Luther was inspired by psalm 46 to write his hymn ‘A mighty fortress is our God’. In one verse after another the poet exalts the power, majesty, glory of the Maker. God’s people, unlike surrounding nations, can look to him for their defence.
And that is not an end of their troubles. The world is a place of tumult. Natural events, floods, storms threaten God’s people. But they remain secure, knowing that God the Maker, is looking after them. Even their enemies’ weapons become useless in their hands. God destroys them He is the Lord of Hosts. He is above all other powers. Their security is not in doubt. For other nations it is different. Luther accepted his limitations and worked within them.
In Psalm 91, a soldier’s psalm, assuring him that he will be proof against the pestilence that strikes in the dark, the deadly noonday plague and the chance casualties of war. The man who trusts in God need have no fear of a fatal outcome for him. Wild animals will not harm him. With a shield and buckler (small shield) like that who can be afraid?
Psalm 95 was chosen as a call to worship (usually called the Venite, meaning Come) for God’s people to come together on a Sunday morning. This we find in the BCP (Book of Common Prayer). We have good reason to follow a script in our worship. Even if it follows a set form with little variation it invites users to rise to a level that surpasses most current writing.
The Psalms are not easy. God’s people cry out for their own protection and have little patience with other nations. God himself finds them self-willed. ‘And I was provoked, Oh, was I provoked! Can’t they keep their minds on God for five minutes?’ is how Peterson puts it.
So great are the difficulties inherent in these poems that it is no wonder they have been discarded from public worship. But that is not an end of the matter. The psalms, particularly the ones mentioned here, repudiate shallow and untoward language. If a man is bitter, it will show itself. They come to terms with confused loyalties and self-interest.
Luther was not only a Christian and a teacher. He was a German and a patriot. His sympathies were limited. He found the psalms and the psalms found him. It is the dive into tangled human nature that makes his poems what they are just as it is Milton’s Satan who demonstrates the strength of evil – determined, persistent, cruel, cunning in the fallen angels.
Mighty fortress? The Church, it has been said, is an anvil that has broken many hammers.
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