As we commemorate Reformation Day and celebrate God’s power and faithfulness towards his people, we may sing “A Mighty Fortress” with renewed enthusiasm. We may sing with a sure trust in our God of the awesome armies, with a great confidence in our Saviour who even now is enthroned in heaven.

For many Christians, a favourite hymn is the one penned by Martin Luther, “A Mighty Fortress.” On Reformation Day—and throughout the year—the church sings this hymn with great passion. After a sermon celebrating the power and faithfulness of God our Savior, the organist pulls out a few extra stops as we lift up this cherished song.

Lord of the Sabbath?

As tends to happen with other tried and true songs, “A Mighty Fortress” contains some old expressions whose meanings are obscure. And while we love to sing familiar lyrics, it’s right that we know the meaning of what we are singing. Our hearts as well as our minds should be fully involved in the worship of God.

In “A Mighty Fortress,” in its second verse, we find a misunderstood phrase. Speaking of “the right Man on our side/ The Man of God’s own choosing,” Luther asks and answers a rhetorical question about our Saviour: “Dost ask who that may be? Christ Jesus, it is He.” To further identify him, his title is given: “Lord Sabaoth his Name.”

What is this title, “Lord Sabaoth?” Someone suggests that it’s linked to Jesus’s teaching in Matthew 12:1-8. There Jesus is disputing with the Pharisees about what is lawful on the Sabbath, and he ends his words with this definitive statement, “For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath” (v. 8). So we might conclude that in the second verse of “A Mighty Fortress,” we celebrate Jesus as the one with authority over the Lord’s day.

Lord of Hosts

But it’s not Jesus’s Sabbath lordship being celebrated in this line of the hymn. The confusion arises because the word “Sabaoth”—not Sabbath—is an English transliteration of a Hebrew word, sebaoth. Of course, Luther didn’t write his hymn (Ein Feste Burg) in Hebrew but in German. Yet in his original composition, he simply gave the German representation of the Hebrew word sebaoth. So from Hebrew to German to English, “Sabaoth” has found its way into this favourite song.

For what the word “Sabaoth” means, we turn to the Hebrew Old Testament. There we regularly find this title for God: “Yahweh Sebaoth.” This title is often translated in English Bibles as “the LORD of hosts.”

Over what kind of hosts is the LORD? This is debated. Some passages depict God as the head of human armies. For example, in 1 Samuel 17:45 David confronts Goliath with these words: “I come to you in the name of the LORD of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel.” Other texts show God commanding the celestial bodies, like the sun, the moon and the stars: “Lift up your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one and calls forth each of them by name” (Isa 40:26). Still others say that the LORD’s hosts are heavenly creatures, such as the angels. The prophet Michaiah once described this war-room scene in heaven: “I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven around him” (1 Kgs 22:19).

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