Lyrics
A Stranger Walks Beside Me
These words are here to be learned and sung. Play the recording above and follow the highlighted line, or simply use the lyrics as a hymn text.
Verse
Beneath the oaks at Mamre’s door
three strangers stood at noon;
and Abraham ran on before
to spread the table soon.
And while they ate within the shade,
the Guest let fall His word:
the promise of a son was laid
where laughing Sarah heard.
Chorus
A Stranger walks beside me still,
and yet I know Him not;
O open Thou mine eyes, until
I see whom I forgot.
Verse
At Bethel Jacob laid his head
and woke beneath the sky:
“The LORD was in this place,” he said,
“and unaware was I.”
Manoah pressed his guest with meat,
and wist not whence he came,
till he ascended in the heat
and secret kept his name.
Chorus
A Stranger walks beside me still,
and yet I know Him not;
O open Thou mine eyes, until
I see whom I forgot.
Verse
They came to buy the ruler’s corn,
they bowed and ate his bread;
they knew not him they’d left forlorn
and counted long since dead.
He wept: “I am your brother — sold,
yet sent of God before,
to save your lives from famine’s hold
with bread laid up in store.”
Chorus
A Stranger walks beside me still,
and yet I know Him not;
O open Thou mine eyes, until
I see whom I forgot.
Verse
The king looked in the furnace flame
where three bound men should die,
and saw a fourth amid the same,
like God’s own Son, pass by.
To Daniel’s den, through desert air,
the prophet’s meal was borne;
an angel bore him by the hair
to feed him ere the morn.
Chorus
A Stranger walks beside me still,
and yet I know Him not;
O open Thou mine eyes, until
I see whom I forgot.
Bridge
Forget not thou to entertain
the stranger unawares,
for angels walk the common lane
and answer humble prayers.
The eyes are holden till He will;
the Guest is present now;
He walks beside the doubting still,
though none perceiveth how.
Verse
Two walked the road when hope was slain,
their eyes were holden fast;
a Stranger made the scriptures plain
of prophets first and last.
They constrained Him: “Abide, the night
is near, the day is done.”
He brake the bread; their eyes had light:
He vanished with the sun.
Chorus
A Stranger walks beside me still,
and yet I know Him not;
O open Thou mine eyes, until
I see whom I forgot.
Verse
“I was an hungred; ye gave bread,
a stranger, took me in;
ye sought the sick man’s fevered bed,
the prisoner, my kin.”
“Lord, when did we behold Thee poor,
or see Thee bound, or grieved?”
“The least of these stood at your door:
’twas Me ye then relieved.”
Chorus
A Stranger walks beside me still,
and yet I know Him not;
O open Thou mine eyes, until
I see whom I forgot.
Music and lyrics: Public Domain / CC0 1.0 Universal · Sound recording: Public Domain / CC0 1.0 Universal.