“The Lord works in mysterious ways.”
It could certainly be argued that we don’t understand how an omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient God works. His ways are “mysterious” to me a lot of the time. However, this is not a verse from the Bible, but it is rather old.
In the 1700s there was a man named William Cowper (pronounced like Cooper). His mother died when he was only six while giving birth to his brother. William was a follower of Christ, but he also struggled greatly with depression, doubt, and even had bouts of insanity. He was also friends with John Newton, the man who penned the great hymn, “Amazing Grace”.
The two men published a hymnal together called Olney Hymns. In it was a poem written by William called, “Light Shining Out of Darkness” that was converted into a hymn entitled, “God Moves in a Mysterious Way”. The very first verse introduces this popular saying:
God moves in a mysterious way
His wonders to perform;
He plants His footsteps in the sea
And rides upon the storm.
It is no wonder that this phrase could be treated as Gospel after being sung in tens of thousands of churches for well over 200 years. Further, the hymns of old often used language that was rich with imagery and meaning. It doesn’t change the fact that this sentence is not found in God’s Word.
Good verses to quote about God in this respect:
“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher
than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Isaiah 55:9
“Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God!
How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!
Who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor?”
Romans 11:33-34
