The Lord's love is the sun of heaven, and it is natural for us to look above ourselves to the sun of this world in thinking about the Lord. It follows, then, that to be closer to the Lord we would climb into the highest places -- and indeed, people have been worshiping on mountains for ages. In fact, even steeples on modern churches are symbolic mountains. It makes sense, then, that a mountain in the Bible represents love to the Lord, the highest, purest love we human beings can experience. Mountains can also represent the desire for good that comes from the love of the Lord. Hills, meanwhile, represent a love of other people and a caring for them, and when "mountains" is used in the plural it generally represents both loves.

802. As regards persuasions being the subject in this verse and evil desires in Verse 23, this may be recognized from the consideration that in the present verse birds are mentioned first and beasts next - for 'birds' means things of the understanding or of the rational, while 'beasts' means those of the will - whereas in verse 23, when things to do with evil desires are being described, beasts are mentioned first and birds next. The reason, as has been stated, is that the two flow reciprocally one into the other, and in this way the description of them is made complete.