The Bible

 

Genesis 1

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1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.

5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first Day.

6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.

7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.

8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.

9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.

10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.

11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.

12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.

14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.

16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.

17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,

18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.

19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.

23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.

25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.

26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.

28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.

30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.

31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

From Swedenborg's Works

 

Apocalypse Explained #1210

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1210. Saying, Praise God, all ye His servants, signifies worship of the Lord by those who are in truths. This is evident from the signification of "praising God," as being to confess and worship Him (of which presently); also from the signification of "servants of God," as being those who are in truths from the Lord (See n. 6, 409). In many passages in the Word the expression "praising God" signifies to confess Him with the heart and with the lips, thus also to worship; "to praise God" has a similar signification as "Hallelujah," because "Hallelujah" means "praise ye God," and that means, as has been said before, the voice of joy and gladness in confessions of God and in the worship of God. "To praise God" signifies confession and worship, because the Lord has no wish to be praised and glorified from any love of Himself, but only from His love for man, for man must needs praise and glorify the Lord, that is, give praise and glory to Him, when he acknowledges in heart that there is nothing of good in himself, and that he can do nothing of himself, and on the other hand, that all good is from the Lord, and that the Lord can do all things. When man is in this acknowledgment he puts aside what is his own [proprium], which belongs to the love of self, and opens all things of his mind, and thus gives room for the Divine to flow in with good and with power. This is why it is necessary for man to be in humiliation before the Lord, and why humiliation can be from no other source than self-acknowledgment and acknowledgment of the Lord, according to which reception is effected. That "to give praise to God" and "to praise God" mean to confess Him and from confession of heart to worship Him is evident from many passages in the Word (as Matthew 21:16; Luke 2:13-14, 20; 5:25-26; 7:16; 13:13; 18:43; 19:28-40; 24:52-53; also Psalms 148:1-5, 7, 13.)

(Continuation)

[2] 5. From the spiritual, by means of these forces, both plants and animals, both those that appear in heaven and those in the world, have their existence. Such things exist also in heaven, because these forces are in the spiritual in things greatest and in things least, in its firsts and its ultimates, thus in the spiritual both in heaven and in the world. Its firsts are in the heavens, its ultimates are in the world. For there are degrees of spiritual things, and each degree is distinct from the other, and the prior or higher degree is more perfect than the posterior or lower. This is evident from the light and the heat in the heavens, and from the wisdom of the angels from these. The light in the highest or third heaven is from a flame so brilliant as to exceed a thousand times the midday light of the world; in the middle or second heaven the light is less bright, and yet exceeds a hundred times the noonday light of the world; in the lowest or first heaven the light is like the noonday light of our world. Also there are degrees of heat, which in heaven is love, and according to those degrees the angels have wisdom, intelligence, and knowledge. Everything spiritual belongs to the light and heat that are from the Lord as a sun, and wisdom and intelligence are from these.

[3] There are also as many degrees of things spiritual below the heavens, that is, in nature, which are lower degrees of things spiritual, as can be seen from man's natural mind, and from its rationality and sensuality; rational men are in its first degree, sensual men are in its last, and others are in the middle; and all thought and affection of the natural mind is spiritual. These three forces, namely, the active force, the creative force, and the formative force, are in the spiritual in every degree of it, but with a difference of perfection. But since there is nothing without its ultimate, in which it terminates and subsists, so the spiritual has its ultimate, which in the earth is in its lands and waters; and from this ultimate the spiritual produces plants of all kinds, from the tree to the blade of grass, and in these the spiritual abides, manifesting itself only in a certain likeness to animals that has been spoken of above.

  
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Thanks to the Swedenborg Foundation for their permission to use this translation.

The Bible

 

Psalms 148:7

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7 Praise the LORD from the earth, ye dragons, and all deeps: