Classic Hymns and Their Stories
Puzzle 31 · Olney and Its Hymn Writers · Page 49 in print
Light Shining Out of Darkness
Cowper’s hymn appeared without music in Newton’s Twenty Six Letters (July 1774).
Jump to a word
The words
Choirbook
A format placing voice parts on separate staves.
Conyers
Richard Conyers, hymnbook compiler.
Dundee
The 1615 Scottish psalm tune most often paired with the hymn.
Edward Millar
Editor of the 1635 Scottish psalter. Edited the 1635 psalter containing an early form of LONDON NEW.
Greatheed
Samuel Greatheed, early biographer. Author of an early account of the hymn’s composition.
Hope
The hymn expresses hope despite suffering.
John Playford
Seventeenth-century music publisher. Printed a later form of LONDON NEW.
Judgment
The act of forming an assessment. The hymn warns against judging God by limited human sense.
London New
An alternative tune.
Montgomery
James Montgomery, hymn writer who praised Cowper’s hymn.
Hymnary.org: God Moves in a Mysterious Way (opens a new tab)
Mystery
The hymn considers divine ways beyond human understanding.
Omicron
Newton’s pen name for the 1774 Letters, in which Cowper’s hymn first appeared.
Hymnary.org: God Moves in a Mysterious Way (opens a new tab)
Providence
God’s ordering of life is the central subject.
Trust
Reliance on divine wisdom. The hymn urges trust despite misleading appearances.
Unbelief
Failure to trust divine purposes. The final stanza describes unbelief as unable to interpret God’s work.
Sources
- God Moves in a Mysterious WayHymnology Archive
- Olney Hymns (1779), full textChristian Classics Ethereal Library
- God Moves in a Mysterious WayHymnary.org (Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology)