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)

510. But after the three and a half days the breath of life from God entered them, and they stood on their feet. (11:11) This symbolically means that at the end of the prior church, as the New Church commences and grows, these two essential elements of the New Church are made living by the Lord in people who accept them.

Three and a half days means, symbolically, at the end and then the beginning (no. 505), thus at the end of the church still existing and the beginning of a new one, here the beginning of the church in people in whom the New Church commences and grows, because we are told now in regard to the two witnesses that the breath of life entered them and they stood on their feet.

The breath of life from God symbolizes spiritual life, and standing on their feet symbolizes natural life in harmony with spiritual life, and thus one made living by the Lord. This is the symbolic meaning because the breath of life refers to a person's inner being, called his inner self, which regarded in itself is spiritual. For it is a person's spirit that thinks and wills, and to think and will is, in itself, a spiritual activity. ¹ Standing on the feet symbolizes a person's outer being, called his outer self, which in itself is natural. For it is the body that says and does what the spirit in it thinks and wills, and to speak and act is a natural activity. That the feet symbolize natural things may be seen in nos. 49, 468.

[2] We need to say what all this means specifically. Everyone who is reformed is reformed first in respect to his inner self, and afterward in respect to his outer self. The inner self is reformed, not by simply knowing and understanding the truths and goods by which a person is saved, but by willing and loving them, and the outer self by saying and doing what the inner self wills and loves. To the extent the outer self does this, then, to the same extent the person is regenerated. He is not regenerated prior to that because before then his inner self is not present in the effect, but subsists only in the cause, and unless a cause has an effect, it dissipates. It is like a house founded on a field of ice, a house that sinks to the bottom when the sun melts the ice. In short, it is like a person without feet on which to stand and walk. The same is the case with the inner or spiritual self unless it is founded on the outer or natural self.

This, now, is what is symbolically meant by the two witnesses' standing on their feet after breath from God entered them, and also by similar statements in Ezekiel:

(Jehovah) said to me, "Prophesy regarding the breath...." And (when) I prophesied... breath came into them, and they... stood upon their feet... (Ezekiel 37:9-10)

Also in Ezekiel:

(The voice speaking to me said,) "Son of man, stand on your feet...." Then the spirit ¹ entered me... and set me on my feet. (Ezekiel 2:1-2)

And again in Ezekiel:

...I fell on my face. But the spirit ¹ ...entered me and set me on my feet... (Ezekiel 3:23-24)

This, too, is the meaning of the Lord's words to Peter:

...Peter said..., ."..(wash) not my feet only, but also my hands and my head!" Jesus said to him, "He who is bathed needs only to have his feet washed, and he is completely clean." (John 13:9-10)

Fußnoten: