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PSALM 139

To him that presides; a Psalm of David.

1. O jehovah, you searchest me, and you know me.
2. You know my sitting, and my rising; you understand my thought afar off.
3. You encompass my path, and my lying down; and you are perfectly acquainted with all my ways.
4. For there is not a word upon my tongue, but lo! O jehovah, you know it altogether.
5. You surround me behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.
6. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is too high, I cannot attain to it.
7. Whither can I go from your spirit? Whither can I flee from your presence?
8. If I go up into heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there!
9. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the extremity of the sea;
10. Even there does your hand lead me, and your right hand does hold me!
11. Or, if I say, surely the darkness will cover me! Even the night shall be light about me.
12. Yea, the darkness does not conceal from you, but the night is as bright as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to you!
13. Truly, you did possess my reins; you did cover me in the womb of my mother.
14. I will praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: wonderful are your works! And my soul knows it exceedingly.
15. My bones were not hidden from you, when I was fashioned in secret,—when I was curiously worked in the lower parts of the earth.
16. Yours eyes beheld my yet unformed substance, and in your book were all my days written and arranged, ere yet there was one of them.
17. How precious to me are your thoughts, O god! How great is the sum of them!
18. If I should count them, they are more in number than the sand: when I awake I am still with you.
19. O that you would slay the wicked, O god! Depart from me you blood-thirsty men.
20. Who speak wickedly against you, and your enemies take your name in vain.
21. Do I not hate those, O jehovah, who hate you? And do I not abhor those who rise up against you?
22. With perfect hatred do I hate them, they are enemies to me.
23. Search me, O God, and know my heart; prove me, and know my anxious thoughts.
24. And see, if there he any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.

Verse 2. You know my sitting and my rising. Mention is made of sitting, because to sit signifies to be permanent in state; for progressions from place to place signify changes of the state of the interiors, as may be manifest from what was shown, AC 2837. Hence sitting signifies permanent abiding in the state of the interiors: inasmuch as sitting had such a signification, therefore to sit was a ritual received amongst the sons of Israel, when they represented a permanent state of the interiors; as in the book of Judges, "The sons of Israel came to Bethel, and wept, and sat there before jehovah, and fasted on that day even to the evening," Judges 20:26; in which passage is signified permanence in a state of grief. Hence it may be manifest why mention is made of sitting, and what it involves in the following passages: as in David, "jehovah, you know my sitting and my rising; you understand my thought afar off," Psalm 139:2; and in Jeremiah, "You shall not enter the house of feasting, to sit with them," Jer 16:8. AC 9422.

To know his sitting has respect to the esse of life which is the will, and to know his rising has respect to his intention thence derived: and whereas the thought, follows the intention of the will, it is added, you understand my thought afar off. AE 687.

Verse 8. If I go up into heaven, you are there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there. It is to be observed, that the perception of opposites differs from the perception of relatives; for opposites are things that are external, and contrary to things that are internal; and an opposite has birth from the cessation of existence in some one thing, and the rising up of another at that time with a tendency contrary to what the former existence had, acting as a wheel against a wheel, or as a stream against a stream. But relatives have respect to the disposal of a variety and multiplicity of things in suitable and agreeable order; as of precious stones of different colours in the stomacher of a queen, or of different coloured flowers in an ornamental garland. Relatives therefore exist in each opposite, both in the good and the evil, in the true and the false, consequently both in heaven and in hell; but the relatives in hell are all opposite to the relatives in heaven. Now since god perceives, and sees, and thereby is acquainted with all the relatives in heaven, by virtue of the order in which he himself is, and in consequence thereof perceives, sees, and is acquainted with all the opposite relatives in hell, as was shown above, it is evident that god is omniscient in hell, as well as in heaven, and also amongst men upon earth; and that he thus perceives, sees, and is acquainted with their evils and falses, by virtue of the goodness and truth in which he himself is, and which in their essence are himself: for it is written, "If I go up into heaven, you are there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there," Psalm 139:8; "Though they dig in hell, thence shall mine hand take them," Amos 9:2. AR 62.

Verse 8. Heaven—hell. There are two things which constitute the life of man's spirit, love and faith; love constituting the life of his will, and faith the life of his understanding. The love of good and the faith of truth thence derived, constitute the life of heaven; and the love of evil, and the faith of what is false thence derived, constitute the life of hell.

Love to the lord and love towards our neighbour, constitute heaven; and so does faith, so far as it has life from those loves; and for as much as each of those loves and the faith thence derived, is from the lord, it is evident from here that the lord constitutes heaven.

Heaven is resident with every one according to his reception of love and faith from the lord; and they who receive heaven from the lord whilst they live in the world, come into heaven after death.

They who receive heaven from the lord are they who have heaven in themselves; for heaven is in man; as the lord also teaches; "They shall not say, the kingdom of god, lo it is here! or lo there! for behold the kingdom of god is within you," Luke 17:21.

Heaven with man resides in his internal, thus in willing and thinking from love and faith, and thence in his external, which consists in acting and speaking from love and faith; but it does not reside in the external without being in the internal; for all hypocrites are capable of acting and speaking well, but not of willing well and thinking well.

When man comes into the other life, which takes place immediately after death, it is then manifest whether heaven is in him, but not whilst he lives in the world; for in the world the external appears, and not the internal; but in the other life the internal is made manifest, because man then lives as to his spirit.

Eternal happiness, which is also called heavenly joy, is imparted to those who are in love and faith to the lord, from the lord; that love and that faith have in them that joy, into which the man, who has heaven in himself, comes after death: in the meantime it lies stored up in his internal. In the heavens there is a communion of goods; the peace, the intelligence, the wisdom, and the happiness of all, are communicated to every one therein; hence it appears how great peace, intelligence, wisdom, and happiness are in heaven.

As love to the lord, and love towards our neighbour, constitute the life of heaven with man, so the love of self and the love of the world, when they reign, constitute the life of hell with him, for these latter loves are opposite to the former; wherefore they with whom the loves of self and of the world reign, are incapable of receiving any thing from heaven; but the things which they receive are from hell: for whatever a man loves and whatever he believes, is either from heaven or from hell.

They with whom the loves of self and of the world reign, do not know what heaven and the happiness of heaven are; and it appears incredible to them that happiness is given in any other loves than in those, when yet the happiness of heaven only enters, so far as those loves, as ends, are removed; the happiness which succeeds on their removal is so great, that it exceeds all human comprehension.

The life of man cannot be changed after death, but remains then such as it had been in the world: for the whole spirit of man is such as his love is, and infernal love cannot be transcribed into heavenly joy, because they are opposite: this is understood by the words of Abraham to the rich man in hell, "There is a great gulf between us and you, so that they who would pass to you cannot, neither can they pass from there to us," Luke 16:26. Hence it is plain, that they who come into hell remain there to eternity, and that they who come into heaven remain there to eternity. NJHD 230—239.

Verses 11, 12. If I say, surely the darkness will cover me, even the night shall be light about me; yea, the darkness does not conceal from you, but the night is as bright as the day; the darkness and the light are both alike to you. By these words is signified that the natural man is illustrated by the lord, equally as the spiritual; natural light is signified by darkness and night, and spiritual light by light and day, and as the darkness so is the light, signifies the same as where it is said in Isaiah, "The light of the moon shall be as the light of the sun," Isaiah 30:26. AE 527.

Verse 13. You did possess my reins, you did cover me in the womb of my mother. By possessing the reins is signified to purify truths from falses, see above, AE 167; by covering me in the womb of my mother, is signified to defend from the falses of evil which are from hell, and this from the beginning of regeneration, and afterwards, continually. AE 710.

Verses 13, 15. You did possess my reins, my bones were not hidden from you, when I was fashioned in secret. To possess the reins is to know falses and truths belonging to man; hence it is said, my bones were not hidden from you, when I was fashioned in secret, whereby is signified that no false that was made could be hid: that bones signify truth in the ultimate of order, and in the opposite sense the false, may be seen, AC 3818, 5560. For as much as the reins signified truths purified from falses, therefore in the sacrifices the fats and reins [or kidneys] alone were offered up, which may be seen in Exodus 29:13; Levit 3:4, 10, 15, 4:9; and elsewhere. The reason that the fat and reins alone were offered up in sacrifice was, because the fat signified the goods of love, and the reins the truths of faith; that fat signified the goods of love may be seen, AC 353, 5943; that the reins [or kidneys] signify the truths of faith, examining, purifying, and rejecting from themselves falses, is from correspondence, for all and singular the things of the body correspond, an may appear in the work concerning "heaven and hell," where it, is shown under its proper article, that, there is a correspondence of all things of heaven with all things of man, HH 87 to 102; and there concerning the reins, HH 96, 97. Unless it be known that there is such a correspondence, who could know why it is so often predicated in the Word of jehovah, or the lord, that he searches and proves the reins and the heart? AE 167.

Verse 16. In your book ware all my days written and arranged, ere yet there was one of them. He who does not know from the internal sense what the book of life is, also what the books are, out of which the dead are to be judged, cannot form any other idea, than that in heaven there are such books, and that in them are written the actions of all, whereof the memory is thus preserved; when yet by book, in the above passage, are not meant books, but the remembrance of all things which have been done; for every one carries along with him into the other life the memory of his actions, thus the book of his life, AC 2474; but no one except the lord alone can judge any one according to his actions, for all actions proceed from final causes, which final causes lie deeply concealed within; according to those causes man is judged, and no one knows them but the lord, wherefore judgement belongs to him alone. AC 8620.

Inasmuch as to write, signifies to implant in the life, therefore also it is said of jehovah, or the lord, that he writes, and has written in a book, whereby is understood what is inscribed by the lord on the spirit of man, that is, in his heart and soul, or what is the same, in his love and faith, as in David, "In your book were all my days written and arranged, ere yet there was one of them," Psalm 139:16. AE 222.

By all the days which were written in the book, are understood all the states of life; that all and singular the things which man has thought, willed, spoken, and done, yea, which he has seen, and heard, are with him in his spirit as if inscribed therein, so that nothing thereof is wanting, may be seen in the work concerning "heaven and hell," HH 462, 463. AE 199.