A Mighty Fortress Is Our God

We know Martin Luther as the revolutionary who brazenly posted his 95 theses on the door at the church at Wittenberg. An act that many would say triggered the start of the Protestant Reformation. Luther certainly was famous for questioning the practices of the Roman Catholic church. He is also responsible for introducing congregational singing to the church.

Well, maybe not exactly introducing. Restoring would be a more accurate way to say it. Congregational singing had been a part of worship that had been lost over time. We see in Colossians 3:16 that first century Christians were to sing “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs”. And even the Psalms themselves were likely part of regular worship from the time they were written. However, over time, especially during the Dark Ages, corporate singing had all but disappeared. The Roman church began to use professional singers to chant and sing the music in Latin and it became an observance rather than congregational participation. Indeed, by Luther’s time, there was no ‘church music’ in the common tongue. His desire was to restore the music back to the congregational style that was lost from the first Christian gatherings.

Martin Luther wrote dozens of hymns specifically for the theological education of all the people, to be sung in unison by everyone. The critical thing here is that Luther understood clearly what Colossians 3:16 says: singing doctrinally truthful songs and hymns is a means of letting “the Word of Christ richly dwell within you”! Regarding music and its relationship to the Bible in this verse, Luther wrote “the Word of God and Christian doctrine can in every way be furthered and practiced”. As part of his push to get theology to flow from the lips of God’s people Luther wrote the great hymn of the faith, ‘A Mighty Fortress is Our God’, based on Psalm 46. This ‘Battle Hymn of the Reformation’, originally written in German, was later translated into English by Miles Coverdale, with other English translations by Frederick Hedge and Thomas Carlyle.

Luther was enraptured by music because he knew its power to stir emotions and provoke true worship. He wrote ever so elegantly, “The riches of music are so excellent and so precious that words fail me whenever I attempt to discuss and describe them. Next to the word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world. It controls our hearts, minds and spirits… Our dear fathers and prophets did not desire without reason that music be always used in the churches. Hence, we have so many songs and psalms. This precious gift has been given to man alone that he might thereby remind himself that God has created man for the express purpose of praising and extolling God. A person who does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs!”

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 
doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and pow’r are great, 
and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

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:
Dost ask who that may be? 
Christ Jesus, it is He;
Lord Sabaoth, His Name, 
from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, 
should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath 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,
One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly pow’rs, 
no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours 
through Him Who with us sideth;
Let goods and kindred go, 
this mortal life also;
The body they may kill: 
God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.