“A mighty fortress is our God”: the hymn Martin Luther built on Psalm 46

“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” Martin Luther took those words from Psalm 46 and turned them into a hymn that became the battle song of the Reformation.

“Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott”, in English “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”, was written by Luther in the late 1520s. It is the best-known of the many hymns he wrote.

Luther and the words

Martin Luther, the German monk whose challenge to the Catholic Church in 1517 started the Protestant Reformation, loved music. He believed congregations should sing in their own language instead of simply listening to Latin chants performed by priests and choirs. He wrote hymns in German, often with strong, simple tunes that ordinary people could learn and sing.

The hymn describes God as a fortress and a sure defence against the enemy. The devil is powerful and cruel, but “one little word shall fell him”. The victory belongs to Christ, “the Lord Sabaoth”, who fights for his people. The final verse says that even if goods, family and life itself are taken, “the kingdom ours remaineth”.

The tune in English

Luther is also credited with the melody. The original was rhythmically lively. Over the centuries, many churches sang it in a slower, more even rhythm. Johann Sebastian Bach used the hymn in a cantata, and composers from Mendelssohn to others quoted it in their works. Several English translations exist. The most widely sung in America is by Frederick Henry Hedge, a Unitarian minister, published in 1853: “A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing.” British hymnals often use a translation by Thomas Carlyle.

A hymn for hard times

Christians have sung the hymn in moments of danger and grief. It was sung by Protestants facing persecution, at state funerals and in times of war. The psalm behind the hymn ends with the words “Be still, and know that I am God”. Luther’s hymn is louder than that, but it carries the same trust: the earth may shake and the waters roar, and the fortress stands.

Luther wrote for German peasants and townspeople who had never sung in church in their own language. Today his hymn is sung in hundreds of languages, including Twi, Yoruba and Igbo, by congregations he could never have imagined.