Worship Arts Notes
On a cold, windy night in Germany in the early 1500s, a young peasant, Martin Luther, came very near being hit by a bolt of lighting during a thunderstorm. Following his close call with death, he changed his course of study from law to theology. His education continued until he had earned a doctorate in philosophy. Through his studies, he discovered that true Christianity did not depend upon what one knows about God, but upon a right personal relationship with God. God’s forgiveness through the sacrificial death of Christ became all important to Luther.
No hymn is identified with the Protestant Reformation more than Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress.” Luther (1483-1546) left a body of congregational songs that both defined the Lutheran confessional tradition and became truly ecumenical in influence. The story of Luther’s reforming movement is widely known. A Roman Catholic monk, his study led him to believe that the Church of Rome was corrupt. On October 31, 1517, he posted his famous 95 theses on the door of the church at Wittenberg, inviting debate. Luther broke with Rome in 1521, refusing to retract his writings before the Diet of Worms. Subsequently, he was recognized as the leader of the German Reformation.
Based on Psalm 46, the hymn A Mighty Fortress Is Our God is a celebration of the sovereign power of God over all earthly and spiritual forces, and of the sure hope we have in him because of Christ. After its publication, it gained immense popularity throughout Reformed Europe. The hymn became closely associated with Luther himself, as it embodied in its words and melody so much of the character of its author — bold, confident, defiant in the face of opposition. This association is symbolized in the monument to Luther at Wittenberg where the first line of the lyrics were engraved on the base.
There are at least 7 documented theories on the time and circumstances in which the hymn was written. Many historians believe that the most likely story is that it was written in October 1527 as the plague was approaching. There is debate about where the tune came from. In times past, it was believed to have been borrowed by Luther, perhaps from an old Gregorian melody. More recently, however, scholars are inclined to believe that Luther wrote it himself. There have been many attempts to translate the hymn into English. The two most enduring are Thomas Carlyle’s “A Safe Stronghold Our God Is Still” and Frederic Henry Hedge’s “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” Hedge’s translation is the one that we are most familiar with in our hymnals today.