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+ + + In Nomine Jesu + + +
Please join me in prayer: May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be pleasing in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. Amen.
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.
On this observance of Reformation Day, we sang, as the Divinely‑inspired psalmist intended that we sing, Psalm 46. That psalm is appointed for Reformation Day apparently because Psalm 46, or at least its first verse, is the basis of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther’s hymn that we know as “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God”, which hymn we sang as the Hymn of the Day (Lutheran Service Book 657). The hymn later came to be known as the “Battle Hymn of the Reformation”, but originally, when Luther authored its text and its tune, apparently some time between 1527 and 1529, the hymn was intended as a hymn of comfort—comfort sorely needed in Wittenberg, in the midst of things such as an epidemic of the bubonic plague, which killed anywhere from 30 to 90 percent or more of those whom it infected. Similarly, the hymn and particularly the psalm on which it is based can comfort us in the midst of such things as a pandemic of the coronavirus, which, in the United States at least, may be killing somewhere between only 2 to 3 percent of those whom it infects. This morning we reflect on Psalm 46, directing our thoughts to the theme, “The Lord is with us; we will not fear!”
At least one Church father thought that Psalm 46 was written in connection with a plague at the time of King David (for example, 2 Samuel 24:10-17), but more likely is that Psalm 46 was written in connection with a military victory, such as either that military victory under King Jehoshaphat over the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites (for example, 2 Chronicles 20:20‑30), or that military victory under King Hezekiah over Sennacherib’s army (2 Chronicles 32:20‑23). Regardless, Psalm 46 consists of three parts, and each part with words paints a different picture of great power—the creation and dissolution of the world, the raging of the nations in its history, and the Divine Kingdom of peace at the end of the world—and each part arguably concludes with a confession of faith in God. Together the three parts form a song of complete trust in God as a strong refuge, particularly in the face of a crisis.
With Psalm 46 we can say that God is our refuge and strength, a very present (or, perhaps better, “well proved”) help in trouble—He is a help “well proved” both on the basis of God’s revelation and on the basis of our own experience. Therefore, we can also say that we will not fear, essentially no matter what happens. But, do we not fear, or are we afraid? Are we afraid for the world, our country, our state, family, or selves on account of the coronavirus? Are we afraid for the country on account of the election currently underway? Are we afraid for the Church on earth, our Synod, District, Circuit, or congregation on account of apparent disunity or shrinking numbers and finances? Are we afraid for our loved ones or for ourselves on account of some other reason? Any examples of turmoil, like those examples Psalm 46 describes, give us both a glimpse of God’s final judgment and a reminder that, on account of our sinful nature and all of our sins, we deserve both death here in time and eternal torment in hell for eternity. That we have to seek refuge and strength in God is because, on our own, we are threatened and helpless.
Through Psalm 46 God calls and enables us all to come and to behold His works, and to stop our hostilities against Him and to accept the obvious conclusions of what He has done. God calls us to turn in sorrow from our sin, to trust Him to forgive our sin, and to want to do better than to keep sinning. When we so repent, then God forgives us. God forgives our sin of being afraid when we should not be afraid, and God forgives all our other sin, too, whatever our sin might be. God forgives us for the sake of His Son Jesus Christ. When we seek refuge and strength in Him, we are blessed with salvation and can rejoice.
One commentator on Psalm 46 suggests Luther took “liberty” in identifying the Lord of Hosts, Whom the psalm says is “with us”, as Jesus Christ, though Luther was hardly the first nor the only one to so identify that Lord. Psalm 46 calls God a number of things—refuge, strength, help, the Most High, the Lord of Hosts, fortress, the God of Jacob—but perhaps most important to us is that He is our refuge and strength, that He is our fortress, that He is with us. As prophesied by Isaiah (Isaiah 7:14), the Virgin Mary conceived and bore God’s Son and called His Name “Immanuel”, which means God with us (Matthew 1:22-23). In the God-man Jesus Christ, God, out of His great love for us, was with us in order to save us, by dying on the cross for our sins, in our place, the death that we deserved. Psalm 46 may have originally been Israel’s praise of God for His victory over Israel’s enemies—whether the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites or Sennacherib’s army—but now Psalm 46 is our praise of God for His victory over our enemies—sin, death, and the power of the devil. As God graciously chose Jacob (also called “Israel”) and fulfilled His promises to him, so God graciously chooses us and fulfills His promises to us. Above all other people, places, and things, we seek refuge in—we trust in—God alone, and He forgives our sin—He saves us—through His Word and Sacraments.
Psalm 46 describes the unmoved, holy habitation of the Most High, a refuge not because of its high walls or because of its secure position but because God is present in Her midst. And, Psalm 46 says that there is a river whose streams make glad that City of God. But, the earthly city of Jerusalem really did not have such a river, so in a combination of the Garden of Eden, which had a river that watered the Garden and divided and became four rivers (Genesis 2:10-14), and the earthly city of Jerusalem, Psalm 46, like other prophetic visions of God’s eternal city of the New Jerusalem, envisions water no longer as a threat but as a source of never-ending refreshment, flowing out from the throne of God to benefit the whole world (for example, Ezekiel 47:1; Revelation 22:1-2). Indeed, not only in Holy Baptism’s water included in God’s command and combined with God’s word, but also in the reading and preaching of that Word, in that Word included in and combined with the pastor’s touch in individual Holy Absolution, and in that Word included in and combined with bread and wine that are Christ’s Body and Blood in the Sacrament of the Altar, God’s grace flows out to us as He forgives our sins and so saves us and gives us eternal life. In all of these ways He is with us and blesses us with safety where He Himself is present in the fortress of His holy Church.
We thank and praise God for His preserving His Word and Sacraments in our midst. In that regard, we thank and praise God for His 503 years ago this coming Saturday having Luther presumably nail and mail His “Ninety‑Five Theses against the Preachers of Indulgences”, and so for God’s beginning a reformation, or “restoration”, of the Church on earth that nearly 13 years later led to the presentation of the Augsburg Confession and so the identification of the Lutheran Church as the continuation of the lower-case “c” “catholic” Church. The Church on earth is always in need of such reformation, or “restoration”, and, because God is present in His Church, He is well‑positioned to help Her when She needs it, regularly, at just the right time. Similarly, we seek God’s help and strength to face all the things that He in His wisdom permits us to face in other aspects of our lives, and we know, from His revelation and from our past experiences, that He again will help us in our trouble at just the right time. Therefore, we will live our lives in complete fearlessness. We will not fear though the earth gives way. We will not fear though the mountains be moved into the heart of the sea. We will not fear though the sea’s waters roar and foam. We will not fear though the mountains tremble at the sea’s swelling. We will not fear though more people get infected by the coronavirus and die from it. We will not fear though the political party we like may not control the White House, Senate, or House of Representatives. We will not fear though our congregation might by human measures be small and struggling. We will not fear though our loved ones or we ourselves are afflicted in some other way.
Considering Psalm 46 this morning, we have realized that “The Lord is with us; we will not fear!” There were times in Luther’s life when he was close to despair, and reportedly then he often would invite his coworker Philip Melanchthon to sing Psalm 46 with him, and so they would sing Luther’s hymn of comfort. As also we sing Luther’s hymn and the psalm on which it is based, God reminds us that His works of judgment ultimately bring peace, the peace that we have between ourselves and Him by grace through faith in His Son Jesus Christ, and also the peace at the end of the world. By the faithful preaching of Christ’s cross and by the right Sacramental distribution of the cross’s benefits, God is exalted not only among the Jews, not only among the Gentiles, but in the whole earth. With the Church of every time and place, we say the Lord of Hosts is with us, our God is our mighty fortress, we will not fear.
Amen.
The peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+ + + Soli Deo Gloria + + +