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PSALM 24

A Psalm of David.

1. The earth is jehovah's, and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein.
2. For he has founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers.
3. Who shall ascend the mountain of jehovah, and who shall stand in the place of his Holiness?
4. He that has clean hands and a pure heart; who has not lifted up his soul to vanity, nor sworn deceitfully.
5. He shall receive a blessing from jehovah, and justice from the god of his salvation.
6. This is the generation of them that seek Him, that seek your face, O Jacob. Selah.
7. Lift up your heads, O you gates! and be you lifted up you everlasting doors! and the king of glory shall come in.
8. Who is this king of glory? jehovah strong and mighty, jehovah mighty in battle.
9. Lift up your heads, O you gates! yea, lift them up you everlasting doors! and the king of glory shall come in.
10. Who is this king of glory? jehovah of Hosts, he is the king of glory. Selah.

There is a speech of good spirits, and of angelic spirits, composed of several speaking at the same time, particularly in circling companies or choirs; concerning which by the Divine mercy of the lord more will be said elsewhere. The speech of those who discourse in choirs has often been heard by me: it flows with a sort of rythmical cadence. In speaking they do not at all think either of words or ideas; their meaning flows into those spontaneously: and no words or ideas flow into the discourse which multiply the sense, or divert it to any thing else, or to which there adheres any thing artificial, or which seems to themselves elegant as proceeding from self, or from self-love; for this would immediately create confusion. They do not fix their attention upon any word; they think only of the sense; and the words follow spontaneously upon the sense. The closes fall upon expressions implying unity, for the most part simple unity, but when upon an expression implying compound unity, they glide on, by an accent, to the following clause. The reason of these peculiarities is because they think and speak in society, and hence the form of discourse has a cadence, according to the connection and unanimity of the society. Such in old time was the form of canticles; and such is that of the Psalms of David. AC 1648.

Verses 1, 2. The earth is jehovah's, and the fullness thereof, the world and they that dwell therein; for he has founded it upon the seas, and established it on the rivers, Fullness here denotes truth and good; earth denotes the church in a specific sense; world denotes the church in a universal sense; jehovah founding the world upon the seas, denotes on those things which are of science, AC 28; and founding it upon rivers, denotes on those things which are of intelligence, AC 3051; that it is not meant that jehovah founded the world upon the seas, and established it on the rivers, who cannot see, for the world is not founded and established on them; wherefore every considerate person may see, that by seas and by rivers, something else is signified and that this something else is spiritual, or the internal principle of the Word. AC 697; see also AC 9755.

The earth, and the world denote the church, and fullness denotes all things belonging to it; the seas on which he founded it are the knowledge of truth in general; rivers are doctrinals; inasmuch as the church is founded on the latter and the former, therefore it is said that he founded it on the seas, and established it on the rivers; that this cannot be said of the earth and the world, is obvious to every one. AE 304.

By the earth is here signified the church as to truth; its fullness signifies all truths in the complex, and by the world is signified the church as to good; they that dwell therein signify goods in the complex. AE 741.

By the world is signified heaven and the church in the whole complex; by seas are signified knowledges and sciences, which are the ultimates of the church, specifically the knowledges of truth and good, such as are in the sense of the letter of the Word; by rivers is signified introduction by those knowledges to celestial intelligence; hence it may be manifest what is meant by the above words in the spiritual sense, namely: that the interior things of heaven and the church, which are called celestial and spiritual, are founded on the knowledges of truth and good, which are in the sense of the letter of the Word, rationally understood: it is said that jehovah founded the world on the seas, and established it on the rivers, because seas and rivers are in the boundaries of heaven, represented by the sea, Suph, the sea of the Philistines, the river Euphrates, and the river Jordan, which were the boundaries of the Land of Canaan; and since ultimates in the Word signify lowest things, it is said that jehovah founded and established it, upon them. AE 518.

Verse 3. Who shall ascend the mountain of jehovah, and who shall stand in the place of his holiness? That the establishment of the Church is described by founding the earth and the world upon the seas, and establishing them upon the rivers, may be seen above; that the establishment of the Church is signified is evident from what follows, namely Who shall ascend the mountain of jehovah, and who shall stand in the place of his holiness! for, by the mountain of jehovah is meant Zion, by which is signified where the lord reigns by divine truth; and by the place of his holiness is meant Jerusalem, where the temple was, by which is signified the Church as to doctrine: hence it is evident, that by the foundation of the world is meant the establishment of the Church. AE 2057.

Verse 8. Who is this King of Glory? The lord is here called the King of Glory from the divine truth, from which he fought, conquered, and subdued the hells; hence it us, that he is called jehovah mighty, and the hero of war. AC 10053.

Verse 5. He shall receive a blessing from jehovah. For the proper signification of the term blessing see Exposition, Psalm 21:3, 5.

Verse 6. This is the generation. See Psalm 14:5, Exposition.

Verses 7, 9. Lift up your heads, O you gates! and he you lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in. The everlasting doors being lifted up denotes the opening and elevation of hearts to the lord, who is the King of Glory, and thereby the giving communication, that is, that he may flow in with the good of charity and the truth of faith: the Lord is called the King of Glory from truth, which is derived from good. AC 8989.

Verse 4. Who has not lifted up his soul to vanity. See Psalm 4:2, Exposition.

Inasmuch, as was above said, by doors and gates is signified introduction, and specifically are signified the truths which introduce, which are truths grounded in good from the lord, hence it is evident what is signified by doors and gales in this passage, "Lift up your heads, O you gates! and be you lifted up, you everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in." AE 208.

Verse 5. He shall receive a blessing from jehovah, and justice from the god of his salvation. The attentive reader will not fail to remark, in this passage, a reference to the marriage of the good and the true, so frequently referred to in the preceding Psalms, fits forming a characteristic proof of the divine inspiration of the Holy Word; jehovah having more distinct relation to the principle of Divine Good, and god to the principle of Divine Truth. The same observation may be extended also to the sixth verse, where the principle of the Divine Good is again marked by Him who is sought, and the principle of the Divine True, by your faces, O Jacob.

Verse 6. This is the generation of them that seek him, that seek your faces, O Jacob. That by Jacob is represented the lord, as to the divine true of the natural principle, see AC 4428, 4667, 6236.

Verse 7. Lift up your heads, O you gates! and be you lifted up, you everlasting doors. A singular distinction is here made between the gates and the doors, for it is said of the former, lift up your heads, and of the latter, be you lifted up, as if the former were to lift up their heads by some power of their own, whereas the latter were to be dependent for their elevation on the power of another. This distinction may, perhaps, be accounted for from the consideration, that the gates have more particular reference to the external man in his admission of divine truth, whereas the doors have more reference to the internal man in his admission of divine good, and in the former state man is led to suppose that his elevation is from some power of his own, whereas, in the latter, he is willing to acknowledge that it is from another.

Verses 8, 10. Who is this King of Glory? The two different answers here given to this question are striking illustrations of the truth of the heavenly doctrine of the New Jerusalem on the subject of redemption. For we are taught in that doctrine, that redemption consists in the two distinct acts of subduing the powers of darkness, and of glorifying the Lord's humanity; and how forcibly is the first of these acts described by the first answer to the above question, jehovah strong and mighty, jehovah mighty in battle, whilst the second is described with equal force by the second answer, jehovah of hosts, he is the King of Glory.