Be Still and Know That I am God

Be Still and Know That I Am God
Psalm 46

For nearly a thousand years, most of what is now Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Belgium, and other areas comprised the Holy Roman Empire. It had a legislative assembly confusingly called a diet, which in 1521 met at a German city called Worms (hence the even more confusing title the Diet of Worms) to consider the pope’s condemnation of the teachings of Martin Luther (not to be confused with Martin Luther King Jr., as sometimes happens). Luther had published views on the nature of the Christian faith and the authority of the church that conflicted with the church’s official teaching. The Edict of Worms declared that Luther should be arrested and punished. Whereas the pope had taken words from Psalm 74 as the title of his encyclical about Luther, “Arise, Lord, and Defend Your Cause,” Luther, threatened with execution, took his motto from Psalm 46 and wrote the hymn “A Mighty Fortress is Our God,” which he based on the psalm. Nowadays his hymn is less controversial and even appears in some Roman Catholic hymnbooks...