God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform;
He plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.
Deep in unfathomable mines, of never-failing skill;
He fashions up his bright designs, and works his sovereign will.
Ye fearful saints fresh courage take, the clouds that you much dread,
Are big with mercy and will break in blessings on your head.
That is several verses of a hymn written by William Cowper in 1773. Cowper was a poet who suffered from extreme bouts of depression and mental illness. He was institutionalized for over a year after a suicide attempt due to his fear of being examined for a position with the House of Lords. After he was released, he found lodging with a Reverend Morley Unwin, an evangelical preacher, and his family. After Reverend Unwin was killed in a riding accident in 1767, the Unwin family and Cowper moved to Olney where he became acquainted with John Newton, who wrote the hymn, “Amazing Grace.” The two became friends even though they were very different personalities. Newton convinced Cowper to collaborate with him on writing hymns for a hymn book he wanted to publish. While Cowper had written poetry all his life, the two years he worked with Newton were his primary time of hymn writing. Unfortunately his mental health declined again and he didn’t continue working with Newton. Newton, however, finished the project and published Olney Hymns in 1779 with 67 hymns written by Cowper and 280 written by Newton.
One of Cowper’s hymns was the song we now know as “God Moves in a Mysterious Way.” In the Olney Hymns, the song was titled “Light Shining Out of Darkness.” That perhaps described Cowper’s feelings as he wrote the words. There is a story told about the writing of this song which lacks any factual evidence. The story says that Cowper once again planned to commit suicide by drowning himself, but that the fog was either too dense for the cab driver to find his way to the river or that the driver intentionally didn’t take Cowper to the river. At any rate, after driving a while, he dropped Cowper off where Cowper was surprised to find he was back at his own lodgings. Whether that is a true story or not, that being lost in a fog could represent Cowper’s mental state whenever he was suffering from depresssion.
After a year, he did recover from that episode of depression but no longer felt inspired to write hymns.
Most of us have heard people say “God moves in mysterious ways” to accomplish his aims. Perhaps we’ve said it ourselves. Those words aren’t in the Bible, but you can see their truth in many of the Bible stories. Sometimes we merely blame those mysterious ways on circumstances. A friend and a preacher I knew for many years always said he didn’t believe in circumstances. He believed in the Lord helping us in all those unexpected, unexplainable ways.
So, when I was writing Mira’s story and pushing her toward Sourwood Mountain when that seemed the last place she would consider going and marrying would be the last thing she would consider doing, I thought of the Lord’s mysterious ways to accomplish His wonders by sometimes blocking some paths for us while opening others. That happened with Mira and made that old hymn a perfect last sentence in my story.
At the time, I didn’t know anything about the hymn’s author. I was only pleased to come across the beautiful words of his hymn when I was looking for the ending I needed. Even though, William Cowper, may have struggled to embrace the Lord’s love and help, he did let the Lord use him to pen those words that all these years later can still inspire and comfort others.
Do you find the words of old hymns inspiring?