Monday, October 14, 2013
Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength ...
A MIGHTY FORTRESS
Almost five hundred years after Martin Luther nailed the ninety-five theses for debate on the doors of the church in Wittenberg, people still remember "the Reformation." There will be magazine articles, new books, and many gatherings held to commemorate the event. However, just as at a family or class reunion different people remember different things, so it is also with remembering the Reformation.
Some will remember it as a magnificent uprising of the common man (Luther came from peasant stock) against oppressive rulers. Others remember it as German electors gallantly standing up to foreign (Italian) church leadership and to the (French) emperor that they had helped put on the throne. Still others will remember the valiant stand made for conscience reasons by a heroic monk against the world leaders of the day, both of church and of state.
Luther's most famous hymn, however, reminds us already in it's title that he viewed himself not as "magnificent," or "gallant," or "valiant," but as needy, poor, and impotent in the face of fierce and determined foes. He was a poor sinner, who deserved no help from God, but desperately needed a shelter from the fiery attacks of the rulers of the darkness of this world (Ephesians 6:12). He needed a refuge, a fortress to protect him against spiritual wickedness in high places.
Was Luther thinking of Wartburg castle where his ruler protected him after the diet at Worms? Or of some of the housing employed for the diet at Spires? All of this and more, for he writes "He helps us free from every need ..." This is the promise of Psalm 46 to which Luther looked and to which he would direct us all.
