The 23rd Psalm is one of the best-known and most-loved literary works in the world, and it may well be the best poem ever written. It is also a fine example of the power of figurative language: We read deep things into the vision of ourselves as sheep, led to green pastures and good water by a kind shepherd. It’s empowering to feel the confidence to go fearlessly into the valley of the shadow of death, and to feel the love and caring of a table prepared by the Lord and a cup so full it overflows.

What people don’t know, however, is that this language actually has precise internal meanings, and that when we see them there is an even deeper beauty in the poem. That’s because what it actually describes is the path to heaven, and the fierce desire the Lord has to lead us there.

The first step is to let the Lord be our shepherd – to accept His teaching and His leadership. The green pastures and the still waters represent the things He will teach us for the journey. Then He begins working inside is, setting our spiritual lives in order, so that we desire to do what’s good and to love one another. That’s represented by restoring our souls and leading us in the paths of righteousness.

But we will still face challenges. We still live external lives, out in the world, and we are subject to desires that arise in those externals, in our bodily lives. That’s the valley of the shadow of death. But the rod and staff represent truth from the Lord on both external and internal levels, ideas that can defend us against those desires.

And if we keep following, the Lord will prepare a table for us – a place inside us that he can fill with love (the anointing oil) and wisdom (the overflowing cup). Thus transformed, we can enter heaven, with love for others (“goodness”) and love from the Lord (“mercy”) and can love and be loved to eternity.

One of many beautiful things about this is the fact that it is the Lord who really does all the work. In the whole text, the only action taken by the sheep is walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Other than that, they follow the Lord, trust the Lord, accept the blessings of the Lord. And that is really true! In external states (in the valley) we might seem to be doing the work ourselves, but internally, spiritually, we simply need to give ourselves to the Lord and let Him bless us.

The underlying idea here is that the Lord created us so that He could love us, in loving us wants us to be happy, knows that our greatest happiness will come from being conjoined to Him in heaven, and Himself wants nothing more than to be conjoined to us. So everything He does, in every moment of every day for every person on the face of the planet, is centered on the goal of getting that person to heaven. He wants each and every one of us in heaven more than we are capable of imagining. We just need to cooperate.

(References: Apocalypse Explained 375 [34], 727 [2]; The Inner Meaning of the Prophets and Psalms 273)

4096. 'Rachel answered, and Leah, and they said to him' means a reciprocation by the affections for truth. This is clear from the meaning of 'answering', when assent is being given, as that which is reciprocal, dealt with in 2919, and as receptivity, 2941, 2957; and from the representation of 'Rachel' as the affection for interior truth, and of 'Leah' as the affection for external truth, dealt with in 3758, 3782, 3793, 3819. In the sections previous to this the subject in the internal sense has been the good of the natural meant by 'Jacob' when it was being separated from intermediate good meant by 'Laban', and how that good of the natural linked to itself the affections for truth which are meant by 'Rachel and Leah'.

[2] The subject now is the reciprocal application to good of those affections for truth. This application is contained in the internal sense of the words which Rachel and Leah utter now. But these matters are such that they do not come within the range of anyone's understanding unless he has been informed about them and takes delight in knowing about such things, and consequently has the discernment of spiritual matters as his end in view. All others have no interest at all in such matters and cannot even direct their minds towards them. For having worldly and earthly things as their end in view all others cannot detach their thoughts and feelings from those things; and if they did detach them they would not take any delight in doing so, for in that case they would be departing from and removing themselves from the things which they have as their end in view, that is, which they love. Let anybody like this put himself to the test, to see whether he has any wish to know how good links itself to affections for truth and how affections for truth apply themselves to that good, and whether knowing this irritates him or not. He will then say that such items of knowledge are of no use to him, and also that he does not get anything out of them.

[3] But if someone discusses with him the kind of things that are connected with his business in the world, no matter how very complex these matters may be, and he is told where another's affections lie and also how he can use these to draw that person to himself by bending his own mind and words in his direction, he not only grasps what he is told but also perceives further ideas within it. It is similar with one who desires and strives to investigate the abstruse areas of knowledge. He loves to look at, and does look at, more complicated things than those within what is told to the person just mentioned above. But when spiritual good and truth are referred to he finds it a bore and also turns away from it. These things have been stated so that people may know what the member of the Church is like at the present day.

[4] But the whole idea of good linking itself to truths by means of affections, and of truths applying themselves to good, is less clear when imagination or thought is focused on good and on truth than when it is focused on the communities of spirits and angels through which good and truth flow in. For as stated in 4067, that which man wills and thinks originates in these, that is, it flows in from them, and appears as if it existed within him. To know the part played by those communities of spirits and angels in this case is to know the actual causes; and to know the part played by the heaven of angels is to know the ends behind these causes. There are also the historical details which are added to illustrate the matter and so enable it to be seen more plainly.

[5] In the internal sense the subject is the linking of good to truths, and the application of those truths to good within the natural. For as has often been stated, 'Jacob' is the good in the natural, and 'his wives' affections for truth. Good which is the good of love and charity flows in from the Lord, doing so through the angels present with man. It does not flow into anything else with man than the cognitions discerned by him. And good being established in these, thought is concentrated on the truths thus known to him, and from these further things are aroused which are related to them and harmonize with them. And this activity continues until the person thinks that a thing is true and from affection wills it because it is true. When this point is reached the good joins itself to the truths and the truths apply themselves in freedom; for all affection leads to freedom, 2870, 2875, 3158, 4031.

[6] But even when this point is reached, the spirits who have become linked to that person arouse doubts, and sometimes even denials. But insofar as affection prevails he is brought to an affirmative attitude and is at the same time confirmed in truths through those very doubts and denials. When good enters in this manner there is no perception of its doing so through angels, since it enters by such an interior way and passes into the parts of his mind that are darkened by worldly and bodily interests. But it should be realized that good does not flow in from angels but through them from the Lord. This all the angels also confess, and for that reason never claim that anything good is theirs; indeed they are angry when anyone attributes it to them. From all that has been said then, as from causes themselves, some idea may be had of what happens when good is linked to truths, and when these apply themselves to good, the subject at this point in the internal sense.