174. "'Who has the key of David, who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens.'" This symbolically means, who alone has the omnipotence to save.

David means the Lord in respect to Divine truth. The key symbolizes the Lord's omnipotence over heaven and hell. And to open so that no one shuts, and to shut so that no one opens, means, symbolically, to lead out of hell and introduce into heaven, thus to save, the same as in no. 62 above, where this was explained.

To be shown that David means the Lord in respect to Divine truth, see The Doctrine of the New Jerusalem Regarding the Lord, nos. 43, 44.

The symbolic meaning of the key here is the same as that of the keys of Peter (Matthew 16:15-19), ¹ as may be seen explained in no. 798 below. The same is also meant by this declaration to all the disciples,

Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. (Matthew 18:18)

For the twelve disciples represented all elements of the church as regards its goods and truths, while Peter represented the church in respect to its truth; and it is truths and goods, thus the Lord from whom they come, that save a person.

The key of David given to Eliakim has also the same meaning, concerning which we read,

I will give your government into his hands, that he may be as a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah, and I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David, so that he may open and no one shut, and close and no one open. (Isaiah 22:21-22)

The person referred to as he here was the person over the house of the king, and the house of the king symbolizes the church in respect to Divine truth.

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686. "You are righteous, O Lord, the One who is and who was, and holy, because You have judged these things." This symbolically means that this judgment is of the Divine providence of the Lord, who is and was the Word, and Divine truth itself, which otherwise would be profaned.

"You are righteous, O Lord, because you have judged these things," means symbolically that this is of the Lord's Divine providence, as will be seen below. "Who is and who was" symbolically means the Lord in relation to the Word, as embodying and having embodied the Word, in accordance with John 1:1-2, 14. ¹ The Lord as an embodiment of the Word is meant here because the subject is the understanding of the Word in people who are of the church. More on the symbolic meanings of is and was, beginning and end, first and last, alpha and omega, when referring to the Lord, may be seen in nos. 13, 29, 30, 31, 38, 57 above. And that He is holy means symbolically that He is Divine truth itself (nos. 173, 586, 666).

It is apparent from this that "You are righteous, O Lord, the One who is and who was, and holy, because You have judged these things," symbolically means that this is of the Divine providence of the Lord, who is and was the Word, and Divine truth itself.

[2] It is of the Lord's Divine providence that people caught up in faith alone falsify the Word's truths, because if they were to know them, to the point of thinking deeply about them, they would profane them. For they are caught up in evils, because they do not refrain from evils as being sinful, nor do they turn directly to the Lord. Consequently, if they were to accept the genuine truths in the Word, they would commingle them with their evil practices, and this would give rise to a profanation of what is holy.

One of the laws of permission, therefore, which are also laws of Divine providence, is that people like this of themselves falsify truths, and this to the extent that they are caught up in evil practices.

It is a matter of Divine providence that people caught up in evil practices cannot but be caught up in falsities as to doctrine, in order to keep them from profaning the Word's Divine truths. See Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Providence, nos. 221-233 and no. 257 at the end.

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