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)

1154. Beasts of burden and sheep signifies profaned worship from truths and goods that are from a spiritual-natural origin. This is evident from the signification of "beasts of burden," as being the truths that look to charity (of which presently); also from the signification of "sheep," as being the goods of charity, as can be seen from all the passages in the Word where they are mentioned. (As in the following: Matthew 7:15; 9:36; 10:5, 6, 16; 12:10-12; 15:21-29; 18:12, 13; 25:31-41; 26:31; Mark 6:34; 14:27; John 10:1-18, 26-31; 21:15-17 and by passages in the prophets.) In these passages sheep signify those who are in the good of charity, therefore in an abstract sense, "sheep" signify the goods of charity. But "beasts of burden" signify the truths that look to the goods of charity, and as asses are especially meant, and these were used for riding and carrying burdens, things pertaining to use and to instruction were signified.

As in Isaiah:

They carry their wealth upon the shoulder of beasts of burden (Isaiah 30:6).

Wealth here signifies knowledges.

And in Luke:

The Samaritan set the man wounded by the robbers on his own beast of burden (Luke 10:34).

"To set him on his own beast of burden" signifies to instruct him according to his ability (See n. 375, 376, 444), where this is explained. What "beasts of burden" signify when asses are meant may be seen (n. 31, 140). It is said that "beasts of burden and sheep" signify truths and goods from a spiritual-natural origin, because such goods and truths are meant as are in those who are in the Lord's external church, and thus in the first or lowest heaven. These are natural, and yet they receive the spiritual, and are therefore called spiritual-natural. But here, as elsewhere, profaned worship from such truths and goods is meant.

(Continuation respecting the Athanasian Faith)

[2] The operation of the Divine providence, man not knowing it, may be illustrated by two comparisons. It is like a gardener collecting the seeds of shrubs, fruit trees, and flowers of all kinds, and providing himself with spades, rakes, and other tools for working the land, and then fertilizing his garden, digging it, dividing it into beds, putting in the seeds, and smoothing the surface. All these things man must do as if of himself. But it is the Lord who causes the seeds to take root, to spring forth out of the earth, to shoot forth into leaves, and then into blossoms, and finally to yield new seeds for the benefit of the gardener. Again, it is like a man about to build a house, who provides himself with the necessary materials, as timber, rafters, stones, mortar, and other things. But afterwards the Lord builds the house from foundation to roof exactly adapted to the man, though the man does not know it. From this it follows, that unless a man provides the necessary things for a garden or a house, he will have no garden with the benefit of its fruits, and no house and thence no habitation.

[3] So it is with reformation. The things that man must provide himself with are the knowledges of truth and good from the Word, from the doctrine of the church, from the world, and by his own labor. The Lord does everything else while man is ignorant of it. But it is to be known, that all things necessary to planting a garden or building a house, which, as has been said, are the knowledges of truth and good, are nothing but the materials, and have no life in them until man does them or lives according to them as if of himself. When that is done the Lord enters and vivifies and builds, that is, reforms. Such a garden, or such a house is man's understanding, for therein is his wisdom, which derives from love all that it is.