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PSALM 92

A Psalm, or song, for the Sabbath day.

1. It is a good thing to give thanks to jehovah, and to sing praises to your name, O you most high!
2. To show forth your mercy in the morning, and your truth every night;
3. Upon an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery; upon the harp with a solemn sound.
4. For you, O jehovah, have made me glad through your work; I will sing aloud of the works of your hands.
5. How great are your works, O jehovah! How very deep are your thoughts!
6. A brutish man knows not; neither does a fool understand this.
7. Though the wicked spring up as the grass, though all the workers of iniquity flourish; yet, they shall be destroyed for ever.
8. But you, O jehovah, are most high for ever more.
9. For, lo, your enemies, O jehovah, for, lo, your enemies shall perish! All the workers of iniquity shall be scattered!
10. But you exalt my horn like the horn of unicorns; I am anointed with fresh oil.
11. Mine eye looks with satisfaction on mine enemies; mine ear listens with satisfaction at the overthrow of the wicked that rise up against me.
12. The just shall flourish like the palm-tree; he shall grow up like the cedar of Lebanon.
13. They that are planted in the house of jehovah, shall flourish in the courts of our god.
14. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;
15. To show that jehovah my rock is upright; and that there is no injustice in him.

Verse 3. Upon an instrument of ten strings, etc. For the signification of musical instruments and singing, see Psalm 71:1, 2, 3, Exposition.

Verse 10. But you exalt my horn like the horn of unicorns. Divine truths are called the horns of unicorns by reason of their length; hence mention is so often made of the horn being exalted, for exaltation signifies power from an interior principle. AC 2832.

Verse 12. The just shall flourish like the palm-tree; he shall grow up like a cedar in Lebanon. Palm denotes good, and cedar truth. Inasmuch as it signifies good, it also signifies wisdom, for wisdom is of good; this was signified by the palms, which together with the cherubs and flowers were engraven on the walls of the temple; for the temple signified the lord himself, and in the representative sense, heaven; the cherubs, the palms and flowers upon the walls signified providence, wisdom, and intelligence, which are from the lord, thus all things which are of heaven. AC 8368.

The just signify those who are in good, for by the just in the Word are meant those who are in the good of love, and by saints those who are in truths from that good; hence it is that it is said of the just one, that he shall flourish like a palm, and like a cedar in Lebanon, for the fructification of good is meant by the former, and the multiplication of truth thence by the latter. AE 458.

Verse 14. They shall bring forth fruit in old age; or grey hairs. Grey hair denotes in the last or ultimate. AC 5550.

Old age signifies to put off what is human, and to put on what is celestial. The ground and reason why such things are signified by being old, and coming into days, is because the angels have no idea of old age, nor of advancing age, or coming into days, but only the idea of state as to the life in which they are principled, wherefore when mention is made in the Word of advancement in age, and of old age, the angels attendant on man cannot form any other idea than of the state of life in which they are, and in which men are, when they pass through various ages even to the last, namely that they successively thus put off the human principle, and put on the celestial; for human life is nothing else from infancy to old age but a progression from the world to heaven, and the last, which is death is the real transit, of consequence burial is resurrection, because it is a plenary putting off, see 2916; inasmuch as the angels are in such an idea, nothing else can be signified by old age, in the internal sense, which is principally designed for the angels, and for men who are angelic minds. AC 3016.

Verse 14. They shall be fat and flourishing, (green.) To be fat and green signifies to be in goods and truths of doctrine. That fatness signifies goodness and things belonging thereto, thus satisfactions and joys, appears from the following passages in the Word: as in Isaiah, "Attending attend to me, eat you good, that your soul may be delighted in fatness," Isaiah 55:2; by eating good is signified to appropriate good to themselves; whence by delighting in fatness is signified to be in a state of satisfaction and blessedness; and in Jeremiah, "I will fill the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with good," Jer 31:14; where also by fatness is signified the satisfaction and blessedness arising from the good of love; and in David, "My soul shall be satisfied with marrow and fatness, and my mouth shall praise you with joyful lips," Psalm 63:6; where the soul being satisfied with marrow and fatness, signifies being filled with the good of love and with joy thence derived; to praise with joyful lips, signifies to worship by truths which gladden the mind; again, "Your houses shall be filled with fatness, and you shall make them drink of the river of your delights," Psalm 36:9. By the fatness with which the houses shall be filled, is signified the good of love, and satisfaction thence derived, houses denoting the things of the mind; by the river of the delights, of which they shall drink, is signified intelligence and the felicity thence derived; and in Isaiah, "In this mountain shall jehovah zebaoth make to all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wine on the marrow, of fat things full of marrow and of wine on the marrow well refined," Isaiah 25:6. These things are said concerning the state of those who should acknowledge and adore the lord; by that mountain is signified the New Church from them; by the feast of fat things, of fat things full of marrow, is signified good both natural and spiritual with joy of heart; and by the marrow, and marrow refined, are signified truths from that good with the felicity thence derived; again in the same prophet, "jehovah shall give the rain of your seed, with which you shall sow the land, and bread of the produce of the earth, and it shall be fat and plentiful," Isaiah 30:23; by the rain of seed is signified the multiplication of truth; and by bread of produce is signified the fructification of good; by fat and plentiful is signified good and truth with all satisfaction and felicity.

Inasmuch as the Jewish and Israelitish nation was only in external worship, and not at the same time in internal worship, and consequently was not in any good of love, nor in any good of charity and faith, therefore it was prohibited them to eat the fat and blood, and it was declared that, if they should eat them they would be cut off, Levit 3:17; 7:23, 25; but to those who are in internal worship, and thence in external worship, such as they are to be, who should be of the lord's New Church, it is said, that they should eat fat to satiety, and drink blood to inebriety, Ezek 39:19; by fat is there signified all the good of heaven and the church, and by blood all the truth thereof. In the opposite sense, by the fat ones are signified those who nauseate good, or who at least despise or reject it, Deut 32:15; Jer 5:27; 1. 11; Psalm 17:10; Psalm 20:4; 18:32; 119:70; and elsewhere. AE 1159.