Week 4
Day 6

    Listen:

Temptations and Victory

The State of Humiliation Before the Father

Psalm 121

A song for the ascents.

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains,

From whence comes my help.

My help is from Jehovah,

Who made the heavens and the earth.

He will not suffer¹⁴ thy foot to be moved;

He who keeps thee will not slumber.

Behold, He who keeps Israel

Will neither slumber nor sleep.

Jehovah is thy keeper;

Jehovah is thy shade on thy right hand.

By day, the sun shall not smite thee,

Nor the moon by night.

Jehovah will keep thee from all evil;

He will keep thy soul.

Jehovah will keep thy going out and thy coming in,

From now and even to eternity.

I will lift up my eyes to the mountains.

AE 405:5. “Mountains” here mean the heavens; and as in the heavens those who are in the goods of love and of charity dwell upon the mountains and hills... and the Lord is in these goods, “to lift up the eyes to the mountains” also means to the Lord, from whom is all help. When “mountains,” in the plural, are mentioned, both mountains and hills are meant, consequently both the good of love to the Lord and the good of charity towards the neighbor.

He will not suffer thy foot to be moved.

AE 666:5. [This means] that He will not suffer the natural to go astray from truths; for so far as the natural goes astray, so far the interiors, which belong to the understanding and will, also go astray.

Jehovah is thy keeper.

AC 8211:5. Watchmen used to be upon the walls, spying whether an enemy was coming, and by a cry announcing what they saw. By them, in the internal representative sense, is meant the Lord, and by their watch His continual presence and protection (n. 7989), as in [this psalm of] David.... Moreover by “watchmen” are meant prophets and priests, consequently the Word.

AC 9927:3. “To keep the going out and the coming in” is [to protect] everything of the life according to the state of good and truth.

Jehovah is thy shade on thy right hand.

AE 298:5. “To be a shade on the right hand” signifies to be a defense against evil and falsity. “Shade” stands here for a shady place to preserve from hurt, and “right hand” for power and wisdom from Divine truth, which would be hurt by evil and falsity unless the Lord defended. Because this is what is signified it is said, “the sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night,” the “sun” here signifying the love of self and thence all evil, and the “moon” the falsity of evil....

AE 401:34. Because from that love [of self] is all evil, and from evil all falsity, therefore it is said, “Jehovah shall keep thee from all evil,” and “He shall keep thy soul,” “soul” signifying the life of truth.

¹⁴literally, “give”

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