Luther's Hymn in the Storm

In 1527, the plague swept through Wittenberg. Martin Luther refused to flee. Friends begged him to leave, but he stayed to minister to the sick and dying, even as the disease took members of his own household. The city reeked of death. Political enemies threatened his life. The Reformation he had sparked seemed ready to collapse under the weight of persecution and internal division.

It was somewhere in this crucible that Luther turned to Psalm 46 and penned the words that would become A Mighty Fortress Is Our God. "Though this world with devils filled should threaten to undo us," he wrote, "we will not fear, for God has willed His truth to triumph through us."

Luther did not write those words from a place of comfort. He wrote them while the earth beneath his feet was literally giving way — while nations raged and kingdoms tottered. Yet he had witnessed something the psalm describes: God breaking the bow, shattering the spear, making wars cease. Not by removing the storm, but by being present within it. "God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day."

The Almighty does not promise us a life without plague, without enemies, without mountains crumbling into the sea. He promises something better — Himself, a very present help in trouble. Luther staked his life on that promise, and five centuries later, congregations still rise to sing his testimony.