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)

4530. Colours are also seen in the next life whose splendour and brilliance so surpass the richness of the colours in the world that scarcely any comparison is possible. They are products of the variegation of light and shade there. And because intelligence and wisdom from the Lord exist there which are seen as light by the eyes of angels and spirits, and at the same time inwardly enlighten their understanding, the colours there are in essence variations, or one may say, modifications, of intelligence and wisdom. The colours there with which not only the flowers are adorned, different skies painted, and different rainbows produced, but also those which are manifested in other forms, I have seen so many times that I can hardly number them. Their splendour derives from the truth which belongs to intelligence, and their brilliance from the good which belongs to wisdom, while the colours themselves are products of the brightness and the dullness of these, and so are the products of light and shade, like the colourings produced in this world. Consequently the colours which are mentioned in the Word - such as those of the precious stones in Aaron's breastplate, and on his holy vestments; those in the curtains of the tent where the Ark was; those in the foundation-stones of the New Jerusalem which are described by John in the Book of Revelation; and those mentioned elsewhere in the Word - represented aspects of intelligence and wisdom, though what each represents individually will in the Lord's Divine mercy be stated in the explanations of those parts of the Word. In general to the extent that they contain splendour and derive from the shining brightness of light the colours there are products of the truth which belongs to intelligence, and to the extent they possess brilliance and derive from the purple glow of light they are products of the good which belongs to wisdom. Those colours which owe their origin to such sources also belong to the provinces of the eyes.