Dear Friends,
No doubt many know Martin Luther for many things, but one thing that is often forgotten concerning the old German reformer is his role of a hymn-writer, and yet, Luther was both able and prolific in this area, and some thirty-seven hymns have been attributed to his pen. What is probably his greatest hymn of all – “A Mighty Fortress is our God,” or as it is also known, “A Safe Stronghold our God is Still.”
In this hymn, we see Martin Luther clad in the armour of God’s everlasting gospel, and striving valiantly against that old enemy of men’s souls, the devil.
“A safe stronghold our God is still, A trusty shield and weapon; He’ll keep us clear from all the ill, That hath us now o’ertaken. The ancient prince of hell Hath risen with purpose fell; (cruel.) Strong mail of craft and power He weareth in this hour; On earth is not his fellow.”
Martin Luther very much recognised the power and greatness of the evil one in the conflict over men’s souls. To him, the devil was “the ancient prince of hell,” and among all the created beings of God there was none that was “his fellow.” He was in no doubt as to the weapons that this “prince of darkness,” and “angel of light” could employ, and was employing in that particular “hour” in which he lived. It was “Strong mail of craft and power.” But for all that, the old reformer knew that “in all these things we are more than conquerors because God had granted us an impregnable fortress in which to garrison our souls:- “A Safe Stronghold” – “A Mighty Fortress” in that hour.
Martin Luther’s “Stronghold” is still the only hope of the child of God saved by grace, and it is no wonder that his hymn became known as “The Battle-song of the Reformation.” “The Reformer’s Marseillaise,” as it had been called by one, and “God Almighty’s Grenadier March,” by another. In the hymn there is summed up much of what that great religious revolution was all about, and what it stood for. There was a God in heaven above and in earth beneath; a sovereign God, who justified the ungodly, and then held them in the hollow of His hand to the fulfilment of His perfect will and purpose. Once let a person be assured of that, and not only will men fail to “affright” such people, but the very prince of hell himself will make heavy weather in trying to turn them away from the life that they see their God has called them to.
“Come,” Luther would often say to his friends, “let us defy the devil and sing a hymn.” And whether or not we would agree with Rome’s assessment that “Luther has done us more harm with his hymns than with his sermons,” still withal, we can appreciate what drove them to such a remark. They had simply mixed up the process of “cause and effect,” and had failed to see that the devil-defying praise was the product of what God had first wrought in the heart of those who had been justified freely through His grace.
In the opening verse of his hymn, then, Martin Luther is proclaiming his trust in his God. In the second verse, he couples this trust in God with distrust in self, and in the third verse, he sings of the absolute all-sufficiency of the One in whom we trust, to the distrust of ourselves.
“With force of arms we nothing can, Full soon were we down-ridden; But for us fights the Proper Man, Whom God Himself hath bidden. Ask ye: Who is this same? Christ Jesus is His Name, The Lord Sabaoth’s Son; He, and no other one, Shall conquer in the battle.” And then – “And were this world all devils o’er, And watching to devour us, We lay it not to heart so sore, Nor can they overpower us. And let the prince of ill Look grim as e’er he will, He harms us not a whit: For why? his doom is writ; A word shall quickly slay him.”
It has been said that the first line of this verse is a paraphrase of the reformer’s triumphant utterance as he and his fellow-reformers enter the town of Worms, out of which it was feared they would never return alive. But, said Luther, “Though there were as many devils at Worms as tiles on the roof, nevertheless I will go.” So, his opening lines – “And were this world all devils o’er and watching to devour us.” One old account of the event says that as they entered the town, “the old Cathedral trembled at these notes, and the ravens were startled in their nests in the towers.” It was, undoubtedly, a courageous entry, and in the last two lines of that third verse Luther points us to the source of their strength for such an act. For one thing, let the devil look as “grim as e’er he will,” for all that – “His doom is writ;” and secondly, “A word shall quickly slay him.”
Luther had a great dependency on the power of God’s Word, and it is that dependency and power that he writes about in the closing verse.
“God’s Word – for all their craft and force – One moment will not linger: But, in spite of hell, shall have its course, ‘Tis written by His finger. And though they take our life, Goods, honour, children, wife, Yet is their profit small: These things shall vanish all; The city of God remaineth.”
“God’s everlasting Word will stand for ever,” Luther is saying; “The Word of God is not bound.” “Let me live by that, and labour for that; and although men may rob me of my goods, and my honour, my children and my wife, still withal, my eternal lot remains secure in my “Safe Stronghold – The city of God remaineth.”
Our day is vastly different in many ways from the world that Martin Luther knew 500 years ago. Many of the issues have changed; parts of the Reformation then begun have come down to the people of God in our day to be completed and continued. But whatever, we might pray that God would grant us all something of the same zeal and determination for the work of the Lord in our day. An experimental and heart-felt knowledge of the biblical truths expressed in the old reformer’s hymn would go a long way in providing us with that zeal and determination. May God grant it to us all.