been sung for generations hold a special place in my heart. Don’t get me wrong, I love the new music—the songs and style are easy to connect with—but as we sing a new song unto the Lord, I don’t want us to forget the old ones.
We’ve spent the last few weeks exploring the melodies and message behind hymns like Amazing Grace, When I Survey the Wondrous Cross, and How Great Thou Art. Today I’d like to dig into the song and story behind A Mighty Fortress!
A Mighty Fortress was written by Martian Luther in 1529. We normally think of Martian Luther as a great reformer and Bible translator, but he was also very passionate about music and wrote a number of hymns. In fact, he was so zealous about music, he once said, “Next to the word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world… A person who… does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God…does not deserve to be called a human being!”
Luther was often discouraged by the miserable state of worship music in his time. The singing of the church was always so solemn and depressing. He was often looking for ways to brighten it up. Worshiping God should be a joyful, cheerful experience, he thought. Then one day, he heard this joyful singing lofting from a nearby pub. Everyone was half-drunk or all drunk and singing these happy little bar songs. Luther thought, “That’s what worship should be like!” So he would spend his evenings sitting outside the tavern, learning the tunes to these popular, secular songs, and then he would write new lyrics to them to be sung in church. A Mighty Fortress was one of those songs.
So the next time you think modern worship music sounds “too much like the world,” just remember A Mighty Fortress! While the tune to this song may have come from the local pub, the lyrics come right from God’s Word—Psalm 46 to be precise. So we’ll be frequenting that particular psalm as we explore this hymn. The closing verse of the psalm announces: “The Lord of Heaven’s Armies is here among us; the God of Israel is our fortress” (Psalm 46:11 NLT). Both the hymn and the psalm describe God a fortress attributing him with several fortress-like qualities.
And first of all, it tells us that God our source of power!
- OUR SOURCE OF POWER
When Martian Luther broke away from the Catholic Church, starting the Reformation movement, he nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg with hammer strokes that echoed throughout all of Europe. Luther was surrounded by opposition and naysayers, and there were times that he thought he couldn’t go on; that he couldn’t fight any longer.
Let’s face it; we’ve probably all been there. Whether it’s simply battling a toddler that doesn’t want to potty-train or struggling with the symptoms of old age or fighting a seemingly never ending battle with cancer—there are days when we just don’t have the strength to keep fighting. Days when you just want to give up and throw in the towel. And on a day like that, Martian Luther read Psalm 46, which says: “God is our refuge and strength, always ready to help in times of trouble” (Psalm 46:1 NLT).
While mediating and reflecting on that passage, Martian wrote the words to A Mighty Fortress, including these lines: “Our helper he amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing… Did we in our own strength confide our striving would be losing.”
Thankfully, Luther didn’t depend on his own strength; he depended on God’s. You and I may have days were we just feel powerless, but our power doesn’t come from within; it comes from God—the same God breathed the stars into existence.
The Bible also says, “Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:31 NIV). Eagles are majestic birds with remarkable vision, vise-like talons, and powerful wings that are built for flying. Their wingspan extends to nearly eight feet and they can fly at incredible speeds, up to a hundred miles an hour. But they don’t flap their wings like a sparrow or a robin. Rather, they’re built for soaring.
You see, God created our planet with invisible columns of hot air called thermals rising up here and there from the surface of the earth. Eagles find these thermal pockets, fly into the invisible currents, stretch out their wings, and are lifted higher and higher into the sky. They may rise as much as fourteen thousand feet, and when they reach those heights, they emerge from the updraft, wings still spread, soaring this way and that, downwards and sideways, traveling for miles with little to no effort at all.
Isaiah seems to be reminding us that like those thermal updrafts, God may be invisible, but when we trust in him, spreading out wings of faith, he lifts us and carries us. We mount up with wings like eagles. We can run and not grow weary. We can walk and not faint. The power we need for a victorious life doesn’t come from frantically flapping our wings, but from relying on the power of God to lift us up.
Because he relied on God’s power and might, rather than his own, Martian Luther lead a reformation that changed the course of church history and countless lives. Luther is proof that there is no limit to the things we can accomplish when we fully rely on God.
Not only is God our source of power, but he’s also our source of protection.
- OUR SOURCE OF PROTECTION
In the first line of this hymn, Martian Luther wrote, “A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing.” We don’t use the word bulwark very often anymore, but the idea is that God erects an impregnable barricade around us to keep us safe.
Reformers, like Martian Luther, experienced God’s protection in often vivid ways. When Emperor Charles V was trying to assassinate John Brenz, a friend of Martian Luther, Brenz barely had time to grab a loaf of bread and duck into his neighbor’s hayloft. There he hid for fourteen days. The bread was gone quickly, but God protected him by sending a hen who showed up and laid an egg each day for the fourteen days. On the fifteenth day, the chicken didn’t come, and the reformer wondered what he would do. But then from the street below he heard someone cry out, “The cavalrymen are gone at last.” And he knew it was safe to come out of hiding.
Paul Harvey once told a similar story of God’s protection. It’s the story of West Side Baptist Church in Beatrice, Nebraska. Normally all of the good choir people came to church on Wednesday night to practice, and they tended to be early, well before the 7:30 starting time. But one night, March 1, 1950, one by one they all had excuses for being late. Marilyn, the church pianist, overslept on her after-dinner nap, so she and her mother were late. One girl, a high school sophomore, was having trouble with her homework. One couple couldn’t get their car started. All eighteen choir members, including the pastor and his wife, were late. At 7:30, the time the choir rehearsal normally began, not one soul was in the choir loft. But that night, was the night that there was a gas leak in the basement of the West Side Baptist Church. At precisely 7:30, the gas leak was ignited by the church furnace and the whole church blew up.
One by one, God protected the believers of West Side Baptist and there’s no telling how often He’s done the same for us. God has probably protected you more times than you will ever know. And because God is our fortress—our source of protection—Psalm 46 says, “So we will not fear when earthquakes come and the mountains crumble into the sea. Let the oceans roar and foam. Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!” (Psalm 46:2-3 NLT).
In other words, whatever challenges we meet, whatever obstacles we face, we don’t have to be afraid because God is watching out for us. Cancer, Alzheimer’s, car crashes, a failing economy, teenage pregnancy, crime, natural disasters—come what may, God is our mighty fortress, a bulwark never failing.
Please understand though, that God does not promise to protect us from all suffering. Death, divorce, disability, drunk drivers, debt—faithful Christians are affected by these things every day. Rather, God promises to protect us through of all these things. David put it this way: “For you bless the godly, O Lord; you surround them with your shield of love” (Psalm 5:12 NLT). Surrounded by God’s love, we have nothing to fear.
So, according to Luther’s hymn and the Psalm upon which it was based, God is our source of power and protection.
- OUR SOURCE OF PEACE
Finally, God is also our source of peace. The second to last verse in Psalm 46, offers these words of peace: “Be still, and know that I am God!” (Psalm 46:10 NLT). That’s not always easy.
A little boy went to the grocery store and asked the clerk for a box of detergent. The clerk asked the boy why he needed detergent and the boy replied, “I want to wash my dog.” The clerk said, “This detergent is pretty strong for washing a little dog.” The boy replied, “That’s what I want. He’s mighty dirty.” He took the box of detergent home, and about a week later stopped in the store again. The clerk recognized him and asked about his dog. “Oh, he’s dead,” said the boy. “Oh, I’m sorry,” replied the clerk, “I guess the detergent was too strong.” Then the boy said, “I don’t think the detergent hurt him, I think it was the rise cycle that got him.”
A lot of people can probably identify with that poor dog. Maybe you feel like you’ve been put through the wringer lately.
Life can get pretty hectic at times. If your family is anything like ours, then you’ve got a lot going on. You’ve got a laundry to fold, dishes to wash, children to care for, a spouse to love, a dog to feed, church commitments to keep, soccer games to attend, toddlers to chase, lunch appointments, doctor’s appointments, hair appointments and that doesn’t even begin to account for the projects, paper work, and priorities at the office or in the shop or on the farm. But in the midst of all the chaos and craziness of life, God invites us into his fortress and tells us to slow down, sit down, calm down and just be still. Find a quiet place, open your Bible, bow your head, let God be God—and in the stillness you can experience peace that surpasses all understanding.
Conclusion:
As a man whose life was threatened on multiple occasions, its understandable why Martian Luther would write a hymn that declares “a mighty fortress is our God.” God was Luther’s source of power, protection and peace even in the most turbulent times.
He can be the same mighty fortress for each one of us. Next week, we’ll turn to another page in our hymnal and explore the melody and message behind it.
Invitation:
In the meantime, maybe you could use some extra power to get through this week, or maybe you need God’s protection and peace in your life right now. If that’s the case I want to invite you to come to him in faith let God become a mighty fortress for you today.