The 23rd Psalm is one of the best-known and most-loved literary works in the world, and it may well be the best poem
ever written. It is also a fine example of the power of figurative language: We read deep things into the vision of ourselves as sheep, led to green pastures and good water by a kind shepherd. It’s empowering to feel the confidence to go fearlessly into the valley of the shadow of death, and to feel the love and caring of a table prepared by the Lord and a cup so full it overflows.
According to Swedenborg, this symbolic power is connected to precise internal meanings. When we see them, the poem becomes powerful on a whole new level -- because what it actually describes is the path to heaven, and the fierce desire the Lord has to lead us there.
The first step is to let the Lord be our shepherd – to accept his teaching and his leadership. The green pastures and the still waters represent the things he will teach us for the journey. Then he begins working inside is, setting our spiritual lives in order, so that we desire to do what’s good and to love one another. That’s represented by restoring our souls and leading us in the paths of righteousness.
But we will still face challenges. We still live external lives, out in the world, and we are subject to desires that arise in those externals, in our bodily lives. That’s the valley of the shadow of death. But the rod and staff represent truth from the Lord on both external and internal levels, ideas that can defend us against those desires.
And if we keep following, the Lord will prepare a table for us – a place inside us that he can fill with love (the anointing oil) and wisdom (the overflowing cup). Thus transformed, we can enter heaven, with love for others (“goodness”) and love from the Lord (“mercy”) and can love and be loved to eternity.
One of many beautiful things about this is the fact that it is the Lord who really does all the work. In the whole text, the only action taken by the sheep is walking through the valley of the shadow of death. Other than that, they follow the Lord, trust the Lord, accept the blessings of the Lord. According to Swedenborg, that is really true! In external states (in the valley) we might seem to be doing the work ourselves, but internally, spiritually, we simply need to give ourselves to the Lord and let him bless us.
The underlying idea here is that the Lord created us so that he could love us, in loving us wants us to be happy, knows that our greatest happiness will come from being conjoined to him in heaven, and wants nothing more than to be conjoined to us. So everything he does, in every moment of every day for every person on the face of the planet, is centered on the goal of getting that person to heaven. He wants each and every one of us in heaven more than we are capable of imagining. We just need to cooperate.
Passages from Swedenborg
Apocalypse Explained No. 375
[34] In David:
"[Jehovah is] my shepherd; I shall not want. He will make me to lie down in pastures of tender grass, he will lead me to waters of rests. Thou shalt prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies; my head shalt thou make fat with oil; my cup runneth over" (Ps. xxiii. 1, 2, 5).
By these words, in the internal sense, is meant, that he who trusts in the Lord is led into all the goods and truths of heaven, and abounds in the delights thereof. By my shepherd is meant the Lord; by pastures of tender grass are signified the knowledges of truth and good; by waters of rests are signified the truths of heaven thence; by a table is signified spiritual nourishment; by making fat the head with oil is signified wisdom which is from good; by my cup runneth over is signified intelligence which is from truths, the cup signifying the same as the wine. They are called pastures of tender grass and waters of rests as if they were comparisons, because the Lord is called a shepherd, and the flock is led of the shepherd into green pastures and to limpid waters, but yet they are correspondences.
Apocalypse Explained No. 727
[2]In David:
"Yea, when I shall walk in the shady valley I will fear no evil, thy rod and thy staff shall comfort me; thou wilt set before me a table in the presence of mine enemies; and thou wilt make fat my head with oil, my cup shall run over" (Psalm xxiii. 4, 5).
To walk in a shady valley, signifies, in the spiritual sense, an obscure understanding, which does not see truths in their light, Thy rod and thy staff shall comfort me, signifies that spiritual Divine Truth, together with natural Divine Truth, shall protect, because these have power, rod denoting spiritual Divine Truth, staff natural Divine Truth, the two together meaning these as to the power of protecting; for to comfort means to protect. As rod and staff signify Divine truth as to power, these words follow: "Thou wilt set before me a table, thou wilt make fat my head with oil, my cup shall run over," this signifies spiritual nourishment through Divine Truth; for to set a table signifies to be spiritually nourished, to make fat the head with oil signifies through the good of love, while the cup signifies truth of doctrine from the Word, the cup being used here for wine.
Prophets and Psalms (Schreck) n. 273
273. Psalm 23
Concerning the Lord: 12
title, 1-3 (H.B. 1-3) He teaches and leads to the truths and goods of heaven and the church; 12
[4], 5 hence there will be no fear of the hells, for He guards, and imparts good and truth in abundance, 12
6 in heaven with the Lord to eternity. 12