The Poet Who Emerged from Darkness

In the bitter winter of 1773, William Cowper sat alone in his room in Olney, England, convinced that God had abandoned him forever. The poet and hymn writer had sunk into a depression so severe that he attempted to take his own life. For months, he could not write, could not pray, could scarcely speak. His friend John Newton — the former slave trader who had penned "Amazing Grace" — visited him daily, sitting quietly beside him when words failed them both.

Then, slowly, light returned. Cowper began walking the gardens again. He picked up his pen. And from that season of utter desolation poured some of the most treasured hymns in the English language, including the words, "God moves in a mysterious way, His wonders to perform." The man who had been certain of God's rejection became a voice of comfort for millions who would walk their own valleys in centuries to come.

Cowper's night was long and brutal. But it was still a night — not a forever.

The psalmist David knew this rhythm in his bones. "Weeping may endure for a night," he wrote, "but joy comes in the morning." Psalm 30 is the testimony of someone who cried out from the lowest pit and found that the Almighty heard him. God turned his mourning into dancing and clothed him with gladness. Not because the suffering was not real, but because the God who hears is more real still.