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PSALM 97

1. jehovah reigns! let the earth rejoice; let the many islands be glad!
2. Clouds and thick darkness are round about him; justice and judgement are the support of his throne!
3. A fire goes before him, and burns up his adversaries round about him!
4. His lightnings enlighten the world; the earth beholds, and trembles.
5. The mountains melt like wax at the presence of jehovah, at the presence of the lord of all the earth!
6. The heavens declare his justice; and all peoples behold his glory!
7. Let all those who serve graven images be ashamed! all those who boast of vanities!—fall prostrate before him all you gods.
8. Zion hears and is glad, and the daughters of Judah rejoice because of your judgements, O jehovah!
9. For you, O jehovah, are most high above all the earth; you are greatly exalted above all gods.
10. O you who love jehovah, hate evil! He is the preserver of the souls of his saints; He delivers them from the hand of the wicked.
11. Light is sown for the just, and gladness for the upright in heart.
12. Rejoice in jehovah all you just, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness.

Verse 1. jehovah reigns, let the earth rejoice; let the many islands be glad. By these words is signified that the church where the Word is, and the church where the Word is not, consequently they who are in spiritual truths, and they who are in truths not spiritual, will rejoice on account of the kingdom of the lord; by the earth is signified the church where the Word is, and by the islands where the Word is not, consequently they who are remote from spiritual truths, for the truths of the Word alone are spiritual, but with those who are out of the church, because they have not truths from the Word, truths are only natural, hence it is that they are called islands. By islands in the Word are not meant any islands of the sea, but places in the spiritual world, inhabited by those who are in the natural science of knowledges in some measure agreeing with the knowledges of truth and good that are in the Word, which places sometimes appear there as islands in the sea; hence in the abstract sense, by islands are signified the truths of the natural man. AE 406.

The islands of the gentiles signify the nations now remote from the knowledges of faith; as in David, "jehovah reigns, let the earth rejoice, let the many islands be glad; clouds and thick darkness are round about him," denoting the same gentiles; their ignorance is here represented by clouds and thick darkness, but whereas they are principled in simplicity and probity, it is said, roundabout him. AC 1158.

Verses 3, 4. A fire goes before him, and burns up his adversaries round about him; his lightnings enlighten the world. From these words it is evident that lightnings signify Divine truth as to illustration, for it is said, he shall enlighten the world. That by the voice of thunder is signified Divine truth as to perception and understanding, and by lightnings the same truth as to illustration, may be manifest from its being said, that the Maker of the earth prepares the world by his wisdom, and extends the heavens by his intelligence. AE 273.

Verses 4, 5. His lightnings enlighten the world; the earth beholds, and trembles. The mountains melt like wax at the presence of jehovah, at the presence of jehovah of the whole earth. By these words is described the state of the wicked at the presence of the Lord in his Divine truth, which state is similar to the state of the sons of Israel, when the lord appeared to them on Mount Sinai; that they then heard thunders, saw lightnings, and that the mountain appeared in a consuming fire as of a furnace, and that they trembled, is known from the Word, and this because they were wicked in heart, for the lord appears to every one according to his quality, to the good as a recreating fire, and to the evil as a consuming fire. Hence it is evident what is signified by a voice of thunder being heard in the world, by lightning enlightening the world, by the earth being moved and trembling, and by the mountains melting before jehovah the lord of the whole earth; by world are meant all who are of the church in goods, in this case who are in evils, and by the earth all who are of the church in truths, in this case who are in falses. AE 741.

That hereby is signified a state divine in which is revelation, appears from the signification of voices, which are sounds of thunder, as denoting truths divine; and from the signification of lightnings, as denoting the flashing and splendour which appertain to those truths, for truths divine are resplendent and flashing from the flaming of the light which is from the sun of heaven; hence it is that lightnings denote the splendours thence issuing which glance upon the internal sight of man, and illuminate those who are in truths from good, and confound those who are in the falses derived from evil. AC 8813.

In the Word throughout it is said, that when jehovah descends, the earth trembles, and the mountains melt, by which is signified the commotion of all at the presence of the divine being, for the divine being is such, that no one endures except he be in a sort of cloud, and be thus accommodated to reception, for it is as the fire which is in the sun, which, if it was to fall bare upon any one, would consume him in a moment; but reception is according to the quality belonging to any one; they who are in good tremble indeed at the presence of the divine being, but it is a holy tremor which precedes reception; whereas they who are in evil are terrified at the presence of the divine being, and on this account flee away, and are there involved in their own false principle, as in a dusky cloud, and are hid. AC 8816.

Verse 8. The daughters of Judah rejoice. That the daughters of Judah signify the affections of good, see Psalm 48:11, 12, 13. Exposition.

Verse 12. Rejoice in the lord all you just, and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness. In the Word it is said for ever, and to generation of generations, and this sometimes in one verse; the reason is because for ever is predicated of the Divine good, and generation of generations of Divine truth; the case is similar with the signification of memorial (remembrance) and of name; memorial or remembrance is predicated of the quality of the divine being in worship as to truth, but name of the quality of the divine being in worship as to each both truth and good, but specifically as to good. That memorial or remembrance denotes the quality of the divine being in worship, is evident from David, "Sing you to jehovah, O you saints of his, and give thanks at the memorial or remembrance of his holiness." That holy is predicated of truth, see AC 6788; the worship thence derived is signified by the memorial or remembrance of his holiness. AC 6888.