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PSALM 95

1. O come, let us sing to jehovah; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
2. Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and let us make a joyful noise to him with psalms.
3. For jehovah is a great god, and a great King above all gods!
4. In whose hand are the deep places of the earth; the treasures of the mountains are his also.
5. The sea is his, for he made it; and his hands formed the dry land.
6. O come, let us fall prostrate; let us bow down; let us kneel before jehovah our Maker!
7. For he is our god, and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand. Today, if you will hear his voice,
8. Harden not your hearts, as at Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness.
9. When your fathers tempted me, when they proved me, although they had seen my work.
10. Forty years long was I grieved with that generation, and said, they are a people that do err in their hearts, and have not known my ways.
11. Unto whom I swore in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest.

Verse 1. O come, let us sing to jehovah; let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. Mention is here made of Jehovah and rock, because by Jehovah is meant the lord as to Divine good, and by rock the lord as to Divine truth, and since the latter and the former is meant, he is twice addressed, for one name has reference to the Divine good, the other to the Divine truth, since in the Word there is a heavenly marriage in every part, which is the marriage of good and truth. AE 411.

Verse 3. For jehovah is a great god, and a great King above all gods. That hereby is signified that there is one God, and none besides him, and because there is none besides him, that there is one God: in the Word it is occasionally said, that there is none as Jehovah God, also that there is no God as he; it was so said in the Word, because at that time they worshiped several gods in the land where the church was, as also in the lands where the church was not, and every one preferred his own God to the God of another. AC 7401.

In the Word, Jehovah or the Lord in several places is named El in the singular and also Eloah, and likewise Elohim in the plural, each sometimes in one verse or in one series; the reason why he is so named cannot be known, unless the internal sense of the Word be known. What is involved in the name El, when it is named, and what in Elohim, may appear from what has been abundantly shown above, namely that El or Elohim or God is mentioned, when truth is treated of; hence it is, that by El and Elohim in the supreme sense is signified the Divine spiritual principle, for this is the same with Divine truth, but with this difference, that by El is signified truth in the will and act, which is the same thing with the good of truth; Elohim in the plural is used, because by the Divine truth is meant all truths proceeding from the lord; hence also the angels in the Word are sometimes called Elohim or gods. AC 4402.

Verses 8, 9, 10. Harden not your hearts, as at Meribah, etc. etc. As to what concerns the temptation at Meribah and its nature, it must be noted, that in this passage are described those who almost yield, namely who complain against heaven, and also against the divine itself, and at length almost dis-believe a Divine providence; these things are signified in the internal sense by what precedes, and also by what follows in this verse, and are the quality of the state of temptation which is signified by Massah, and the quality of complaint in temptation which is signified by Meribah: that this quality is here signified by Meribah, is evident in David: "In straitness you have called upon me, and I rescued you, I answered you in what is hidden, I proved you near the waters of Meribah," Psalm 81:7. But in the internal historical sense, in which the religious principle which prevailed amongst the Israelitish nation is treated of, that nation is described as to its quality towards jehovah, namely that they were not willing by supplication to entreat Him for aid, but that they expostulated: the reason was, because they did not acknowledge jehovah as the supreme god in heart, but only in mouth when they saw miracles: that they did not acknowledge Him in heart, is very manifest from the Egyptian calf, which they made for themselves and adored, saying that these were their gods; also from their frequent apostacy, concerning which see AC 8301. These are the things which are here described in the internal historical sense; but in the internal spiritual sense is described the quality of temptation with those who are brought to the last [state] of temptation, before they are liberated. That the quality of the Israelitish nation and of their religious principle is described by the contention with Moses at Massah and Meribah, is also manifest in David: "Harden not your heart as in Meribah, as in the day of Massah in the wilderness, where your fathers tempted me; they tempted me, although they saw my work; Forty years I was grieved with this generation; and I said, they are a people that do err in heart, and the same have not known my ways, to whom I swore in my anger, that they shall not come to my rest," Psalm 95:8, 9, 10, 11.

The reason why divine representative worship was still instituted amongst that nation was, because representative worship could be instituted with every nation, which had holy externals of worship, and worshiped almost idolatrously; for what is representative does not respect the person but the thing, AC 1381, and it was the genius of that nation above every other nation altogether to worship external things as holy and divine, without any internal principle; as to adore their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, afterwards Moses and David, as deities, and besides to account holy and as divine, and to worship every stone and every [piece of] wood, which was inaugurated into their divine worship, as the arks, the tables there, the lamp, the altar, the garments of Aaron, the urim and thummim, and afterwards the temple. By such things at that time there was given of the lord's providence a communication of the angels of heaven with man; for there must needs be somewhere a church, or the representative of a church, that there may be communication of heaven with the human race; and inasmuch as that nation, above every other nation, could place divine worship in external things, and thereby act the representative of a church, therefore that nation was taken.

Communication with the angels in heaven by representatives was effected at that time in this manner: their external worship was communicated with angelic spirits who are simple, and do not reflect on things internal, but still are interiorly good; such are they who in the grand man correspond to the skins; these do not at all attend to the internal of man, but only to his external; if this latter appears holy, they also think holily concerning it; the interior angels of heaven saw in those spirits the things that were represented, consequently the celestial and divine things which corresponded; for with these [spirits] they could be present, and see those things, but not with man, except by them [the angelic spirits]; for the angels dwell with men in interior principles, but where there are no interior principles, they dwell in the interior principles of simple spirits, for the angels have no relish except for things spiritual and celestial, which are the interior things contained in representatives; from these few observations it may be manifest how communication with heaven could be given by such a people: but see what has been before shown on this subject, namely that the holy principle of worship belonging to the Jews, was miraculously elevated into heaven out of them, AC 4307; that the posterity of Jacob, of whatever quality they were, could represent what is holy, if so be they strictly observed the rituals that were commanded, AC 3147, 3479, 3480, 3881, 4208. AC 8588.

Verse 11. Unto whom I swore in my wrath, that they should not enter into my rest. jehovah god, or the lord never swears, for it is not suitable to god himself, or to the Divine truth to swear; but where god or the Divine truth is willing to have any thing confirmed before man, then this confirmation falls down into a natural sphere, into an oath or the form of an oath customary in the world; hence it is evident, that although god never swears, still in the sense of the letter of the Word, which is the natural sense, it is said that he swears. AE 608.