#216: HYMN REVIEW: God Moves in a Mysterious Way
One of the biggest mysteries to overwhelm mankind is the ways of God. We spend our whole life playing catch-up to what God's plan and will is.
For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, declares the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8&9
...His understanding is unsearchable. Isaiah 40:28
Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgements and how inscrutable His ways. Romans 11:33
This was the case with William Cowper throughout his Christian walk as he frequently reflected on God's sovereignty and how his life featured in it. Remember William Cowper? Exactly. He and John Newton (the author of Amazing Grace) were friends. Together they wrote over 276 hymns. Their poetic collection is called the Olney Hymns - named after the town in England where they both ministered in.
Before writing this hymn in 1769, William battled with mental challenges which led to severe depression episodes. It was during one of his mental crises in 1764, while he was at the St Albans Insane Asylum that he came in contact with the bible and God used John 11 and Romans 3:25 to bring him to saving grace. 3 years after he moved to Olney to be under Newton's ministry.
He was convinced about God's providence in his life which could be described as one long accumulation of pain. He could not understand why and how God could use someone with mental pain to work wonders in 18th century England. He titled this hymn - Light Shining out of Darkness. In the hymn, he reflects on God's sovereignty, goodness and wisdom which should form the foundation of every believer that is leaning on Him. He felt that God does not always act in ways we expect Him to (which he tags as mysterious). This hymn today can be a source of faith in its purest form - trusting God, not because of what you aim to get but in His wisdom and His goodness even when we do not think or apparently agree. William himself lived with this struggle. He could not see how God was good to him, but he could not deny either, the faithfulness and consistency of God's goodness throughout the ages. And while we also cannot claim to know all the mysteries of God's plan, can we in humility, like William trust God [not by feeble sense]?
These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland. If they had been thinking of that land from which they had gone out, they would have had opportunity to return. But as it is, they desired a better country, that is, a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared for them a city. Heb 11:13-16
And all these, though commended through their faith, did not receive what was promised. Heb 11:39
Hymn Lyrics and Review:
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.
The first obvious mystery from verse 1 is that one would expect that when God steps into the sea, the storm would be calm; yet far beyond our expectations, sometimes He chooses to ride upon the storms carrying us in His arms rather than calm the storms
Deep in unfathomable mines
Of never failing skill
He treasures up His bright designs
And works His sovereign will.
Oh, the skills. God is so good at this. Take the mystery of Jesus for instance, right from the garden, He promised the coming of the seed of the woman, yet we waited 4000 years for Jesus; and all the while, through Abraham, through Israel, through David, through the Prophets, He was working out His sovereign will. But the bright design of it was hidden in unfathomable mines. No one knew from beginning to end what He was doing.
Ye fearful saints, fresh courage take;
The clouds ye so much dread
Are big with mercy and shall break
In blessings on your head.
The cloud we so much dread is big with mercy unknown to us. And we could spend so many years cursing God for passing us through that cloud while being blinded of the mercy drops that the cloud brought and showers of blessing.
Judge not the LORD by feeble sense;
But trust Him for His grace;
Behind a frowning providence
He hides a smiling face.
This is my favourite and most recited verse of this hymn. The more I read and meditate on sacred scripture, the more I realise that when darkness seems to hide His face, I can rest in His unchanging grace to scale through every storm. The most resounding promise in scripture is that He will never leave us nor forsake us - even when we don't feel Him nor see Him, He is a God that darkness does not conceal. it does for us, but even the darkness is light to Him (Psalm 139:12). He remains Adonai El Roi.
His purposes will ripen fast;
Unfolding every hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flower.
I cannot count the number of times when I am brought to awe as I see the will of God unfold for my life and the church; especially His goodness in all of it even though the buds tasted bitter in the interim.
Blind unbelief is sure to err
And scan His work in vain;
God is His own interpreter,
And He will make it plain.
We can try. But in vain. As the holy writers say - there is no searching of His judgement/understanding. God is His own interpreter and only to whom He reveals His will to will know His ways. He will make it plain in its time.
Just like the heroes of faith in Heb 11, Habakkuk lived in a trying period. He prayed to God (Hab 1) for deliverance and justice, but when God responded to his prayer (Hab 2), God told him that he should scribe what He would do - yet it was for a future time. Habakkuk would live through this hardship and even though given a vision of God's plan he did not touch it. And to end his book of prophecy, Habakkuk wrote a remarkable doxology which can spur our hearts to binge God's providence just like William Cowper. We can lean on God's mysterious ways in our walk of faith with the LORD for times when the darkness would not lift:
Though the fig tree should not blossom,
nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail
and the fields yield no food,
the flock be cut off from the fold
and there be no herd in the stalls,
yet I will rejoice in the LORD;
I will take joy in the God of my salvation. Hab 3:17&18
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