October 31, 2005

Have faith in God –
To find the answer to your quest;
Have faith in God –
In all that’s holy, true, and blest;
Have faith in God –
And for your soul is heavenly rest.
Have faith, dear friend, in God.

A Mighty Fortress

Words and Music by Martin Luther, 1483-1546
English translation by Frederick Henry Hedge, 1805-1890

    God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Selah. Psalm 46:1-3.

    October 31, 1517 is perhaps the most important day in Protestant history. This was the day when Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk and a professor of theology, posted on the door of the Cathedral of Wittenberg, Germany his 95 Theses against the teachings and practices of the medieval Roman Catholic Church. With this event, the 16th Century Protestant Reformation was formally born.
    A Mighty Fortress was written and composed by Martin Luther. The date of the hymn cannot be fixed with any certainty. It is generally believed however to have been written for the Diet of Spires in 1529 when the term "protestant" was first used. The hymn became the great rallying cry of the Reformation.
    This song has been called “the greatest hymn of the greatest man of the greatest period of German history” and the “Battle Hymn of the Reformation.”
    This hymn was sung at the funeral of American president Dwight Eisenhower at the National Cathedral in Washington, DC, March 1969.

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 power are great, and, armed with cruel hate,
On earth is not his equal.

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.

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.

That word above all earthly powers, 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.

Have Faith in God by H.M.S. Richards, Used by Permission