Give ear to my words, O Jehovah; consider my meditation. Attend to the voice of my cry, my King and my God; for I will pray to You. You will hear my voice in the morning, O Jehovah, I will set myself for You in the morning, and I will look up. For You are not a God enjoying wickedness; nor shall evil live with You. The boasters shall not set themselves before Your eyes. You hate all workers of iniquity. You shall destroy those speaking lies; Jehovah will despise the man of blood and deceit. But I, in the plenty of Your grace, I will come into Your house. I will worship in Your fear toward Your holy temple, O Jehovah. Lead me in Your righteousness, because of my enemies; make straight Your way before me. For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is engulfing ruin; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue. O God, hold them guilty; let them fall from their own counsels. Drive them away in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against You. But let all who put their trust in You rejoice; let them shout for joy forever, because You cover them. And let those who love Your name be joyful in You. For You, O Jehovah, will bless the righteous; You will surround him with favour, as with a shield. (Psalm 5:1-12)
In regard to the proprium of man, it must be observed, that it is nothing but evil, and the falsity therefrom. The voluntary proprium is evil, and the intellectual proprium thence is falsity; and this proprium man derives principally from parents, grandfathers, and ancestors, in a long series back, so that at length the hereditary [nature], which is his proprium, is nothing but evil successively accumulated and rendered compact. For every man is born into two diabolical loves, the love of self, and the love of the world, and from these loves all evils and falsities proceed, as from their own fountains; and because man is born into those loves, he is also born into evils of every kind. More may be seen concerning this in the Doctrine of the New Jerusalem (n. 65-83).
Because the proprium of man is of such a nature, therefore the Lord, from His Divine mercy, has provided the means by which he may be withdrawn from his proprium; these means are furnished in the Word, and when man acts in accordance with them, that is, when he thinks and speaks, wills and acts, from the Divine Word, then he is kept by the Lord in things Divine, and thus is withheld from his proprium. And as he perseveres in this course, as it were, a new proprium as well voluntary as intellectual, which is altogether separated from his own proprium, is formed in him by the Lord; thus man becomes as it were created anew. This is called his reformation and regeneration by truths from the Word, and by a life according to them. (Apocalypse Explained 585{2,3})
Truths must by definition be true. Yet the internal struggle in spiritual work is coming to accept what the Word teaches concerning the nature and quality of self. We only have to note the resistive feelings and thoughts that arise when we hear teachings which state that in and of ourselves we are evil, and that because of this, we are in fact in desperate need of salvation. In one sense we can say that religious teachings exist so that we can be saved from ourselves, from our ‘self’. You cannot read the Word sincerely and miss the constant repetition of the themes of the Lord working to redeem and save the human race. Redemption and salvation is the Lord’s love in action. So if we think we have goodness in ourselves then we do away with the need for the Lord to save us, or in the words of the Lord’s Prayer, to deliver us from evil or more literally from the evil one.
This evil one we need deliverance from is the hellish proprium, the sense of being which lives from the belief that it possess some intrinsic or innate goodness. For it’s a belief that ultimately leads us away from seeing any need for the Lord in our life, and so it separates us from Him. This separation from the Lord occurs as a result of believing that we have life in ourselves. As soon as this belief gains ascendency in us, we become disconnected from the only One that can hold the evils and falsities back from dominating our states of life. All beliefs that attribute aspects of the Divine nature to self, separate us from the moderating influences of heaven and so the Lord, because heaven and the Lord can’t be in ideas or states of life that deny that what the Word teaches is true.
We need to see that the appearance that we have life in ourselves is just that – an appearance. The Lord alone is life, the Lord alone is good, the Lord alone is truth and we are what is other than the Lord. So in and of ourselves we have no life; we are spiritually dead. We have no good; we are inclined to every evil. We have no truth; we believe the appearances of the senses over truths. We live from what is false believing it to be true. To say that we are good, or that we have truth, or that we have life, is to attribute aspects of the Divine nature to ourselves and make ourselves gods. The finite cannot and does not possess qualities that belong to the Infinite Itself, if it did it would be the Infinite; it would be the Lord, which is impossible, for we are not God.
So, when the Lord declares that there is none good but God in Matthew 19:17, and then follows this by saying but if you want to enter into life, keep the commandments, He is saying that we need to accept what truths teach concerning God and our self. If God alone is good, then nothing else can be described as being good and this includes our self. Does this make us evil? Well, let’s see what the doctrines for Spiritual Christianity say concerning the view held by those with angelic consciousness…
The situation is this: No understanding of truth or will for good resides with anyone, not even with those who belonged to the Most Ancient Church. When people become celestial however, they do seem to have a will for good and an understanding of truth residing with them. But in reality it is the Lord’s alone, a fact they also know, acknowledge, and perceive, as is the case also with angels. This is so true that a person who does not know, acknowledge, and perceive it has no understanding of truth and will for good whatever. With every man, and with every angel, even the most celestial, his proprium is nothing but falsity and evil, for it is well known that in the Lord’s eyes even the heavens are not pure,* and that all good and all truth are the Lord’s alone. But to the extent that any man or angel is capable of being perfected, he is in the Lord’s Divine mercy perfected, and receives so to speak an understanding of truth and a will for good. His own possession of them however is only the appearance. Everybody is capable of being perfected, and consequently of receiving this gift of the Lord’s mercy, in so far as the deeds he actually performs in life will allow, and in a manner consistent with the hereditary evil implanted within him from parents.* Job 15:15 (Arcana Coelestia 633)
All false beliefs are a refusal to accept truths and so opens the state of the mind to evil. The spiritual life involves learning to accept what truths teach instead of how we think things should be or what we want to believe or how things appear to us. If we are working to do this then the Lord is able to be our saviour but if we refuse to accept that truths are actually true, we close ourselves off to heavenly influx and open ourselves up to being molested by hellish influences. In practical terms, such influences are present in our misreading of situations, circumstances, and relationships, in which we become overly anxious, or judgemental, or defensive.
All negative emotions are the effects felt in our senses that flow in from the hells. This inflow has its presence in us through our not believing what truths teach, despite what we say we believe intellectually. For it is through believing our senses view on things, rather than what the Word teaches, that separates us from experiencing the peace, joy, contentment, wellbeing, and happiness of heaven. If we recognise this simple spiritual fact, then our experience of negative emotions and thoughts can become a prompt for taking up our responsibility to do spiritual work. Such work involves reflecting on the state presenting itself in our consciousness with a view to finding the falsities that feed and energise these things in our mind.
The struggle to accept what truths teach over the conclusions and inferences that we draw from our senses is a constant theme reflected back to us throughout Sacred Scripture. There is an alternation between darkness and light, between what is being experienced in the struggle on the one hand and what is understood to be true on the other. The tension created in these alternate states centres on what is to be believed. This is the experience of those who are in the spiritual life, this expansion and contraction, the dark states and the light, turmoil and peace. This is the breath of spiritual life as we move from learning to doing, from knowing to being and then back again.
Psalm 5 is filled with truths concerning the proprium as something weak and as those things which belong to the mercy and goodness of the Lord as what can deliver us from it. Everything in the Psalm relates to our inner mental world, so where it speaks of,
boasters, enemies, those who speak lies, the man of blood and deceit, of those who have no faithfulness in their mouths, whose inward part is an engulfing ruin, whose throat is an open grave,
its important that we see this as teaching about what lies within us and not as a comment on the historical enemies of king David. Spiritual Christianity does not view the Word as a statement on historical events or personalities. If we view it this way we will remain detached from its relevance to our own inner life.
The Psalms are the Word of God and as such forms a spiritual text that deals with spiritual realities. The purpose of the Word is not to convey historical information, its purpose is to reveal spiritual realities that human beings cannot discover for themselves. What we are faced with here is actually a description of what is operating within the human mind, that is, within every human mind, including yours and mine right now. This Psalm is a living spiritual text and captures the current cry of all those who recognise this truth and know without any shadow of doubt of their need for a saviour.
Give ear to my words, O Jehovah; consider my meditation. Attend to the voice of my cry, my King and my God; for I will pray to You. You will hear my voice in the morning, O Jehovah, I will set myself for You in the morning, and I will look up.
Living a spiritual life and engaging in a spiritual practice is what true prayer is. For prayer is nothing else than making spiritual efforts to constantly reorientate our attention and focus on what is higher and beyond ourselves, so that we might live from the truths that the Word offers us. To set ourself for the Lord in the morning is to recognise that the Lord is continually making His love and wisdom available to us. It is to see that unless we prepare our faculties to consciously receive His love and wisdom, we will stand little chance of resisting the power of lower emotions and thoughts from overwhelming us. In practical terms, to ask the Lord to hear us, to set ourselves in the morning, and to look up, is to study and apply the Word to our life so that our sense of the spiritual realities might be made conscious in our awareness.
This Psalm conveys the purposefulness with which those who sincerely seek to live the spiritual life live from – by looking to what truths teach to be their guide and who don’t lean to their own understanding. For it is from truths that they see, that within them dwells no one good thing; that the proprium is filled with violence and hatred towards the goods and truths from the Word and they know that within them are false concepts and ideas. These false ideas like to boast that they are good and know what’s best for them, that they can work their own life out for themselves and that they don’t need the Word. But when truths are offering light, then the sense of self can recognise that negative emotions arise from falsities in thinking and that these are able to are take root because of an indulgence in the false concepts that the natural mind takes delight in. Truths allow us to see that this attachment manifests as a struggle to let the Lord into areas of our life so that He might break what binds the sense of self to evil and falsity. Truths know that this battle is the Lord’s and so makes the following acknowledgement freely…
For You are not a God enjoying wickedness; nor shall evil live with You. The boasters shall not set themselves before Your eyes. You hate all workers of iniquity. You shall destroy those speaking lies; Jehovah will despise the man of blood and deceit.
A state of mind ruled by truth doesn’t become paralysed by a false sense of guilt for it sees the inherent nature of the proprium and so is able to accept that what the Word teaches about it is in fact true. From this knowledge, this state of mind knows of its need of the Lord’s grace and so is blessed with heavenly freedom. In this way, it remains in the security of His house, which is the sphere of Divine love, and worships in His holy temple. This temple is a structure of doctrine built from spiritual truths, so to worship in His temple is to come to the Word and take what it teaches regarding how to love the Lord and our neighbour and to live from this.
But I, in the plenty of Your grace, I will come into Your house. I will worship in Your fear toward Your holy temple, O Jehovah. Lead me in Your righteousness, because of my enemies; make straight Your way before me.
Until we can acknowledge our enemies within, as those things that are opposed to the Word and the heavenly life, we will not look to spiritual truths to lead and guide us. We need to come to see for ourselves the truth of these truths – that the self that believes that it is independent of the Lord, is described as follows…
For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is engulfing ruin; their throat is an open grave; they flatter with their tongue.
Once we are able to see this and acknowledge it as a matter of life, we will then give the Lord leave to work to have our sense of self removed from hellish spiritual influences. This willingness is seen in the words of the remaining verses, which are not just words, but reflect an attitude to spiritual work that needs to be present if we are to be regenerated and saved. Here we see the spirit of acceptance that truths are indeed true…
O God, hold them guilty; let them fall from their own counsels. Drive them away in the multitude of their transgressions, for they have rebelled against You. But let all who put their trust in You rejoice; let them shout for joy forever, because You cover them. And let those who love Your name be joyful in You. For You, O Jehovah, will bless the righteous; You will surround him with favour, as with a shield. (Psalm 5: 10-12)
And then there came over me the desire of knowing how man can do good from God, and yet as of himself; therefore I asked them that were eating the figs how they comprehended it. They said that they “could not comprehend it otherwise than that God operates it within in man and through man, when he does not know it; since if man were conscious of it, and thus should do it as of himself, which is also to do it of himself, he would not do good, but evil. For all that proceeds from man, as from himself, proceeds from his proprium; and the proprium of man is evil from birth. How then can good from God and evil from man be conjoined, and so proceed conjointly into act? The proprium of man also, in the things of salvation, continually breathes forth merit; and as far as it does this, it takes away from the Lord His merit; which is the highest injustice and impiety. In a word, if the good which God operates in a man by the Holy Spirit should flow in into man’s willing and thence his doing, that good would be altogether defiled and also profaned; which, however, God never permits. A man can indeed think that the good which he does is from God, and call it God’s good through himself, and as if from himself; but still we do not comprehend this.”
But I then opened my mind, and said, “You do not comprehend, because you think from the appearance, and the thought from confirmed appearance is a fallacy. You are in the appearance and the fallacy from it, because you believe that all the things which a man wills and thinks, and thence does and speaks, are in him, and consequently from him; when yet nothing of them is in him except the state of receiving what flows in. Man is not life in himself, but is an organ receiving life. The Lord alone is life in Himself, as He also says in John: As the Father hath life in Himself, so hath He given to the Son to have life in Himself (John 5:26). (Apocalypse Revealed 875{10&11})