A Mighty Fortress is our God

“A mighty fortress is our God” sometimes is called “the battle hymn of the Reformation.” Martin Luther (1483-1546), German theologian and priest who broke with the Roman Catholic Church 1517-1519, wrote these words circa 1529 (Julian, p. 323). The words are associated with the 46th Psalm. Luther’s hymn speaks of God as our bulwark, our fortress, our place of protection, and our source of assurance. We do battle with moral and spiritual forces of evil. Three enemies are mentioned, the flesh (our own strength), the devil (our ancient foe, Prince of Darkness), and the world (earthly powers) God is our fortress. In him we find safety and protection. God’s truth abides. His word that endures forever.

Frederick Henry Hedge translated this hymn from the German into English circa 1852 (Julian, p. 324), and his translation is the one most commonly appearing in English hymn books. Hedge was born at Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1805. He served as a Unitarian pastor, as well a professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge, and a professor of German Literature at Harvard. He died in 1890 and is buried at the Mount Auburn Cemetery in Cambridge, Middlesex County, Massachusetts.

1. A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing;
Our helper he, amid the flood of mortal ills prevailing.
For still our ancient foe doth seek to work us woe;
His craft and pow’r are great, and, armed with cruel hate
On earth is not his equal.

2. Did we in our own strength confide, our striving would be losing;
Were not the right Man on our side, the Man of God’s own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is he:
Lord Sabaoth, his name, from age to age the same,
And he must win the battle.

3. 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.
The Prince of Darkness grim, we tremble not for him:
His rage we can endure, for lo, his doom is sure,
One little word shall fell him.

4. That word above all earthly pow’rs, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also:
The body they may kill; God’s truth abideth still,
His kingdom is forever.

Martin Luther became an Augustinian monk, a professor at the University of Wittenberg, and a leader for reformation in the Catholic Church – which resulted in a break from Rome, and what we now call the Protestant Reformation. Luther translated the Bible into German.

The old hymn is paired almost always with the tune Ein Feste Burg, a name derived from the German first line of the hymn – Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott.