Introduction

Words: Will­iam Cow­per, in Twen­ty-Six Let­ters on Re­li­gious Sub­jects, by John New­ton, 1774.

Music: Dun­dee Scot­tish Psalt­er, 1615 (🔊 pdf nwc).

Alternate Tunes:

• Belmont, Will­iam Gard­in­er, 1812 (🔊 pdf nwc)
• God Moves, Scott Wer­de­baugh, 2017 (🔊 pdf nwc)
• London New, Psalms (Ed­in­burgh, Scot­land: 1635) (🔊 pdf nwc)
• Manoah, ar­ranged by Hen­ry W. Grea­tor­ex, 1851 (🔊 pdf nwc)
• St. Anne, Will­iam Croft, 1708 (🔊 pdf nwc)
• Union, in Se­lect Num­ber of Plain Tunes, by An­drew Law, 1781. At­trib­ut­ed var­ious­ly to Ste­phen Jenks & An­drew Gil­let (🔊 pdf nwc)

This is re­por­ted­ly the last hymn Cow­per ev­er wrote, with a fas­cin­at­ing (though un­sub­stan­ti­at­ed) sto­ry be­hind it.

Cowper oft­en strug­gled with de­pres­sion and doubt. One night he de­cid­ed to com­mit su­i­cide by drown­ing him­self. He called a cab and told the driv­er to take him to the Thames Ri­ver. How­ev­er, thick fog came down and pre­vent­ed them from find­ing the ri­ver (an­oth­er ve­rsion of the sto­ry has the driv­er get­ting lost de­lib­er­ate­ly).

After driv­ing around for a while, the cab­by fin­al­ly stopped and let Cow­per out. To Cow­per’s sur­prise, he found him­self on his own door­step: God had sent the fog to keep him from kill­ing him­self. Even in our black­est moments, God watch­es ov­er us.