Psalm 44 is quite an unusual psalm which is built up in two parts. Verses 1 to 8 recount the Lord’s victories in conquering the land, emphasising several times that it was not His people who achieved the victory, but the Lord’s right hand and the light of His countenance. This first part proclaims the truth of the power and might of the Lord with great affirmation, which is essential for us to have confirmed as we move on into the appearances of the next verses.

The second part, verses 9 to 26, presents the confronting idea that the Lord has acted against His people, letting them be defeated, scattered and be ‘severely broken in the place of jackals’ (verse 19); all this, even though - as it says - the people of the Lord have not forgotten God or dealt falsely with His covenant, or stretched out their hands to a foreign god.

To see and follow the spiritual idea of this psalm, it is important to understand that the Lord is the victorious one in all our spiritual conflicts. He brings us into stronger surer states through the result of our actions and decisions. It is not us, even though it necessarily seems to be ourselves doing the work. When we understand this principle, we are able to see that the second part of the psalm is about our need to be kept in humility.

Spiritual humility helps us to acknowledge it is the Lord who saves us. We don't - on our own, have the ability to do it. In this psalm that truth is described as us being brought to ‘shame’ and ‘dishonour’ and other indictments when we put ourselves in place of the Lord. The ‘shame’ and ‘dishonour’ come when we start to think and then believe that the good was ours. (Arcana Caelestia 874)

The psalm begins with words about us ‘having heard’ and ‘been told by our fathers’ about the deeds of the Lord. The spiritual meaning here is to do with the ‘remains’ or heavenly experiences, and truths we are given by the Lord, mostly in our childhood. These affect us and become embedded deeply so that when we work to regenerate in adult life they can come to our consciousness and empower and enable us. (Arcana Caelestia 1906)

The next part of the psalm emphasises the Lord fighting for us, driving out our enemies and establishing his people. Spiritually, these are words to do with our opposing states that ‘battle’ for control of our lives. In the psalm, the phrase ‘Your right hand’ and ‘Your arm’ are used about the Lord’s strength and presence with us to help us secure our decision for heaven. (The Lord 27, near the end of the section)

Then come two statements in verse 5 which describe the subtlety of the Lord’s work and our work jointly in overcoming evil. “Through You we will push down our enemies; through You we will trample those who rise up against us.” Typically, in the psalms, these make a similar-sounding pair. The first refers to the victory of good over evil as a whole, while the second refers to the victory of truth over false ideas which are specific and numerous. (Arcana Caelestia 4820)

After this first section, based on the Lord’s power to save us and ending with our boasting in God all day long, comes the anguished section on the Lord’s apparent inactivity and even his rejection of us. This is catalogued extensively to drive its point home. Yet, the Lord never does this, it is only the appearance to us that the Lord leaves us to our own perils. This becomes how it seems to be to us when we only look at our situation and not at the Lord’s purposes for us.

The whole point of entering such states is to learn to leave them -- and urgently so. The Lord allows them for this reason, and they are a reality for all of us during regeneration, serving to bring us fully back to the Lord. Verse 17 onwards describes this re-emergence. ‘We have not forgotten You nor have our steps departed from Your way.’ (verses 17 and 18). In response it says, ‘For He knows the secrets of the heart.’ And, appropriately, the whole psalm ends with a great cry to the Lord to awake, arise, and redeem us "for Your mercies’ sake". Spiritually, we have to ask Him to bring us back to our true state.

5194. 'And it happened at the end of two years of days' means after the state when the joining together took place, that is to say, when the powers of the senses belonging to the exterior natural and those belonging to the interior natural were joined together, both of which powers are dealt with in the previous chapter. This is clear from the meaning of 'two years of days', that is, a period of two years, as a state involving a joining together; for 'two' means a joining together, 1686, 3519, while 'years' means states, as does 'days'. For the meaning of years' as states, see 487, 488, 493, 893, and for that of 'days', 27, 487, 488, 497, 2788, 3462, 3785, 4850. The reason 'two' means a joining together is that every single thing in the spiritual world, and consequently in the natural world, has two forces associated with it - goodness and truth. Good is an active inflowing force, truth a passive, recipient one. Also, because everything has these two forces associated with it, and because nothing can ever be brought forth unless the two are made one by becoming so to speak married to each other, a joining together is therefore meant by them.

[2] This type of marriage exists in every single thing within the natural order and its three kingdoms; without it nothing whatever can come into existence. For anything to come into existence within the natural order there needs to be heat and light, heat in the natural world corresponding to the good of love in the spiritual world, and light corresponding to the truth of faith. These two - heat and light - must act as one if anything is to be brought forth. If they do not act as one, as is the case in winter-time, nothing at all is brought forth. The same holds true on a spiritual level, as is quite evident with the human being, who has two mental powers - will and understanding. The will has been formed so that it may receive spiritual heat, that is, the good of love and charity, while the understanding has been formed so that it may receive spiritual light, that is, the truth of faith. Unless these two residing with a person make one nothing is brought forth, for the good of love devoid of the truth of faith cannot give definition and particular character to anything, while the truth of faith devoid of the good of love cannot bring anything into effect. So that the heavenly marriage may exist in a person therefore, or rather so that a person may be in the heavenly marriage, those two entities must make one in him. This explains why the ancients likened every single thing in the world, and every single thing within the human being, to a marriage, 54, 55, 568, 718, 747, 917, 1432, 2173, 2516, 2731, 2739, 2758, 3132, 4434, 4875, 5138. From all this one may see why it is that 'two' means a joining together.