<<  PSALM LXXVI. >>

For the Chief Musician; on stringed instruments.
A Psalm of Asaph, a Song.

1. In Judah is God known:
His name is great in Israel.
2. In Salem also is his tabernacle,
And his dwelling-place in Zion.
3. There he brake the arrows of the bow;
The shield, and the sword, and the battle. [Selah
4. Glorious art thou and excellent,
From the mountains of prey.
5. The stouthearted are made a spoil,
They have slept their sleep;
And none of the men of might have found their hands.
6. At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob,
Both chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.
7. Thou, even thou, art to be feared;
And who may stand in thy sight when once thou art
angry ?
8. Thou didst cause sentence to be heard from heaven;
The earth feared, and was still,
9. When God arose to judgment,
To save all the meek of the earth. [Selah
10. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee:
The residue of wrath shalt thou gird upon thee.
11. Vow, and pay unto Jehovah your God:
Let all that are round about him bring presents unto
him that ought to be feared.
12. He will cut off the spirit of princes:
He is terrible to the kings of the earth.

 

1. In Judah is God known:
His name is great in Israel.

1. See Psalm xviii. 1. R. 279.

See Psalm xviii. 1. E. 326.

1-5. The Lord is in His church, protection there against falsities and evils. P. P.

2. In Salem also is his tabernacle,
And his dwelling-place in Zion.

 2. 3. Salem in the original language means peace, and also perfection, thus it signifies a state of peace and a state of perfection. A. 1726.

It is manifest that Shalem is the tranquillity of peace, for it is said that he brake there the fiery shafts of the bow, the shield, and the sword, and the war, and also from its signification in the original language, for Shalem means tranquillity and perfection. A. 4393.

See Psalm xi. 2. R. 299.

3. There he brake the arrows of the bow;
The shield, and the sword, and the battle. [Selah]

2-4. The bow and arrows plainly stand for the doctrine of falsity. A. 2686.

3. See Psalm ii. 6-8, 12. R. 612.
See Psalm xlviii. 3, 4. E. 850.
3, 4. See Psalm xlvi. 9, 10. A. 1664.

By wars in the Word spiritual wars are signified which are fightings against the truth. They are carried on by reasonings from falsities. R. 500.

The subject treated of is the cessation of all combat and all strife in the kingdom of the Lord. By Salem in which is the tabernacle of Jehovah is signified His spiritual kingdom, where there is genuine truth, and by Zion where His dwelling place is, the celestial kingdom where there is genuine good. By His breaking the arrows of the bow, the shield, the sword, and the battle is signified the dissipation of all combat of the falsities of doctrine against good and truth, the arrows of the bow standing for the principal things of doctrine. E. 357.

Jerusalem is here called Salem because by Salem is signified peace, from which also Jerusalem is named. The reason of its being so named is because peace signifies all things belonging to heaven and the church. By the tabernacle of God is signified the church which exists from those things, by His dwelling place in Zion the good of love, since the Lord dwells in that good and thence gives truths and causes them to multiply and be fruitful. E. 365.

4. Glorious art thou and excellent,
From the mountains of prey.
5. The stouthearted are made a spoil,
They have slept their sleep;
And none of the men of might have found their hands.

4. For the explanation see the two previous statements under E. 357 and E. 365. E. 734.

6. At thy rebuke, O God of Jacob,
Both chariot and horse are cast into a dead sleep.
7. Thou, even thou, art to be feared;
And who may stand in thy sight when once thou art
angry ?

6, 7. See Psalm xlvi. 7, 8. A. 3305.
A horse signifies the understanding of the Word. R. 298.

The chariot and the horse here signify the doctrine of the church and the same understanding, of which it is predicated that men fall into a deep sleep when they are without truths. Hence the same is predicated of the member of the church who is without spiritual life from those truths. E. 187.

By the stout hearted are signified those who are in truths from good. By their having slept their sleep is signified their having lapsed from evils into falsities. By the rebuke of the God of Jacob is signified the inversion of their state by their own acts. By both the chariot and the horse being cast into a deep sleep is signified that their intellectual faculty was laid asleep because it had become merely natural. E. 355.

There is no longer any truth in the Jewish church. P. P.

7. A horse signifies the understanding of truth, and in the opposite sense reasonings which appear as if they were the result of understanding, in confirmation of the false. W. H.

He who is not in truths but only in worship is like him that is sleeping and dreaming. Natural life viewed in itself, or without spiritual life is nothing but a sleep. R. 158.

See Psalm xiii. 4. E. 1006.

8. Thou didst cause sentence to be heard from heaven;
The earth feared, and was still,
9. When God arose to judgment,
To save all the meek of the earth. [Selah
10. Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee:
The residue of wrath shalt thou gird upon thee.

8-11, 13. The Lord will effect a judgment in which the evil will perish and the good will be saved. P. P.

11. Vow, and pay unto Jehovah your God:
Let all that are round about him bring presents unto
him that ought to be feared.
12. He will cut off the spirit of princes:
He is terrible to the kings of the earth.

12. Let the Lord be worshipped. P. P.

Author: EMANUEL SWEDENBORG (1688-1772)