Keep Us Steadfast
Today is the birthday of Martin Luther, born in 1483, and so it seemed appropriate to choose of the hymns he wrote as the poem for this week.
Luther’s poetry – for what are lyrics but poetry set to music – changed the course of cultural history in the West as much as almost anything else he did. Prior to Luther, you see, church theologians from Augustine forward regarded music with some reservation. Yes, it could inspire, they admitted, but it so played upon human emotions and roused human passions that they found it inherently suspect. For this reason, congregational song was sparse in medieval churches.
Luther, however, who had grown up with music in his household and deeply loved melody and verse, put an end to all that:
The riches of music are so excellent and so precious that words fail me whenever I attempt to discuss and describe them…. In sum, next to the Word of God, the noble art of music is the greatest treasure in the world (Luther, from the Foreword to Georg Rhau’s Collection, “Delightful Symphonies,” 1538).
As for those who disagreed, either because they were suspicious of music or simply had no appreciation for it, Luther had no patience:
A person who gives this some thought and yet does not regard music as a marvelous creation of God, must be a clodhopper indeed and does not deserve to be called a human being; he should be permitted to hear nothing but the braying of asses and the grunting of hogs. (Ibid.)
Luther contributed four of the eight hymns that comprised the first hymnbook of the Reformation, published in Wittenberg in 1523. This, and successive collections, shaped the imagination of generations. His insistence on music as a gift from God and the value of congregational singing changed worship in the West, especially in Germany. As Samuel Taylor Coleridge wrote,
Luther did as much for the Reformation by his hymns as by his translation of the Bible. In Germany the hymns are known by heart by every peasant; they advise, they argue from the hymns, and every soul in the church praises God like a Christian, with words which are natural and yet sacred to his mind.
But Luther didn’t only change the church’s opinions about music, he changed the larger culture and created the environment in which millions would grow up singing songs, playing instruments, and in general loving music. One of those was Johann Sebastian Bach, whose Lutheran background not only provided him an inheritance of rich music – most of his recent ancestors, siblings and cousins were musicians – but would inspire him to bend his talents toward glorifying God. For like Luther, Bach believed that music achieved its divinely intended purpose when it not only helped us hear and remember the biblical story but complimented it, rending its message in note, tone, and meter. It is simply stunning to realize that had there been no Luther, there likely would have been no Bach.
Although Luther’s most famous hymn is “A Might Fortress is our God,” I have chosen for this day his simpler prayer that God would keep us steadfast. A few days after a tumultuous and highly partisan election and as we head into a holiday season shaped as much or more by commercialism as it is by piety, the words seem peculiarly apt.
Lord, keep us steadfast in thy Word;
Curb those who by deceit or sword
Would wrest the kingdom from your Son
And bring to naught all he has done.
Lord Jesus Christ, your power make known,
For you are Lord of lords alone;
Defend you holy church that we
May sing your praise triumphantly
O Comforter of priceless worth,
Bring peace and unity to earth.
Support us in our final strife
And lead us out of death to life.
Martin Luther, 1541
Post image: Gustav Adolf Spangenberg, “Luther Making Music With His Family,” c. 1875.
For more information on Luther as poet and musician, see the following site. (Thanks to Pat Shaw for this link!)
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