To Embrace Your Light

Meaning in Psalm 16

Alfred D. Byrd

HEAR ME, my God! I need protection,
Keeping my life from falling away
To lusts of my heart, to lures of the world,
Or to lies that come from a tongue unseen.
To You alone can I trust my life,
For You are the One Who has made all lives
And shapes them by plans conceived in truth
Before the world took form from Your hands.
Outside of You, all paths run crooked;
Only to You a path can run straight.
My love is for You, my Maker, my King,
And for those who love Your Word and Your works—
For those who've become the children of God
By spurning darkness to embrace Your light.

My God, there are, however, others
Who see in darkness a light deceptive,
A vision of gods of here and now
That offer sensation, riches, and fame
To those who'd trade the future for presents
Starting in pleasure, but ending in pain.
Please keep me, my God, from speaking the names
Of things that are now, but won't be for long—
Of flowers that bloom a day, and then die.
Please help me, my God, perceive Your future,
Chosen for all who will trust in You
Above the foes of the light of the truth.
You've made the food that sustains my life
And mapped a path for that life to travel,
Reaching a goal that is You alone.

Let me praise the Name of the One, my Guide,
Who tells me, even asleep, what to do.
Forever in front of my eyes are You,
Unmoving, but growing ever larger,
Filling the sky as I come to You.
Although the world is filled with evil,
Dooming my body to die at length,
I feel no fear when I think of You,
The One on Whom I can rest untroubled.
Dying, I'll rise to new life in You
Because of the One Whom You sent ahead—
The One Who tasted the pain of death
For all who'd trust in Your blood of ransom—
The One Who knew no decay in death
Because You recalled that One to glory.
Darkness of death will end in the light—
A realm, beyond time, of joy that can't fade—
For all who follow the path of the One
To kneel in worship, my God, at Your throne.

If this poem spoke to you, you may enjoy my Biblical epic poems

A Song of the One, the age-old account of Creatlon, Fall, Redemption, and Glory retold in verse for a new millennium, and

The Stars Bow Down: An Epic of Joseph, the timeless tale of a favorite son whose brothers sold him into slavery, but whom God raised from a prison to save the known world from famine.