17 I cried unto him with my mouth, and he was extolled with my tongue.

18 If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

19 But verily god hath heard me; he hath attended to the voice of my prayer.

20 Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor his mercy from me.

This Psalm, though not actually stating The Supreme Secret, approaches very closely to it. It is a song of the Higher Degrees. Note the joyousness of these Degrees (verses 1 and 8) making God’s “praise” glorious (verses 2 and 8). If we know what God’s glory and praise really is, the words “make his praise glorious” are full of significance, pointing to the Higher Degrees, and to others still higher and higher, singing to God’s Name (verse 4) without a right understanding of No. 26 as the Divine Name, we cannot grasp the supreme principles —God’s work is terrible (verse 5). Energy will work, it must work incessantly. Therefore, if it cannot act as Radiation, it must act as Fulmination. The result of all this is that God holds our soul in life (verses 9 and 16). “It is the spirit that quickeneth”; “the Lord is the spirit.” This indicates the true relations between spirit and soul, the knowledge of which is the foundation of Life. This is attained through trial (verses 10 to 20): yet the Lord delivers us out of our trials, for their purpose

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