1. JEHOVAH our LORD, how excellent is your name in all the earth, who have set your glory above the heavens!
2. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings have you founded strength, because of your adversaries; to still the enemy and the self-avenger.
3. When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have prepared;
4. What is man, that you are mindful of him? and the son of man, that you regard him?
5. Yet have you made him a little less than GOD; and with glory and honour have you crowned him.
6. You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands: you have put all things under his feet;
7. The flock and oxen, all of them; and also the beasts of the field;
8. The bird of the heavens, and the fishes of the sea; whatever traverses the paths of the sea.
9. JEHOVAH our LORD, how excellent is your name in all the earth!
The Internal Sense
Celebration of the FATHER by the LORD: that he would consider his innocence, and assist him against the hells, verses 1, 2, 3, 9. The LORD'S state of humiliation is described, verses 4, 5; his state of glorification described, verses 6, 7, 8.
Exposition
Verse 2. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings have you founded strength. Sucklings and they who give suck are occasionally mentioned in the Word, and by them is signified the first state of infants, which state is evidently a state of innocence: for man, as soon as he is born, is introduced into a state of innocence, that that state may be a plane for all his other states, and the inmost in them, which state is signified in the Word by a suckling; next into a state of the affection of celestial good, that is, of love towards parents, which with them is in the place of love to the LORD, which state is signified by an infant; afterwards, into a state of the affection of spiritual good, or of mutual love, that is, of charity towards those who are in a like state, which state is signified by childhood; as he grows older, into a state of the affection of truth, which state is signified by that of young men; but the subsequent states by men, and at length by old men. This last state, which is signified by old men, is a state of wisdom in which is the innocence of infancy; thus the first state and the last are united, and man, when old, as again an infant, but a wise one, is introduced into the LORD'S kingdom. That a suckling, in the Word, signifies innocence, is also evident from David: "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings have you founded strength;" (Psalm 8:2, Matt 21:16) where babes denote celestial love, sucklings denote innocence. So in Jeremiah: "Wherefore commit you this great evil against your souls, to cut off from you man and woman, babe and suckling, out of the midst of Judah, to leave you nonefor remains?" (Jer 44:7) where the babe and suckling in like manner denote celestial love and its innocence, and when these no longer exist, there are no longer any remains, that is, no longer any good and truth remaining stored up in the internal man from the LORD; for all goods and truths perish with innocence, innocence being immediately from the Divine Being or principle Himself, thus being the very essential thing in them. AC 3183.
But it is to be noted, that the innocence of sucklings, of infants, and of children, is merely external, and that internal innocence does not exist with man, until he is born anew, that is, is as it were anew made a suckling, an infant, and a child.
2. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings have you founded strength, because of your adversaries; to still the enemy and the self-avenger.
3. When I behold your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have prepared;
4. What is man, that you are mindful of him? and the son of man, that you regard him?
5. Yet have you made him a little less than GOD; and with glory and honour have you crowned him.
6. You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands: you have put all things under his feet;
7. The flock and oxen, all of them; and also the beasts of the field;
8. The bird of the heavens, and the fishes of the sea; whatever traverses the paths of the sea.
9. JEHOVAH our LORD, how excellent is your name in all the earth!
The Internal Sense
Celebration of the FATHER by the LORD: that he would consider his innocence, and assist him against the hells, verses 1, 2, 3, 9. The LORD'S state of humiliation is described, verses 4, 5; his state of glorification described, verses 6, 7, 8.
Exposition
Verse 2. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings have you founded strength. Sucklings and they who give suck are occasionally mentioned in the Word, and by them is signified the first state of infants, which state is evidently a state of innocence: for man, as soon as he is born, is introduced into a state of innocence, that that state may be a plane for all his other states, and the inmost in them, which state is signified in the Word by a suckling; next into a state of the affection of celestial good, that is, of love towards parents, which with them is in the place of love to the LORD, which state is signified by an infant; afterwards, into a state of the affection of spiritual good, or of mutual love, that is, of charity towards those who are in a like state, which state is signified by childhood; as he grows older, into a state of the affection of truth, which state is signified by that of young men; but the subsequent states by men, and at length by old men. This last state, which is signified by old men, is a state of wisdom in which is the innocence of infancy; thus the first state and the last are united, and man, when old, as again an infant, but a wise one, is introduced into the LORD'S kingdom. That a suckling, in the Word, signifies innocence, is also evident from David: "Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings have you founded strength;" (Psalm 8:2, Matt 21:16) where babes denote celestial love, sucklings denote innocence. So in Jeremiah: "Wherefore commit you this great evil against your souls, to cut off from you man and woman, babe and suckling, out of the midst of Judah, to leave you nonefor remains?" (Jer 44:7) where the babe and suckling in like manner denote celestial love and its innocence, and when these no longer exist, there are no longer any remains, that is, no longer any good and truth remaining stored up in the internal man from the LORD; for all goods and truths perish with innocence, innocence being immediately from the Divine Being or principle Himself, thus being the very essential thing in them. AC 3183.
But it is to be noted, that the innocence of sucklings, of infants, and of children, is merely external, and that internal innocence does not exist with man, until he is born anew, that is, is as it were anew made a suckling, an infant, and a child.
