If we keep following the Lord through the valley of the shadow of death, He will ultimately endow us with a new heart and a new mind, filled with love and wisdom and prepared for heaven. That's what is pictured in this verse.

A "table" represents the parts of us that can be filled with love and wisdom. Oil represents loving what is good because we love the Lord, and to be anointed lets us be a representative of the Lord. A cup, like the wine that would typically fill it, represents true spiritual thinking centered on love to the neighbor. So we are filled by the Lord, loving Him, loving what is good, and overflowing with wisdom regarding life.

But what about the "presence of mine enemies"? The Writings say that even with the highest angels, the Lord cannot actually remove the possibility of evil from us without detroying our humanity. It's a complex idea, but essentially, the possibility of evil is what makes us different from the Lord, what keeps us separate. And he created us to be separate so that he could love us. So even in the beautiful state pictured here, our enemies – evil and falsity – are still nearby.

(Verweise: Apocalypse Explained 375 [34])

Fear of the unknown and fear of change are both common ideas and together cover a broad spectrum of the fears we tend to have in natural life. In a sense, they also lie behind the spiritual meaning when people are described as being "afraid" in the Bible. In Swedenborg's works, people are described as being afraid when a more higher spiritual state comes into communication with a lower, more external state and demonstrates the need for the lower state to be reformed and elevated. That's the case with the shepherds in the Christmas story, reacting first with fear when angels came to tell them of a whole new spiritual era. It's true of Moses at the burning bush, Jacob after the vision of the ladder, even the disciples seeing Jesus walking on the Sea of Galilee – all cases in which a higher state was reaching out to them and asking them to embrace a new phase of spiritual life. This also holds in a more negative sense, when states of evil and false thinking come into contact with spiritual things and feel threatened by the revelation of their own wretchedness. The Bible also speaks frequently of people fearing God, a related but different idea which is covered elsewhere.

In Genesis 3:10; 18:15, Exodus 3:6, being afraid signifies apprehension lest one offend or be hurt. (Arcana Coelestia 223-224, Arcana Coelestia 2215, Arcana Coelestia 6849)