Psalm 121 opens with this much-loved line, 'I will lift up my eyes to the hills, from whence comes my help.' The whole psalm assures us of the Lord's continual help; He helps, holds us safe, keeps us, shades us, and preserves us.

Natural images and sensations are used to describe spiritual ones: our eyes and feet, sleep, shade, hills, sun, and moon. They remind us of the correspondences between the natural and spiritual planes of life, helping to express these higher ideas in familiar words.

Spiritually, our eyes represent our understanding. Hills are high places; we look up to them, and we can see long distances from their summits. When we lift up our eyes to the hills, we're consciously trying to elevate our minds to new levels of understanding. Note that here, we're not told to look up to majestic mountains, since they can sometimes be too far, too remote, from our daily life. We just need to look up to nearby hills, to raise our minds above our normal ways of thinking. In the Bible, hills represent good that comes from charity. That kind of good -- a love towards our neighbours - also turns us toward the Lord, who then can more readily deepen and infill that neighbourliness. (Apocalypse Explained 374[5])

Our feet are in contact with the ground, and they hold us up. They represent our natural life. The 'foot not to be moved' is our life's intention, to be standing firm with the Lord's support. (Heaven and Hell 96, 97)

To say that the Lord never sleeps is to state the obvious, as Divine influx must be perpetual to maintain all things. This an important reminder for us, though, because sometimes we feel that the Lord is not with us. However, the Lord is, in fact, always with us and is actually closer to us at such times. (See True Christian Religion 774)

Next, we see that the Lord's presence is active. He is our keeper and our shade. He continually knows what our state is, and provides and protects accordingly. He even withholds spiritual things from us at times, so that we don't spoil them. (See Arcana Caelestia 59[2], and 959 at the end.)

The word 'shade' gives us a good feeling that the Lord is over us, keeping us safe. It can also mean that we occasionally require shade — that is, less sight and clearness — for our own sake. (See Apocalypse Explained 401[34])

The sun and moon often represent the Lord's love and His truth. In this psalm, though, they are used in the opposite sense. They stand for our evil love of self and the false ideas that reinforce it - and those will harm us - unless we accept the Lord's power to constrain them.

At the end of this psalm the word 'preserve' is used three times to express holiness. The repetition is important. It represents our need for preservation in every conceivable way — from now to eternity - throughout our "going out and coming in" - the changing states in our lives. (See Arcana Caelestia 1050)

610. That time shall be no more, signifies that there shall be no longer any understanding of Divine truth, nor any state of the church therefrom. This is evident from the signification of "time," as being here the state of man in respect to the understanding of the Word, and thus the state of the church, because both the one and the other are treated of in this chapter. "Time" signifies state, because times in the spiritual world are determined and distinguished only by particular and general states of life. This is because the sun in that world, which is the Lord, does not move, but remains in the same place in heaven, and that place is the east; that sun does not there revolve through the heavens as the sun in the natural world appears to do. By the apparent revolution of the sun of the natural world times in general and in particular are determined, and thus have existence; in general, the year and its four seasons, called spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Moreover, these four seasons of the year are the four natural states of the natural world corresponding to the same number of states in the spiritual world, which are its general spiritual states. In particular, within these general states in the natural world, there are determined and fixed times, called months and weeks, but especially days, and days are divided into four natural states, which are called morning, noon, evening, and night, corresponding to which there are four states in the spiritual world. In the spiritual world, because the sun, as has been said, does not revolve through the heavens but remains constant and fixed in its east, there are no years, months, weeks, days, or hours, consequently there are no determinations by times, but only determinations by states of life, general and particular. Therefore it is not known there what time is, but only what state is, for the determination of a thing is what gives the idea of it, and according to the idea is the thing named. This, then, is the reason that it is not known in the spiritual world what times are, although they succeed each other there the same as in the natural world, but instead of times there are states and their changes; this is the reason also that times, when mentioned in the Word, signify states. (But respecting time and times in the spiritual world, see in the work on Heaven and Hell 162-169; and on the Changes of States of the Angels, n.154-161. [Note from the Margin:] Notice where it is said, "it shall be when there shall be neither day nor night" [Jeremiah 33:20; Zechariah 14:7.)

[2] Since "time" means the things pertaining to time in the natural world, as those pertaining to the year and the day (those of the year are seedtime and harvest, and those of the day are morning and evening), by these things pertaining to time states of the church are described in the Word, "seedtime" describing and signifying the establishment of the church; "harvest" its fruit bearing; "morning" its first time, and "noon to evening" its progression. These natural states (or conditions) also correspond to spiritual states, which are states of heaven and the church. As concerns the church, the church in general passes through these states, so does each man of the church in particular. Moreover, each man of the church from his earliest age is also inaugurated into these states, but when the church is at its end he can no more be inaugurated, for he does not receive Divine truth, but either rejects or perverts it, therefore he has neither seedtime nor harvest, that is, no establishment and no fruit bearing, nor has he morning or evening, that is, neither beginning nor progression. These states are meant and signified by "times" in the Word; and as in the end of the church these states cease with men of the church, therefore it is here said that "time shall be no more;" and this signifies that there shall be no further understanding of Divine truth or the Word, consequently not any state of the church.

[3] The like is signified by "time" in Ezekiel:

The evil, behold one evil cometh; the end is come, the end is come, it hath awakened upon thee. Behold, the morning is come upon thee, O inhabitant of the land, the time is come (Ezekiel 7:5-7).

This, too, was said of the state of the church. The end of the former church is first described, and the establishment of a new church afterwards, the end of the former church by this, "One evil, behold the evil cometh; the end is come, the end is come;" the establishment of a new church by this, "Behold, the morning is come upon thee, O inhabitant of the land, the time is come," "morning" signifying the state of a new or commencing church, and "time" its progressive state; accordingly the meaning is similar as that of "seedtime and harvest" and "morning and evening," mentioned above, consequently it means the state of the church in respect to the understanding of truth and the will of good.

[4] In Daniel:

The fourth beast shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, for he shall think to change times and the right; and they shall be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time (Daniel 7:25).

"The fourth beast" means the evil that was about to vastate the church completely; falsities destroying the truths of the church are meant by "the words that he shall speak against the Most High," and by "the saints of the Most High whom he will wear out," "the saints of the Most High" signifying in the abstract sense Divine truths. That the truths of the Word and its goods will then be turned into falsities and evils is signified by "he shall change the times and the right," "times" meaning the states of the church in respect to the understanding of truth. The duration of that state in relation to the end of the church is signified by "for a time and times and half a time," which means a full state of vastation.

[5] So, too, in the following words in Daniel:

And I heard the man clothed in linen, that he lifted up his right hand and his left hand unto the heavens, and sware by Him that liveth unto the ages of the ages that it shall be for a fixed time of fixed times, and a half, when they are to make an end of dispersing the people of holiness, all these things shall be finished (Daniel 12:7).

"Time" here signifies state; and "time, times and a half" signifies a full state of vastation; therefore it is said, "when they are to make a full end of dispersing the people of holiness," "the people of holiness" meaning those of the church who are in Divine truths; or in an abstract sense Divine truths. With a similar meaning it is said in Revelation:

That the woman should be nourished in the wilderness for a time and times and half a time (Revelation 12:14).

[6] As by "time" things pertaining to time are meant, such as spring, summer, autumn, and winter, these signifying the states of one who is to be regenerated, or is regenerated, also the things pertaining to these times, such as seedtime and harvest, these signifying the state of the church in respect to the implantation of truth and the fructification of good therefrom, and as like things are signified by the times of the day, which are morning, noon, evening, and night, so these times have this signification in the following passages. In Genesis:

During all the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease (Genesis 8:22).

This may be seen explained in Arcana Coelestia 930-937). In David:

The day is Thine, the night also is Thine; thou hast prepared the light and the sun. Thou hast set all the borders of the earth; summer and winter hast Thou formed (Psalms 74:16, 17).

In Jeremiah:

Jehovah giveth the sun for a light of the day, and the statutes of the moon and stars for a light of the night. If these statutes shall depart from before Me, the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me all the days (Jeremiah 31:35, 36).

In the same:

Jehovah said, If I shall not have set My covenant of day and night, the statutes of heaven and earth, I will reject also the seed of Jacob and of David ¹ My servant (Jeremiah 33:25, 26).

"The statutes of the sun, moon, and stars," also "the covenant of day and night," and "the statutes of heaven and earth," have a similar signification as "times," since "times" exist from those statutes. That "seedtime and harvest, summer and winter," also "day and night," have a similar signification as "times" has been said above.

[7] It follows that "times" have the same signification in these words in Genesis:

God said, Let there be luminaries in the expanse of the heavens, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and for years (Genesis 1:14-19).

The two "luminaries," the sun and moon, signify love and faith; for that chapter treats in the spiritual sense of the new creation, or the regeneration of the man of the church, and the things said respecting the sun and moon signify the things that chiefly regenerate man and make the church; therefore these words and those that follow describe the process by which regeneration is effected, and afterwards it describes their states. This makes evident what is signified by "time shall be no more."

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