Dueling With The Devil - The One Year Book of Psalms

Psalm 46:1-7

For the choir director: A psalm of the descendants of Korah, to be sung by soprano voices. A song.

1God is our refuge and strength,

always ready to help in times of trouble.

2So we will not fear, even if earthquakes come

and the mountains crumble into the sea.

3Let the oceans roar and foam.

Let the mountains tremble as the waters surge!

Interlude

4A river brings joy to the city of our God,

the sacred home of the Most High.

5God himself lives in that city; it cannot be destroyed.

God will protect it at the break of day.

6The nations are in an uproar,

and kingdoms crumble!

God thunders,

and the earth melts!

7The LORD Almighty is here among us;

the God of Israel is our fortress.

Interlude

Martin Luther was a brash, bold bear of a man. He knew about power, but he also knew about fear. Terrified by the power of God displayed in a fierce thunderstorm, young Martin vowed to serve the Lord as a monk. He tore into his monastic duties with a vengeance, fearing that he would displease God if he didn’t do every good deed possible.

But God was slowly softening Luther’s heart, assuring him of love and not simply judgment. From the Scriptures, Luther learned that the righteous would find eternal life by trusting Christ and that they couldn’t earn it with good deeds. He realized that God was not a demanding tyrant but a refuge, a comfort, a help.

The rest is history. Luther’s doctrine of “salvation by faith” sparked the Protestant Reformation, transforming the way millions of people would understand God. He wrote many books and essays, but Luther’s most famous work is a hymn, “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” based on Psalm 46. There are few texts that portray faith in God as powerfully as this song.

Luther’s life wasn’t easy. He was arrested, tried, excommunicated, hunted, hidden, and betrayed. But Luther knew that he need not fear the “ancient foe” and all his attacks, for God was his refuge, “a bulwark never failing.”

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.

MARTIN LUTHER

Fascinating Fact

Tradition holds that the translators of the King James Version used this psalm to pay homage to their fellow wordsmith William Shakespeare on his forty-sixth birthday. The forty-sixth word in Psalm 46 is shake, and the forty-sixth word from the end is spear.

Notable Quotable

“The double prop on which our faith rests: the infinite power whereby he can subdue the universe unto himself and the fatherly love which he has revealed in his Word.”

JOHN CALVIN