Hymn Story, on A MIGHTY FORTRESS IS OUR GOD, by William Petersen

The poet Samuel Coleridge said of Martin Luther, “He did as much for the Reformation by his hymns as he did by his translation of the Bible.”  

Martin Luther’s grandest hymn is this one, inspired by the forty-sixth psalm. It became the battle cry of the Reformation. Martin Luther probably wrote it at a time when evangelical leaders were delivering their protest against the attack on their liberties at the Diet of Speyer. And incidentally, the meaning of the word protestant was no doubt derived from that meeting when these leaders delivered their protest.  

Martin Luther had posted his Ninety-five Theses on the door of the Wittenberg Church in October 1517, about thirteen years earlier. Despite his excommunication from the Roman church, Luther came to know the gracious power of God’s sheltering hand. He faced continual threats to his life and freedom, and times of intense spiritual battle as well. But in the comforting words of Psalm 46, Luther found the inspiration for this hymn: “A mighty fortress is our God!” 

Scriptures: Deuteronomy 33:27; 2 Samuel 22:2; Psalm 20:7; Psalm 46:1-3

Themes: Security, Trust, Confidence

Lyrics of the Hymn: 

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 pow’r 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,
Were not the right man on our side, the man of God’s own choosing.
Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He—
Lord Sabaoth His name, from age to age the same,
And He must win the battle.

And though this world, with devils filled, should threaten to undo us,
We will not fear, for God hath willed His truth to triumph through us.
The prince of darkness grim, we tremble not for him—
His rage we can endure, for lo! his doom is sure:
One little word shall fell him.

That word above all earthly pow’rs, no thanks to them, abideth;
The Spirit and the gifts are ours through Him who with us sideth.
Let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also—
The body they may kill; God’s truth abideth still:
His kingdom is forever.

By MARTIN LUTHER (1483–1546) Translated by Frederick H. Hedge (1805–1890)

Reference for the Hymn: 

Petersen, William. The Complete Book of Hymns (pp. 370-371). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Hymn Story, on NEARER, MY GOD, TO THEE, by William Petersen

Sarah Adams had to say farewell often, and it was always hard. Her mother had died when Sarah was only five—that was her first farewell. At thirty-two, as an actress playing Lady Macbeth in London’s Richmond Theater, she said farewell to the stage. She wanted to continue, but her health was failing. The health of her sister was also poor, and Adams feared the day when she would have to bid her farewell. She began to question her faith. Why did God seem so far away?  

When Adams’s pastor asked her and her sister to help him prepare a hymnal, the two responded eagerly, writing thirteen texts and sixty-two new tunes. As the sisters were finishing their work, their pastor mentioned that he was planning a sermon about Jacob’s dream of a ladder ascending to heaven and he needed an appropriate hymn. Adams soon completed the five stanzas of “Nearer, My God, to Thee.” In her own life, she learned that each step we take—even the difficult and painful farewells—only draws us nearer to God.  

Scriptures: Genesis 28:10-15; Psalm 119:148-152; James 4:8

Themes: Dedication, Service, Death  

Lyrics for the Hymn: 

Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee!

E’en though it be a cross that raiseth me;

Still all my song shall be, nearer, my God, to Thee,

Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee.  

Though like the wanderer, the sun gone down,

Darkness be over me, my rest a stone;

Yet in my dreams I’d be nearer, my God, to Thee,

Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee. 

There let the way appear steps unto heav’n;

All that Thou sendest me in mercy giv’n;

Angels to beckon me nearer, my God, to Thee,

Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee.  

Then, with my waking thoughts bright with Thy praise,

Out of my stony griefs, Bethel I’ll raise;

So by my woes to be nearer, my God, to Thee,

Nearer, my God, to Thee, nearer to Thee.  

By SARAH FLOWER ADAMS (1805–1848)

Reference for the Hymn: 

Petersen, William. The Complete Book of Hymns (p. 580). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Hymn Story, on BLESSED ASSURANCE, by William Petersen

Fanny Crosby wrote more than eight thousand hymns and used more than two hundred pen names. Under contract to a music publisher, she wrote three new hymns each week during much of her adult life. The fact that she was blind didn’t diminish her productivity. She would formulate an entire song in her mind and then dictate it to a friend or a secretary.  

One of her good friends was Phoebe Palmer Knapp, wife of the founder of Metropolitan Life Insurance Company. One time when Knapp came to Brooklyn to see Crosby, she brought a tune with her that she had composed. “Play it for me on the organ,” Crosby requested. Knapp did and then asked, “What does this tune say?” She turned to see Crosby kneeling in prayer. Knapp played it a second time and then a third. Finally, the blind woman responded, “That says, ‘Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine! O what a foretaste of glory divine!’”

Scriptures: Romans 8:1,16-17; 2 Timothy 1:12; Hebrews 10:18-20; 1 John 5:13

Themes: Assurance, Submission, Praise, Salvation 

Lyrics of the Hymn:

Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine!

O what a foretaste of glory divine!

Heir of salvation, purchase of God,

Born of His Spirit, washed in His blood.

This is my story, this is my song,

Praising my Savior all the day long;

This is my story, this is my song,

Praising my Savior all the day long. 

Perfect submission, perfect delight!

Visions of rapture now burst on my sight;

Angels descending bring from above

Echoes of mercy, whispers of love. 

Perfect submission—all is at rest,

I in my Savior am happy and blest;

Watching and waiting, looking above,

Filled with His goodness, lost in His love. 

By FANNY JANE CROSBY (1820–1915)

Reference for the Hymn:

Petersen, William. The Complete Book of Hymns (p. 94). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.

Hymn Story, on THE SOLID ROCK, by William Petersen

Many of the British hymn writers were children of clergy or from middle- or upper-class backgrounds. But not Edward Mote. His parents kept a pub in London. Mote said, “My Sundays were spent in the streets; so ignorant was I that I did not know that there was a God.” He was apprenticed to a cabinetmaker who took him to church, where he heard the gospel message. Mote himself became a successful cabinetmaker in a London suburb and was active in his local church.   

Mote wrote this hymn while he was working as a cabinetmaker. The chorus came to his mind as he was walking to work, and later in the day the stanzas came to him. The following Sunday afternoon, he visited the dying wife of a close friend. Mote didn’t know exactly what to say to her, so he quoted the four verses of the hymn he had just written. At the end of each verse, he repeated these words: “On Christ, the solid rock I stand; / All other ground is sinking sand.”   

Two years later, he published the hymn and titled it “The Immutable Basis of a Sinner’s Hope.” It is a hymn that combines deep biblical theology with sincere personal experience.  

Scriptures: Matthew 7:24-27; 1 Corinthians 3:11; 1 John 1:6-9
Themes: Hope, Salvation, Assurance 

Lyrics of the Hymn:

My hope is built on nothing less
Than Jesus’ blood and righteousness;
I dare not trust the sweetest frame,
But wholly lean on Jesus’ name.

On Christ, the solid rock, I stand;
All other ground is sinking sand,
All other ground is sinking sand.

When darkness veils His lovely face,
I rest on His unchanging grace;
In every high and stormy gale,
My anchor holds within the veil. 

His oath, His covenant, His blood
Support me in the whelming flood;
When all around my soul gives way,
He then is all my hope and stay.

When He shall come with trumpet sound,
O may I then in Him be found!
Dressed in His righteousness alone,
Faultless to stand before the throne!


Reference for the Hymn Story:
Petersen, William. The Complete Book of Hymns (pp. 112-113). Tyndale House Publishers. Kindle Edition.