The Story behind "A Mighty Fortress is our God" hymn

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"Although an impeccable monk, I stood before God as a sinner troubled in conscience, and I had no confidence that my merit would assuage him. Night and day I pondered until I saw the connection between the justice of God and the statement ‘the just shall live by faith.’”

The “impeccable monk” was Martin Luther, a Roman Catholic priest at the time, and a professor at Wittenberg University. He was teaching a course on the biblical book of Romans, where the apostle Paul spells out the concept of justification by faith. Luther had been mulling over this for some time, increasingly dissatisfied with the mechanical rituals in the Catholicism of his day. Could a person really be justified by praying his way up a holy staircase in Rome? Could a person really get time off from purgatory for donating to a church building project?

As a theme sentence for the whole epistle, Romans 1:17 made the difference. The righteous would find eternal life not through their works, no matter how impeccable, but by trusting God. They would “live by faith.” This was Luther’s breakthrough, and he challenged the Catholic church on this crucial theological point as well as on many other corrupt practices. He posted his complaints (known as the NinetyFive Theses) on the church door at Wittenberg (sort of a community bulletin board).

Originally he was just asking for a church debate on these issues, but soon he was branded a heretic. At the Diet (assembly) of Worms in 1521, he was ordered to retract the positions he had published. Famously, he replied, “Here I stand. I can do no other.” Because Luther would not recant his statements, the church excommunicated him. At that point, the princes of Germany’s provinces began picking sides. Some were genuinely moved by conscience, convinced by Luther’s writings, but others saw political opportunity against the church’s power. The diet at Speyer in 1526 seemed to hold the door open for reconciliation, but it was

slammed shut in a followup council at Speyer three years later. That’s where

the princes who supported Luther lodged their formal protest against the church’s decisions—and earned the name “Protestants.” Their motto was "The word of God abides forever" 

Luther wrote this hymn either for that occasion or in response to it. The text is based on Psalm 46, but the sentiment is Speyer 1529. These are fighting words, but the posture is a defensive one. Our God can be trusted to protect us against whatever threats come at us.

Hymn: A Mighty Fortress is our God