Doctrine of the Lord # 47
47. Spirit means a person’s life. This can be seen from everyday speech, in which a person is said to yield up the spirit when he dies. Consequently spirit in this sense means the life in respiration. The word “spirit” is also derived from the Latin verb “to respire.” So it is that in Hebrew there is one word for spirit and wind.
There are two wellsprings of life in a person. One is the motion of the heart, and the other the respiration of the lungs. The life springing from the respiration of the lungs is properly meant by spirit, and also by the soul. That these operate in concert with a person’s thinking in accord with his intellect, but that life springing from the motion of the heart operates in a person in concert with his will’s love — this will be seen in its right place.
[2] That a person’s life is meant by spirit in the Word is clear from the following:
You gather their spirit, they die, and return to...dust. (Psalms 104:29)
He remembered that they were flesh, spirit that passes away and does not come again. (Psalms 78:39)
When his spirit departs, he will return to (the) earth. (Psalms 146:4)
Hezekiah lamented that the life of his spirit would depart (Isaiah 38:16).
...the spirit of Jacob...revived. (Genesis 45:27)
...his molded image is a lie, and there is no spirit in (it). (Jeremiah 51:17)
...said the Lord Jehovih to the (dry) bones: “...I will put spirit in you, that you may live....” “...Come from the four winds, O spirit, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.” ...and spirit came into them, and they lived again.... (Ezekiel 37:5-6, 9-10)
(Jesus) took (the daughter) by the hand...and her spirit returned, and she arose immediately. (Luke 8:54-55)
Published by the General Church of the New Jerusalem, 1100 Cathedral Road, Bryn Athyn, Pennsylvania 19009, U.S.A. A translation of Doctrina Novae Hierosolymae de Domino, by Emanuel Swedenborg, 1688-1772. Translated from the Original Latin by N. Bruce Rogers. ISBN 9780945003687, Library of Congress Control Number: 2013954074.
Psalms 92
1
It is a good thing to give thanks unto the LORD, and to sing praises unto thy name, O most High:
2
To shew forth thy lovingkindness in the morning, and thy faithfulness every night,
3
Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.
4
For thou, LORD, hast made me glad through thy work: I will triumph in the works of thy hands.
5
O LORD, how great are thy works! and thy thoughts are very deep.
6
A brutish man knoweth not; neither doth a fool understand this.
7
When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the workers of iniquity do flourish; it is that they shall be destroyed for ever:
8
But thou, LORD, art most high for evermore.
9
For, lo, thine enemies, O LORD, for, lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered.
10
But my horn shalt thou exalt like the horn of an unicorn: I shall be anointed with fresh oil.
11
Mine eye also shall see my desire on mine enemies, and mine ears shall hear my desire of the wicked that rise up against me.
12
The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree: he shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
13
Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.
14
They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;
15
To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.
