In contrast to Out of the Depths I Cry to Thee, this hymn by Martin Luther (1483-1546) exhibits another approach to psalm paraphrase. Psalm 46 is divided into three stanzas.¹ The paraphrase contains three corresponding stanzas. But within each stanza the psalm's language is transformed almost beyond recognition.

The psalm uses cosmic terminology (the sea revolts², the earth is shaken and shattered) alluding to the ancient myth of the binding of the chaotic sea-monster. This cannot be taken literally: the psalmist is actually talking about human oppression and natural disaster, choosing mythic language to emphasize their eternal ("cosmic") significance. But that language is alien and opaque to us who don't know the ancient Canaanite myths, and habitually use different kinds of symbolism. So how would we represent the true significance of the struggle between good and evil?

When Americans were recently confronted by actions of implacable malevolence and nihilistic violence, they found the contemporary myths about "situational morality" and "culturally-prescribed definitions of ethics" inadequate and irrelevant. Even people who no longer believed in a real Devil³ did not think of "violence justified by disputes over land or water rights" or "competitive clash of classes or clans or creeds." Only the concept of "pure Satanic evil" could express our response to that experience.

In the same way, writing for a post-pagan community, Luther consistently transforms the ancient "cosmic" language to "diabolical" language: from "raging sea" to "ravening Satan". With this transformation in mind, other significant ideas in the psalm stand out, and can be matched to their counterparts in our worldview:

Stanza	Verse	Thought Parallel
1	1	God is our refuge, a timely help ...
	2, 3	... in face of the cosmic enemy (devil)
2	5	God is with us (Emmanuel) in his church (New Jerusalem)
	7	The "Lord of Hosts" (Hebrew, "Yahweh Sabaoth") is our protector: he will defeat even the most malevolent and powerful attackers.
3	8	The war is over; the "little word" (cf. vs. 6) has been spoken, the decisive battle preempted.
	9	The enemy's weapons destroyed: Satan, still fearsome, has lost his power to harm.
	10	God's people "cease striving" ("no longer fear")

The last stanza of the hymn is a personal postscript. The mythic language drops to the background, but ideas from all three stanzas appear together with immediate personal applications. Despite all appearances, God's refuge still remains, the Holy Spirit still dwells among His people, the Word of Judgment has been spoken, and the power of Evil broken. It remains only for God's people to exhibit the necessary trust and loyalty.

In 1522, Luther was summoned to a "Diet" (council) at Worms. Friends urged him not to go, reminding him of Jan Huss and other reformers that church officials had betrayed and murdered. Luther responded, "I'd go, and not be afraid, though the housetops were covered with devils." The verbal connection with this hymn spawned a legend that Luther and his friends walked to Worms, singing this tune. But only in 1524, after the Diet, did Luther came into contact with the Moravians and their hymnal, which introduced him to the concept of congregational singing. He published his first hymns that same year, but this hymn doesn't appear in any of the numerous hymnals that he published over the next five years. In 1529, as Luther went to the Diet at Speyer, he was again facing imminent violent repression, described here in literal detail. No doubt the similarity of the situations elicited a similar response. It is no surprise that this hymn has been loved by people facing the ultimate evils: violence, religious oppression, and death. It has often been called the "Battle Hymn of the Reformation."

The text has often been translated into English.⁴ This translation, by Thomas Carlyle,⁵ is probably the best known in England. Erik Routley calls it "the treatest translation in the whole field of hymnody." Certainly it preserves the rough-hewn vigor and undaunted clarity of the German original. Julian adds that in the first three verses, it is also the most precise translation. The more polished (or bland) 1852 translation by Yale scholar Frederick Hedge⁶ is popular in America.

This tune was composed⁷ for this hymn, with which it is invariably associated.⁸

Most of the old Lutheran chorales have been repeatedly harmonized by later composers. Luther's original harmonization has recently been revived in some hymnals, but this harmonization⁹ by Bach is still the most widely used. It has a simpler rhythm¹⁰ than Luther's original. If the harmony is too challenging, it still makes a magnificent unison tune.

Use:

This resolute declaration of loyalty to God in the face of evil, and of faith in God's power and purpose to end that evil, could be used more often than it is.

Notes:

¹Divided by the word "Selah." This is unusual in the psalms; see the discussion of poetic structure.

²Compare the use of the same myth in Psalm 93.

³Unlike Luther, of course. Outside the ivory mausoleums of theological speculation, there is no reason that a true story cannot serve as a myth. One might even say that true stories make the best myths.

⁴First in 1538 by Miles Coverdale, who had completed and published Tyndale's Bible translation. Two translations are included in Catherine Winkworth's works, online at CCEL. Another is included with Martin Luther's Hymns at Project Wittenberg. Julian's Dictionary of Hymnology listed over 60 translations before 1900. There are also translations into over 50 other languages.

⁵The noted Scottish essayist. He said of the poem, "There is something in it like the sound of Alpine avalanches or the first murmur of earthquakes: in the very vastness of which dissonance a higher unison is revealed to us." He was not an active church member, and may not have envisioned it being sung in worship.

⁶Included in the score (and in our hymnals, with yet more taming of some of the blunt expressions.)

⁷Scholars had long argued about whether this was an "original" tune or just an "arrangement": a distinction that simply wouldn't have occurred to Luther. Like other "composers" of the day, he arranged phrases or motifs from musical tradition, and harmonized the result.

⁸Several other hymns have been written in this meter, because of its association with either Luther, Psalm 46, or the Reformation. (Mendelssohn featured the tune in his Reformation Symphony.)

⁹Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750), generally regarded among musicians as the greatest composer in history. He had a unique ability to write melodic parts that blend into rich and subtle harmonies; in fact, his chorale arrangements were for over 100 years used as a textbook on harmony. His voice parts are never dull, although they are not always quite singable by untrained singers: this is one of his simpler arrangements. He is neglected in our hymnals, to our shame and deprivation.

¹⁰The decay in tempo since Luther's day had left almost all the notes effectively the same length--that is, taking several breaths to sing a single syllable. As a result, many distinctions between note values had been lost. See Liemohn, The Chorale Through 400 Years.