God Moves in a Mysterious Way
The tragic life of William Cowper resulted in one of the great hymns, declaring God's sovereignty and finding hope in His goodness through the storms!
Welcome to another Friday Classic Hymn. If you've ever said the words "God works in mysterious ways", you may have thought that came from a Bible verse, but it's more likely it was inspired by today's hymn: "God Moves in a Mysterious Way".
This wasn't a hymn I knew - I had to learn it this week - but I did know the story. Years ago I listened to John Piper tell the story of the man who wrote the song. His biography is beautiful, and I encourage you to listen to it, but I'll share a short version in a few moments.
This is a very profound hymn with a very sad background, but it remains popular and meaningful to people today, especially those who are down, struggling, or perhaps prone to depression.
Do you know this hymn? If you have any stories to share about it, or if this hymn means something special to you, please share that in the comments below. Share where you've sung the song or what memories it brings to you. If you haven't subscribed to the channel already, I would really appreciate if you would do that.
Let's talk about this beautiful but tragic song.
The Story Behind "God Moves in a Mysterious Way"
The man behind this classic hymn is William Cowper. He's got a 'W' in his surname, but it's pronounced "Cooper". He was one of the great poets of the 18th century, although he was known as "Mad Cowper" because he was terribly afflicted with depression to the point that nobody knew what was wrong with him. He was admitted to an insane asylum later in his life because of this deep struggle of his.
He was born into a pretty distinguished family in England in 1731. He came into the world as the son of a very distinguished minister who was a chaplain to King George II. His mother was actually a descendant of John Donne, the famous poet. But sadly, his mother died when he was six years old, and he wrote some very stirring works about his mother later on in his life.
His father subsequently sent him to a boarding school, and here it seems his struggles began. He was very badly bullied. With no mother now and a distant father, he started to become prone to deep depression. At the time it was known as "melancholy" - there was no real knowledge of depression in those days except this melancholy which would afflict people.
Once he'd left school, these bouts of depression became worse. He qualified as a lawyer and worked for a while, but then his dad got him a position as a government lawyer. This totally pushed him over the edge. The pressure of this position he was supposed to take was too much for him, and Cowper had his first major bout with depression at that point, just before he was supposed to start this job. He had a complete breakdown.
After that, he never really worked again. He was in and out of institutions and cared for by different people as he tried to live his life. There are different accounts of suicide attempts, but God had a plan for his life, it seems, because he kept being spared.
It was in the 1760s that he actually came to faith. At this point, Cowper was recovering from a very bad bout of depression at St Alban's Asylum, and he was under the care of a doctor who was a Christian - Dr Nathaniel Cotton. Cotton preached the Gospel to him, and eventually Cowper placed his faith in Christ and became a Christian. This changed his life in many ways. His depression and his fight against depression took on a whole new angle, as he knew himself to be a child of God.
A little while later, he became friends with John Newton, who was famously the hymn writer of "Amazing Grace". (I've already covered John Newton's story in my Amazing Grace Friday Classic Hymn.) These two became very close, and Newton provided great pastoral care for this struggling man. He would take William Cowper with him as he visited his congregation.
A few years later, when he was putting together a hymnal, John Newton asked Cowper to write some hymns. "God Moves in a Mysterious Way" was one of the hymns published in this hymnal, Olney Hymns, in the 1770s.
There are some stories that he wrote this just after a suicide attempt, and others say just before. Nobody is quite sure what the truth is, but he obviously wrote it when he was in a good place because there are some encouraging words, as we shall see.
But the sad thing is that Cowper really struggled with himself all the way until he died. In fact, according to many sources, he believed himself to have been lost. Cowper was a Calvinist - his view of the faith had been very influenced by George Whitefield rather than John Wesley, the two main theologians of the day. Whitefield was a Calvinist who believed God predestined His elect for salvation, whereas Wesley favoured the view that you have the responsibility to say yes to God's offer.
Being a Calvinist, Cowper would start convincing himself time and again that he was not elect and that he was damned, and he couldn't seem to shake this. In the end, this seemed to really affect his depression, and most people believe that he died in a state of great despair because he believed himself to be damned.
However, some others believe that he came right in the end, and some have got his final words as being these: "I am not shut out of heaven after all." We're not sure if that's true or not.
What a tragic life and what a sad situation. But out of it came some beautiful hymns, and this hymn in particular gained popularity because people all over the place recognised how true these words are.
In fact, there's a story in the 1840s of a man who had to lay off a bunch of workers from his mill. His daughter was there while he was doing this, and as the workers began to feel sad at what had happened, she started to sing one of the lines of the song and gave them courage as they faced this terrible thing in their lives.
I think in the end it shows how God can use even darkness, struggle, and sadness for good, because Cowper is still widely loved and regarded as a great hymn writer despite his great struggles. You can read a lot about him online, and as I said, John Piper's biography of him is very well worth the listen or the read.
Let's take a look at the words that he wrote for this beautiful song.
What Do the Lyrics of "God Moves in a Mysterious Way" Mean?
Verse 1
God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm.
As I said earlier, a lot of people have that phrase in their mind: "God works in mysterious ways", and this is where it comes from.
Cowper wrote that in his struggles God is mysterious and you can't understand Him. Isn't that true? As much as He's revealed all that we need for salvation, there are mysteries that we don't understand about God. He performs these wonders, and somehow He's just so far above us. I mean, He did say in His word that His ways are not our ways, so there's always that element of mystery in our faith as God does what He does.
He plants His footsteps in the sea and rides upon the storm. That's a metaphor for the storms of life - the seas. If you think of Jesus walking on the sea, God does that in our lives, doesn't He? As the storms rage, Jesus walks across the stormy seas and calms the storms.
Thank God for His mysterious ways and His wonders to ride the storms and help us through them.
Verse 2
Deep in unfathomable mines of never-failing skill,
He treasures up His bright designs, and works His sovereign will.
His unfathomable ways and designs are beautiful and bright, but they're deep and we can't understand them. But we trust in His sovereign will, and that last line there is very important in William Cowper's thinking. God will do what God will do, and we can trust Him to do what is right. He believed that. He believed that God sovereignly did whatever He wanted to do, and we need to accept it.
It reminds me of Romans 8, where Paul says that God uses all things for the good of those who love Him. He uses all things. So we don't understand, but His ways are skilful, never failing, and in the end bright. In His sovereignty, He makes good things come out of even bad things, though we can't fathom it at the time.
Verse 3
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take; the clouds ye so much dread
are big with mercy, and shall break in blessings on your head.
This is the verse that the young girl sang to the workers who'd just been laid off.
That is very profound. Cowper was saying when you're feeling fearful - and he much of the time was - take courage. Jesus obviously says that to the disciples as He was walking across the waters to them on the storm: "Take courage, it is I."
You and I can take courage as we face our fears. This is why: because the clouds that we are dreading actually have great mercy in them, and they'll break in blessings on your head. So as the clouds break, though we may be fearing what's going on, God is bringing blessings even through the storms.
Isn't that profound? Maybe you need that today. Maybe you're facing storms and big clouds, and you need to be reminded that God's mercy will rain down on you and bless you even as you face a storm. Take courage.
Verse 4
Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, but trust Him for His grace;
behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face.
Don't judge Him by your own understanding. You aren't going to understand what He's doing - just trust Him for His grace.
Behind a frowning providence He hides a smiling face. Though there seems to be a frown - think of Cowper and his deep depression; he thought that God may have been frowning on the world and on him - but he said behind what seems to be a frown, there's a smile. God is doing what's good. Not that God's taking pleasure in our pain - that's not what he's saying. He's saying though we can't see it, God is doing good, and so He smiles as He sees the good that He is bringing about.
We can trust Him for this. Whatever you're going through, don't judge it by your own feeble understanding, but trust God for His grace and trust Him that He will be doing good. He is doing good in all your situations.
Verse 5
His purposes will ripen fast, unfolding every hour;
the bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower.
This is another beautiful picture. Think of a piece of fruit that isn't ripe yet. You need to wait for it to be ripe before you eat it, and it's the same with our struggles. God is bringing about His purposes, but they have to ripen. We can't rush them. They're unfolding every hour.
The bud may have a bitter taste, but sweet will be the flower. They don't taste so great as they're ripening, but when they flower in the end, it's going to be a sweet-tasting joy to see how God has used your bitterness to bring about good.
This is heavy stuff. It takes faith to understand what he's talking about here.
Verse 6
Blind unbelief is sure to err, and scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter, and He will make it plain.
That's how he ends the song. If you're unbelieving, you're going to look at His works and just throw up your hands in despair and say, "There can't be a God," because look at the pain in this life. But that's a mistake - that's an error.
God is His own interpreter. In the end, God does what God does, and we need to trust Him, and He will make it plain.
Maybe this is what you need to hold on to today: that you will understand one day why God did what He did and allowed what He did.
Of course, there are two schools of thought. There are the determinists who believe God has determined everything, and that's where Cowper found himself. Everything that happens, God has caused it to happen - even sin. That's what the Calvinist view is: God even causes people to sin because in His sovereignty He is working things for good.
I fall on the Wesleyan-Arminian free will side, where I believe God grants us true free will. But in His sovereignty, He uses our free will - even if we choose evil of our own volition - and uses it for good in the end.
There are the two different views, and I don't know which one you're favouring, but in the end we're still brothers and sisters despite these differences. The point is, God will still use all things for good for those who love Him, and one day He will make it plain how He did that when we meet Him in glory.
Conclusion
What words spoke to you today as we heard these hard but meaningful words? What thoughts do you have to share? Please pop them in the comments below.
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We sang this hymn to the most popular tune, which is Dundee. This is from the old Scottish Psalter hymnal in the 1600s and is the most common tune for this song.
Let's glory in the God Who is mysterious but can be trusted.
References
Limmer Shepherd, W.J. 1923. Great Hymns and their Stories. Lutterworth Press: London
Bradley, I. 1989. The Penguin Book of Hymns. Penguin Group: London
Colquhoun, F. 1986. Preaching on Favourite Hymns. Mowbray: London
