“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in
trouble.” Martin Luther found a lot to like in the 46th Psalm.
As a result he paraphrased its promises and set them to music in
the great hymn we know as ‘A Mighty Fortress is our God’. It is
not hard to see why Luther held this Psalm in such high regard.
The focus is clearly on the mighty, saving acts of God. And this
focus became central in that renewal of the Church we call the
Reformation. It is still the focus of all who treasure the
Gospel above all things. The great insight of the Lutheran
Reformation was nothing novel. Martin simply brought the Gospel
message to the forefront and it did the rest. And as the freedom
of the Gospel went to work it created what it continues to
create wherever it is heard; alarm, anger, shock, challenge,
joy, freedom, assurance and, in Luther’s famous words,
“forgiveness of sins, life and salvation”. The precise occasion
of the writing of ‘A Mighty Fortress’ is not known. What is
known is that it came out of Martin’s