A Mighty Fortress

God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. PSALM 46:1

Luther loved music with a passion that surprised even his friends. He played the lute and sang in a good tenor voice; as a schoolboy in Eisenach he had sung in the streets for bread. He composed melodies, wrote hymns, and gathered singers around his table in the evenings. In a letter of 1530 to the composer Ludwig Senfl he is remembered as saying that, after theology, he gave music the highest place and the greatest honour. For a man who thought theology the queen of the sciences, that was praise indeed.

Why music matters

Luther believed that music is a gift of God, not an invention of human beings. It belongs to creation; the birds sing, and even the air, moved and struck, makes sound. But it becomes most glorious when it carries the Word of God. Music, he thought, has a unique power to move the heart, to comfort the sad, to calm the anxious, and to drive away the devil, who cannot bear the sound of joyful praise. He liked to point to David playing his harp before the troubled king.

And it came to pass, when the evil spirit from God was upon Saul, that David took an harp, and played with his hand: so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and the evil spirit departed from him. 1 SAMUEL 16:23

This was not merely a matter of taste. It came from his theology of the Word. If the Word of God is living and powerful, then anything that carries that Word into the heart and memory is precious. Music does that better than almost anything else. A sermon may be forgotten by Tuesday; a hymn sung on Sunday is still being hummed in the kitchen on Saturday.

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. COLOSSIANS 3:16

The people’s song

In the medieval church, the congregation mostly listened while the choir and clergy sang in Latin. Luther wanted the people to sing, in their own language, the gospel they were learning. From 1523 he began writing hymns in German and encouraging friends to do the same. The first songs appeared in small printed collections in 1524, and soon whole hymnbooks followed. He worked closely with the musician Johann Walter to set the new texts.

His very first song was not a hymn at all but a ballad. In 1523 two young Augustinian friars, followers of Luther’s teaching, were burned for heresy in Brussels. Luther wrote a song about them, telling their story and praising God for their faithfulness. It shows how closely, for him, singing and suffering belonged together.

Many of his hymns are paraphrases of Scripture. Out of the depths I cry to Thee sets the hundred and thirtieth Psalm, and became one of the best-loved funeral hymns in Germany. For Christmas, around 1535, he wrote a long carol, From heaven above to earth I come, for his own family to sing, with an angel announcing the birth and the children answering.

Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O LORD. PSALM 130:1

The angels’ song

Luther’s Christmas sermon on the birth of Jesus spends a long time on the song of the angels, Glory to God in the highest. He sees in it the whole shape of the Christian heart: giving all glory to God, living at peace with others, and taking pleasure in all that God does. And he gives a lovely picture of what true praise looks like:

“Therefore if you would think of a humble, pure, obedient and joyful heart, praising God, think of the angels.”

And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men. LUKE 2:13–14

A mighty fortress

The most famous of all Luther’s hymns was written in the late 1520s, in a time of great danger. The Reformation faced hostility from the Emperor, and plague and the threat of Turkish invasion hung over Europe. Luther turned to the forty-sixth Psalm and wrote Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott — A mighty fortress is our God. It is not a gentle hymn. It is a battle song. It names the old evil foe with his craft and power, admits that our own strength is nothing, and then points to the one who fights for us, Jesus Christ, the Lord of hosts. It ends in defiance: let them take everything, even life itself; the kingdom remains ours.

Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea. PSALM 46:2

Be still, and know that I am God: I will be exalted among the heathen, I will be exalted in the earth. PSALM 46:10

The hymn became the anthem of the Reformation. It has been sung at coronations and funerals, in prisons and on battlefields, and translated into scores of languages. It carries in a few verses almost the whole of Luther’s faith: the reality of the devil, the weakness of man, the victory of Christ, and the unshakeable Word.

Honest notes

Two notes of caution belong here. First, Luther’s love of music in worship was balanced by a principle he stated clearly in his sermon on the appearing of the grace of God: that none of the outward trappings of worship are necessary, not even organs and singing, and that “The Gospel is the true bell, the true organ, for divine service.” He did not make music a law. Other Reformers, such as Zwingli in Zurich, removed organs and choirs altogether; Luther kept them because they served the Word, not because they were required.

Second, A mighty fortress has not always been sung in its own spirit. In later centuries it was sometimes turned into a song of German national pride, even of war, as though the fortress were the nation rather than God. Luther wrote it for a frightened church trusting in Christ, not for an army trusting in itself.

And at midnight Paul and Silas prayed, and sang praises unto God: and the prisoners heard them. ACTS 16:25

FOR REFLECTION AND ACTION

1. Learn by heart one hymn that carries the gospel clearly, and sing it when you are anxious or tempted.

2. Read Psalm 46 each day this week, and then sing or read the words of A mighty fortress.

3. If you have children, sing with them at home — at meals, at bedtime, at festivals — as Luther did with his.

4. In church this Sunday, sing the words as a confession of faith, not merely a tune.

5. When you feel low, try Luther’s remedy: put on or sing music that carries God’s Word, and let it lift your heart.

A PRAYER

Lord of hosts, You are our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.

Thank You for the gift of music, and for every song that carries Your Word into our hearts and homes.

When fear comes, let me sing of Your faithfulness; when the enemy accuses, let me sing of Christ who fights for me.

Give me a humble, pure, obedient and joyful heart, praising You with the angels, now and for ever. Amen.