This verse reinforces points in the first verse: that the divine truth was not created by or created after the divine love which it expresses. The two are one: Love has to express itself as truth to have form; truth has to express love to have substance. Love without truth is not really love at all; it’s just a feeling and a potential. Truth without love is not really truth; it’s just a concept with no goal, no use, no purpose.

"God" here represents the Lord’s desire for good; this verse then reinforces that perfect truth and perfect good were together from the beginning.

It’s also worth noting that along with the ultimate "beginning," there are also "beginnings" for each of us, marking the moments when we choose to turn away from evil and open ourselves to the Lord. This verse, then, reassures us that when we make such a beginning, the Lord’s love and the Lord’s truth will be there for us. And it also tells us that if we want to make a real beginning, we need to find that truth and cling to it as the best way to receive the Lord’s love.

686. "You are righteous, O Lord, the One who is and who was, and holy, because You have judged these things." This symbolically means that this judgment is of the Divine providence of the Lord, who is and was the Word, and Divine truth itself, which otherwise would be profaned.

"You are righteous, O Lord, because you have judged these things," means symbolically that this is of the Lord's Divine providence, as will be seen below. "Who is and who was" symbolically means the Lord in relation to the Word, as embodying and having embodied the Word, in accordance with John 1:1-2, 14. ¹ The Lord as an embodiment of the Word is meant here because the subject is the understanding of the Word in people who are of the church. More on the symbolic meanings of is and was, beginning and end, first and last, alpha and omega, when referring to the Lord, may be seen in nos. 13, 29, 30, 31, 38, 57 above. And that He is holy means symbolically that He is Divine truth itself (nos. 173, 586, 666).

It is apparent from this that "You are righteous, O Lord, the One who is and who was, and holy, because You have judged these things," symbolically means that this is of the Divine providence of the Lord, who is and was the Word, and Divine truth itself.

[2] It is of the Lord's Divine providence that people caught up in faith alone falsify the Word's truths, because if they were to know them, to the point of thinking deeply about them, they would profane them. For they are caught up in evils, because they do not refrain from evils as being sinful, nor do they turn directly to the Lord. Consequently, if they were to accept the genuine truths in the Word, they would commingle them with their evil practices, and this would give rise to a profanation of what is holy.

One of the laws of permission, therefore, which are also laws of Divine providence, is that people like this of themselves falsify truths, and this to the extent that they are caught up in evil practices.

It is a matter of Divine providence that people caught up in evil practices cannot but be caught up in falsities as to doctrine, in order to keep them from profaning the Word's Divine truths. See Angelic Wisdom Regarding Divine Providence, nos. 221-233 and no. 257 at the end.

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