კომენტარი

 

The 23rd Psalm

By Brian David

The Lord as Shepherd, by Nana Schnarr

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.

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

სვედენბორგის ნაშრომებიდან

 

Arcana Coelestia # 6240

შეისწავლეთ ეს პასაჟი.

  
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6240. 'Will be yours' means that they will be in the rational which is within the internal. This is clear from the consideration that the internal celestial represented by 'Joseph' exists in the rational, 4286, 4963, and therefore 'will be yours' means that they will be in the rational, just as previously 'they are mine' meant within the natural, in which the truth of the natural represented by 'Jacob' exists, 6236.

Let a brief statement be made about what the rational is. The area of understanding within the internal man is called the rational, while the area of understanding in the external man is called the natural, so that the rational is internal and the natural is external; and the two are completely distinct and separate from each other. A truly rational person is none other than one who is called a celestial person; that person enjoys a perception of what is good, and from that good a perception of what is true. But a person who does not have such perception but merely an awareness that a thing is true, because he has been taught that it is, and has a conscience as a result of that awareness, is not truly a rational person but an interiorly natural one. He is what those who belong to the Lord's spiritual Church are like. These two kinds of people are as different from each other as the light of the moon is from the light of the sun; and that also is why the Lord is seen by spiritual angels as the moon but by celestial ones as the sun, 1521, 1529-1531, 4060, 4696. Very many in the world imagine that a rational person is one who can reason with skill on many subjects and link one piece of reasoning to another in such a way that the conclusion he draws seems to be the truth. But that ability occurs even in very wicked people who are expert reasoners and can make the deduction that evil things are good and false ideas are true, or that good things are evil and true ideas are false. But anyone who stops to reflect can see that this is wicked imagination and not rationality. Rationality consists in seeing inwardly and perceiving that what is good is indeed good, and from this that what is true is indeed true; for such vision and perception of these things comes from heaven. The reason why those who belong to the Lord's spiritual Church are interiorly natural people is that they acknowledge as true only what they have learned from parents and teachers and later on firmly established for themselves. There is nothing else from which they can see inwardly or perceive whether a thing is true except what they have thus firmly established for themselves - unlike those who are celestial; which is why the latter are rational people, whereas the former are interior natural ones. The internal celestial, which 'Joseph' represents, exists in the rational, but spiritual good, which 'Israel' represents, exists in the interior natural, 4286; for they are spiritual people who are represented by' Israel', and celestial ones who are represented by 'Joseph'.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Society for the permission to use this translation.