335. THAT WHEN THE PSALMS OF DAVID WERE READ, THEY HAD SUCH EFFECT IN HEAVEN THAT CERTAIN HEAVENLY BEINGS COULD NOT BUT BE AMAZED Some Psalms of David were read, and this in such a manner that by the mercy of God Messiah the interior and more interior senses were transferred into the perception of certain heavenly beings, who were so amazed that they declared with a loud voice that they never would have believed such things; even the dead, in the life after death, [were astonished] because with them also the Word operated in a similar manner. And in order that the difference might be observed, the [literal] sense of the Word was also brought forth for them, almost such as it had been in their life; when similar things were read, the sense was so different that they thence perceived scarcely anything whatever of heavenly life. Hence it can be concluded what efficacy is within the Word when God Messiah from mercy vivifies it; also what it is like when the letter is, as it were, dead, as when it is read by those who are dead. 1747, Dec. 13.