William Cowper's New Song from the Asylum

In the winter of 1763, William Cowper tried to end his life three times. The brilliant young English lawyer — paralyzed by despair and convinced he was beyond the reach of the Almighty — attempted poison, a blade, and a bedsheet noose. Each attempt failed. He was committed to St. Albans asylum under the care of Dr. Nathaniel Cotton, where for eighteen months he sat in what he later described as a pit of unrelenting darkness.

Then one morning, a Bible fell open on his lap to Romans 3:25. The words broke through. Cowper wrote that he felt, for the first time, the ground beneath his feet grow solid. He wept — not from anguish, but from the shock of mercy.

What followed was extraordinary. Cowper moved to the village of Olney, where pastor John Newton befriended him and invited him to write hymns for their weekly prayer meetings. From the man who had believed himself utterly forsaken came "There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood," "God Moves in a Mysterious Way," and "O for a Closer Walk with God." The church has been singing his words for over two hundred and fifty years.

Psalm 40 tells us that God bends down to those who wait in the miry pit. He sets their feet on rock. And then — this is the part we must not miss — He puts a new song in their mouth. Not a song they compose by their own strength, but one He places there. Cowper's hymns were never his own achievement. They were evidence of rescue.