The 23rd Psalm is one of the best-known and most-loved literary works in the world, and it may well be the best poem ever written. It is also a fine example of the power of figurative language: We read deep things into the vision of ourselves as sheep, led to green pastures and good water by a kind shepherd. It’s empowering to feel the confidence to go fearlessly into the valley of the shadow of death, and to feel the love and caring of a table prepared by the Lord and a cup so full it overflows.

What people don’t know, however, is that this language actually has precise internal meanings, and that when we see them there is an even deeper beauty in the poem. That’s because what it actually describes is the path to heaven, and the fierce desire the Lord has to lead us there.

The first step is to let the Lord be our shepherd – to accept His teaching and His leadership. The green pastures and the still waters represent the things He will teach us for the journey. Then He begins working inside is, setting our spiritual lives in order, so that we desire to do what’s good and to love one another. That’s represented by restoring our souls and leading us in the paths of righteousness.

But we will still face challenges. We still live external lives, out in the world, and we are subject to desires that arise in those externals, in our bodily lives. That’s the valley of the shadow of death. But the rod and staff represent truth from the Lord on both external and internal levels, ideas that can defend us against those desires.

And if we keep following, the Lord will prepare a table for us – a place inside us that he can fill with love (the anointing oil) and wisdom (the overflowing cup). Thus transformed, we can enter heaven, with love for others (“goodness”) and love from the Lord (“mercy”) and can love and be loved to eternity.

One of many beautiful things about this is the fact that it is the Lord who really does all the work. In the whole text, the only action taken by the sheep is walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Other than that, they follow the Lord, trust the Lord, accept the blessings of the Lord. And that is really true! In external states (in the valley) we might seem to be doing the work ourselves, but internally, spiritually, we simply need to give ourselves to the Lord and let Him bless us.

The underlying idea here is that the Lord created us so that He could love us, in loving us wants us to be happy, knows that our greatest happiness will come from being conjoined to Him in heaven, and Himself wants nothing more than to be conjoined to us. So everything He does, in every moment of every day for every person on the face of the planet, is centered on the goal of getting that person to heaven. He wants each and every one of us in heaven more than we are capable of imagining. We just need to cooperate.

(Odkazy: Apocalypse Explained 375 [34], 727 [2]; The Inner Meaning of the Prophets and Psalms 273)

6413. 'Is a hind let loose' means the freedom that natural affection possesses. This is clear from the meaning of 'a hind' as natural affection, dealt with below; and from the meaning of 'let loose' as freedom, for when a hind that has been captured is let loose it has freedom. Freedom from a state of temptations is compared to 'a hind let loose' because a hind is a woodland creature that loves more than all others to be free. The natural too is like this, for it loves to engage in what delights its affections and therefore to feel free; for freedom is the hallmark of affection. The reason 'a hind' means natural affection is that it is one of the beasts that serve to mean the affections, all of which beasts can be used as food and are useful creatures, such as lambs, sheep, she-goats, kids, he-goats, as well as bulls, young bulls, and also cows. Yet these beasts also serve to mean spiritual affections because burnt offerings and sacrifices were made of them, whereas 'hinds', because they were not put to that use, served to mean natural affections. For 'beasts' and their meaning affections, see 45, 46, 142, 143, 246, 714, 715, 719, 776, 1823, 2179, 2180, 3519, 5198; and the fact that their meaning affections has its origin in representatives in the world of spirits, 3218, 5850.

[2] Natural affections are also meant by 'hinds' in David,

Jehovah makes my feet like those of hinds, and sets me on my high places. Psalms 18:33.

And in Habakkuk,

Jehovih the Lord is my strength, who places my feet like those of hinds, and causes me to walk on my high places. Habakkuk 3:19.

'Placing feet like those of hinds' stands for the natural when its affections are in freedom, 'feet' being the natural, see 2162, 3147, 3761, 3986, 4280, 4938-4952, 5327, 5328. This meaning of 'placing feet like those of hinds may be seen from the fact there is nothing spiritual about making a person's feet like those of hinds, nimble and fit to run with. Yet the idea does have a spiritual implication, as is evident from the references that immediately follow to being set by Jehovah on high places and caused to walk on them, meaning spiritual affection on a level above natural affection. The same applies to the following words in Isaiah,

The lame man will leap like a hart. Isaiah 35:6.

'The lame man' means a person who is governed by good, though not as yet by genuine good, 4302.

[3] In David,

As the hart cries out for the water brooks, ¹ so does my soul cry out for You. Psalms 42:1.

Here 'the hart' stands for the affection for truth, 'crying out for the water brooks' for desiring truths, 'waters' being truths, see 2702, 3058, 3424, 4976, 5668.

[4] In Jeremiah,

There has gone out from the daughter of Zion all her majesty; her princes have become like harts, they have not found pasture. Lamentations 1:6.

'The daughter of Zion' stands for the affection for good, the affection the celestial Church has, 2362. 'Princes stands for the first and foremost truths of that Church, 1482, 2089, 5044, which truths are compared to 'harts', by which affections for natural truth are meant. And by harts that 'have not found pasture' are meant natural affections devoid of truths and forms of good that go with them, 'pasture' being truth and the good of truth that sustain a person's spiritual life, see 6078, 6277.

[5] 'Hinds' is used in a similar way in Jeremiah,

The land was broken up in pieces because no rain had come to be on the land; the farmers were put to shame, they covered their heads, because even the hind in the field calved but left because there was no grass. Jeremiah 14:4-5.

'The hind' stands for an affection for natural good, 'calved in the field' for joining natural affections to spiritual ones which exist in the Church. Yet because those affections were devoid of truths and forms of good, it says that she left the field because there was no grass. Anyone can see that these things said about the hind have an inner meaning, for without it what point would there be in saying that the hind in the field calved but left because there was no grass?

[6] The same is so with what is said in David,

The voice of Jehovah causes the hinds to calve, and strips the forests bare; but in His temple everyone says, Glory. Psalms 29:9.

The existence of an inner meaning, which is the spiritual sense, within the statement that 'the voice of Jehovah causes the hinds to calve' is perfectly clear from the fact that immediately afterwards it says, 'but in His temple everyone says, Glory'. Without the spiritual sense these words do not hang together with the statement before them about hinds and forests.

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