Psalm 25 is a psalm of humbled requests and of repentance. Deeply personal, it is given in accountability and authenticity, and with a quiet heart.It follows a path of realisations: an acknowledgment of the Lord, a wish to be taught and led by the Lord, a remembrance of the past, a central acclaim of the Lord’s goodness and guidance, an understanding of the nature of the person who fears the Lord (“fear” more truly meaning holy fear or honouring), and a heartfelt prayer for the Lord to show mercy and forgive sins.

This is so different to the majestic broadcast of the Lord’s glory, in many psalms. It carries the hallmarks of temptation having brought the speaker to honesty, integrity and the confession of need. There is no vainglory or pride here, only submission.

The true nature of evil is well-described in verse 3, where it says “those who plot against me without a cause”; evil does not punish for wrongdoing, it just aims to bring down whoever it can bring down. (See Heaven and Hell 547.)

Then comes a fervent request to be shown, taught and led (verses 4 and 5).

- Spiritually, to ‘show’ and ‘be shown’ is to be given perception, and from this comes inspiration which means to breathe in, or to make ours. (See Arcana Caelestia 8354).

- To ‘teach’ and to ‘be taught’ is to be able to understand and have the form of spiritual life with which to think about it. (Ref. Sacred Scripture 26 and Divine Providence 172)

- To ‘lead’ and to ‘be led’ means to be brought from one state to another, from one way of thinking to another, ultimately from hell to heaven. (Cf. Spiritual Diary 5796)

The next two verses, 6 and 7, bring out the importance of remembrance in both a positive way and a harmful one. The Lord remembers us in a divine way of always regarding us from love and mercy, and from this always seeking our spiritual progress. We remember and even dwell on our sins of past times, but the Lord does not. He knows them but he does not remember them. He only remembers our need and his intentions for us. (Arcana Caelestia 1049)

Verses 8 to 11 are like an anthem of all that has been said so far, ending with a confession that our iniquity – our wrongness – is great. In confessing it openly to the Lord, the Lord will pardon it, because we have brought it to him, and opened ourselves to his help.

Verses 12 to 15 give praise to the one who fears the Lord, describing how he shall be taught and be blessed. The frequent Biblical word ‘fear’ and the phrase ‘fear of the Lord’ are not to do with our common idea of being afraid of something. True fear of the Lord is reverence, honouring and a holy fear of thinking or doing anything which would be contrary to the Lord’s way and his commandments. (See Arcana Caelestia 3718.)

The final part of this psalm, verses 16 to 22 is a moving testimony of our afflictions and a prayer that the Lord will bring us out of them. There is no cringing or grovelling over our sins and faults. It is simply an honest statement that these are there in us and we realize that we cannot remove them by ourselves -- but only with the Lord’s divine work and care. “Keep my soul.”

Finally, there is the powerful realisation that our integrity and uprightness (from the Lord) will preserve us. (Refer to Arcana Caelestia 1875.)

26. 5. The Word’s spiritual meaning is granted after this only to someone who possesses genuine truths from the Lord. The reason is this: because no one can see the spiritual meaning unless he is enabled to do so by the Lord alone, and unless he possesses genuine truths from Him. For the Word’s spiritual meaning deals with the Lord alone and His kingdom, and that sense is the one possessed by His angels in heaven. It is, indeed, His Divine truth there. It is possible for a person to violate that truth if he has a knowledge of correspondences and tries to use it to explore the Word’s spiritual meaning in accord with his own intelligence. Applying some of the correspondences he knows, he may twist its meaning and use it to confirm even falsity, which would be to do injury to Divine truth, and to heaven as well. If someone tries to lay open that sense on his own, therefore, and not from the Lord, heaven is closed, and when heaven is closed, a person either sees nothing, or he becomes spiritually irrational.

[2] There is also another reason. Because the Lord teaches everyone by means of the Word, and teaches him in accordance with the truths the person already possesses and does not infuse new truths directly, therefore if the person is without any Divine truths, or if he possesses only a few truths and is caught up at the same time in falsities, it would be possible for him to use those falsities to falsify the truths — as is also commonly known to be the case with every heretic as regards just the Word’s literal sense.

Consequently, to keep people from entering into the Word’s spiritual meaning, or from twisting the genuine truth found in that sense, the Lord has set protections, meant in the Word by cherubim.

[3] That protections have been set was represented to me in the following way:

I was given to see large purses, looking like sacks, which had stored away in them a great deal of silver. Since they were open, it seemed as if anyone might take some of the silver deposited in them, even to make off with it. However, next to the purses two angels were sitting as guards. The place where the purses rested looked like a manger in a stable. In the next room I saw modest maidens, together with a chaste wife. Near that room were two little children, and I heard it said they were not to be played with in a childish way, but wisely. Afterward a harlot appeared, then a horse lying dead.

4] On seeing these images I was informed that they represented the literal meaning of the Word, which has a spiritual meaning within. The large purses full of silver symbolized concepts of truth there in great abundance. The purses’ being open and yet guarded by angels symbolized that anyone might draw concepts of truth there, but that people should take care not to falsify the spiritual meaning, which contains only truths. The manger in the stable where the purses were sitting symbolized spiritual instruction for the intellect. (A manger has this symbolism, because a horse, which feeds from it, symbolizes the intellect.)

5] The modest maidens I saw in the next room symbolized affections for truth, and the chaste wife the conjunction of truth and good. The little children symbolized the innocence of the wisdom in it (they were angels from the third heaven, all of whom appear like little children). The harlot together with the dead horse symbolized the falsification of the Word by many people today, by which all understanding of the truth has been extinguished. (A harlot symbolizes falsification, and a dead horse no understanding of truth.)