Life hack

Okay guys, pay attention. This is a very important life hack to use if you want to sustain your marriage.

Step number one- put on a pair of fast running shoes. Step two- open the front door. Step three- if your wife asks you, “Honey, does this bulwark make my butt look big?” You quickly reply, No dear, in my eyes, your bulwark is never failing.” Step four- proceed to run for your dear life!

How many times have you actually heard the word bulwark, or correctly used it in a conversation? No very many, I’d guess. So when I heard this is a song the other morning, I knew this would be my post this week. Defined, a bulwark is a wall or embankment raised as a defensive fortification; a rampart. Something serving as a defense or safeguard.

One spot you’ll find it is in Psalm 46. “A mighty fortress is our God, a bulwark never failing.”

The German reformer Martin Luther turned it into a song in 1529.

He was born on November 10, 1483. At seventeen he enrolled in law school. One day in the year 1505 while walking in the woods, Martin Luther got caught in a terrible thunderstorm and he began to run to seek shelter at the school but before he reached the safety of the school lightening struck near where he was running. He vowed that if he were saved, he’d become a monk. He survived the near death experience and true to his word, he dropped out of law school and entered the monastery.

He put forth every effort to please God and to do good works. He devoted his life to religious fast and flagellations (A beating or whipping; a flogging; the discipline of the scourge) long pilgrimages and many hours in prayer as well as constant confession. The closer he tried to get to God and the more he did to do to gain God’s favor, the more aware he became of his sinfulness. Though he lived the life of a monk without reproach, Martin felt that he was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed conscience. After meditating on the “In it the righteousness of God is revealed, as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live.'” He began to understand that the righteousness of God is that by which the righteous lives by a gift of God, namely by faith and Martin Luther was saved by the grace of God.

It was Halloween of 1517 that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the church door at Wittenberg. In his Theses he accused the Roman Catholic organization of many heresies, particularly the selling of indulgences. An indulgence was a writ offered by the Church, for money, guaranteeing the remission of sin, and a way to reduce the amount of punishment one has to undergo for (forgiven) sins.

In 1520 Luther was condemned for his Protestant views by Pope Leo X and commanded to renounce or reaffirm his 95 Theses. He was given 24 hours to consider his choice. He did apologize for his harsh tone, but reaffirmed his belief in his Theses. After knowing all of these circumstances, understanding that he was now in hiding in exile, you can understand the verse much better. It is interesting to note, that even though Luther was condemned to death, he escaped martyrdom and died of natural causes in 1546.

The doctrine found in the lines of Martin Luther’s song is that because of faithfulness, God’s faithfulness, we have a comfort to know that we can flee to God for refuge and we can trust him to protect us.

Martin Luther went on to translate and publish the Bible in the common language of the German people, from which the King James Bible was translated in 1611. Luther published his German New Testament translation in 1522 and completed the Old Testament resulting in an entire German language Bible by 1534.

But the best life hack, is to trust God for your salvation by faith.

And your challenge today, after you return from your life saving run, is to enjoy my favorite version of this song. Oh yes, and bonus points for using “bulwark” in a conversation this week!

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