This great hymn of the faith was written by the reformer Martin Luther sometime between 1527 and 1529. It is often referred to as the "Battle Hymn" of the Reformation, because of the effect that it had increasing the "Reformer's" cause.
The words parapharsed from the 46th Psalm, has had 80 translations, in 53 languages making it one of the most known hymns of all time. The 46th psalm was written in response to God’s delivering His people from severe calamity and trial. Psalm 46 begins with “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear.” It then describes a event in which the city of Jerusalem was under siege by enemy armies, using pictures of the earth shaking and mountains falling and waters flooding to express how dire the situation was. Then the psalmist describes how, though the Israelites could do nothing in their own power, God was with His people and He could not be shaken nor moved and He won the victory. The final stanza of the psalm looks ahead to the future when God shall defeat all armies and establish his eternal reign. It presents God as the conqueror who is the one and only victorious and sovereign God. Therefore He tells us: “be still and know that I am God”. Martin Luther used Psalm 46 as the inspiration for “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” Luther’s four stanzas interpret this psalm from his own experience during the troubled times of the Reformation. He interpreted the psalm to be not merely expressing God’s protection and strength for God’s people of Jerusalem, but for God’s people of all times. And he understood the battle described in the psalm to be more than an earthly battle but a spiritual battle. So Luther saw in Psalm 46 a great encouragement for himself and the Reformers that God would be a strong refuge and strengh for them in their current time of trouble—a battle against not merely fleshly armies but in the realm of spiritual warfare as they defended the Gospel itself.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_DlNzrvrugM
