420. The Word mentions various instruments, each of which has its own symbolism. These will, by the Lord's divine mercy, be explained in the appropriate places. 1 For the moment let me restrict myself to the following in David:
I will offer in Jehovah's tent the sacrifices of shouting; I will sing and make music to Jehovah. (Psalms 27:6)
The tent expresses the idea of something heavenly, and the shouting, singing, and music-making something spiritual that grows out of it. In the same author:
Sing [for joy] in Jehovah, you who show justice. For the upright, praise of him is beautiful. Give thanks to Jehovah on a harp; on a ten-string lute make music to him. Sing him a new song, make your strumming excel in its clamor, because Jehovah's word is upright, and every work of his is done in truth. (Psalms 33:1-2, 3, 4)
These stand for religious truth; everything said applies to that truth.
[2] Spiritual things, which are the truth and goodness involved in faith, were celebrated by harp and lute, by song, and by similar music. The holy or heavenly aspects of faith were celebrated by wind instruments — horns and so on. This is why so many instruments were connected with the Temple and why it says so many times that certain instruments were used in celebrating this thing or that. So the instruments are taken to mean the very qualities themselves that the instruments were honoring, as those just discussed are.
[3] In the same author:
I will give thanks to you on the lute; your truth, my God, I will play as music to you on the harp, Holy One of Israel. My lips will sing when I make music to you, as will my soul, which you redeemed. (Psalms 71:22-23)
This too is about religious truth. In the same author:
Answer Jehovah with thanksgiving; make music to our God on a harp. (Psalms 147:7)
The giving of thanks here is about the heavenly aspects of faith, which is why the name Jehovah is used, and making music with a harp is about the spiritual aspects, which is why the name God is used. In the same author:
Let them praise Jehovah's name in dance; on tambourine and harp let them make music to him. (Psalms 149:3)
The tambourine stands for good, and the harp, for truth, which the people are praising.
[4] In the same author:
Praise God with the blare of a horn. Praise him on lute and harp. Praise him on tambourine and in dance. Praise him on strings and organ. Praise him with loud cymbals. Praise him with shouting cymbals. (Psalms 150:3-4, 5)
These stand for religious goodness and truth, for which the people are offering praise. Do not imagine that so many instruments would be named if they did not each symbolize something. In the same author:
Send your light and your truth. Let them lead me; let them bring me to your holy mountain and to your dwelling places. And I will go in to God's altar, to the God of my happiness and joy, and I will give thanks to you with a harp, God, my God. (Psalms 43:3-4)
These things stand for knowledge of goodness and truth.
[5] In Isaiah:
Take a harp, circle the city, strum well, multiply your singing, in order to be remembered. (Isaiah 23:16)
These types of music stand for the attributes of faith and of religious knowledge. Still more clearly in John:
The four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell down before the Lamb, each of them having harps and golden bowls full of pieces of incense, which are the prayers of the godly. (Revelation 5:8)
Anyone can see that they did not have harps but rather that the harps symbolize religious truth, and the golden bowls full of incense symbolize religious good. In David, in Psalms 42:4 and 69:30, the music made by instruments is called praise and thanksgiving. Elsewhere in John:
I heard a sound from the sky like that of many waters. I heard the sound of harpists strumming on their harps; they were singing a new song. (Revelation 14:2-3)
And in another place:
Men were standing next to the glassy sea, having God's harps. (Revelation 15:2)
It is noteworthy that angels and spirits distinguish sounds on the basis of differences in goodness and truth. They do this with the sounds not only of singing and instruments but also of words, and they refuse to listen to any but those that harmonize. The result is concord between the sounds (and so the instruments) on one hand and the nature and essence of good and truth on the other.
Footnotes:
1. Swedenborg's statement here that explanations of individual instruments in Scripture will occur at the "appropriate places" may be another indication that at the time of writing, he planned Secrets of Heaven as a full exegesis of all Scripture; see note 3 in §66 and the reader's guide, pages 24-25 note 14 [NCBSP: Available from Swedenborg Foundation]. Ultimately, however, the primary exegesis in Secrets of Heaven was limited to Genesis and Exodus. The musical instruments mentioned in these two biblical books are the organ (Latin organum), whose meaning is given here; the harp (Latin cithara), here and at §4138; the tambourine (Latin tympanum), in §§4138, 8337; one type of trumpet (Latin jobel), at §8802; and another type of trumpet (Latin buccina), at §§8815, 8823, 8915. [LHC, JSR]
