PSALM 9

Verse 14. That I may recount all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion. By doors and gates, is signified a letting-in, and specifically, the truths which let-in, which are truths grounded in good from the lord; whence it is evident what is signified by doors and gates in the following passages; "Lift up your heads, O you gates, and be you lifted up, you everlasting doors; and the King of Glory shall come in;" (Psalm 24:7, 9) again, "That 1 may recount all your praises in the gates of the daughter of Zion;" (Psalm 9:14) again, "jehovah loves the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob." Psalm 87:2. By Zion, and by the daughter of Zion, is meant the celestial church. AE 208.

The Translator's Notes and Observations

Verse 2. - I will rejoice and exult in you. What intelligent mind, if it admits the testimony of revealed truth, cannot discern, and also confirm itself in the discernment, that one idea is here suggested by rejoicing, and another by exulting, and thus that the two expressions involve in them distinct sensations, which ought to be seen distinctly and not confounded? For how frequently, in the Sacred Scriptures or word of god, do we find the two terms, joy and gladness, or, what amounts to the same thing, rejoicing and exulting, combined in close alliance, for the purpose of expressing two distinct kinds and degrees of bliss! Thus it is written in the book of Isaiah: "Behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen and killing sheep;" (Is 22:13) and again, "They shall attain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away;" (Is 35:10; 51:11) and in Jeremiah, "There shall be heard in this place the voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride;" (Jer 33:10, 11) and in Joel, "Joy and gladness is cut off from the house of our god;" (Joel 1:16) and in Zechariah, "The fast of the tenth shall be to the house of Judah and gladness;" (Zech 8:19) and again in Isaiah, "Joy and gladness shall be found therein, thanksgiving and the voice of melody;" (Is 51:3) "Be glad in Jerusalem, and rejoice in her;" (Is 66:10) not to mention several other passages to the same effect. What intelligent mind, then, cannot hence see clearly, that these two terms, joy and gladness, like the two terms, honour and glory, spoken of in the foregoing Psalm, have reference to the two distinct principles of Love and Wisdom in the divine mind, and of Goodness and Truth in every angelic and human mind, and that without such reference to the divine and heavenly marriage of these principles, they would constitute an unmeaning and superfluous tautology?

It ought therefore to be kept in continual remembrance by every lover of revealed truth, that there are two distinct sources of bliss in the human mind, namely will and understanding, the will being receptive of the good of heavenly love, whilst the understanding is receptive of the truth of heavenly wisdom; and that the gratification resulting from the good of heavenly love is denominated joy, whilst the gratification resulting from the truth of heavenly wisdom is denominated gladness. It ought also to be further recollected, that human bliss can never be complete and full, only so far as it is a compound of joy and gladness, in other words, a compound of the two heavenly principles of good in the will, and of truth in the understanding; since joy without gladness, or good without truth, and in like manner gladness without joy, or truth without good, affect only one part of the human mind, and consequently are only half a blessing.

Verse 18. For not always shall the needy be forgotten; the expectation of the poor shall not perish for ever more. Mention is here made of two distinct classes or characters of persons, called the needy and the poor; as also in other parts of the holy word; for thus it is written in Isaiah: "When the poor and needy seek water, and there is none, I jehovah will hear them, I the god of Israel will not forsake them;" (Is 41:17) and again, "The first-born of the poor shall feed, and the needy shall lie down in safety;" (Is 14:30) and again, in the book of Psalms: "All my bones shall say, jehovah, who is like you, who delivers the poor from him that is too strong for him, yea, the poor and needy from him that spoils him?" Psalm 35:10. That the persons who are here described as being poor and needy, were not of this character according to the literal sense of the words, but only according to the spiritual sense, is evident from the confession of David, where he says, "I am poor and needy, yet the lord thinks upon me;" (Psalm 40:17) and in another place: "I am needy and poor; make haste to me, O god;" (Psalm 70:6) for David, it is plain, was not poor and needy in any other sense than what related to his mind, or spirit, when he appeared to himself to be destitute of the true riches, the love and the wisdom of god; and therefore it is equally evident that, according to a spiritual idea, the poor and needy denote all those sons and daughters of men, who are destitute of the love and knowledge of the supreme.