“I am a stranger in the earth; do not hide Your commandments from me” (Ps 119:19).
Excuse the irony, but nothing could be stranger! A person always on earth but “born from above.” A heavenly citizen living as a stranger in this world. A possessor of life that is to be lived “more abundantly,” yet surrounded by the walking dead. A friend of Heaven in the midst of those “at enmity with God.” And, as the psalmist reminds us, someone who searches for God’s Word “as one who finds great treasure” (119:162), but all around us are “men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness” (Rom 1:18).
Thus, in the encroaching darkness, we need this prayer in our repertoire. With no familiar signposts—in fact, all markers point away from truth—we need God’s directives like a beam of clear light breaking through and leading us unerringly Home. I recall as a boy flying with my father as he piloted a little Cessna at night. How comforting was “the beam” that brought us safely in to land.