Psalm 46 Confidence in the God Who is Strong, Near and In Control

You are listening to the podcast of Recast Church in Matawan, Michigan.

Welcome to Recast, and it's good to see you guys here on Father's Day. And if this is Father's Day, you know, and so I think I have a different dad joke for this service to open up.

Yeah, I know.

So I was shopping, and I was looking for a new pair of shoes. I saw a pair, they were really comfortable. They looked amazing. They were easy, they were convenient, they were Velcro. Then I got to thinking, I was like, what a ripoff.

Actually got that one from the Babylon Bee, but not promoting anything necessarily. I'm just, it was funny. Yeah, so I don't know where you go from there, but I do know, hey, if you have a father, and you can make connection with him, like, do that.

It's a good day to honor them, you know, send them a text, communicate, and that would be a good way to honor your father. And as the fifth commandment says,.

Honor your father and mother.

So, and that you'll be blessed. Okay, so going into the sermon here, like, I appreciate before Don went on sabbatical, he talked about Sabbath rest, and was preaching on that. And I'm like in the middle of spring, and for me as a teacher, like, there's a lot of things that are happening, and I coach track and field, and like, it is game on, like long days, but short weeks.

Like, time does seem to fly, but, so it's nice, you know, week and a half from that, no school, no responsibilities, in that way, just to kind of turn it off. Because once again, I mean, it's a profession I chose,.

I love it.

It is something that is always, like, in the mind. When you're in school, you're always either lesson planning, you're grading, you're always thinking about it. So it's nice to shut it off, and actually come to rest.

So I hope that's true for you sometime. For many of us, it's in the summer, that you're able to kind of step back, and take maybe an extended time of break. And so I do pray that Don is gonna be refreshed, and I look forward to how God's gonna work in him, as he's able to kind of turn off a lot of the daily responsibilities, and the weight that comes with his role, and then come refreshed and ready with the vision for what we would do in the future.

I know on the board, we appreciate his leadership, and so, you know, pray that he would enjoy that. But as we come to the text today, I, like a lot of people that have come up here to talk and preach, they, like, I don't know which one to do, because they're all so good.

In fact, it's easier to pick a book, and then I'm gonna start going verse by verse, through, or chapter by chapter, and then you know what you're gonna preach on next. That's, it's a lot easier. I kept coming back to Psalm 46.

I mean, Psalm 50 is great, the Psalm to Asaph, and, like, cattle on a thousand hills are his, and it's like, that's pretty cool. But, you know, I mean, and then Psalm 51, like, how important is that one?

Like, you know, created me a clean heart, oh God. I mean, so there's so many good psalms in the segment that we were reading this week, and I'd encourage you to pick that up, like Ben just did a moment ago.

Psalm 46 and Martin Luther’s Mighty Fortress

But this is a psalm, it's written, and by, and it's written to this choir master, and it's a song of the sons of Korah. He's from the Levitical line, he's one of the clans of Levi, and he worked in David's court as a musician, and they sang it, so you can look at 1 Chronicles to hear or read about that history.

But it is a song, and it's an alimoth, right? So it's probably intended for someone that is of a soprano, like a high voice, a mains voice, okay? So this has been a particular psalm of comfort for a lot of people, for many people, and as we read it, you can have confidence in God who is a real God, but a God who is strong, a God who is near, and a God who is sovereign, or a God who is in control, okay?

So this is a, these are some components of who God is, and as you read through the psalms, there are a lot, right? He is inexhaustible, you could read a psalm and learn something new, it'd be a different character, a quality, like it's inexhaustible.

God is not contained, okay? So we're gonna be looking at a few of his qualities today in this psalm, but this is particularly a favorite psalm of the famous reformer, the one that kicked it off, so to speak, Martin Luther, and you know, in 1515, he hung the 95 Theses on the door and started the Protestant Reformation, and he lived in a very politically fractured Germany, and now then, after he did that bold act, a very religiously fractured Germany, under political persecution, depending where you were.

So when I say fractured, think of a lot of different kingdoms in this area in Germany, and they're in control of their own areas. And so, yeah, he did have some political allies like Philip Melanchthon, but also, he was not very well received, because this is radical news in the Reformation.

And he wrote the famous Reformation sym, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God, kind of on this psalm in particular. So as we read this hymn from the collection of psalms, just remember, it is the word of the Lord.

I mean, this is God's word to us. And then pay attention to where your safe place actually is. Where can you go to comfort? And I want you to think about a couple of questions. One, when you're anxious, where does that anxiety stem from, what does it come from?

Or when you receive terrible news, or have received terrible news, where did you go to? Or what is your go-to? And these are some questions I think that can help as we look at this. So, if you have your Bible, turn to Psalm 46, or in your device, scroll there, click on Psalm 46.

And here is the word of the Lord. God is our fortress, to the choir master of the sons of Korah, according to Alamoth, a psalm. God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling, say la.

There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy habitation of the Most High. God is in the midst of her, she will not be moved. God will help her when morning dawns. The nations rage, the kingdoms totter.

He utters his voice, the earth melts. The Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress, say la. Come, behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes wars cease to the end of the earth.

He breaks the bow and shatters the spear. He burns the chariots with fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us.

The God of Jacob is our fortress, say la. Father, you are our fortress, you are our strength, you are our refuge, and in you we gain confidence. We have a faith that is not rooted in the unreal. We don't have a faith that is not objectless.

You are the source of our faith. And so I pray that as we come to you today in worship, in song, in a moment here, I pray that you would be, your name would be lifted high and that you would be glorified.

That through our praise and our voices singing to you in unison, that you would smile. Thank you again for being our God, being the one that we can run to and take refuge in. And I just pray that, yeah, you would just bless our time together.

In Jesus' name I pray, amen. Thank you, Dan. And Dave, thanks to the band for leading us in worship. It's, like I said, first service, it's wonderful to lift our voice in unison to the Lord and to sing praise to him.

I pray that he is always glorified when we do that as he is today. So halftime is over, and if you need, but if you need more coffee and donuts, please help yourself while supplies last. And then through the barn doors, down the hall to your left if you need to use the restroom.

So, yeah, welcome back. It's good to see you guys. Before we go into the text, you know, like go through the three stanzas, three refrains, I'd like to remind us, or maybe it's new information, but of what a biblical worldview is.

Everyone has a worldview. I think you know this. Regardless of whether you agree or not, you do have a worldview. And there's four categories, generally, that kind of fall into every worldview. So I do teach history, and so that's kind of something that impacts me as I do read it.

But a biblical worldview in the four categories, like there was a beginning, there's a perfect state, there's this, well, that's creation, right? In Genesis 1, God created the universe and the world and all that is in it, Genesis 1 and 2.

And so, and he is separate from his creation, okay? And so I like to think of a painter, a huge canvas. God has a huge canvas. When you think about what he created in the universe, how many billions of stars and whatnot, but he's outside of it and yet he's creating it and still doing it.

So he did that perfectly. And then in Genesis 3, we read about Adam and Eve sinning and there was the fall. And we separated ourselves from God, right? We said we want to do it our own way. And so in Adam and Eve, and we all have this sin that separates us from God.

And because of sin, bad things, evil things happen. Sickness, eventually death, right? That was the result of it. And so that's the world in which we live in. And then when I, or you, we study history or we look at the world around us, like, oh, we're kind of seeing the effects of sin.

It can be specific. It can be like maybe a sin you specifically committed could have a consequence, but we're all going to die. And that's true for everyone, okay? So there's that, a bummer of a news and every worldview will have that, right?

There's some problem, the fall and sin. Then there's a redemption. And in the biblical worldview from Genesis 4, and if I were to take that, this is about here, to about Revelation, I'll go to like 20.

I'll go to the middle of Revelation. This is about the redemption, right? So all of this, and so don't, that's about redemption. So most of the Bible, most of scripture is about redemption and there's a ton in that redemptive history that can be encouraging, can be faith-building, as David was talking about, like reading numbers and the sacrifice system and how that was there.

I mean, that's all part of it. It culminates in Jesus as the God-man coming to earth. And you can read about that in the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, his life on earth and then seeing in the Acts as well.

I mean, the pinnacle then is like his death and then resurrection, like those are, that's the peak. And when he was crucified on the cross, he paid for your sin and he paid for my sin, all of them. It's all paid.

You can't come to Jesus and say, yeah, let's just go Dutch, right? You can't say, I'll pay for just my own, right? But we tend to want to do that. Listen, I am part Dutch, so it's okay for me to pick on myself, I think.

But it is, that redemptive plan worked out through Christ's resurrection, death and resurrection, that we have faith in. And he said, hey, look, I got to go. I'm going to build a house for you, right?

In John 14, it says, but I'm going to send the Holy Spirit to you and he's going to indwell you and he's going to be with you. And so we have the Holy Spirit, those who believe in Christ, those who call on his name, we have the Holy Spirit to empower us, to teach us, to convict, to comfort us.

We have that rich blessing from Christ. And so that is amazing, right? That is the gospel, that we can have that, okay? And so the last piece is then, there's the redemption, so a worldview will say, hey, you got to do this to fix the problem.

And then there will be some restoration, some culmination. And we look forward to the day when Jesus will return, establish his kingdom on earth, and then create a new heaven and a new earth where we will work and build culture and live.

That's what we look forward to. No sin, no effect of the sin that is there. No death, no crying, no weeping. Like all of that, we look forward to that. And so that's our hope. And so as we look at this psalm, with these biblical worldview behind us, it's truly amazing to understand that our God is awesome in that in our brokenness and we want to do it, he came to us and said, I love you.

I want you to join, to come to me. I want you to have the gift of salvation. And so his word teaches us, his Holy Spirit reveals and sanctifies us. God sets us apart for himself. This is good news. You know, it's been proclaimed from this pulpit a number of times.

I pray that it continues to do so. It's not necessarily going to, it's just not necessarily going to though. I'm asked, I think about Harvard University and its roots and its founding in the gospel compared to today.

So I'm just saying it is proclaimed from this pulpit. I pray that you would also pray that we would continue to be faithful in leadership to the gospel and to his word going out. So as we dive into Psalm 46, there are three refrains.

And so I broke it up into three points. That was pretty handy. So the first is we can have confidence in God's strength, verses one through three. We can have confidence in God's nearness to us, verses four through seven.

And then we can have confidence in God's sovereignty, God being in control. All right, so part one, verses one, two, and three. Therefore, we will not fear, though the earth gives way, though mountains be moved into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam, though the mountains tremble at its swelling.

Selah. Scholars don't know exactly the historical context or the roots behind like why this Psalm was written or what it was written about. There are two historical events that kind of rise to the top though.

The first is in 2 Chronicles chapter 20, where Judah is under attack by the Moabites, the Ammonites, and the people of Mount Seir. Jehoshaphat is the king of Judah at this time, 871 to 849 BC approximately.

And so these armies are arrayed against Judah. This is a scary time. This is not a good picture. And so Jehoshaphat prays. And the Lord answers his prayer in verse 17 and says, you will not need to fight this battle.

Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the Lord on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem. And then in verses 20 through 24, the events unfold. So he prays and God answers him, and then this is what happens.

And they rose early in the morning and went out to the wilderness up to Koah. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, believe in the Lord your God and you will be established.

Believe his prophets and you will succeed. And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the Lord and praise him in holy attire as they went out, went before the army and say, give thanks to the Lord for his steadfast love endures forever.

And then they began to sing and praise. The Lord set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah so that they were routed. For the men of Ammon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, devoting them to destruction.

And when they had made an end to the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. The Lord delivers Judah. When Judah came to the watchtower of the wilderness, they looked toward the horde and behold, there were dead bodies lying on the ground.

None had escaped. What a deliverance. Okay, God just took their enemies and they just fought each other till the death. What a deliverance. I mean, these are all orchestrated, but now there might be some who say, well, that could happen.

I could see where God didn't orchestrate that. That's fine. That's fine. Look at the second historical event that kind of rises to the top here. This is in the Assyrian king, Sennacherib, and it's going to be in 2 Kings 18 and 19, but he is going to come and...

Assyria is modern day Syria and Iraq, kind of like in that region, okay? So he's coming down to Judah and going to take, going to bring to bear a big army. This is approximately 714 to 681. This is when King Hezekiah is king of Judah.

Now, Hezekiah is probably one of the most godly kings. He did what was right in the eyes of the Lord. That's what scripture says. And he did these things. He tore down the high places and the Assyria and broke to pieces the bronze serpent that Moses had made.

So Judah was worshiping other gods in the high places in Assyria and then the serpent, okay? Now, the serpent was supposed to be looked at, like to go back to history and you see, find that. You will be saved by looking at that serpent, like that's in Exodus and Numbers.

And so, so he gets rid of all of that because it had become an idol. He didn't stand on tradition, but he stood with God. So the representative of the Assyrian king, Sennacherib is the king. He comes to Hezekiah, he sends his messenger and the messenger's name is, or title, excuse me, is the Rabshakeh and said, so in chapter 18 in 2 Kings, it says, then the Rabshakeh stood and called out in a loud voice in the language of Judah.

Hear the word of the great king, the king of Assyria. Thus says the king, do not let Hezekiah deceive you, for he will not be able to deliver you out of my hand. Do not let Hezekiah make you trust in the Lord by saying the Lord will surely deliver us and this city will not be given into the hand of the king of Assyria.

Do not listen to Hezekiah. Now the taunt goes on in Hezekiah, but you get the point. He's an ambassador with some big words. Like, my king is bigger than your king and your God. Hezekiah prays, then Isaiah will prophesy.

So these are in chapter 19 and this is what the Lord did in verse 32 of chapter 19. The Lord did this. Thus, or therefore, thus say the Lord concerning the king of Assyria. He shall not come into this city or shoot an arrow there or come before it with a shield or cast up a siege mound against it.

By the way that he came, by that same he shall return and he shall not come into the city, declares the Lord. For I will defend the city to save it for my own sake and for the sake of my servant David.

And that night, the angel of the Lord went out and struck down 185 ,000 in the camp of the Assyrians. And when people arose early in the morning, behold, these were all dead bodies. Then Sennacherib, king of Assyria departed and went home and lived at Nineveh.

We have a God that is in charge of everything, is strong enough to do anything, literally. He killed 185 ,000 men by just dispatching an angel of the, you know, the angel of the Lord. He did that in a night.

Okay, so if God is our refuge, if you look at the text and this is the historical context, I get that.

That makes sense.

Some of these two stories, I think, are plausible. Like these, not stories, these two pieces of history make a lot of sense because if he did this, he is our strength and refuge, and very present help, the logic flows.

We do not need to fear, okay? Have you not seen God work in your own life for those that are Christians? Those that believe in Christ? And even if you haven't, or you can't think of anything right now, I mean, like, well, here's a couple of examples.

There's a ton more in Scripture to gain faith from because we're all coming to that point where our faith will be real. As Dave said, like, we will meet Jesus. We'll either die and meet him, or he will come back and take us, okay?

I hope the second, like most people do, but more people the first, it happens. So that is our God. The past that he's done, I pray that he will continue, and he will continue to do that and work out his salvation until he restores the kingdom.

So we therefore have nothing to fear, okay? He's able to deliver us. He's also able to help us. So even if he doesn't deliver us from the situation like he did to the, you know, in the little bit of history, he is able to bring us through it.

And you can see that in this. I mean, think about, I mean, just, I want you to take great confidence in the fact even what Jesus said to Peter. Like, when he establishes Peter as the rock on which he's going to build the church, he said, the gates of hell will not prevail against you.

You will be able to prevail. You will prevail.

You will win.

Death does not have victory. Death will not have victory. So even though it may look bleak, right, like a mountain, like, it's powerful sliding into the sea. Like, I mean, we say mountains, like, those are strongholds.

You know, and Rob had a great slide yesterday, you know, last week about, like, that mountain stronghold. Like, that's awesome.

Like, you're right.

If I want to defend something, I want to be on a mountain. That represents strength and power, even though they fall into the sea. Or the earth gives way. I can't think of too many things scarier than an earthquake and like, I'm falling, like, ah, you know, like, that's kind of scary.

Except maybe Star Wars. But anyways, so we have those things to keep us reminding of just the fact that God is in control and he is beyond all natural disasters and things. So there are many today, like, the world that we live in is what we know that kind of worship the earth.

And maybe I'm not right on this. Maybe I'm way off, but I don't think so because the source of a lot of, we talk about God saying, hey, I'm your refuge. Don't be afraid. The world in which we live is full of a lot of fear.

So in contrast to that, climate change, ironically and kind of weirdly, is a top fear or top piece of anxiety for many of the youths. And I don't think, I'm not gonna put just them. I think there are many people that kind of get whipped up into that emotional concern and fear.

I mean, in 2020, a very vocal, emotionally, like, charged activist, climate change activist said, like, we got 10 years and the earth will be unlivable unless we do something today. You know, like, so this prediction, I'm waiting.

We'll see what happens in 2030. Okay, see if that activist was right. A lot of emotion, not, I mean, like, these predictions and timelines, it'd be just, like, if I said, like, I would be, like, the Lord's gonna come back Tuesday, like, okay, well, if that comes and goes, like, because no one knows the day, like, you would think I'm a fool, okay?

Well, I'm not gonna make a prediction like that. I'm not gonna make any predictions. God is in control, right? God is strong enough to make anything happen in the earth that we live in. And I understand, like, pollution's real.

I understand all that, right? So I'm not, like, because, like, I think about in history, like, the Cuyahoga River that feeds, goes into Lake Erie through Chicago, that caught on fire in the late 19th century, just so you, like, a lot of pollutants were in there.

So it happens, I get it, right? We do have an impact. But we have the strong one, right? At a word, he can do, God can do whatever he wants with creation. He did it in Genesis. Like, why do we think he couldn't or still do it now?

Like, why are we concerned about things like that? So take confidence by remembering that God is our strength. God is the strong one, selah. Part two, confidence in the God who is near, or in God's nearness, verses four through seven.

It says,.

The God of Jacob is our fortress, selah. So you can see the contrast here, the raging waters in the first refrain, now to a still and calm stream that is in the city of God, that feeds the people, like, gives life, makes the city glad, right?

And water is the lifeblood of, and the strength of any ancient city, or really any city, to be honest. But when you live in a desert, it is more important. You know, here we just sink a well,.

And we got water, you know?

So where we live is pretty awesome in that regard. But if you cut off the water supply or poison it, it spells disaster for those cities in this time. And so this is the city of God where the Most High dwelt.

Probably Mount Zion, right? The city of Zion. This might be one of the Zion, this is one of those Zion songs. Pay attention to it as you read through the Psalms. You'll maybe pick up on that. But this is God's dwelling place, and that's what is so awesome.

So, well, if you're a child of God, think about it. Or another way to say that, if you've been saved by grace through the blood of Christ, you are His dwelling place. The Holy Spirit dwells within you.

You are His temple. And Don preached about this in 1 Corinthians, verses 16 and 17 in chapter three. It's been a while, so I mean, that was near the beginning. But it says, do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's Spirit dwells in you?

If anyone destroys God's temple, God will destroy him. For God's temple is holy, and you are His temple. We see here that God is in the midst of her, the city. God is in the midst of us, from what Paul wrote.

And we are the temple, we shall not be moved. We can have strength in that, God being in us and near to us. And just like at every night, it's dark. And when you're going through a dark time, it's tough.

When the dawn breaks, you have a new day. I also, you think about the nations raging right now and the kingdoms that fall and are tottering. You're like, at a word, the earth melts. Like, at a word, that melts.

Isn't that super relevant to what we're seeing today? Nations rising up against nation and warring factions. And if you read a lot of history or any history, you'll know that that's always been the case.

Wars have come between nations, nations come and go. Rome was a great empire for a period of time, 400, 500 years, and it's gone. I mean, so it's like, we, in fact, you and I, you and I are more permanent than the United States.

We will live forever. Nations come and go. So amidst all of the nations raging, God utters his voice and the earth melts, that's power. And it ends with the refrain that inspired the title of Martin Luther's hymn, Mighty Fortress is Our God, says, the Lord of hosts is with us, the God of Jacob is our fortress, selah.

So think about that, the Lord of hosts is with us. Something that, to unpack that as I was studying, like, this is really about, this is the Lord of armies. Think about the Lord of armies. And what does God have at his disposal?

All the angels. I mean, literally, I mean, he says it and it happens. He uses angels, he even uses people to affect his plan. If you think about what the Lord did to Sennacherib's army so many centuries ago, 185 ,000 dead in a night, you know, that's the God that is in you and me.

That's the God that's near to us. What do we have to fear? What do you have to fear? You know, I confess that it's difficult to remember where the battle lies because the battle is not against this person or that person or this organization or this or that organization.

Because Paul wrote in Ephesians 6, he says, for we do not wrestle against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Our battle is not with any person. Any person's not our enemy. So it's kind of like when we're commanded to like love our enemies, you don't really have any fleshly enemy here because God's dealing with it.

God will take care of that. And so I confess that's a difficult thing for me to remember especially, you know, as we swim in this materialist culture that is contrary to that type of thinking, that there is a spirit realm and that's where the battle is.

That's where we need to fight. And so when we fight, we fight on our knees with our hands lifted high. Well, we sang that, but that's so true that we pray. That is where the battle is. And yeah, I mean, I'll confess again, like, ah, I'm slower to prayer than I wish I were.

So that's me, that's on me. And I'm sure not for you, but pray. That's where the battle is. So God will draw near to you and through praying and meditating on his word and fellowshipping with others, you know, you can enjoy his presence as well.

You can enjoy his presence that way. And that's really the true blessing of the walk with Christ is you can enjoy his presence. So God will be near you. So take confidence in the God who is near you. Selah.

Confidence in God's Sovereignty

Part three, confidence in God's sovereignty, verses eight through 11. Come behold the works of the Lord, how he has brought desolations on the earth. He makes war cease to the end of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear.

He burns the chariots with fire. Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth. The Lord of hosts is with us. The God of Jacob is our fortress. In the final refrain, we see kind of that contrast between what was happening earlier, the nations raging.

And God says, and it's very chaotic and there's wars. And God says, behold, come, behold. And this is not a victory, excuse me. This is not an end to war of negotiation, but rather through victory. Because he breaks the bow, he shatters the spear, he burns the chariots with fire.

He'll snap in half the F -22s. He will stop in their tracks and throw them into the depths of the sea, the aircraft carriers. It does not matter what invention that we have to kill each other, that we've used to make war on one another.

God will stop that and make peace. Wars will cease. And so while we're fighting and quarreling on earth, you can see that he says, be still. You know, kind of like when you're on a long trip and your mom and dad were driving on this trip and you're in the backseat and your siblings are arguing and it reaches a point where they pull the car over.

There's stillness in the backseat then. Okay, and that's what he's talking about. He's like, all this, the wars stop, be still. And then he says, I'm the one that will be glorified. I'm gonna be exalted among the nations.

I'm gonna be exalted in all the earth. He has done this to exalt himself, to bring himself glory and it's so unnerving. And I think a warning sign when you hear people, leaders of nations, when they talk about how their nation is so great and how it will last for 1 ,000 years, or even, you know, I've heard a statement that even the United States will last forever.

And I'm like, I recoiled at that. Like, how many nations have come and gone? Don't you understand? They don't last forever. Remember the big words of Sennacherib earlier? Remember, well, I didn't talk about it, but Caesar had some big words.

Adolf Hitler had some big words. Like, you can talk big all you want. How arrogant are they? How arrogant are they? Because nations are fleeting. We can come up with a lot of examples, but God will be exalted among the nations.

God will be exalted in the earth. That's undeniable. And that's impossible for the enemy to stop. But the accuser will try. And this section does end again with the refrain, or the chorus, if you will.

The Lord of hosts is with us, the Lord of armies. The God of Jacob is our fortress, Selah. So I'm going to end with just this part before application. I just wanted to share the song A Mighty Fortress Is Our God by Martin Luther.

So there are four verses. They're pretty enjoyable. I mean, they're pretty amazing. You can clearly see he was inspired by Psalm 46.

It says,.

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 does seek to work us woe. His craft and power are great and armed with cruel hate.

On earth is not his equal. Did we in our own strength confide our striving would be losing? We're not the right man on our side, the man of God's own choosing. You ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is he.