November 4, 2001 Psalm 46
For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to alamoth. A song. God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah 4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. 5 God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. 6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. 7 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah 8 Come and see the works of the LORD, the desolations he has brought on the earth. 9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire. 10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." 11 The LORD Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress. Selah (NIV)
Every year we sing “A Mighty Fortress is our God” at Reformation time. This is one of my favorite songs to sing. I would venture to bet that if you’ve been a Lutheran your whole life, you love it too. Why is that? If you think about it, it certainly wouldn’t be a hit by today’s standards. It’s rhythms are all messed up. And the whole idea of a “fortress” is foreign to our thinking. We might say, “a mighty semi automatic machine gun is our God,” but the “fortress” idea - there aren’t any castles or real fortresses around here. Yet for some reason, we love this song. Why? A part of it is because we’ve sang it ever since we were knee high to a grasshopper. But there’s more to it, isn’t there. There’s history behind this song. On this Reformation Sunday, we’re going to look at the history as to why this song was written. And we’re going to see why this song is so important to us. Today we’ll find out what is so special about the song,
A Mighty Fortress Is Our God
I. We need a Mighty Fortress because we are being attacked
This song is special first and foremost because it’s based on God’s Word. Luther used Psalm 46 to write it. The references to God as a “fortress” are made throughout the psalm. “The God of Jacob is our fortress” is repeated in vs. 7 and vs. 13. Think about how important the idea of a “fortress” was back in the Old Testament. The Old Testament was full of bloody wars - as the Psalm says, “nations are in uproar.” In order to protect themselves from these wars, they would build walls along the outside of the city. Without these walls, cities were helpless against the invasion of the enemy. If you have seen pictures of Jerusalem, you will notice immediately that it had a wall around it. Most prominent cities were literal “fortresses” with walls around it. Israel used to be a prime location for traffic from the south to the north. Most of the trading had to go through it, and it was a good country. Therefore, Israel was constantly being attacked. They knew they needed a “fortress” to keep them safe.
Luther found comfort in this Psalm, because he knew what it was like to be under attack. If you remember the history of Luther, he was brought up to believe that the “righteousness of God” meant that he had to obey all of God’s laws to be acceptable in His sight. Day in and day out he felt the attacks of a guilty conscience because he couldn’t purge himself of the sinful thoughts and guilt that God’s law gave him. He only thought of God as a God of wrath, who only judged and condemned people. But then God brought Luther to the light, as he showed him Habakkuk 2:4 - the just shall live by his faith. Suddenly Luther came to the realization that his salvation was not based on how good of a person God made him, but only on what Jesus did for him - on God’s declaration of forgiveness in Christ! At that moment, the devil, the pope, and every enemy of God lost their grip on Luther’s soul, and immediately became his enemy.
So from that point on, Luther was under attack from a different source. When Luther nailed his 95 theses to the Castle Church, the pope sent Cardinal Cajetan and Dr. Eck to get Luther to recant. Even the emperor declared Luther an outlaw, meaning that anyone could kill him after twenty days. Since Luther had experienced the attack of the enemy, he felt a need to have God as a fortress for protection. That’s why this Psalm was special to him.
We also are under attack. Physically, we now have the scare of terrorism to deal with. The news media has us very aware of the dangers of anthrax that could come at us through the media. We now live - even here in Topeka - never knowing when or where the next act of terrorism will occur. But the even more dangerous attacks we are under are the spiritual acts of terrorism - where our children are being assaulted with doctrines of safe sex and greed. Where we are being told every night on the television that the only way we can be happy is if we have more money, more sex, or more popularity. And if this weren’t bad enough, we are even attacked from within - when our sinful nature tries to get us to buy into their lies and deceit. Our spiritual lives are in danger.
And so is our church. We are under attack for our beliefs as conservative Lutherans. You see, no other churches like it when we demand that there be agreement in doctrine before we worship together and do ministry together. Many other Lutherans get frustrated with us for not being more “ecumenical.” They hold at their hands of friendship and expect us to ignore the fact that they are not practicing and preaching what the Bible says. And it’s very tempting for us just to want to give in. But if we give in and let go of God’s Word, where will that leave us? What did Paul say? “A little yeast works through the whole batch of dough.” If the devil can get us to let our guard down on one seemingly small doctrine, he has an opening to attack. Therefore, like it or not, the battles must be fought. This is not an easy battle to fight. And that’s why this song and this psalm mean so much to us as well. We need a refuge and a fortress, because we are under attack from every angle to let down our arms.
II. We need the Mighty Fortress for protection
Why is God known as a fortress? The Psalmist explains. Because He is the Lord ALMIGHTY - the Lord of the angel armies! He is an ever-present help in trouble. God will help her at break of day. 9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth; he breaks the bow and shatters the spear, he burns the shields with fire.
Think of the Israelites. They couldn’t put walls around their whole border, such as the great wall of China. Most of their enemies probably thought they were easy targets, which they should have been. The amazing thing was, that even without a physical wall, their land still had an invisible wall around it that was higher than a thousand feet high and thicker than fifty feet. There are in numerous examples of how God proved to be a Mighty Fortress to the Israelites. One neat example is found in 2 Chronicles chapter 20. A huge army had come from Moab, Ammon and Mt. Seir to fight against the Israelites. The people of Judah were no match for such an army. So Jehoahash, the King of the Southern Kingdom, went to pray before the Lord with the people. The Israelites were very worried, thinking they were going to die. But the Lord basically said to them, “what are you so worried about? You won’t even have to fight the battle. Tomorrow, send out some men - climb up the pass at Ziz, and you’ll see them at the end of the gorge in the desert of Jeruel.” So the next day the men went, and watched. Before they knew it, these three armies turned against each other, and the men of Moab and Ammon attacked the men of Mt. Seir. Then the men of Moab and Ammon killed each other. So without even lifting a finger, the Israelites were able to take all of the plunder from this invading army. It took them three days to gather all of the goods! God’s invisible walls stopped the enemies from laying a hair on His people.
Why did God protect the Israelites this way? It certainly wasn’t because they deserved it! No, through all of this protection God was clearing the path for the real reformation that God was planning for. God was keeping the Israelites alive, so that He could reform the human race from filthy sinners into holy saints. And the only way He could reform us, was if He changed the way we looked in His eyes. That’s where His Son came in. When God decided to punish us for all of our sins, Jesus acted like a force field - like a Mighty Fortress, and deflected the wrath that God had pointed at us. You might compare it to when the terrorists had taken one plane and headed for the White House, several citizens were able to thwart the attack on that flight. They sacrificed themselves for the lives of others. Jesus redirected God’s wrath at us to Himself. He became our Fortress from God’s wrath. As a result of this sacrifice, God reformed the world. In one fell swoop God reformed the world from a world of pitiful sinners who deserved God’s punishment, to a world of sinners who had been punished and wiped clean by the blood of Christ. As long as we believe that Jesus took that wrath of God, the Holy Spirit promises us: Romans 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. That means that if we believe in Christ, there is no hatred of God left for us. There is no hell for us. There is only salvation. When God brings us to faith in His salvation - He reforms us from Satan’s children to children of God.
The truth of this reformation was nearly lost at Luther’s time. Everyone was taught that Jesus’ sacrifice was not enough - that they weren’t really holy through the blood of Christ - that they had to do more to truly be reformed. But when Luther taught differently, they warned and threatened him to recant. Instead of giving in, God gave Luther the strength to say, “Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise. God help me. Amen.” So we have come here today to also celebrate how God proved Himself to be a “mighty Fortress” to Martin Luther. Out of sheer mercy, the Mighty Fortress took Luther from the depths of hell. Through the Word of God, the Holy Spirit gave Luther the conviction that we are saved by grace alone, by faith alone, and by scripture alone. The Mighty Fortress used Elector Frederick to protect His child. Frederick kidnaped Luther and took him up to his fortress - the Wartburg Castle to live for a year. That’s why Luther could write this hymn based on Psalm 46, “A Mighty Fortress is our God.” He had experienced first hand the invisible Mighty Fortress work protection in his life.
This is where we can truly thank God for our Mighty Fortress today. How easily we could have been doomed to hell! There are millions of people in this world who have been sabotaged by being led to believe that they can help save themselves. Millions more of the people in the world have been led astray by the lust and hatred of the world. But God has kept us from falling. God has shown you the truth of salvation through Christ. We know that it was not our decision that made us Christians - it is by grace - a gift of God - alone. We believe that it is not our works that make us righteous before God, it is by faith alone. We know that our feelings are not what make us sure of salvation. Faith is worked by the Scriptures alone. Even though the devil had us captive to his will, God’s Holy Spirit broke down the barriers, smashed the gates of self righteousness - and brought us to faith in Jesus. The false prophets have knocked on our door, but God has not allow them in. He has kept us faithful to His Word - in spite of the ridicule that we have received. This is why we love this Psalm and this song so much. Just as God brought Luther to faith, so he has brought us to faith and kept us in the faith. Thank God!
III. With God as our Mighty Fortress, we will not fear
What will be our response to having this Mighty Fortress to run to? What was the response of the psalmist? Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. He took the advice of God who said, 10 "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth." The psalmist said he would not be afraid. Why? Because God was on his side, and all nations would bow to Him.
This was Luther’s attitude as well. He had seen the pope huff and puff against him, yet he still went on unharmed. He had heard the emperor’s decree, yet God kept him safe. After seeing all of God’s love and protection, he was able to write with confidence,
Though devils all the world should fill, All eager to devour us,
We tremble not, we fear no ill; They shall not overpow’r us.
This world’s prince may still, Scowl fierce as he will,
He can harm us none. He’s judged; the deed is done!
One little word can fell him.
As long as Luther had the true Word of God, he wasn’t worried about the threats of these puny humans and devils. He had God on his side.
This is what our attitude will be as well. Most would tend to get worried over these circumstances that we have facing us - with the threats of terrorism, false doctrine, and immorality in the world. But how does God respond to these troubles? In Psalm 2 it says, The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them. The Lord Almighty is not afraid. Why not? He says, I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill." He - Jesus Christ our King - is in control - so He doesn’t fear for the future.
Won’t we follow the same attitude? Jesus has fulfilled our salvation - so we have no need to fear. Our salvation is won and He is still in control. God is the victor. He’s by our side upon the plain, and there’s no reason to think He won’t be in the future - as long as we hold onto the Word. If the devil plucks out our eyes, we’ll still be able to hear the Word. If he chops our ears off, we’ll still have braille to read the Bible. Even if the devil rips out our hearts, even death can’t rip the gospel from us. Therefore our attitude will be the same as Luther and of God Himself. We live with confidence to face the future, as long as a Mighty Fortress is Our God.
Did you know that many other churches have this song - A Mighty Fortress is Our God - in their hymn books? But you know what? I can bet you they don’t sing it with the same fervor. Why not? It doesn’t have the same meaning to them. Don’t forget the history behind this song. Don’t forget what it meant to the Israelites. Don’t forget what it meant to Luther. And don’t forget what it means to you! You have a Mighty Fortress from God’s wrath. You have a Mighty Fortress from the devil’s attacks. You have a Fortress of protection to face the future with confidence. Who is that Fortress? A Mighty Fortress is Our God. Amen.
