A Mighty Fortress – Hymn of the Month
Friends, the hymn of the month for May is “A Mighty Fortress is Our God”. It was written by Martin Luther about 1529. (I understand he also wrote the basic tune we still use today.)
God used Luther to lead the Protestant Reformation. He wrote the hymn about a decade after he nailed the 95 Theses – of protest against unbiblical teaching and practices, like selling indulgences to buy your way into heaven – to the door of the church in Wittenburg.
The first two lines are a paraphrase of Psalm 46:1:
God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.
The hymn’s language of fortress and bulwark picks up this idea of protection in danger, which becomes the dominant theme for the rest of the song.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 says,
The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
So Luther transfers the Psalm’s theme into a New Testament setting to describe the true spiritual battle. The powers of evil and the devil fight us, but the name of Christ is power enough to defeat them authoritatively and finally. The gospel word will triumph.
It can be hard to wrap your mind around some strange word order and vocab. So read it slowly. We have also provided footnotes to explain the unusual words (especially for those with English as a second language)!
1. A mighty fortress is our God,
a bulwark* never failing;
Our helper he, amid the flood
of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe*
does seek to work us woe*;
His craft* and power are great,
and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.
* bulwark = defensive fortifications
* ancient foe, i.e. the Devil
* woe = evil
* craft = skill (e.g. in trickery)
2. Did we in our own strength confide*,
our striving* would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side,
the Man of God’s own choosing:
Ask you: who that may be?
Christ Jesus, it is He!
Lord Sa-ba-oth*, His Name,
from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.
* confide = trust
* striving = efforts
* Sabaoth = Hebrew for ‘of armies’
3. And though this world, with devils filled,
should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God has willed
his truth to triumph through us.
The Prince of Darkness grim,
we tremble not for him;
His rage we can endure,
for lo, his doom is sure,
A word shall quickly slay* him.
* slay = kill
4. God’s Word – for all their craft and force -
One moment will not linger*,
But – ’spite* of hell – shall have its course;
’Tis* written by His finger.
And though they take our life,
Goods, honour, children, wife,
Yet is their profit small;
These things shall vanish all:
The City of God remaineth!
* linger = delay
* ’spite = in spite, i.e. in defiance
* ‘Tis = It is (abbreviation)
Please note that there were several translations into English from Luther’s German. With tiny modifications, verses 1-3 are by Frederick Henry Hedge, and verse 4 by Thomas Carlyle (from the alternate version ‘A Safe Stronghold’)