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PSALM 66

To him that presides; a Psalm, or Song.

1. Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth.
2. Sing forth the glory of his name, make his praise glorious.
3. Say to god, how marvelous are your works! through the greatness of your power shall your enemies submit themselves to you.
4. All the earth shall bow themselves down to you; and shall sing to you, they shall sing to your name. Selah.
5. Come and behold the works of god; marvelous are his doings towards the sons of man.
6. He turned the sea into dry land; they went through the river on foot; then we rejoiced in him.
7. He rules by his power for ever; his eyes behold the nations; let not the rebellious exalt themselves. Selah.
8. O bless our god you peoples, and make the voice of his praise to be heard.
9. Who places our soul amongst the living, and suffers not our feet to be moved.
10. For you, O god, did prove us; you did try us as silver is tried.
11. You did bring us into the net, you did lay oppression upon our loins.
12. You did cause men to ride over our head; we went through fire and through waters, and you have brought us out into a broad place.
13. I will come into your house with burnt offerings; I will pay you my vows;
14. Which my lips have uttered, and my mouth has spoken, when I was in trouble.
15. I will offer to you burnt-sacrifices of fatlings, with the incense of rams; I will offer bullocks with goats. Selah.
16. Come, hearken all you that fear god, I will declare what he has done for my soul,
17. I cried to him with my mouth, and he was exalted with my tongue.
18. If I regard iniquity in my heart, the lord will not hear.
19. Verily, god has heard, he has attended to the voice of my prayer.
20. Blessed be god, who has not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.

Verse 5. Sons of man. By the sons of man are signified the same as by people, namely, those who are in spiritual truths and goods. AE 331.

Verses 11, 12. You have laid oppression upon our loins; you have made a man to ride over our head; we went through fire and waters, yet you broughtest us out into a broad place. Thus is described spiritual captivity and liberation thence; spiritual captivity is when the mind is closed so that it does not perceive good and understand truth; liberation thence is when the mind is opened; by oppression on the loins is signified that there is no perception of the good of love, for the loins and thighs signify the good of love; by making a man to ride over our head, is signified that there is no understanding of truth, by man is here signified understanding grounded in self, which is no understanding, and the like by the head; these things being signified it is therefore said, we have entered through fire and waters, through fire denoting through evils which are from self-love, and through waters through falses; liberation thence is understood by being brought out into a broad place. AE 355.

Verses 13, 15. I will come into your house with burnt-offerings, etc. To offer burnt-offerings of fat things signifies worship from the good of celestial love; to offer with the incense of rams signifies worship from the good of spiritual love. AE 324.

Verses 17, 18, 19. I cried to god with my mouth; if I regard iniquity in my hearty the lord will not hear; verily god has heard; he has attended to the voice of my prayers. Inasmuch as the quality of prayers is such as the heart of man is, and consequently they are not prayers which have any worship in them if the heart be evil, therefore it is said, if I regard iniquity in my heart the lord will not hear, by which is signified would not receive worship; the heart of man is his love, and the love of man is his life itself, hence the prayers of man are of such a quality as his love is, or such as is life is; hence it follows, that prayers signify the life of his love and charity, or that this life is understood by prayers in the spiritual sense. Moreover, man continually prays when he is in the life of charity, although not in mouth, still in heart, for what is of the love this is continually in the thought, even when he does not know it. AE 325.

Verse 12. You have made a man to ride over our head. The word here rendered man is expressed in the Hebrew original by a term, which properly signifies the intellectual man, and since this man is frequently the child of evil and error, therefore the term is here to be understood in a bad sense.

Yet you have brought us out into a broad place, what is here rendered into a broad place is expressed in the original Hebrew by into the breadth, the ground or reason of which expression is thus explained in the Apocalypse Explained, 861. "By the breadth of the earth is signified the truth of the church, which signification originates in this consideration, that in the spiritual world there are four quarters, east, west, south and north, and the east and west make its longitude, and the south and north its latitude; and whereas in the east and west they dwell who are in the good of love, and therefore by the east and west are signified good, hence in like manner by longitude; and whereas in the south and north they dwell who are in the truths of wisdom, and therefore by the south and north is signified truth, hence in like manner by latitude." That by latitude is signified truth, may be manifest from several passages in the Word, "jehovah you have not shut me up in the hand of the enemy, you have made my feet to stand in the breadth," Psalm 31:9. "I called on jehovah in distress, he answered me in the breadth," Psalm 118:5. "jehovah brought me into the breadth, he delivered me," Psalm 18:19.