Making 'Psense' of Psalms--Psalm 46: Fortress

Left:  "A Mighty Fortress."  On right, "Be Still my Soul,"
also inspired by Psalm 46.

Part of a continuing series on selected psalms.

Growing up in a liturgical church, I looked forward to the times when the majestic cadences of Martin Luther’s “A Mighty Fortress” would pour from the church organ, especially on “Reformation Sunday,” the end of October. Later, as a young adult who played occasionally for services, I learned to pull out all the powerful horn stops to accord the grandeur this song conveyed.  No wimpy “strings” or “flutes” would do for “A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing.” Yet for all the years I sang and played that hymn, I never connected the dots for its historical settings in Israel and Germany, its origins in Psalm 46, or for the personal message it offers me. I know more now, yet I have much more to discover of the depths of this magnificent psalm.

MARTIN LUTHER’S HYMN

The connection to Martin Luther happened about 500 years ago when he led the Protestant reformation, fighting the mother church over unscriptural doctrines and practices. The turning point came in October 1517, when he nailed his “95 Theses” or list of church wrongdoings to the church door in Wittenburg, Germany. Especially he was grieved by the church’s fall from the doctrine of salvation by faith.

As a religious troublemaker, Luther soon had a bounty on his head, and for a time had to go into hiding. He knew that no human fortress could fully protect him, but God could. He turned his energies to translating the Bible into common German, writing commentaries, and composing numerous hymns. He felt the church needed culturally relevant songs that taught scriptural truth. “A Mighty Fortress” was one of them. The four theories over what inspired the hymn all connect with various crises in Luther’s stance against error in the traditional church. Accomplished on flute and lute, Luther composed both lyrics and melody sometime between 1527 and 1529. Translations soon spread, including 30 into English, with Frederick Hedges' 1853 effort the most popular today.

HEZEKIAH’S “HYMN”?

The real historical background of Psalm 46 goes to the time of King Hezekiah, who came to the throne about 240 years after the death of David, and 200 years after the nation split into north and south monarchies. Hezekiah belonged to the “south” part (Judah) and was watching the northern kingdom disintegrate and fall to Assyria. Because Hezekiah was a poet as well as king, it’s quite possible he wrote this psalm to celebrate how God miraculously spared his nation from falling to Assyria. The history is told in 2 Kings 18-19, 1 Chronicles 32, and Isaiah 36-37. Basically, the Assyrians were ready to overtake Jerusalem, which unlike other great ancient cities wasn’t situated near a major river.  The Jordan is miles downhill. But Hezekiah had the foresight to cover over a spring outside the city walls, and reroute it into the city about a third of a mile through a conduit chipped out of solid rock. This gave the city critical water supplies while under siege.

The Assyrians came, taunted, threatened, and humiliated. At one point Hezekiah took the enemy’s letter to the temple, literally spreading it out before the unseen God as he pleaded for wisdom.  God answered, basically, “Trust me.” Before the enemy could attack, a death angel visited, killing the entire enemy camp.

THE HYMN: THE CRITICAL “THEREFORE”

Psalm 46 breaks into three distinct sections, with the first affirming one’s faith and setting up a worse case scenario. “God is our refuge and strength,” it begins, “an ever present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear.”  Then come descriptions of cataclysmic destruction.  The earth heaves, the mountains collapse, the seas churn. Everything seems to be falling apart. Such geographic things didn’t happen to Jerusalem in Hezekiah’s time, but the specter of death and deportation hung darkly over the city as the enemy waited. Today we know that the worst is still to come at the end of times, when the earth will convulse with prophesied destruction. Even worse things will happen than the catastrophe of “9-11”—for which Luther’s hymn was chosen to comfort a stunned, grieving nation attending or watching the national prayer service on Sept. 24, 2011. No matter what, God is our refuge and strength. He will be there for us.  And thus the section ends: Selah—a musical pause to stop, think about it.

At times, when I’ve given in to fretting and worry over negative circumstances that seem rolling out of control, I am dragged back to that truth:  God is…therefore, do not fear!  He is my inner strength.  As Charles Spurgeon once remarked, correcting a common misquote, “God helps those who cannot help themselves.”             

THE HYMN: THE CRUCIAL “WITHIN”

The “selah” gives us time to think about worst-case scenarios, then the second section flows into the psalm like a peaceful river. Verses 4 and 5 seem to allude to Hezekiah’s tunnel project to bring water into the city. There’s unmistakable spiritual analogy here, one that would culminate in Jesus’ declaration that He is the water of life (John 7:37-39). He refreshes us and sustains us spiritually like nothing else.  God was “within” Jerusalem (v. 5) just as much as He can dwell within us by faith. I cannot help but think of another river of the future: “Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, down the middle of the great street of the city” (Revelation 22:1-2). Just what this really means is beyond my limited understanding. But it tells me that God will bring to completion this whole idea of a life-giving source coming from Him alone.

The comment in verse 6, “God will help her at break of day,” was literally true for Hezekiah when widespread death came to the enemy by daybreak.  I’m reminded of Psalm 30:5: “Weeping may remain for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning.” Often, in our darkness, we just need time to recognize God’s hand in circumstances. Sometimes, it’s literally after a good night’s sleep.  Sometimes, it’s in the slow dawn of spiritual understanding as we crawl out of our dark times of pain and disappointment.  Thus, another “selah”—stop and think about these truths.

THE HYMN: THE CONCLUDING “COME”

These caves, pocking a basalt rock face hundreds of feet high,
 remind me of the concluding verse: "The God
of Jacob is our fortress."

“Come and see the works of the LORD,” the psalmist invites us. He pictures wars ending and the implements of war being destroyed. Yet for thousands of years we’ve had warfare and disruption throughout the earth. But that’s not God’s ultimate plan.  No wonder we’re given this counsel: “Be still, and know that I am God.”  The literal meaning of “be still” is “Take your hands off!  Relax.” Because we tend to be hands-on people who like to manage our lives, that’s hard. God is big enough and mighty enough to do what’s right. But it’s a hard lesson. We’re given a reminder of that as the psalm concludes. The writer exalts “the LORD Almighty,” also translated “the LORD of Hosts,” indicating the most holy and most powerful God of all. Then he adds: “the God of Jacob is our fortress.”  Jacob was a cheat who tried to play “god” and arrange his own circumstances. He learned to “let God be God” the hard way.  But God never gave up on him.

So it is for us. When life seems impossible, when we’re in tight places, God knows all about it.  Sometimes He allows these overwhelming circumstances to grow our faith.  But He never gives up on us, inviting us to trust Him even when there seem to be no answers. Even if death comes—and for a believer, that’s just a transition—He is still there.  John Wesley, another great reformer two centuries after Luther, was losing his voice as he lay dying. But he cried out, as his last words, a declaration from Psalm 46:11: “The best of all is, God is with us.”

Next: Psalm 51.