Text: Psalm 46 and Revelation 19:11-21. Hymn: 656, A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.
The Battle Hymn of the Reformation, Kantor Beethe and I had seen so many good renditions of this hymn that we were reluctant to create our own. But Kantor changed his mind, so we stepped up. I think it turned out well. The two readings are among the scripture that the hymn references.
At the end of the third verse, the lyric is, “one little word can fell him (Satan).” We dropped the volume on the phrase, and I almost sing-song-taunted the line. What little word fells Satan? There’s no official answer. Some have said, “Jesus”; others have said, “Liar!” “Jesus” works, but “Liar” is great because it goes to the core of the problem of the devil. He is the deceiver. He doesn’t care if we believe in him, just that we don’t believe that Christ died to save us. The Pharisees of the New Testament time didn’t worship Satan outright, and yet they were of their father, the devil (John 8:39-47).
He’s judged. The deed is done. Amen.
Dan
iggyantiochus
I thought the episode came off well. I also used that setting of A Mighty Fortress this past Sunday and I think it went well. I think I surprised a few people with stanza 3, though.
Christ used, “For it is written…” when confronted by Satan, but that’s three little words and one bigger word.
If we’re feeling ambitious, I vote for eight stanzas of “For All the Saints” next week.
I am going to lay low and not opine on the text this week, and instead focus on the music itself!
First of all, Dan spoke about this week’s 32′ pipes in last week’s comments. Chilling. Absolutely chilling.
Kantor Beethe, is that a zimbelstern in the latter half of verse two?
FYI: I am on my fourth or fifth listening tonight. I lost count!
Good ears, Iggy; there definitely a lot of 32’s this week. I think they’re most noticable on St. 3.
As for the Zimbelstern, yes there is one on St 2. I used it at the point where it says “of Sabaoth Lord.” I like to use the zimbelstern when talking about angels, so I thought it fit.
I’m glad you like it. It was fun to do.
Check out the German for the end of verse 3 and the beginning of verse 4:
“Ein Wörtlein kann ihn fehlen.”
“Das Wort, sie sollen lassen stahn…”
Note, however, that the German word “das” can translate either as the definite article (“The Word”) or the demonstrative pronoun (“That Word”). I tend to think that Luther meant the latter in this case, referring at the beginning of verse 4 to the word at the end of verse 3. In that case, the Wörtlein in verse 3 that fells Satan is the the Word/Christ in the John 1 sense.
Very nice. Thanks!