Beside Still Waters Ministries

This hymn is one of the most significant in church history, and it most symbolizes the Protestant Reformation.  It was written by Martin Luther on his way to the Diet of Worms, which was in 1529.  He was invited to this meeting by the Holy Roman Emperor and the pope under the guise that they were interested in hearing his views that conflicted with the objectives of the religious establishment of his day.  Actually the counsel was set up as a trap.  First it was their intention to humiliate Luther, and then murder him on his way home.

Luther knew his life and reputation were at risk, but he went nonetheless.  By now, he understood the power of evil: after he posted his ninety-five theses on the door of Wittenberg’s Castle in 1517, he faced years of trials and persecution, he was excommunicated from the Roman church, and he continually faced threats against his life and his freedom.  On the way, he was comforted by the words of Psalm 46: “God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble.  Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.”  (Psalm 46:1-3)  It was then that Luther penned this famous hymn.

As it turned out, Luther was craftier than his adversaries and defended his cause in the meeting with authority and eloquence.  On the way home, as he was traveling in his carriage in the forest, friendly Prince Philip “kidnapped”  Luther and kept him in his castle, protecting him from eminent harm.  Indeed, God was true to His word!!!!

This hymn also has given comfort and strength to those persecuted and martyred for their convictions long past the Reformation.  One such example closer to the United Methodist tradition was in the 1720′s.  A remarkable revival began in a town in Moravia, which is the eastern part of the Czech Republic today, the Jesuits opposed it, and the meetings were prohibited.  Those who still assembled were seized and imprisoned in stables and cellars. At David Nitschmann’s house, where a hundred and fifty persons gathered, the police broke in and seized the books. Not dismayed, the congregation struck up the stanzas of Luther’s hymn,

“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.”

Twenty heads of families were for this sent to jail, including Nitschmann, who was treated with special severity. He finally escaped, fled to the Moravians at Herrnhut, became a bishop, and afterwards joined the Wesleys in 1735 in their expedition to Savannah, Georgia.  What is even more interesting about this story is that the Moravian Church was actually a “protestant” movement rebelling against the authority of Rome more than a hundred years before Martin Luther, and there are Moravian churches still in existence today in the US and Canada.

Since he wrote it in 1529, Luther’s hymn has been translated into nearly every language. There are said to be over eighty English translations alone to this hymn, but the version most used in the United States (including the one in The United Methodist Hymnal) is the translation by Frederic Henry Hedge in 1852.

The first line of “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” is inscribed on the tomb of Martin Luther at Wittenberg, and its powerful words and tune continue to live.  The hymn was sung at the funeral of President Dwight D. Eisenhower at the National Cathedral in Washington DC, March 1969, and it was also included in the National Service of Prayer and Remembrance, held shortly after the September 11, 2001 attacks against America.

If you would like to know more about Martin Luther and the story behind the start of the Reformation, a fantastic movie titled Luther was filmed in 2003, starring Joseph Fiennes, and is currently available on DVD and video at your favorite video store.  I have this movie, and though I am not enough of a Luther scholar to know exactly how accurate it is to historical fact, it certainly depicts Luther’s love of God, his love for people, and his struggle with his own humanity, which led him to know that it is by faith in Jesus Christ, not works, that we are forgiven and made clean.