“A Mighty Fortress is Our God”

Christian Worship #200/201 -- “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” is probably one of the greatest hymns written by one of God’s greatest champions in one of the greatest periods of church history. It has been called “The Battle Hymn of the Reformation.” It is not known for certain when Martin Luther wrote this hymn, but he did base it on Psalm 46.

This hymn was of great comfort to Luther and his followers because when he was discouraged he would often invite his friends to sing it for courage and strength (“Kommt, lasst uns den 46. Psalm singen” and he apparently sang it regularly while being sheltered at the Coburg castle in Germany during the Diet of Augsburg. (He remained under the ban of the Empire and was not welcome at the official meeting, four days’ journey away. It was during this time that he was also translating the Old Testament into German.) This hymn was then sung at the Diet of Augsburg. Gustavus Adolphus caused it to be sung by his army before the battle of Leipzig in 1631. It has been translated into a host of other languages, with over one hundred English translations alone.

1. If “A Mighty Fortress is Our God” is a Reformation song to be sung in the End Times season of the church year, then why is it the Hymn of the Day for the first Sunday in Lent?
The Gospel lesson for the first Sunday in Lent is always Jesus battling against the devil in the wilderness. Martin Luther speaks throughout this hymn about doing battle against “the old evil foe.”

2. Compare stanza 1 with Psalm 46:1-3. What is the main theme of stanza one, as well as the first three verses of Psalm 46?

The theological doctrine found in this stanza and in these verses is God’s faithfulness. It is a comfort to know that you can flee to God for refuge. You can trust Him. He is a mighty fortress, a trusty shield and weapon that protects us from the attacks of the devil, the old evil foe.

3. Stanza 2 is reminiscent of Philippians 3:3: “put no confidence in the flesh.” Our flesh is weak, warped and wicked and cannot be trusted. So whom can we trust? Who is this “valiant one?” What does it mean that “God himself elected?”

This valiant one is Jesus Christ, the man of God’s own choosing. Revelation 13:8 declares that Jesus was “the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.” God did not have to search through heaven or come up with a secondary plan when Adam fell in the Garden. Calvary was in the mind of God when He created the heavens and the earth. When God took Adam up in His arms and breathed life into him, God had already determined that Jesus would die to redeem fallen man.

4. In stanza 3, Luther writes “though devils all the world should fill.” When you read the Gospels, you see that the devil and his demons seemed to be working overtime during Jesus’ earthly ministry. Why do you think this was so?
You can be sure that wherever Christ is present in person, Word or Sacrament, the devil and his demons are hard at work. Whether it was the devil in the desert or the demon-possessed man in the synagogue or the papacy and its false doctrines in the Reformation or any of the myriad of false teachings in vogue today, the devil is still on the attack. There’s nothing the devil despises more than the preaching of Christ crucified for sinners. The devil and his demons are not afraid of lies and false doctrine. They love vague spiritualities, nebulous praise and cross-less, bloodless gospels that are really no Gospel at all. You can preach social justice and morality until you’re blue in the face and the devil couldn’t care less. But preach Christ and all hell lets loose.

5. Why does Luther assure us that the devil can harm us none? When was the devil judged? What is that one little word that can fell him?

The devil is the prince of this world, but Jesus Christ trumps him because He is the King of kings and Lord of lords. The devil was judged and defeated when Jesus died on the cross, thereby rescuing all sinners from an eternity of torment with the devil and his demons.

There has been a lot of discussion over the years about what that “one little word” is that can fell the devil. The English language is much wordier than the Greek language. Perhaps some Greek words that might fit are: gegonan – “It is done” (Rev 21:1) or tetelestai – “It is finished” (John 19:30) or phimotheti – “Be quiet; Shut up!” (Mark 1:25)

6. In stanza 4, Luther mentioned the Word shall remain. Jesus is the Word made flesh. What is our confidence concerning this Word? If Jesus is by our side upon the plain, where is the plain?
Jesus is always by our side. He promises, “Surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matthew 28:20). We have this confidence that Jesus can and does defeat the devil because He Himself has promised, “I will not speak with you much longer, for the prince of this world is coming. He has no hold on me” (John 14:30). If Jesus is with us in the dark valley of the shadow of death (Psalm 23), then He is also with us in the plain of this world.

7. Since this hymn is being sung for the first Sunday in Lent, why did the King of kings need to do battle in the desert with this world’s prince?
Jesus’ successful struggle against temptation in the wilderness prefigures His final victory at the cross of our ancient foe. From the days of Adam and Eve, we have continuously fallen into Satan’s traps. Jesus, after uniting Himself with fallen humans through Baptism, won a preliminary victory over the evil foe’s temptations. At the cross, Jesus gained an even more wonderful victory for us. His resurrection proves that Satan cannot prevail.