6180. 'And show me mercy and truth' means humility. This is clear from the meaning of 'showing mercy' as the good of love, and from the meaning of 'showing truth' as the truth of faith, both of which meanings are dealt with below. When these words are spoken they are words of entreaty, thus of humility. The reason why 'showing mercy' means the good of love is that all mercy is an expression of love, for one who has love or charity also has mercy; and his love and charity become mercy when his neighbour is poor or in misery and he comes to that neighbour's aid while he is in that condition. This is why 'mercy' means the good of love. 'Showing truth' means the truth of faith for the reason that all truth is the province of faith, which explains why in the original language the word for truth also means faith.

[2] Since the good of love and the truth of faith exist completely joined together and one does not exist without the other, 'mercy and truth' was a phrase in common use among the ancients, for they knew well that the good of love was inseparable from the truth of faith. Since they are inseparable the two are mentioned jointly many times in the Word, as in Exodus,

Jehovah great in mercy and truth. Exodus 34:6.

In the second Book of Samuel,

David said to the men of Jabesh, May Jehovah show you mercy and truth. 2 Samuel 2:5-6.

In the same book,

David said to Ittai the Gittite, Return and take your brethren back with you with mercy and truth. 2 Samuel 15:20.

In Hosea,

Jehovah's controversy with the inhabitants of the land because there is no truth and no mercy, and no knowledge of God ¹ in the land. Hosea 4:1.

In David,

All the ways of Jehovah are mercy and truth to those keeping His covenant. Psalms 25:10.

In the same author,

O Jehovah, You will not hold back from me Your mercies; let Your mercy and Your truth continually keep me safe. Psalms 40:11.

In the same author,

I will sing the eternal mercies of Jehovah, to generation after generation [I will make known] Your truth with my mouth. For I have said, For ever will mercy be built, in the very heavens You will make firm Your truth. Righteousness and judgement are the support of Your throne, mercy and truth stand before Your face. Psalms 89:1-2, 14.

Also other places in David besides these - Psalms 26:3; 76:5; 57:3, 10; 61:7; 85:10; 86:15; 89:24, 33; 92:2.

각주:

4564. 'And was buried below Bethel under an oak' means cast away for ever. This is clear from the meaning of 'being buried' as being cast away, for that which is buried is cast away; and from the meaning of 'under an oak' as for ever, dealt with above in 4552. 'Below Bethel' means outside the natural, for that which is said to be beneath or below is in the internal sense outside, 2148; 'Bethel' is the Divine Natural 4089, 4539.

[2] The implication of this is that with a person who is being regenerated, neither hereditary evil nor that of his own doing is removed in such a way as to disappear or be eliminated, but is merely separated and through the rearrangement effected by the Lord is cast away to the most outlying parts, 4551, 4552. It accordingly remains with that person, and does so for ever, but he is withheld from evil by the Lord and maintained in good. When this happens it seems as though evils have been cast away and the person has been purified from them or, as it is said, made righteous. All the angels of heaven confess that in their case, insofar as anything originates in themselves it is entirely evil and consequently false, but insofar as it originates in the Lord it is good and consequently true.

[3] People who have adopted any other notion concerning this matter, and who from the teaching they received while living in the world have become convinced that they have been made righteous and are in that case without sins, and so are holy, are taken back to the state where their evils reigned - both those of their own doing and those received through heredity. They are then kept in that state until they know from personal experience that of themselves they are nothing but evil and the good which had seemed to them to be their own came from the Lord, and that therefore it was not theirs but the Lord's. This is the situation with angels, as it is with the regenerate among men.

[4] But in the Lord's case it was different. He entirely removed, cast out, and cast away from Himself all hereditary evil from His mother, for being conceived from Jehovah He had no evil by heredity from His Father, only from His Mother. This is the difference; and this is what is meant by the Lord's being made Righteousness, the Holy itself, and the Divine.