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.

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

1066. The other is not yet come, and when he is come he must remain a short time, signifies the profaned truth that the Lord's authority over heaven and earth, assumed by them, is said not to be Divine, and yet it is Divine. This is evident from the signification of "the other king" of the two that remained besides "the five" of the seven that "had fallen," as being here the other truth profaned, which nevertheless is one with the former, with the difference that the Lord's authority over heaven and earth, which they have transferred to themselves, is said not to be Divine, and yet it is Divine. And because it is Divine, although this is denied, it is said that "this king," that is, this profaned truth, "is not yet come;" and that "when he is come he must remain a short time," which signifies that that authority is Divine, although it is said that it is not Divine. This is the signification of "that other king," because he acts as one with the former king, only with the difference as to whether that authority is Divine or not. That he acts as one with the former with this difference is evident from the following verse, in which the beast is said to be "the eighth king, and yet of the seven;" therefore as the beast is said to be one king of the seven, it follows that these two that remain after five of the seven had fallen, and that are called "the one" and "the other," have respect to one matter, that is, to one profaned truth; and that the other profaned truth is what is signified by the beast, so far as that is said to be "one king of the seven. "

[2] In respect to the thing itself it is well known that they claim that the authority over heaven, and over the souls of men to save them, is not Divine, since it was the authority of the Lord's Human transferred to Him from God the Father, and from the Lord to Peter. But this is said from a fear that the common people may withdraw from them. Nevertheless, that authority is Divine as is clearly evident from this, that after God had created the universe, the chief object of the Divine power is to deliver men from hell and to save them. For man is not saved in a single moment, since he is reformed and regenerated by the Lord by successive steps from infancy even to the end of his life in the world, and afterwards to eternity; and to this no human power can contribute in the least. That man is thus reformed and regenerated by the Lord they do not know, because they do not wish to know it; consequently they persuade themselves that salvation is instantaneous, and is simply an admission into heaven, which is a huge falsity. But on this more will be said elsewhere.

(Continuation respecting the Word)

[3] In a summary: The Word is Divine truth itself, which gives wisdom to angels and enlightens men. As Divine truth proceeds from the Lord, and as what proceeds is Himself out of Himself, the same as light and heat proceed from the sun and are the sun, that is, are of the sun out of it, and as the Word is the Divine truth, it is also the Lord, as it is called in John (John 1:1-3, 14). Inasmuch as the Divine truth, which is the Word, in its descent into the world from the Lord, has passed through the three heavens, it has become accommodated to each heaven, and lastly to men also in the world. This is why there are in the Word four senses, one outside of the other from the highest heaven down to the world, or one within the other from the world up to the highest heaven. These four senses are called the celestial, the spiritual, the natural from the celestial and the spiritual, and the merely natural. This last is for the world, the next for the lowest heaven, the spiritual for the second heaven, and the celestial for the third. These four senses differ so greatly from one another that when one is exhibited beside the other no connection can be recognized; and yet they make one when one follows the other; for one follows from the other as an effect from a cause, or as what is posterior from what is prior; consequently as an effect represents its cause and corresponds to its cause, so the posterior sense corresponds to the prior; and thus it is that all four senses make one through correspondences.

[4] From all this these truths follow. The ultimate sense of the Word, which is the sense of its letter, and the fourth in order, contains in itself the three interior senses, which are for the three heavens when a man on the earth is reverently reading the Word. Therefore the sense of the letter of the Word is that from which and through which there is communication with the heavens, also from which and through which man has conjunction with the heavens. The sense of the letter of the Word is the basis of Divine truth in the heavens, and without such a basis the Divine truth would be like a house without a foundation; and without such a basis the wisdom of the angels would be like a house in the air. It is the sense of the letter of the Word in which the power of Divine truth consists. It is the sense of the letter of the Word through which man is enlightened by the Lord and through which he receives answers when he wishes to be enlightened. It is the sense of the letter of the Word by which everything of doctrine on the earth must be confirmed. In the sense of the letter of the Word is the Divine truth in its fullness. In the sense of the letter of the Word the Divine truth is in its holiness.