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)

635. 14:10 "He himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed with pure wine in the cup of His indignation." This symbolically means that they falsify the Word's goods and truths and steep themselves in a life in accordance with their falsification of them.

This is the symbolic meaning of this declaration, because the wine of the wrath of God mixed with pure wine symbolizes the Word's truth falsified. The cup of His indignation symbolizes truth which leads to good, likewise falsified. And to drink means, symbolically, to adopt these falsified truths, or to steep oneself in a life in accordance with them.

That wine symbolizes the Word's truth may be seen in no. 316. That the wine of the wrath of God symbolizes the Word's truth adulterated and falsified may be seen in no. 632. Being mixed with pure wine clearly symbolizes its falsification. The cup also has the same symbolic meaning as the wine, because the cup is its containing vessel.

To drink means, symbolically, to steep one's life in the falsifications, because this declaration is made to people who live in accordance with the doctrine of justification by faith alone, as may be seen just above in no. 634.

Mixing wine, or wine mixed, symbolizes the falsification of truth also in the book of Psalms:

...in the hand of Jehovah there is a cup, and He has mixed it with wine; He has filled it with mixed wine and poured it out, and... all the impious of the earth shall drink it. (Psalms 75:8)

[2] The Word in many places mentions wrath and indignation together, and wrath there is predicated of evil, while indignation is predicated of falsity, because people caught up in evil are wrathful, while people caught up in falsity are indignant. Both characteristics, moreover, are in the Word attributed to Jehovah, that is, to the Lord, but it means that someone is wrathful or indignant at the Lord (see no. 525 above).

That the Word mentions wrath and indignation together is apparent from the following passages there:

...Jehovah comes... with indignation and wrath... ...the earth will move out of her place... in the day (of the indignation) of His wrath. (Isaiah 13:5, 9, 13)

...Assyria, the rod of My wrath... I will order him... against the people of My indignation (Isaiah 10:4-7)

I... will fight against you... in wrath... and in... indignation. (Jeremiah 21:5)

Behold, I am gathering them... in My wrath and in My indignation... (Jeremiah 32:37)

...the wrath of Jehovah is against all nations, and His indignation against the whole host of them. (Isaiah 34:2)

...Jehovah... will repay in His indignation and wrath... (Isaiah 66:15)

I have trodden down the peoples in My wrath, and made them drunk in My indignation... (Isaiah 63:6)

...My wrath and My indignation will be poured out on this place... (Jeremiah 7:20)

And so on elsewhere, as in Jeremiah 33:5, Ezekiel 5:13, Deuteronomy 29:28. Also the indignation of wrath, Isaiah 13:13.

But in Isaiah:

Only in Jehovah... righteousness and strength... And all shall be ashamed who are indignant against Him. (Isaiah 45:24)