Apocalypse Explained, volume 1 - Swedenborg Foundation

APOCALYPSE EXPLAINED 278Prove me, O Jehovah, and try me, explore my reins and my heart(Ps. 26:2).Because truths are separated from falsities and goods from evils bymeans of temptations, it is said, “Try me.” In the same:My heart is in a ferment, and I am pricked in my reins, but I amfoolish and know not (Ps. 73:21, 22).The infestation of good by evil and of truth by falsity is describedby these words. In the same:Behold, thou desirest truth in the reins and in the hidden part thoumakest wisdom known to me (Ps. 51:6).Here there is another word in the original for “reins,” that includesthe separation both of falsities from truths and of evils from goods.This shows that the “reins” signify purification and separation.[5] In the same:I will bless Jehovah, who hath given me counsel; also my reinschastise me in the night (Ps. 16:7).“Night” signifies the state of man when falsities rise up; theconsequent combat of truths with falsities is signified by “my reinschastise me.” In the same:Even the darkness doth not make darkness before thee, but thenight is lucid as the day; as the darkness so is the light. For thoupossessest my reins, my bone was not hidden from thee when I wasmade in secret (Ps. 139:12, 13, 15).“Darkness” means falsities, and “light” truths; to “possess the reins”is to know falsities and truths with man; therefore it is said, “mybone was not hidden from thee when I was made in secret,” whichsignifies that no falsity that was made was hidden. (That “darkness”means falsity and “light” truth, see Heaven and Hell, n. 126–140;and that “bone” means truth in the ultimate of order and in the