In the Christmas story, the wise men bring gifts to the Lord: gold, frankincense and myrrh.

The gold is listed first, because it is the inmost - signifying good, e.g. the good that we do when we love the Lord and the neighbor.

The frankincense is next. It signifies rational truth, which is the set of true ideas that we know, not about external things like cars or cooking, but about what is really good, and what is really true.

These rational truths are built on earlier knowledges that we learn, before we have really made them our own. Those early knowledges about spiritual things - often learned in childhood - are represented by the myrrh.

In a way, these gifts are really a reciprocation. We can't actually give them to the Lord until the Lord has given them to us. We necessarily start out by learning and doing the Lord's law (myrrh). The Lord can then call up those memories to become rational truths (frankincense). Then, over time, and with effort, those truths can be transformed into good (gold). The wise men from the East had gone through this process of learning and becoming vessels that could receive truths and goods. They were able to perceive the Lord's birth, and find him, and bring gifts to him.

8282. 'With Your right hand, O Jehovah, You break the enemy in pieces' means the effect almighty power has on evils and resulting falsities, whose power is eliminated. This is clear from the meaning of 'Jehovah's right hand' as the Lord's almighty power, dealt with immediately above in 8281; from the meaning of 'breaking in pieces' as eliminating; and from the meaning of 'the enemy' as evils and falsities, since nothing else is meant in the spiritual sense of the Word by those who are enemies, foes, and haters. The reason why the terms enemies, foes, and haters are used, is not that the Lord is an enemy to them or hates them, but because they hate and are hostile towards the Divine. When however they undergo vastation which they themselves bring about, and cast themselves into damnation and into hell, it appears as though the Divine is responsible for what is happening to them. This appearance or illusion is as when someone sees the sun making a circuit each day around our planet and from this supposes that the sun is moving, when in fact the planet is doing so. Or it is as when someone receives a sentence from the king or judge and is punished because he has broken the law, and then supposes that the king or judge is responsible for what he suffers, when in fact he who has broken the law is himself responsible. Or that appearance is as when someone hurls himself into water or fire, or onto an outstretched sword, or an enemy troop, and then supposes that these are responsible for his destruction, when in fact he himself is. The same is so when those immersed in evil raise themselves up against the Divine, and cast themselves into the midst of His presence.